Capitalise after colon?

In your example, I believe "thirteen" does not need to be capitalized. (Google backs up my instinct.)

I don't think a colon is what you want for that sentence.

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/colons

A colon is ok, but a full stop would work too.

I don't like capitalisation after colons but a few publishers do prefer this rather antiquated form. Very few.

Just be consistent.

Old Hack said:

A colon is ok, but a full stop would work too.

I don't like capitalisation after colons but a few publishers do prefer this rather antiquated form. Very few.

Just be consistent.

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What Old Hack said; this is not grammar or even usage; it's typographic style. So pick one and stick with it, and if your publisher does something different, it will be easy to change.

Capitalization after a colon is, as Old Hack notes, not a common style sheet decision these days.

The only time I regularly see capitalization after a colon is in business or other professional/occupational writing when the colon introduces a list and each member of the list is set off as its own paragraph.

Since a new sentence always starts after a colon, I would think it deserves capitalization. However, I hardly capitalize. It feels like a technical letter than a fictional story.

That's a style sheet decision. And no, a new sentence doesn't always start after a colon.

There are differences between U.S. and U.K. styles.

I feel like I was told weird things about colons in school. I was always told that the information after the colon renames or explains the word or phrase that precedes the colon. And I was also told in my Technical Editing course in college that you always capitalize if the sentence that follows is complete. It sounds like none of that's exactly accurate. Time to brush up on my colon usage.

I follow the Chicago Manual of Style, which says a colon signifies a stronger discontinuity than a semi-colon and a lesser discontinuity than a period (full stop). In this hierarchy, the least discontinuity is marked with a comma. The clause following a colon is not capitalized, except when the colon precedes a list of complete sentences that are separated with periods. In other words, the phrase following a colon is seldom capitalized in CMS style. Other styles differ, but consistently following CMS is hard to argue with. To my eye, a capital after a colon looks archaic.

I follow AP style, where I would not capitalize it. It appears you want to create emphasis, and in that case, you wouldn't capitalize the word after the colon unless it's a proper noun.

When to capitalize after a colon: only if it is a proper noun or the start of a complete sentence.

And a new sentence doesn't always start after a colon. A colon is usually used at the end of a sentence to introduce a list. "He promised me three things: cats, cheese, and wine."