07-01-2018, 04:34 AM | #16 |
cacoethes scribendi
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So, it seems to me that the lessons here (for writers) are:
Reserve the word "panties" for use in dialogue by a person that you want your readers to find annoyingly cutesy or condescending. Any other phrase you use for underwear (is "underwear" universally safe?) is bound to annoy someone, so either avoid referring to such garments, or flip a coin to find out who you want to annoy in this book. |
07-01-2018, 09:32 AM | #17 | ||
Wizard
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07-01-2018, 09:43 AM | #18 |
Grand Sorcerer
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Simple. Paper books were formatted far better. I can't remember a single fiction book with spaces between paragraphs or huge margins/indents. Big line-spacing was rare too. I read mostly paperbacks back then, so tiny font size and faded font color were serious problems, but there was no help for it. There simply weren't any other options. Fortunately now there are.
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07-02-2018, 06:00 PM | #19 |
Well trained by Cats
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I tweak the CSS on most books:
I LIKE a space between paragraphs. I have been known to fix annoying typos, homophones
I HATE chapter titles that suck up 40% I dislike main body line-heights: greater than 1.2 (I am not against special needs formatting. Just a everyday book trying to appear longer (page flips) |
07-08-2018, 03:30 AM | #20 | |
Bibliophagist
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An ebook with double spaced lines, either no space or more than a single line between paragraphs is easy enough to correct by modifying a few classes in most cases -- I won't discuss one indie author who appears never to have heard of or perhaps doesn't believe in stylesheets and does everything using inline styles though the RemoveInlineStyles plugin for Sigil cleaned those up nicely. I will admit to finding repeated phrases annoying -- as when David Eddings recycled the phrase “If this grows any more cloying, I think I'll vomit.” in Magician's Gambit and The Sapphire Rose which made both books much less enjoyable for me. IMO, authors who specify fonts such as Times New Roman, Verdana or Dingbats which don't exist on any of my ereaders should have special bubbles in Hell reserved for them. As for skivvies, if it's good enough for the Wall Street Journal which once wrote: "In my experience, the most challenging pair of skivvies to stock is the everyday panty.", it should be good enough for the rest of us. I will admit to finding such terms as step-ins, drawers, knickers, bloomers, tap pants, briefs, delicates, etc. somewhat humourous -- blame Thorne Smith for this. Last edited by DNSB; 07-08-2018 at 03:33 AM. |
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07-09-2018, 01:03 PM | #21 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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I used to reformat everything I bought to match my personal prefs, but I hardly ever do that any more. I think it was as much for learning/practicing ebook editing with Sigil as much as anything. Now that I have that down cold, I rarely feel compelled to do so. These days, a ragged-right body-text alignment (or a ridiculous body-text font choice) is about the only thing that will put me off my game enough to pop the hood and quickly adjust. If it can't be fixed in seconds, and I can't ignore it, I'll put it away for a time when I might feel more motivated. |
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07-10-2018, 10:55 PM | #22 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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07-11-2018, 03:59 AM | #23 | |
cacoethes scribendi
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But names are strange things. Firstly, people tend to have prejudices against certain names resulting from public and/or private associations. Writers can try to avoid (or take advantage of) public associations, but there's nothing we can do about private ones. Secondly, it's amazing what you can get away with if you're talented enough. I mean "Dumbledore", what sort of silly name is that? And what about "Pug"? I can't be the only person who saw that and thought of tiny, flat-faced dogs. Not sure how I happened to come up with wizards for both examples, but in both cases, in a very short time the name stopped seeming strange. |
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07-11-2018, 05:49 PM | #24 | |
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If nothing else, it's good practice for my CSS and regex skills. |
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07-11-2018, 06:38 PM | #25 |
Well trained by Cats
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Besides Blank TOC, ones that are not really functional . all entries take you to the same place or do nothing .
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07-18-2018, 10:05 PM | #26 | |
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07-19-2018, 02:12 PM | #27 | |
Bookmaker & Cat Slave
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Hitch |
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07-20-2018, 03:21 AM | #28 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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