Capitalisation help please

[AlexBell]

Could any of you writers please point me to a reference for the proper capitalisation of book titles, song titles, the names of famous paintings, journal or magazine articles, and play, film, opera, and ballet titles?

I've seen book titles italicised, surrounded by single quotes, and bolded. It's driving me frantic. Is there a standard acceptable by most people?

[Harper Kingsley]

What do you need it for? Quoting in an article or something? (That's usually "The Book Title Goes Here")

[AlexBell]

Thanks

The particular instance in this case is a list of the author's previous books in an ebook I am preparing. The author or the publisher want the book titles bolded while journal/magazine titles are to be italicised.

[phloxy]

AlexBell, I think it will depend on which editorial style the publisher is following. In academic circles, many will be following the Chicago Manual of Style. I don't recall which edition it might be up to by now, as my professional work keeps me mostly in the scientific research styles (AMA, APA, ACS) and I don't delve into Chicago much at all. Associated Press style differs from Chicago in significant ways when it comes to titles of various works. Although overlap exists between styles (MLA style is a popular one for some publishers), to my knowledge, no one accepted style rules them all, and to further confuse things, publishers and editorial bodies for journals will create "house styles" that override or augment the editorial guidelines in the major style manuals. It can definitely be a bit bewildering at times.

Sorry if you already knew all of this—I couldn't quite tell from your post whether you were the editor on a project or whether you were inquiring for another reason. Sounds like you're being asked to follow a house style here, as I don't know of a single style guide that applies boldface to book titles.

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by phloxy

Sorry if you already knew all of this—I couldn't quite tell from your post whether you were the editor on a project or whether you were inquiring for another reason. Sounds like you're being asked to follow a house style here, as I don't know of a single style guide that applies boldface to book titles.

Thanks, phloxy. I'm just the ebook designer, and yes, this particular ebook is a one off exception to which I over reacted. We tend to follow the Blue Book for American works, and I've found English Grammar for Dummies to be simple and straightforward.

[phloxy]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

Thanks, phloxy. I'm just the ebook designer, and yes, this particular ebook is a one off exception to which I over reacted. We tend to follow the Blue Book for American works, and I've found English Grammar for Dummies to be simple and straightforward.

Thanks for the reply. This Blue Book that you speak of, is it a published style guide? I'm unfamiliar with it but curious to learn more. Would you mind providing some additional information (publisher, organization or association maintaining the style, etc.)? Hope I'm not imposing—the editorial nerd in me won't keep quiet.

On edit: How are you liking your T1? I absolutely adore mine.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by phloxy

AlexBell, I think it will depend on which editorial style the publisher is following. In academic circles, many will be following the Chicago Manual of Style. I don't recall which edition it might be up to by now, as my professional work keeps me mostly in the scientific research styles (AMA, APA, ACS) and I don't delve into Chicago much at all. Associated Press style differs from Chicago in significant ways when it comes to titles of various works. Although overlap exists between styles (MLA style is a popular one for some publishers), to my knowledge, no one accepted style rules them all, and to further confuse things, publishers and editorial bodies for journals will create "house styles" that override or augment the editorial guidelines in the major style manuals. It can definitely be a bit bewildering at times.

Sorry if you already knew all of this—I couldn't quite tell from your post whether you were the editor on a project or whether you were inquiring for another reason. Sounds like you're being asked to follow a house style here, as I don't know of a single style guide that applies boldface to book titles.

IIRC, Chicago is up to 16th now. I still use 15th for most things myself.

[phloxy]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

IIRC, Chicago is up to 16th now. I still use 15th for most things myself.

The 16th sounds accurate. I used the 15th at my last in-house job about 3 years ago. We just to jokingly refer to it as the Book of Riddles.

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by phloxy

Thanks for the reply. This Blue Book that you speak of, is it a published style guide? I'm unfamiliar with it but curious to learn more. Would you mind providing some additional information (publisher, organization or association maintaining the style, etc.)? Hope I'm not imposing—the editorial nerd in me won't keep quiet.

On edit: How are you liking your T1? I absolutely adore mine.

The full title is The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation, the author is Jane Strauss, and it's in it's tenth edition. I don't know who published the dead tree version; I have the Kindle version which is very poorly formatted.

I really like my T1; it's what I use for nearly all my reading. I only use the Kindle and iPad to test the ebooks I design. I think the official Sony cover is quite poor, and have replace it with a Gecko cover.

[phloxy]

Thanks so much for the followup, Alex! I'm going to check it out.

I didn't initially get a cover for my T1 and was just using a padded sleeve to protect it when I wasn't using it. After about a week of holding it by itself to read, I decided I wanted a cover. I got a red Gecko cover, too (can't beat free international shipping), and it's perfect.

Thanks again, and happy reading (and designing)!

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

Thanks

The particular instance in this case is a list of the author's previous books in an ebook I am preparing. The author or the publisher want the book titles bolded while journal/magazine titles are to be italicised.

So is this a page that basically says something like:

For more by me check out:
1) The Bat On The Mat
2) The Dog In The Pog

?

If so I have mainly seen it done as normal title case, not bold or italics at all. I have only seen italics when the title is insterted in to something like....


Yesterday I was reading, A Tale of an Empty Cup by Joe Shoe and notice that my cup was empty.

Personally I have not seen bold used at all for titles. That is my take at least....

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

So is this a page that basically says something like:

For more by me check out:
1) The Bat On The Mat
2) The Dog In The Pog

?

If so I have mainly seen it done as normal title case, not bold or italics at all. I have only seen italics when the title is insterted in to something like....


Yesterday I was reading, A Tale of an Empty Cup by Joe Shoe and notice that my cup was empty.

Personally I have not seen bold used at all for titles. That is my take at least....

And it's not going to be done this time either.