Quote:
Originally Posted by SomeSteve
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I can't see that. Google claims I have reached a limit. but Penguin are terrible at ebook formatting. I do have over 3,000 paper books, mostly British.
Also which "dash"?
- hyphen
– en-dash
— em-dash
There are also longer dashes that often don't work in ereaders. I can't type them.
There is also the mathematical minus sign which looks similar to a hyphen. I can't type it. This is one copied from Wikipedia −, but it looks like it's between and en – and em — in size. The minus sign should only be used in mathematics.
The length of en and em should vary with font face used.
Typography does vary with company, place and time. Also anything other than print is more limited and more erratic. The ‘and’ are mostly used for dialogue in Great Britain, but sometimes “and” is used. Irish publishers sometimes use ‘and’ but more often “and”.
I think USA publishing (and Gutenberg) is less flexible. It's important that a book or series is consistent in style.
I have to edit CSS of Random Penguins more often than indy books.
Also US Publishers selling in UK & Ireland rarely ever make any changes. You get USA spelling and punctuation, probably no changes. Traditionally the UK publishers Americanise the spelling and other aspects as if it's a US publication. It's thus very grating to end up with a USA edition of a British or Irish writer, especially if its a series or you have other books by the author. US imports of paper print editions of UK works are almost non-existent in UK, but happens in Ireland, where the book retailers are less controlled by UK distribution.
EDIT
Also Google likely scanned or copied a USA edition. Google is useless as a reliable source of British or Irish produced material. Wikipedia is almost as bad.