Glossary and Pronunciation Guide

I have all that stuff in my story bible, but I never bothered to send it when I queried my debut (an erotic romance space opera). Not did my publisher or agent ask. When some readers made confused noises at the ensemble cast and settings, I adapted a limited glossary and put it on my blog. That way, interested readers can find it, without the glossary adding length to an already-big book.

I alphabetized my entries, and used a simple capital-letters-for-emphasis format on pronunciation, figuring that would be easiest on my readers.

Filigree said:

I have all that stuff in my story bible, but I never bothered to send it when I queried my debut (an erotic romance space opera). Not did my publisher or agent ask. When some readers made confused noises at the ensemble cast and settings, I adapted a limited glossary and put it on my blog. That way, interested readers can find it, without the glossary adding length to an already-big book.

I alphabetized my entries, and used a simple capital-letters-for-emphasis format on pronunciation, figuring that would be easiest on my readers.

Click to expand...

I think a vast majority of readers would prefer something like this.

Glossaries may be helpful for readers if you have a lot of specialized/invented terminology. (If long, consider keeping them on a website.)

A pronunciation guide is pretty useless, though. If your names/words are spelled in a way that your readers CAN pronounce them, they'll pronounce them however they want regardless of what your instructions may say. If they're not spelled in a way that suggests a pronunciation to the reader, they'll either make up their own pronunciation anyway or skip over it altogether (& just recognize the name by sight, replace it with something they like better, or ditch the story and read something else that's more user-friendly).

The pronunciation guide, IOW, is for the author's benefit, not the reader's.

I usually write that first. It was mainly when I wrote science fiction, because I was inventing my own technologies. Mostly technical terms in uncommon usage. This way I don't have to explain what something is. As in reading over my old work, I've come to realize stop to explain the joke sort of makes it less funny.:/

And yes, I would keep in on my website.