Middle Grade Ninja: MIDDLE GRADE NINJA PRESS OFFICIAL STYLE GUIDE
Occasionally, Esteemed Readers have come up to me or written me with questions about grammar in my books. My first reaction is embarrassment as typos happen to the best of us despite paying multiple editors and when one is found I want to hear about it post haste so I can correct it for future editions of the book in which it was found. More often, I’m pleased to say, I find that readers haven’t found a typo (this is a professional outfit we’re running here), but disagree with me on a grammatical stance.
I started an official house style guide years ago to keep things consistent as I work with multiple editors and critique partners on each project. I was trained on The Chicago Manuel of Style and have whole pages of it memorized, so typically it’s my default… except for when I disagree.
One of my critique partners, God love her, marks every ellipses of mine with the need for an extra space before it and has done this for five or six books straight as though I simply haven’t picked up on her not-so-subtle hints. I don’t care what AP says! Spaces before an ellipses are gross and anyone who doesn’t think so is welcome to publish their own book with the spacing however they like, but my books will never have that hideous space ahead of or after an ellipses … or will they …no, they won’t:)
What follows is a seemingly random listing of grammar rules I’ve encountered in publishing my books. These are either decisions I’ve had to make, or in too many cases, rules I never bothered to learn and now have to be reminded of so I don’t look silly. I continue to update this listing with new items as they come up (though I prefer to keep the guide short enough to be useful).
I don’t know why anyone not connected to the publishing of my books would be interested in this house style guide, but after multiple emails engaging me in grammar arguments (the most bitter battles I’ve had), I’m making this guide public in the interest of saving time.
–Kirkman Soda (no ‘s), but the flavors are Kirkman’s Original, Kirkman’s Chrome Lightning, etc., and the short hand is a can of Kirkman’s.
–guesthouse, not guest house
–UFO, not U.F.O.
–Generally, if you use a phrase before a noun (as an adjective), you would hyphenate it. Jerome and Frieda had a face-to-face meeting. If you use that phrase after a verb (as an adverb), you would not hyphenate it.
–Six-pack, not six pack
–Offense and offence are both technically correct, but we use the Americanized offense.
–Heaven is a place… on Earth, so capitalize it, except when not referring to the actual place (this blog is a slice of heaven). Also capitalize Hell when referring to the actual dominion of Satan, and not when using words just for the hell of it and having a heavenly time.
–Videogame, not video game. This is a word in the process of changing, but we’re ahead of the curb.
–Seatbelt, not seat belt. There is an ongoing debate about which is correct, but ultimately common sense will win out and we’ll be ahead of the curb. Two words is a silly way to go when one will do.
—Backseat, not back seat.
—Homo sapiens, Latin for wise man or knowing man, is a singular phrasal noun. Like all Latin taxonomic names, Homo sapiens is italicized. The genus name (Homo) is capitalized, and the species name (sapiens) is not. After the first mention, it is often abbreviated H. sapiens.
–Use ‘gray’ when referring to the color, ‘Grey’ when referring to the creepy billionaire
–In titles, prepositions with fewer than four letters aren’t capitalized (and, for, to, etc); Except in formatted chapter titles, because they’re my books and I think they look nicer that way:)
–“For Sale” sign is in capitals and quotes. “You blew past five stop signs on your way to that ‘For Sale’ sign.”
–Dumpster was trademarked, but the patent expired in 2014, so it’s no longer necessary to capitalize. Use Dumpster only when referring to that particular model. For other trash bins, dumpster is acceptable.
–Who’s = who + is or Who’s = who + has. Really. It’s that simple.Whose is a pronoun used in questions to ask who owns something or has something.
–coffeemaker, not coffee maker
–thumbs-up, not thumbs up or thumb’s up
–Megachurch, not mega church
–Abbreviation for United States is officially a matter of preference between British preferred US and American preferred U.S., but we’re using U.S. to avoid ambiguity and because ‘Merica!
–Capitalize ‘Scripture’ when referring to the Scripture of The Bible, but not when referring to the scripture of Story by Robert McKee
–As a noun: X-ray. As a verb: x-ray. The doctor is going to x-ray my stomach, so we can study the X-ray and determine what manner of creature is eating its way out from my insides.
—We hyphenate modifiers for clarity: a “large-animal veterinarian” might be different from a “large animal veterinarian.” The simple rule for hyphenation with an adverb ending in -ly, as stated in The Chicago Manual of Style, is as follows: Compounds formed by an adverb ending in ly plus an adjective or participle (such as largely irrelevant or smartly dressed) are not hyphenated either before or after a noun, since ambiguity is virtually impossible. (The ly ending with adverbs signals to the reader that the next word will be another modifier, not a noun.) https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/6-common-hypercorrections-and-how-to-avoid-them/hyphenating-ly-adverbs