Handbook of style in use at the Riverside Press/Suggestions
SUGGESTIONS TO AUTHORS AND EDITORS
In order to insure accuracy in printing and to avoid unnecessary expense, copy should be made as nearly perfect as possible before it is sent to the printer. Changes in type are costly, especially so after the type has been made up into pages.
The paper used should be in sheets of uniform size and good quality, neither very slippery nor very shiny. If practicable, copy should be typewritten. When it is written by hand, erasures and interlineations should be avoided as far as possible, and special care should be used to make all proper names and foreign words unmistakable.
Quotations should be clearly marked and verified, and in all cases of considerable length and importance the source should be given fully and exactly.
Footnotes should be put at the bottom of the page, or separated from the text by lines running across the page above and below each note. In handwritten manuscripts, notes may be written with ink of a different color. The word in the text to which the note belongs should be marked by a superior figure corresponding to the number of the note.
All paragraphs should be distinctly indicated, and none should be left in the copy that are not to be followed in printing.
Unless an author intends to leave the printer free to follow the style of the office in regard to spelling, punctuation, and capitalization (see pp. 8, 21, and 30 of this Handbook), it is important that he should prepare the copy with careful consistency and inform the printer of his preference.
Every book MS. should contain copy for a title-page, giving at least the exact title of the book and the author’s name as he wishes it to appear, with any desired designation of his official position. There should also be a table of Contents (which may be subject to change), and a memorandum stating whether there will be a Dedication, a Preface, or an Introduction (if these are to be furnished later). If the book requires an Index, the author should state whether he intends to prepare it or wishes the publisher to have it made, the cost to be charged to the author’s royalty account.
Copy should be written on only one side of the paper, and the sheets should be numbered consecutively, but not fastened together. They should be sent to the publisher or the printer flat; never rolled or folded. When it is necessary to attach one piece of paper to another, good mucilage should be used, rather than pins or clips.
An author should always retain one copy of a MS., and not run the risk of absolute loss by sending away his only copy; but he should submit to the publisher the original of a typewritten MS. and not the carbon copy, as the latter is likely to be less legible and harder to handle.
When pages of magazines or papers are used for book copy, duplicates of each page should be supplied, so that compositors will not have to use both sides of the copy.
If possible, the author should make all necessary corrections in the galley proof, where changes involve the least labor and expense. Plate corrections should be made only when of the utmost importance. All queries made by the proof-reader should be definitely answered, so that there may be no doubt of the author’s intention.
Proofs should be read and returned promptly, accompanied by the copy, as it may be of importance for the proof-reader to refer to this in connection with the final reading.