Stylesheet

All text should be word-processed on a computer that uses Word or Rich Text Format, or programmes that can be reliably converted to one of these formats.

The typeface and point size are immaterial.

Try to disable all special formatting, such as paragraph indenting and superscript ordinals, but inserted footnote or endnote referencing may be used.

If you are annotating text and your program does not include inserted notes begin a new sequence for each chapter and type them into a separate file.

Do not insert tables or pictures into text files. Leave one space, not two, after full stops at the end of sentences. Indent new paragraphs but do not leave line spaces between paragraphs.

Do not indent the first paragraph following a heading.

Devise a clearly distinguishable hierarchy of headings, subheadings and (if necessary) sub-subheadings, and apply it consistently.

Ordinal numbers (1st, 12th, 23rd, etc) should not be in superscript form (e.g. 23rd), and the preferred form of dates should be 17 October, not 17th October or October 17th. As a general rule numerals from one to twenty should be written out in full, 21 and higher in figures, but do not mix numerals as words and figures in the same sentence.

Quotes should be enclosed within single quotation marks; double quotation marks should only be used for quotes within quotes. Extended quotes (more than three lines) should not be enclosed within quotation marks, but regarded as a separate paragraph, not indented, but with a line space before and after (when typeset the whole quote will be indented and printed in a smaller point size).

Harvard referencing may be used for more academic works, or endnotes/ footnotes tied to superscript text references. Some books will need no specific annotation, apart from a note on sources and/ or a bibliography. Annotation and bibliographical citation must be consistent as to order and punctuation. The preferred forms are these:

for a book: Vernon, Charles, 2005, An historical guide to Malmesbury. Malmesbury Civic Trust.

for a paper: Longley, David, 2001, ‘Medieval settlement and landscape change on Anglesey’, Landscape History, 23, 39-59.

for a paper in a book: Healy, Frances, 2004, ‘Hambledon Hill and its implications’; in Monuments and material culture (ed. Rosamund Cleal and Joshua Pollard), Hobnob Press, 15-38.

As a general rule books should be indexed, although indexing cannot be completed until a late stage in the production process, once the book is in page-proof. Comprehensive indexing is a complex intellectual process, which many authors prefer to leave to professionals. However, for many local history publications it will be sufficient to prepare an index which includes all personal names and place names, together with the principal subjects covered. For works specific to a particular place it may be convenient to list all place names within the place together, as sub-headings to the place-name. Incidental references, e.g. to London, America, Queen Victoria or Winston Churchill, which do not themselves contribute to knowledge about these people and places, should not be indexed. It is generally best to combine people, places and subjects into a single alphabetical index. Having done this, see and see also references should be added as appropriate to assist the user.

Scanning illustrations into high-resolution digital format is one of the most time-consuming activities in the production of a local history book, and the author, or someone the author knows, is urged to undertake this process prior to submission.

Modern photographs taken on a digital camera are quite easy to handle and generally give good results.

Ideally they should be converted to grayscale and supplied at a resolution of at least 600 dpi once reduced to 10 x 8cm (approx).

Old photographs should be scanned to at least 600 dpi and, if the originals have been screened (if taken from printed books, newspapers or certain types of postcard) the scanner’s descreening facility should be enabled.

Cropping, enhancing and adjusting levels may also be undertaken prior to submission, but some further cropping may be necessary at page-layout stage.

Digital images should be submitted on CD as numbered TIFF (preferably) or JPEG files, and a separate text file of similarly numbered captions should also be submitted.

If scanning and digitisation is beyond the scope of the author, original images (prints or transparencies) should be submitted for scanning. These should be discreetly numbered (e.g. in pencil on the back) so that they can be linked to their captions, and they will be returned once the book production is well advanced.

The usual procedure following submission and acceptance of a manuscript, and once all necessary editing has taken place, is for the typesetter to produce a galley proof of the entire text.

This includes no illustrations, takes no account of page breaks and may run on one chapter to the next with merely a conventional space.

The purpose of this is to enable the author (and editor) to check for spelling and punctuation.

Minor changes and amendments can be made (by annotating the proof) at this stage.

The corrected proof should be returned to the typesetter with an indication also of the target positioning of all the illustrations within the text.

Thus, if the illustrations and their captions have been numbered 1-60 these numbers should be added in the margin of the proofs at the appropriate place (not necessarily in their original numerical sequence).

The typesetter will correct the text and add the illustrations, producing a page-proof, which will also be sent to the author for checking.

The author should make certain that the captions match the illustrations, that all illustrations are the right way up and that nothing important (or mentioned in the caption) has been cropped.

The preliminary pages and cover should be checked very carefully – it is easy to miss the most obvious mistakes, such as the spelling of the author’s name on the title page, or incorrect page numbers or chapter titles given on the contents page.

At this stage too the index must be prepared, so time should be built into the production process to allow for this.

After the page-proofs have been returned and corrected and the index typeset it is normal to convert the files to PDF format, print and check a further set of laser proofs from the PDF output, then proceed to printing the book.

If this is not a Print on Demand title a set of running sheets (unbound pages) is examined before the book is bound.

Hobnob Press is usually responsible for collecting bound and cartoned books from the bindery.

Since most Hobnob books now are print-on-demand, it is usual to order two copies of the book as proof copies for the author and publisher to inspect before the book is released for general sale.