Notes for inexperienced Authors
Introduction
The
Stuart Rossiter Trust (‘the Trust’) is a Charitable
Trust supporting research and publication relating to the history
of communication through postal systems of the world. Authors
of previously unpublished study on any aspect of postal history
are welcome to approach the Trustees with a view to publication
of the results of their original research.
Most of the following Notes may be adjusted to suit
the Work. However, they represent the preferred format and may
well help inexperienced authors. The Trust also has Guidelines
for Authors on Preparation of a Manuscript which includes
preferred styles and should be consulted.
Format
The format adopted for the publication will be chosen to suit
the Work and its content. The paper will normally be about 100
gsm and should aim to fulfill, if it does not actually conform
to, the international archival standard ISO 9706 represented by
an infinity sign (∞). The quality of paper used will also
be chosen to make sure that the best impressions can be obtained
of illustrations included in the Work. Present day software can
retain the author’s shape of his Work yet can be used to
change the typeface and font size, use of tabs, margins, running
heads and footers such as page numbering. This is how the Trust
can maintain its ‘House Style’.
Margins
Whether the Work is produced in UK A4 format or US letter
size, adequate margins must be allowed for, about 2-3cm to allow
also for binding and for thumbing by readers. Similarly, space
must be allowed for at top of the page for the running heads,
i.e. short title of the Work and indication of what each section
of the work is about, and page numbers at the foot: see Binding
and Paper below.
Style Guide Font and Font size
A Guide to style of narrative and data are set out in the
Trust’s Guidelines.
The body of the text should be printed on a modern computer in
11 point. These Notes are set in Times New Roman in 11
point. An alternative font is: Garamond. Courier, which is not
proportionally spaced, is not a good type to use; neither
is Arial or Univers, they are both modern open-faced fonts, are
not serif and are difficult to read, and have to be reduced to
10 point (which the above two are), which makes computer screen
reading quite hard. Most computers and printers now use Times
New Roman or Garamond: see some samples at the end of these Notes.
Computer automatic Formatting
Be very careful how you set up formatting on your computer,
such as automatic numbering, automatic bullets, and other ‘gadgets’.
More time can be wasted on sorting out formatting that has gone
awry than on almost anything else. Keep to a straightforward page
arrangement, leaving all formatting to the very last stage, not
a penultimate stage when text may still be inserted. Unless you
are very experienced, much hassle can arise and will take up valuable
time and patience of others, such as a printer.
Cover to the Work
The cover illustration will be one eye-catching piece of (preferably)
postal history, with the caption below the illustration. The back
cover can also be used for one or two illustrations so that a
blank page is not wasted, as it will be passing through the printing
machine anyway.The point is that marketing of softbound works
can be enhanced by striking illustrations and careful use of typography.
It is also helpful to state the ISBN on the back cover.
Title of Work
Choose a precise and accurate title for the Work. It should
be short and relevant. Colourful adjectives may seem nice, but
may actually confuse. Remember that the CIP system will take all
key words in the title for indexing in the Bookseller’s
reference. Potential buyers of the book must be able to identify
the Work and recognize that the title is of relevance to their
enquiry.
Preliminary pages
These are most important and are often printed in the wrong
sequence. These guide-lines are taken from Philatelic Literature
Compilation Techniques and Reference Sources by James Negus.
Title Page
(see the indicative layout of Half title and Title Page at
the end of these Notes.)
| Left-hand page | Right-hand
page |
| - | i Half-title |
| ii blank (sometimes used for a Frontispiece illustration) | iii Title-page |
| iv Reverse title-page | v Dedication |
| vi blank | vii
Contents [NB: this is not an Index, but the Chapter headings with their pagination.] |
| viii Contents [cont.] | ix Foreword |
| x Foreword [cont.] | xi Preface & Acknowledgements |
| xii Preface & Acknowledgements [cont.] |
NB:
That makes a total of 12 pages in multiples of four. These preliminary
pages are subject to some condensing/expansion depending on what
is needed for each specific book.
The next following page may well be the first page of Chapter
1 or the first page of an Introduction. In either case that page
would begin on the righthand side. If this means that a white
blank page arises, it is a good idea to juggle with the prelims
to avoid this, possibly inserting an illustration as a Frontispiece.
Dedication
Where
a dedication is to be included, it is usually placed on a page
after the verso of the title page, that is on the right side after
the page behind the title page. Otherwise a Note from the Rossiter
Trust will take this place, so please annotate that page and the
printer can insert the text from the ‘master’ it holds
for the Trust.
ISBN (International Standard Book Number)
An ISBN number will be allocated at the appropriate time by the
Trust. This is almost the last thing to do as the books should
be allocated numbers in sequential order of printing for the publisher,
the Trust.
ISBN CIP (Catalogue in Publication) Form
Inclusion of ISBN CIP is an essential, as the book is then
on Nielson Book Data (formerly Whitaker Information Services)
who are the UK authority on books in print and issue the sequences
of ISBN numbers. Neilson issue an extensive and comprehensive
listing of all books in print, a listing of which booksellers
generally have a copy. The Trust will complete the CIP form and
this will be sent to the Author to fill in any blanks if necessary
shortly after publication.
Page Layout and Printers
The precise size and format of the page will probably be set
by the printer who would add the necessary guillotine markings,
etc., and other print instructions to suit that firm’s machinery.
Comparative quotations will be obtained by the Trustees from which
they will decide which printer is to do the job.
It is usual for page numbering to begin on the right side when
viewing a finished book lying open flat on a table. That means
that odd number pages are on the right and even numbered pages
are on the left. Please ensure that your computer is programmed
for justified margins on both sides, i.e. line ends align with
a uniform right hand edge, as these Guidelines are.
The printers will judge how large a printing machine is to be
used when they see the finished draft of the Work. Sometimes small
runs are printed 4 pages at a time; others are printed with as
many as 32 pages in a set. So some care is needed to avoid too
much wasted white space especially at ends of chapters.
The opening page of a new chapter should be set differently from
other pages. First it is best working practice to begin a new
chapter on the right hand side, i.e. on an odd numbered page.
Many designers layout the heading of a new chapter by setting
the chapter title and chapter number in a larger font size than
is usual for the body of the text, say 30pt when 11pt or 12pt
is used for the text. This opening page has no ‘running
head’. When beginning a new Chapter or separate section
of the text it is usual to have no indent. Then paragraphs thereafter
are indented about 1cm.
Pagination or Page numbering
Preliminary pages and any pages after the main body of the
text should be numbered using Roman numerals, i, ii, iii, etc.
Page numbers in the body of the text will be set in Arabic numerals,
1, 2, 3, etc. Page numbers may be set in the center of the foot
of the page or to one side, in which case they should appear at
the foot of the outer margin.
Running headers
These are the page headings if felt necessary. Some
authors prefer them, some don't. But if used, should NOT appear
on chapter start pages.
Quoting of dates
The Trust would expect the English style of dates to be used,
i.e. day/month/year. The US style of month/day/year can be confusing
in publications in Britain.
Where quoting a datestamp, it should always be quoted as it appears
struck, i.e. JY 20, not 20 JY if it is struck month/day.
If month is in roman numerals, i.e. XII, quote in roman numerals,
do not transcribe to arabic or letters, because that would not
be a ‘quotation’ from the datestamp.
Quoted passages of text from other sources
If using more than a couple of lines of quoted material from
other works, probably one of the most satisfactory ways of delineating
the quote is to indent the left and right hand margins
by about 2 spaces and start and finish with “.....”.
You can, if the quoted text needs highlighting or bringing especially
to reader's attention - indent both margins and type in italic,
but in that case do not use “/” at the beginning and
end as “/” and italic font both mean the same thing.
Binding and Paper
The Trust believes that its publications having more than
a minimal quantity of pages will have some sewing of sections
to hold all pages together with any other binding materials. That
is why some allowance should be made for binding at the margins,
i.e. right margin of left-facing pages and vice versa.
A substantial Work may be placed between covered boards for a
handbook. Otherwise a limp cover may be printed in colour and
be laminated for strength.
Illustrations
Scanning of philatelic material, maps and pictures, that are
not subject to prior copyright claims, can very easily be made.
The usual standard is for all these images to be scanned at 300dpi
and saved as .tif files in CMYK colour mode, not RGB mode.
Once an illustration has been inserted in this format into the
text, a ‘frame’ showing ‘handles’ can
be selected by which the size of the image can be altered to fit
the page format. Not too much work should be done by the author
without consultation with the Trustees who will guide the author
on this depending upon the quantity of illustrations. The colour
illustrations for the cover of the book may scanned in the same
way unless there is some special need for the printer to do so.
It is no good saving these images as .jpeg files (a form of compression)
or compressing a file and re-expanding it because much detailed
data will have been extracted on compression and cannot be regained.
Forward thinking printers are today accustomed to scans, provided
that they are of a suitable standard. Most outputs can be managed
by printers. The Trust is no longer looking for ‘camera
ready copy’ such as could be obtained from photocopiers.
Captions to Illustrations
Captions, not more than a single line of text to fit with
the illustration, should be added below each illustration. The
font size may be smaller than used in the body of the text.
Abbreviations
Some readers will not have the overall or detailed knowledge
of the author. So it is best to avoid the use of ‘P &
O’ for the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company
without stating what this stands for. On the first occasion where
the name or title to be abbreviated is used, state the full name
or description and insert after that in brackets the abbreviation
to be used throughout the Work, thus (P & O). Once adopted,
maintain absolute consistency of lettering and punctuation throughout
the text. Where many abbreviations to be used in the Work, it
may be worthwhile adding to the prelim pages one or more pages
of abbreviations with the full names and descriptions: see the
Trust’s Guidelines.
Footnotes
Including footnotes on the page on which they appear can be
intrusive and sometimes, if quite long, can take up more space
than the text to which they refer. Where there are many footnotes
or they are detailed notes, they should be set at the end of the
each chapter. Should the footnotes be very extensive, it
may be preferable to set a complete section at the end of the
Work before the bibliography and index. There all footnotes can
be included chapter by chapter and if the index is being prepared
at the end of proof-reading, so page numbers can be included to
indicate where in the text the footnotes relate they can go at
the end of the body of text chapter by chapter.
Copyright
Authors must ensure that they have obtained permission from
Museums, Institutions, publishers, or from previously published
work etc. for the use of any illustrative or textual material
to be used in the book, i.e. maps, charts, lithographs, prints,
auction catalogue illustrations etc. This is most important
as the use of non-authorised material can end up as a matter of
dispute: see the Trust’s Guidelines.
Acknowledgement must be made for each item, either under the relevant
item or in the Acknowledgements in the preliminary pages. If using
other collector's items, do please ensure you get their permission
to so use, and whether they want their names specifically mentioned
as being the owner of the item, or just in the general Acknowledgements,
or maybe not at all.
Referees
The Trust appoint two referees, a Special referee and a general
referee.
The Special referee who is a specialist on the subject of the
proposed publication will most probably nominated by the author,
and be approved by the Trustees,.
The General referee is an all-round philatelist or postal historian
who will take a general over-view of the Work, but is not required
to have a detailed knowledge of the subject.
Both referees submit a detailed critique to the Trustees. When
the Special referee has read the Work he will particularly advise
the author on any anomalies found in the text, incorrect statements,
or bring some new research of which the author may not be aware,
and suggest improvements to the content. The Trustees have found
this to be a beneficial consultation.
Author's Agreement with the Trust
There is a standard author's agreement which is tailored to
suit each author. This agreement forms the basis of the Contract
between the author and the Trust and outlines the print run, all
monetary affairs and various other aspects. A draft of the agreement
is available from the Trust.
Print Run
The number of copies to be produced is agreed between the
author and the Trustees and is dependent upon the subject. It
is the policy of the Trust to allocate to the author 5 gratis
copies of their work. The Trust undertakes the despatching of
all the mandatory legal filing in the UK and other free and review
copies.
Final Text Print Out
The text must be ‘proof-read’ in its final form
before it is given to the printers for printing. A single
proof is usually provided by printers otherwise successive proofs
can be prohibitively expensive. It is paramount that this final
proof read is carried out with the utmost care. Making corrections
once the text is at the printer is prohibitively expensive, and
every ‘key-stroke’ is charged for. Should the Trust
find that many author’s errors arise at this late stage,
the cost of making corrections may be recovered from the author
before the Work is printed.
It is very helpful if the printers are supplied with a correct
mock-up of the text showing where the illustrations have to be
inset and what is the correct sequence of pages, even if done
as a rough paste-up. This may save page collation mistakes later.
As stated before the printers are not philatelists or postal historians
and what is obvious to you may not be obvious to them.
Three good reference books for authors to follow
- Ritter, Robert, & Whitcut, Janet, The Oxford Guide to Style – The style bible for all writers, editors and publishers, Oxford University Press, 2002, ISBN 10 0198691750, ISBN 13 978-0198691754 being a revision of Hart's Rules for Compositors & Readers at the University Press Oxford. London: Oxford University Press. (37th edition of 1967).
- Domanski, Peter, & Irvine, Philip, Publishing Books Using Your PC, available from: Coldwell Farm, Stretfordbury, Leominster, Herefordshire HR6 0QL, 1997, ISBN 10 0952604329, ISBN 13 978-0952604327. Some of the contents are not entirely relevant to the Trust publications, but it is a very useful and sensible book in understandable language; and
- Negus, James, Philatelic Literature Compilation Techniques and Reference Sources, James Bendon, 1991, ISBN 10 9963762433, ISBN 13 978-9963762439.
References
Bibliography and Index
Other
essential components are a list of references, a bibliography
and a good index. The Trust’s Guidelines should be
consulted.
Sample Half title
The Half title page actually not numbered but where the page numbering starts for any book thus numbered (i) for the first Prelim page and the text appearing on the right side of an open book, would have only: click for illustration
Specimen title page: click for illustration
Sample font sizes: click for illustrationThe
Stuart Rossiter Trust Corresponding Trustee: Rex Dixon, 39 Braybank, Bray, Maidenhead,
SL6 2BH, U.K. email: rexdixon@btinternet.com
Contact details by post:
Date September 2008
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