ebook.com preview is mangled.

[roland1]

I did the hybrid spelling thing for my book (and make note of it on the copyright page at the bottom) because the whole convention is a clusterfrog. (That's right, I said "frog"—so cancel me!) But seriously, I realize that to people in the UK, my book will look like it's full of spelling errors if it uses US spelling, and vice versa. It was this lose/lose spelling proposition that made me say frog it. ["Look Mildred, there he goes again!"]

P.S. In all of this back and forthalizing (z? or s? pick your country), we can lose track of the fact that publishing companies seem to make their own rules anyway. Some follow Strunk. Others AP. Others, Terence McKenna's School of Mushrooms.

It's like the space around em dashes: it's appropriate for journalism (papers, etc.) so why not in books? Seems like such an arbitrary, wonky law. It's not like it can be lawfully justified; it's just a stylistic/visual preference.

When I look at space around an em dash I think "Wow, it looks more open and truly conveys some kind of a separate thought from the main theme." whereas others go "Ewww!"

And then I think of readers. I hope they can get past all of this frogging ship about writing technique and actually get something from the words themselves. If they can't, then they're probably not going to absorb my material anyway.

[JSWolf]

a joint UK/US version will work fine. Just go with UK spelling/phrases and US formatting/punctuation. To me, that would work no problem.

[roland1]

I'm trying to bring the world together through spelling; to heal old spelling wounds and set us upon a path wherein one day we might all share the same dictionary.

We can only hope. In the meantime, it's one small step at a time...

[Quoth]

The Oxford English Dictionary philosophy was always to document. So it has -ise and -ize as well as grey and gray. That's to say it reflects usage.

But Noah Webster was prescriptive and unilaterally decided to ditch doubled ll (jewel -> jeweller) and drop -our (to -or) and -re (to -er). American practice is like that ever since including an over emphasis on Latin roots of words and homonyms in primary education. Naturally the more prescriptive USA aspects are too rare to be adopted in the single volume Oxford dictionaries. Thus USA spelling and dictionaries are prescriptive, like a sort of English-American version of the Académie Française. The French that like the Académie Française don't like Canadian-French!

In the USA you might get marked down for using the wrong grey/gray in University. It would be ignored in a UK university, though maybe not at school. One is more common as colour and the other as a name. Both have been used in the UK for colour (commonly grey). Allegedly gray is preferred in the USA.

You can make up your own style rules to an extent, but spelling is either USA or not, unless you are writing "Clockwork Orange".
Grey vs Gray: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey

Spelling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americ...ng_differences
(Not entirely accurate!)

In practice – apart from the single "l" instead of "ll", "-or" instead of "-our" and "-er" instead of "-re" – the non-USA British, Irish or (ex-)Commonwealth reader often is familiar and might use the less common variant. My experience is that USA readers are only forgiving if the entire book is British English and USA Publishers & Institutions expect strict USA spelling in USA books and papers.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

a joint UK/US version will work fine. Just go with UK spelling/phrases and US formatting/punctuation. To me, that would work no problem.

That would mostly work. But a few USA rules are odd (always an Oxford comma rather than UK practice of only having it if the list is ambiguous and punctuation rules at closing quotes). Also small caps are in some USA print styles for abbreviations and best only attempted on paper. Unless you are brought up on USA punctuation you might get some of it wrong.

I have a shelf of books on this, but none of it except for one book covers American grammar, punctuation, spelling and style except in passing. I have ebooks too. Much only applies to reports, papers, CVs and journalism. Little is specific to novels and less to dialogue in novels.

Also the biggest hurdle to using USA spelling is also the correct vocabulary.

[roland1]

The gray vs grey debate has tempted me to become a drinker. Unfortunately, I cannot afford alcoholism on my current budget. It will have to wait.

But seriously...

So there seems to be some leniency in regards to using US spelling in UK books because Oxford includes the options to use both variables.

Interesting. I'm sure in a few years I'll have this all figured out and formulated. Or, I will have started writing in my native German language (which would surely be a headache unto itself).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by roland1

The gray vs grey debate has tempted me to become a drinker. Unfortunately, I cannot afford alcoholism on my current budget. It will have to wait.

But seriously...

So there seems to be some leniency in regards to using US spelling in UK books because Oxford includes the options to use both variables.

Interesting. I'm sure in a few years I'll have this all figured out and formulated. Or, I will have started writing in my native German language (which would surely be a headache unto itself).

But you'll still have to proofread the translator who is translating from German to English.

[roland1]

The nightmare never ends.

[roland1]

Just doing the css for my Joy book (the one that began this topic).

I'm noticing that the tables that I use are getting cut up / broken up so that they start on one page and continue on another.

Is there some way to defeat this behavior with code that is something like "keep with next paragraph" in layout?

I want to use code rather than graphics for the tables. Am I doomed?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by roland1

Just doing the css for my Joy book (the one that began this topic).

I'm noticing that the tables that I use are getting cut up / broken up so that they start on one page and continue on another.

Is there some way to defeat this behavior with code that is something like "keep with next paragraph" in layout?

I want to use code rather than graphics for the tables. Am I doomed?

Yup, the doom hath come upon you, cried the Lady of Shalott.

Hitch

[roland1]

I accept my fate.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by roland1

I accept my fate.

Fee Fi Fo Fum! I smell an eBook that needs to be edited.

[roland1]

Surgically enhanced, perhaps. Aesthetically attenuated. But edited? No frogging way.

[Not sure what it is with me and frogs today, but they're my go-to profanity substitute.]

[roland1]

Accessibility says use html not images. So I'll do that. I only have two columns for most. It's the row count that's knocking me off the page.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by roland1

So there seems to be some leniency in regards to using US spelling in UK books because Oxford includes the options to use both variables.

Only a subset. Not the common USA ones like Favor, Color, or Jeweler.