Style Guides

 

We use a style guide. Most publishers do. We use the Chicago Manual of Style. This is used extensively in the US and also by quite a few European publishers. Also common for UK publishers is the New Oxford Style Manual.

 

Many publishers refine these rules further to produce their own particular house style.

We like Chicago a lot. Although it is made for the US it concedes that UK usage is different and also describes that.

 

It’s good to remember as well that no one has laid down hard and fast rules for English. The beauty of this is that it has been allowed to develop to be useful and accurate. The style manuals and Fowler’s Modern English Usage just tell us what people usually do.        

 

With everything it is a matter of consistency.

 

The sort of things we’re most concerned about are:

• When you write numbers as words
• The use and position of the M-dash
• Whether to use the Oxford comma or not (we prefer not to and only use it’s when it’s necessary for clarity – but arguably if we’re using it for clarity it isn’t then really the Oxford comma because the non-Oxford comma can be used for clarity.)
• Double or single quotes: we’ve all learned to handwrite double quotes at school. However, Oxford recommends single and most books published in the UK do have single quotes. The Chicago Manual of Style concedes this
• CMoS also supports to my horror ‘different to’.  It was drummed into us in school that it’s ‘different from’ not ‘different to’ and Heaven forbid ‘different than’. CMoS only approves ‘different than’ in certain circumstances.
• Where you put the comma that goes with a quotation other than in reported speech.

Our own particular quirks

• If a story is set in the US or written by an American writer we allow American spelling but still insist on opening paragraphs being ‘full out’.
• We don’t like symbols in between section breaks – it messes up on e-readers. A section break should be marked by an extra line between paragraphs and the opening line being ‘full out’. Some writers though have levels of section break.  
• We use single or double quotes according to imprint not whether the text is UK or American English.
• We like numbers up to one hundred in words but there are exceptions: dates, times.    
• We hyphenate whenever we can.    

What is the media kit?

 

We send our authors a media kit once we have released the book.

This includes:

·         Four different copies of the book cover:

o   A small one suitable for emails and social media posts

o   A medium one which looks good on all sorts of web sites

o   A large one, suitable for printing

o   A 3D one that can have a lot of impact in all sorts of post on line

·         A PDF that you might pass on to people so that they can read your book and review it

·         An e-pub file, suitable on all e-readers. Again you can pass this on to friends, family, fans and followers.      

·         An order form for your book, though you can put orders for other of our books on this form.  

·         Our updated marketing plan for authors.  (This is a work in progress and we often update it with new ideas.)

We send this out when we have released the book on Kindle and approved the hard copy. We usually release with a preorder facility, but you can order books as soon as you get the order form. We are now in what we call the ‘soft launch’ phase and you can use your media kit to shout about your book.  

Don’t forget to remind family, friends, fans and followers when release day comes along so that they can post their reviews on such places as Amazon, Good Reads and Story Graph.       

Sigrid is Unique by Lotta Lundh and Nils Melander

 

How we came to publish this one

Lotta submitted this to book to us through our usual submissions process. She was looking for a publisher who would produce an English version of this work.   

The title

It is very apt as Sigrid is certainly not like anyone else. The book is a celebration of the girl who is Sigrid.  

Some notes about the process

The book had already been written and designed. We were offered a rough translation into English and we were able to polish this to make the text even more accessible to our readers  

The cover

This is of course the original one produced by Nils Melander. It gives us an accurate impression of what Sigrid is like and it draws in the potential reader: what has she built? Will it take her weight? Will it fall over?  

Some notes about style

Lota Lundh tells us how it is for someone like Sigrid who is autistic. Lundh herself has recently been diagnosed as autistic. This is a story is from the heart.

Who we think the reader is

It has all of the normal traits of an emergent reader book. It is also a useful text for children who may have an autistic classmate. It helps to explain why they behave the way they do. It can also be of some comfort to the autistic child; here is someone who is a bit like me.

What else

There are two more books coming out in the series.   

Review copies

It’s always great if you can buy the book and give us a review. Just click on the link to be taken to our bookshop. If you would like to review and you are strapped for cash, just get in touch for a free PDF or e-book file.

 

Grab your copy here.        

I see from the list that some reviewers require galleys. Does this apply to picture books? Will we have any to send out?

 

 

‘Galley proofs’ is a term still used but actually comes from the history of printing. The equivalent now for us is our Proof 1 that we send out as the last version the author sees of the text before it is printed. Please feel free to send out Proof 1 to any potential reviewers or people who might offer to endorse. However, please make sure it’s clear it’s an ’uncorrected’ proof. 

The text is proof-read twice again before the final text is released.

When we enter that soft launch phase we provide you with four different size copies of the cover image, a PDF of what the inside of the book looks like, an e-book file, an order form for author copies  and an up to date marketing plan.

For picture books we supply a PDF that is good enough resolution to see on a screen but that wouldn’t print well. Full resolution files are huge.           

Behind The Scenes at Bridge House Publishing - a few words from Fatima, our intern 2024-2025

 

Behind The Scenes at Bridge House Publishing

 

From the moment I learned how to read, there has been a book in my hand, on my bedroom shelf, and in every room in my house. My love for words, characters, reading and telling stories began early on in my life. So, naturally I was always enthralled by the idea of working in publishing, but unfortunately the world of publishing always felt beyond my reach. In my teenage years the internet offered little to no solid advice on how to enter the industry and flourish in it. After many applications to many companies I thought it might be wise to put this dream of mine on hold. That was until I came across an opportunity to intern at Bridge House Publishing. I knew immediately I wanted the position, and after much interview preparation I am proud to say that at the time of this blog post I am coming to the end of my yearlong publishing internship. Here are some of the best things I experienced this year:

 

Book launches

One of my favourite things to experience is seeing the final product come to life. Early on in my internship I helped set up the room for Karen Kendrick’s book launch for her novel Afterwards. It was wonderful to hear the 1-2-1 discussion and Q&A session between the author and Gill James; the founder of Bridge House. I think one of the most astounding things about book launches is how beautiful it is to see other people also praise and love a book an author has worked so hard on and for so long. You feel a warm sense of community standing amongst all the other readers in the room.

I also attended Gill’s book launch of her book called Natascha’s Story earlier this year in February. She explained how her children’s story was inspired by the Russian Dolls that sit on her piano and how it was a twist on the Wizard of Oz story so many of us know and love from our childhoods.

Book launches come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes and it is such a good insight into learning how an author comes across the idea for their story and to show that as a reader you admire their work.

 

Copy-writing

One of the things I loved most about my internship is that Gill, my supervisor, always gave me the opportunity to set my own tasks and always encouraged my own independent ideas. Bridge House opened a new imprint this year called Walela Books and I was responsible for writing the advertisement that was calling for submissions. This was something completely new for me and it did make me a bit nervous to get it wrong. However, I pushed past this discomfort and after hearing some constructive feedback from colleagues working at Bridge House I was able to write an effective post. Copywriting is something I enjoyed in the end and would love to do more of in the future.

 

Reviewing and editing

Reviewing is when you read a submission and you decide whether you like or dislike it and whether it’s a good piece of writing and you write a short review about your thoughts. Doing this over time I started spotting good/not so good writing much more easily.

After a submission is accepted for publication, the editorial process begins. Editorial work is hands down my all-time favourite thing to do. In fact, my very first 1-2-1 meeting with Gill was learning about the editing process from A-Z. Every publishing company does the editing process differently, but at Bridge House it involves three stages. The first stage of editing is a scan of the overall text to spot any major mistakes, issues with characters, pacing, etcetera. The second edit is the biggest and longest editing stage. Edit 2 involves a detailed line by line edit. I’ve had numerous opportunities to do this and the most important thing I’ve learned is to edit so that sentences show improved clarity, but that the author’s writing style and voice still shines through. The last edit is a proof read of the overall text to make sure there’s no remaining mistakes.

I’ve had a fantastic time working alongside Jim Bates, an award-winning author, on his latest collection of short stories called Where The Heart Is. I’ve really enjoyed editing Jim’s short stories and would love to carry on working with authors in the future.

 

 

 

 

I’m pleased about the skills I’ve learned and developed as a result of interning at Bridge House and I know these are skills I plan to take with me into my future career. I am beyond honoured to be able to do what I love and I hope I carry on doing what I love in the future.

I’m a Big Boy Now by Eamon O’Leary

 

How we came to publish this one

Eamon has been a contributor to CaféLit for quite a while. His stories are well-told, a little quirky and often a lot of fun so when he approached us with this collection we didn’t hesitate to offer him a contract.    

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The title

It’s actually a quote from a line near the end of the collection. Most of the vignettes are about Eamon as a child.

Some notes about the process

Eamon had already had this edited but we still put it though two of our editorial processes and found a few things to alter. And we even found a typo post publication. However, we weren’t too thrown by this: the average number of typos / other  mistakes in published books is fifteen. Will we spot the other fourteen? We hope not.  

The cover

Obviously this is a photo of Eamon. It took a while to find the right one that worked technically and artistically. This one works well in both ways.     

Some notes about style

There is some dry humour in these stories. And in places you will want to laugh out loud.

Who we think the reader is

Eamon already has a following from his stories and reflections on Irish radio. There are quite a few fans from CaféLit as well

What else

The book is selling well. Eamon has been quite proactive in promoting it and several bookshops in Ireland have ordered directly from us. Currently this is our best seller. Eamon has had a few copies made in hardback as a souvenir for the family, We are exploring offering this to other authors.    

Review copies

It’s always great if you can buy the book and give us a review. Just click on the link to be taken to our bookshop. If you would like to review and you are strapped for cash, just get in touch for a free PDF or e-book file.

 

Grab your copy here.