Pre-chapter quotes

[yaxomoxay]

Hi guys,
how do you enter pre-chapter quotes (see Dune) on a submission draft? Is there any way to differentiate it from the rest of the chapter?

thanks!

 

[tinkerdan]

Although this is not fiction;;
http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2013/10/how-to-format-an-epigraph.html
::it is a simplistic explanation.
it can vary depending on style guide
http://www.todaythedragonwins.blogspot.com/2008/10/grammar-guide-epigraph-versus-block.html

https://books.google.com/books?id=w...AAFv#v=onepage&q=style guide epigraph&f=false


https://theeditorandthebeast.wordpr...-epigram-for-that-matter-what-is-an-epigraph/
links of interest
https://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/561059/

https://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/547419/

https://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/552874/

 

[Ray McCarthy]

epigraph
I was thinking about this too. There seems to be some variation in publications, I have no idea about submissions, but I think:
Indent all of it a bit more than the normal 1st line of a body paragraph.

1. No first line indent.
2. Be wary of more than one paragraph, keep it short and snappy.
   
3. Last line ends <space><EM dash (long dash)><space><attribution> on same line, or if poetry / verse on a newline, and right justified. There seems to be variation in this.
   
4. The quotes are not quoted overall, quote marks only used in nested quote/dialogue in the epigraph quote/block.
5. It can be imaginary author.
6. Anything in copyright needs clearance, even though in most countries it's "fair use".
   
7. Music lyrics are very expensive.

I think in a submission I'd use what ever size & font they asked for on the main MSS, and just indent more with no extra 1st line indent for epigraph.

Not in submission:
In my eBook & printed self publishing I use a serif font for body, a slightly smaller sans font for epigraph formatted as above. Some people use italic, I dont.
Any display screen text listed in body is monospace font even though only text consoles use that. I might use italic for notes, emails etc in text body. I use Italic for telepathy with tags but no quotes as if speech. If there is no telepathy in a book, I use italic for thoughts, otherwise no italic or quotes but clear, Sam thought, etc tags in the thought and separate paragraph from someone else's dialogue or actions or narration.

@tinkerdan gives good links above.

 

[StuartBurchell]

epigraph

1. Music lyrics are very expensive.

@tinkerdan gives good links above.

Hmm, I have a character sing at one point a couple of lines from a song because his friend has the same name as the song title. Was going to check on it when I got a publisher for it, so not in the forseeable future.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

sing at one point a couple of lines from a song

Unless ancient and out of copyright, even a few lines of songs are expensive. Make up one! or use something Victorian.
Pity not called Daisy?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_Bell
It's out of copyright. I wonder is that why HAL sang it in 2001? (Which was in 1968, investigation reveals it's probably because A.C. Clarke heard an IBM* computer "sing" it in 1961 )

[* H A L are the preceding letters to IBM, but Clarke maintains only a co-incidence or subconscious. Randall Monroe chose XKCD for his web site because it was meaningless. The Numerical value is 42. An odd co-incidence]