I can't even figure out the right punctuations, and you guys are arguing about the fonts of those punctuations?
I don't even know what difference they make... And I just finished writing a novel - few of my chapters are dialogue intensive!
Please don't tell me I have to go back and reformat my dialogues?
Urgh... being an ESL writer sucks.
Dorian
Dorian, with all due respect that you aren't monolingual like pathetic ol' me....if you want to get published in a language that's not your native language, you have to learn all aspects of preparing your manuscript, including when to italicise text, in the target language.
I know that conventions vary from language to language, so you can't necessarily go by what's 'the norm' in your native tongue. But you still have to learn how to do it in English if you want to secure a publishing deal with an English-language publisher.
Look at it like this. Let's say you're an editor, and you can choose one manscript from the two sitting on your desk. Both are equally good in story, structure, and characterisation. As a matter of fact, in all aspects but one, the manuscripts are equally good. That one difference is that one is written in pristine English following standard conventions with few grammatical and spelling mistakes. The other one has grammar and spelling problems, and there are other conventions not followed correctly. This second one will require significantly more editing than the first. Remember, you can only choose one.
Which do you choose?
Right. The one that's going to cost less to put through the production process.
An exceptionally great book will get picked up despite writing flaws. There's an award-winning YA author who has dyslexia and whose work is full of errors, but publishers buy her books because it's worth it for them to pay the extra costs of fixing it up.
My point is that there's no way for you to know if your book is exceptionally great. So to have the best shot at selling your work, you have to make sure it's as flaw-free as possible. That means mastering English to a professional level (remember, your work is 'up against' that of professional writers) and learning manuscript conventions. A lot of information on the latter can be found right here at AW.
