Two spaces at the end vs one

No.  We don't use typewriters any more.

No. We don't use typewriters any more. 

I've been hunted by people who chide me for the modern ailment of instinctively using two spaces at the end of a sentence. The young ones rant about how it is totally unacceptable to use two spaces. That all the style guides use one space.

Welcome to the computer era when spacing is precisely calculated. I grew up typing on a manual typewriter. Yes, manual, long before electric. The spacing was erratic. In typing courses, which were required in high school, we learned to type two spaces after a full stop punctuation mark. What becomes rote at that age stays with you for a lifetime, trust me.

Look back in history and you will see that it was typesetters in the UK who first decided that one space would be the accepted standard in order to alleviate the mess in typography at the time. People were using one, two or even three spaces to make different typefaces more readable. To eliminate the inconsistencies, they made a new rule. That rule was adopted in America much later.

I happen to think that sentences are much more readable with two spaces between them, especially as my eyes age (I'll spare the rant about type size and color selected by young whipper snappers for another post.). But I'll accede to the masses, as it's a small and invisible point that could stand in the way of being published.

So when I am finished with a manuscript, I simply find and replace two spaces with one. See if you can tell the difference? At least it gives me more characters to tweet. Just wait 'till I whip out my typewriter when the grid goes down!

Oh, and by the way, in their new style manual (2017), the APA has returned to two spaces for readability.  Chicago Style Manual recommends one.

English is hard

Did you know there are 3000 words in English for being drunk? But having many ways of expressing yourself is only one of the difficulties with the English language. For me, homonyms are the worst. Read and Red, sell and cell, fair and fare, wine and whine, meet, meat and mete are just a few. For years, I thought Puff the magic dragon had something to do with ceiling wax rather than sealing wax.

Goodreads

I chose to express my author profiles differently on different websites.  On amazon, I wrote short bios that a publisher would likely prefer. On Goodreads I chose to write a more reader focused bio. Why, because I think Goodreads is run by readers and it's the person not the book that may appeal to those who administer it. We'll see if my logic works.

And here's a review of Turtle Bunbury's excellent book 1847 that I posted on Goodreads.

The Author Profile

I have been busy creating and updating my author profiles on sites like amazon, Goodreads, and Smashwords. The latter is a really interesting resource for indie publishers and self-publishers. It distributes eBooks to everyone but amazon. They take a small percentage of sales revenue and the author gets the lions share. Can't wait to see how it works.

Something to remember

The Naked Truth proof has gone to print

I reviewed and approved the Create Space pdf and the proof has gone to press. The sales page has been built and we are on our way. Now we wait.

And it's off...to Create Space

The final pdf has been uploaded to Create Space for review today. What a moment! It's finished and gone to the printer. In a couple of days, we'll be reviewing their pdf to make sure nothing has gone wrong between here and there. We did have a little difficulty with our own pdf today. Blank pages, funny pagination, stuff like that. And amazingly, when just scanning through the final .docx file, I caught three more typos. Lord knows how the eye just doesn't see sometimes.

The next step will be to review a hard copy proof. If fine, we post to amazon companies and affiliates and create our own webpage. Then the marketing begins. Alex created an emoticon for me to use promotionally. Very cute. Thanks for all your help my love.

Anyway, I think I can be proud of this work. It won't change the world, but it might entertain a soul or two. In any case, I don't think I have anything to be ashamed of.