Self Publishing Today

It’s been a long dry spell here in blog-land for Self Publishing Today – I often suffer from working ‘in’ the business instead of working ‘on’ the business…

So – to start back into getting information out, I thought I’d start with a lighter post…

Here is a little lesson authors can learn from a grammar issue in the self-publishing industry.  The issue—a lack of consistency in the spelling of self-publishing (or is that self publishing?).  Here are the facts:

Most books by big, traditional publishers use the hyphen.  They do this because The Chicago Manual of Style recommends it.

• Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary: 11th Edition lists the verb “self-publish” as hyphenated
• The Chicago Manual of Style: 15th Edition (the most frequently used style manual for the publishing industry) recommends in 7.90 (page 303) that a noun + gerund requires a hyphen when precedes a noun, but should be open when it stands alone
  • In this case, it should be self-publishing company (hyphen) and self publishing (no hyphen)
• Additionally, 7.90 (page 306) recommends that “self” should have a hyphen in  with other words, unless “self- is followed by a suffix or preceded by un.”
  • Because this is the most specific guideline, this should probably be the guideline authors and editors use (if they choose to follow Chicago)

Whew… I think I followed all of that…

But wait, there’s more

Self-publishing websites rarely hyphenate. Those that do, don’t usually do it very consistently.

So if the hyphen is recommended by The Chicago Manual of Style, why is it so hit and miss on the web?

The answer to that is really quite simple: search engines. Websites are designed to draw readers in.  Dog Ear Publishing, AuthorHouse, and other self-publishing companies want people to find their websites by typing in key terms. Search engines, like Google, don’t use the hyphen.  If websites used the hyphen, they may be more difficult to find through these search engines.  You’ll notice the title of this blog is not hyphenated—that helps to ensure that web surfers like you can find the page. Now, most search engine experts say that hyphens don’t matter – the search engines discard them or use them as a ‘null’ space… but… Sure seems most ‘natural’ listings don’t contain either hyphens or underscores.

This hyphen issue might seem trivial, but it offers an important lesson to authors.  It is a good idea to use a style manual like Chicago, but it is also important to remember that style manuals offer “guidelines” more than “rules.”  You can choose to do something different.  If you want to spell “color” with the British spelling “colour,” you can.  Just be consistent and have a reason for deviating from your chosen style manual.

Filed under: self publishing, Writing