Author: Gavin Fyhrie
Date:   12-08-04 04:47

How embarassing. Okay, refresh my memory. When speaking about the title of your novel, do you put it in quotes or underline it? And since you can't underline text in E-mails, is it okay if you put it in caps?

Or am I just worrying too much?

Author: Mary M
Date:   12-08-04 07:14

I always use caps.

Author: jayce
Date:   12-08-04 09:09

ALL CAPS. (And it's not a punctuation question. :)

Author: Mark Madison
Date:   12-08-04 10:02

Where is this written down? Chicago? MLA? Why not italics? I'd never use all caps in that way myself, but I don't have the law in hand. Yet.

Author: Gary Kessler
Date:   12-08-04 10:20

Titles of unpublished works (which would include a manuscript you have on submission) are put in quotation marks (Chicago Manual of Style, 17.213); titles of published books are put in italics (CMS, 8.178). Custom is to put the title of the manuscript in full caps in query letters (and other submission documents), but this is done by custom, not rule (and some folks follow the rule--neither convention will, in itself, harm the query).

Author: Gavin Fyhrie
Date:   12-08-04 11:02

Picky picky jayce. :)

Thanks, guys. Caps it is.

Author: Mark Madison
Date:   12-08-04 13:17

That's not the message I got. Custom? Whose "custom?" CAPS nay, italics or quotations gets the nod.

Author: Nancy O.
Date:   12-08-04 17:42

ok I'm confused. To clarify please.

If sending in a manuscript. On the first page. With the manuscript name. You would put it in quotation marks? Within the quotation marks would the whole thing be capped or just the first letter of each word? Doesn't seem like quotation marks would be necessary for the first page.

I was told it was just the name with only the first letter of each word in caps.

Same question for the query letter. In the quotation marks whole thing capped or just the first letter of each word. Help.

Author: Gary Kessler
Date:   12-08-04 18:14

First, it's no big deal whatever you decide to do.

But, what you'd do in a query letter and in the manuscript itself can differ.

It's a custom to see the title in all caps in a query letter--but I wouldn't do this anywhere else if you decide to follow this custom.

The title in the manuscript itself is generally just in headline style (major words capped; others not--Chicago Manual of Style, 8.165-67, will tell you which is which), with no quotes or italics. But you certainly wouldn't be wrong if you put it in quotes (but wouldn't be right if you put it in italics).

Still confusing, yes?

Author: Mark Madison
Date:   12-08-04 18:49

Yes italics for other published works.

Author: John Bridge
Date:   12-08-04 21:14

My first book was published by McGraw-Hill, a prestigious source of "custom," I would imagine. :) All typed correspondence contained the title of my book/manuscript in caps -- before and after publishing. That was in the early nineties, and the typewriter convention was still in force for the most part. Even so, you could indicate italics by underlining, but McGraw-Hill chose caps.

Right or wrong today? Don't know, but I still see it a lot in correspondence to and from publishers.

My vote is go with the caps. Quotation marks are more often seen for the titles of articles and booklets.

Author: Mark Madison
Date:   12-08-04 21:17

Caps it is then.

Author: Gary Kessler
Date:   12-08-04 22:26

"Quotation marks are more often seen for the titles of articles and booklets."

And for manuscripts. The point was that, until the work is published, it's a manuscript, not a book. I cited the CMA guidance on the distinction up the thread.

Author: Nancy O.
Date:   12-09-04 02:56

Sounds like everyone is doing the caps instead of quotations. Not the CMS. But if they did, it wouldn't be wrong.

Yes it is confusing but "I got it."

phhhffft. lol