Double quotes, single quotes

“My mother told me to go outside, so that’s why I’m sitting on the sidewalk,” said Nicholas.

“My mother said, ‘Go outside,’ so that’s they I’m sitting on the sidewalk,” said Nicholas.

Why are their “double quotes” around the whole sentence at the top, but the next sentence has ’single quote’ around the words spoken. What’s going on?

Here’s the rule.

When the speaker says something, put double quotes around the exact words spoken. When the speaker quotes someone else while he or she is talking, put single quotes before and after the words someone else said.

Watch out for expressions like, She told me that… The words that follow are NOT a direct quote, so no quote marks are needed. This is called “indirect speech.”

Here are more examples of indirect speech:

The teacher said we were doing much better.
I asked why we couldn’t take a shortuct across the canyon.
Margie is always telling us how hard she worked on her class project.

Unless it is the exact words spoken, no quote marks, single or double.

If conversation by one person includes conversation by a second person, we use single quotes for the second person. For example…

“I don’t know,” Mary sobbed. “She stood there shaking her mop and shouted, ‘Get out!’ That’s all I heard! “

If you’re writing a serious paper or book that has a quote that covers more than one paragraph, you can handle it one of two ways:

Start each quoted paragraph with a double quote. End the last quoted paragraph with a double quote.

Indent the quoted text, all of it, so that it is clear that it’s all a quote.

DON”T DO BOTH!

In general, a short passage is included in the text with quote marks. After 20 or so lines, we like to see the whole quoted passage indented from the left and the right.

What is the person who is being quoted quotes someone else who quotes someone else? Wow! This could go on and on, but it does happen, especially when quoting Scripture or other text the includes text from other authorities.

“First person’s speech begins and ends with a double quote. ‘A quote inside the first person’s speech begins and ends with a single quote.’ ” If there is a second quote inside the first speech marked by single quotes, it has to go in double quotes. And so on.

Be sure to use quotes that are “curly” unless you’re using a font with letters that are straight or round such as Arial or Helvitica.

Have fun.

If you get stuck, send me email.

–by Griffith Publishing

How to succeed in self-publishing

More and more I am becoming convinced that niche marketing is the only way to make any income at all in self-publishing. Here’s how it has to work:

1. Define the exact group of people who will benefit from your book or other publications. That’s your niche.  Not “everybody.” Not “all senior citizens.” Maybe for you it would be “All people who give speeches as part of their business” or “Families that prefer mutts to pure-bred dogs.”
2. Find out if you can reach that group. This is the tough nut to crack. Can you get a list? Is there an organization that holds all of those people? Or does the group need an organization that you could establish?
3. Learn how you can get in touch with these people: e-mail, direct mail, Web page, telephone, ad in print media.  Build a plan and a budget to reach them.
4. Get acquainted with others aiming for the same target. Maybe you can join forces and increase your bang.
5. Write to that niche, not to the world in general. Be as helpful and interesting as you can. Make it possible for niche members to act on what you tell them to improve their lives or reach their individual goals. Give more than you get in terms of knowledge, insight, information.

That should get you started.

Griffith Publishing

Making money at Griffith Publishing

Money isn’t that important to me, but it sure matters when taxes or insurance payments or something helps piles up and blocks all exits.

The projects most likely to be financially successful:

• Ghostwriting
• Physician Publishing
• Web design

For the above areas, I need all-new web page designs and sharper skills in web design.

Some templates look so cool. I’d be willing to buy a template if I could massacre it with changes I’d like to make. I don’t want to buy a template that looks like a template.

Dreamweaver, I’m ready. Everything I need to do in the future depends on my ability to merge my marketing needs with Dreamweaver’s capabilities.

What do you expect from January?

One of my clients tells me it’s minus 28 where he is, and how am I doing?

Just fine. I’m in Idaho, and it’s about 60 degrees warmer here than at my client’s Minnesota office.

All of my primary web pages have been re-designed, and most of the glitches have been taken care of.

Principal project now is the “Mask” book. I think I have enough material and about 32,000 out of 50,000 words are written.

I do not like anything about the new “improved” WordPress. I’m sure the changes were made with good intentions, but what a pain to learn new routines when I’d just caught on to the old ones. Takes times, causes errors, and generally creates a dysfunctional relationship between WordPress and myself.
So here’s my business list of stuff to do…

• Pay bills
• Work on chapters for “The Mask”
• Plan next HealthWorks
• Suggestions to Mandy re submitted manuscripts

Guess that’s it. I am so intrigued by the quiet life. It’s hard to wind myself up to get things done.

Struggling, still, with web design

For people like me who use web pages to deliver specific messages to people who matter to our business, learning the ropes for Dreamweaver can be daunting.

An IT wizard or a person who intuitively sees cause-and-effect and translates jargon into usable English has a fast ride.

For hobos like me with a laptop in my backpack, it’s just plain complicated to figure out what goes with what. Right now I have the impossible situation of opening a train wreck when I want to work with a Dreamweaver file.

There is absolutely no resemblance between what is on the screen with the program open and (1) what I want or (2) what is on the Web. Yes, I know about templates, about page design, about overrides, and even about CSS. But none of those tools makes any difference when I try to choose another font or go to bold face etc.

So I issue the commands, blow the page onto the web, and then, and only then, see the results of my labors.

WYSIWYG? Not at all. WYSInotWYG, ever.

Let’s move into a new decade

I’m ready to make some adjustments in Griffith Publishing that will widen the sphere of work we cover and add to the list of services we offer.

The biggest challenge is to continue learning Dreamweaver and to offer content-rich interactive web pages to authors, physicians, and other clients. BSU is offering exactly the classes I need, but a 50-mile round trip for every class makes it seem unreasonable at this time.

Web design will put my clients on the breaking edge with their competition and will give me the breadth of experience I need in this rapidly changing, fast-growing area of advancement.

Too soon for an ode to the linotype machine

How does one install a free virus protection software on a computer that can’t access the web?

Only one of my computers is working properly. Two of my computers can’t access the Web. One computer isn’t protected.

Oh, well. Who needs computers? I would be working just as hard if we were still in the days before computers and maybe I would be doing at least this well financially. I would be rewarded for being able to type very fast without mistakes.  But I’d be writing papers and reports and books that would be printed or copied from camera-ready pages. I remember starting my publishing career about 1961 submitting text that was transferred mechanically via a machine known as a linotype to “hot” metal and made into frames that were inked and impressed on paper. The headlines were set by hand on the “Ludlow” machine.

It’s time for a tribute to the good old linotype machine.

And to the remarkable man with an even more remarkable name, Ottmar Mergenthaler, from Germany. He is acclaimed for being as important to printing as Gutenberg, the man who invented “movable type” and made printing presses possible.

The invention sounds strange in the perspective of computer-generated files, but to combine stamping letters and casting them in metal in one step was a major breakthrough. I remember walking into the press when I was a college student eager to produce the next edition of the college newspaper and watching the linotype operator entering the text I’d brought over on half sheets. I can’t remember his name, but I can remember how he would sit with back ramrod straight and pound the keys in rapid sequence, seldom hitting the wrong one.

Each line of type that was set ended up in a mold filled with liquid metal where the stamp was made. For a great explanation of how it all worked, Woodside Press has created a delightful, well-illustrated website with easy-to-understand explanation of the linotype. Based in New York City, Woodside Press is one of the few printing companies that still use hot metal. Linotype, Monotype, and Ludlow are key tools at this press.

The secrets to my success

It was twenty years ago last summer when I settled in the family house in Southwest Idaho and began producing books for people. I’d like to tell the world (although the world is not listening) that it’s possible to make a good living doing what I do: writing, editing, web content, some design. The secrets to my success in sticking it out since 1988 are also open to the world and are as follows:

1. Love it. The more you love your work the easier it is to stick to it and do a good job.
2. Do it. It takes a lot of effort to build clientele, to sell services, to set prices and schedules. It’s hard to deal with cranky people or people who learned English in India. Just do it.
3. Go steady. One business that can give you enough income for 25 or 30 percent of your living expenses is a big boost. Try to fill up your client base so you don’t receive more than 30% from one client because it’s too much like being an employee except that you can lose your job a lot easier.
4. Lean on people. I couldn’t have done what I’ve done without great printers, a wonderful designer (my niece) who has been working with me for about 25 years or so. Luckily, she doesn’t depend on me for a huge chunk of her total income. Clients who give me repeat business (90% of my volume), community supporters who let me participate with them, relatives who invite me over, people at church who share fellowship. It’s okay to lean on people!
5. Plan to roll with the punches. Don’t set ironclad “rules” for how you will do business. Study trends. Pay attention to what’s going on. Listen, read, watch, learn. Change your way of working as you identify new ways that work better or pay off sooner.
6. Keep learning. Study, read, and collect all the knowledge you can about topics that interest you. Attend meetings, take classes, subscribe to magazines. When you stop loving the process of learning you might as well strap yourself to a wheelchair and vegetate.

That’s all there is, folks! Do your best. If you stumble, offer to make it right. Never pretend you know it all. Smile a lot. And stick to it.

JG

Work list

Projects on deck at Griffith Publishing…

Ghostwriting:

Sexual abuse, almost finished with changes by the author of record, and he says he’s almost finished with additional stories he wants to put in the book.

Escape from Poland, waiting to hear from the author of record.

Other projects:

HealthWorks newsletter: story list due Friday

Yellowstone Gazette: stories ready to research and write:

Highwaymen in the Gold Rush

The Reality of the Donner Summit Tragedy

COMPASS notes and information

Cornell University geochemistry textbook, pro bono

Next week I have meetings just about every day.

From Griffith Publishing

Work first, plan second…

It’s easy to plug along doing the jobs that scream the loudest for attention and never settle down to do some honest planning. Well, I want to get out of that trap and start planning every Monday morning. That’s what it is today, Monday morning—the day before national elections, whoopee!

1. Blogs. Do a blog in the morning and another one at night so they are renovated on a regular basis.

2. Working hours.

1. 8:30 to 12 noon Work on office stuff and email etc
2. 12 to 1:30 Do some housework and exercise. Run errands.
3. 1:30 to 3:30 Work
4. 3:30 to 4:30 break for lunch
5. 4:30 to 5:30 Review writing that needs to be done
6. 5:30 to 9 pm Try to put in 2-3 hours of heavy writing
7. 9 pm Slow down, draw, read, play the piano
8. Asleep by 10:30

That’s about eight hours of focused work every day. Now…What needs to be done this week?

• Work on Cliff’s book. Just get in there and do it!
• Roy is going to call me about 6 pm
• Clean off my desk
• Request senior discount with City of Caldwell
• Qualify for COMPASS work
  • Listen to CD
  • Study material on the Web

• Plan next HealthWorks (story list due Friday)
• Call Toshiba re problems with email (first identify the problems)
• Earthlink is still billing me. Call Qwest.
• Vote: McGee, Minick, LaRocco, Obama and guess on the rest

Work hard. Don’t complain. Work is fun!

Griffith Publishing