Formatting messed up by editor

CharlesA · Apr 15, 2013

I had a short story published in an online literary journal, and the editor did not format the story the way I'd written it. When I emailed him to ask about this, he said some code had been lost when the story was moved from Submittable.com to the journal's website. He reformatted it so that now it appears as I'd intended, but it's in an unusual font. The editor said in the email that I could contact him if I had any other questions or concerns. Would it be inappropriate for me to ask him to spend a little time on this and neaten it up? Thanks.

Old Hack · Apr 15, 2013

How did your previous contacts with him go? Do you think he'd be happy to do more?

And how does the current format mesh with the journal's house style?

Jamesaritchie · Apr 16, 2013

You can certainly ask, but give readers more credit. I doubt such changes will confuse them. CMOS is not a guide I would ever follow for this type of story publishing, anyway.

Ask the editor, but sometimes you just have to let it go.

Deleted member 42 · Apr 16, 2013

If he's using a CMS or blogging platform and isn't terribly conversant with CSS and HTML he may not be able to control the appearance of blockquotes.

CharlesA · Apr 16, 2013

Thank you Old Hack. Our emails have been polite and professional. I have not seen the kind of font used for my story anywhere else on the site.

Deleted member 42 · Apr 16, 2013

CharlesA said:
The quotations, which are of written passages in a character's notebook, may work better in italics than as block quotes. Could I change them to italics? I would be willing to send him a new file that uses italics instead of block quotes.

The formatting in your file won't affect the Web version.

The editor or Webmaster or someone is copying plain text to the Web and then having to format it for the Web using HTML.

Depending on how familiar they are with HTML, they may not know how to format it.

Moreover, ultimately, the reader determines how a Website looks via settings in his or her browser.

They can set their browser to put everything in Pink Comic Sans.

I'd let it go, if I were you.

Polenth · Apr 16, 2013

What you've described isn't a default blockquote, which means it's what the website's stylesheet says to do with blockquotes. The average online publication doesn't follow a style guide for print material. It has its own, which'll be coded in the stylesheet. They're not going to change it for one story.

You might not like the look, but readers will understand, so it's not a huge deal.

CharlesA · Apr 16, 2013

Thanks. I've gotten used to it by now and and am happy with it.

Formatting messed up by editor

CharlesA

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

Jamesaritchie

Deleted member 42

CharlesA

Deleted member 42

Polenth

Mushroom

CharlesA