Sunday, June 11, 2017

The Straight Versus Curly Apostrophe

What I'm not talking about is apostrophe usage, because that's a bigger matter handled well by the Purdue Owl. What I am talking about is a smaller, more trifling matter, one I'd stumbled across while formatting my manuscript in preparation for independent publishing.

It all started when I met a lovely woman named Kate Harold at the PNWA conference last year who was a fellow finalist in the childrens book genre. We became fast friends and soon began swapping online critiques. Turns out, she is not only a writer, but an editor for a family and patient hospital blog, and with her background, she helpfully pointed out the inconsistent style of apostrophe in my work. Here's the gem she sent me:

KATE: "The straight apostrophe is used online in web content; the curly one is for printed pieces. This is totally minor, but it’s something I always have to proof for with anything that goes to print, so it always stands out to me."
ME: "Thank you for the detailed feedback. I just type along, so I'm not sure how it changes, but something to be aware of since I’ve never seen (noticed) this before."
KATE: "[It] drives graphic designers nuts!" 

It's minor, but now I seem to be hyper-aware of this little bit of punctuation; I've spotted it in a pretty popular indie book I'm reading, and I can't get it out of my mind! Here's a snapshot of the straight and curly in the same paragraph:

Straight and Curly Apostrophes

So, if you're indie publishing, you have one more teeny-tiny thing to worry about. Curse me for sharing or thank me, your choice. But it is what it is!

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"The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance my deride it, but in the end, there it is." ~ Winston Churchill

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