Print book formatting question - how to handle para that begins with a quote mark?

[April]

I am using a 3-line drop cap on the first paragraph of each chapter. What should I do if the first paragraph begins with a quotation mark? I want the first letter to be a drop cap, not a quotation mark.

I thought of simply deleting the opening quotation mark and starting the line of dialog with a drop cap (no quotation mark), but keep the ending quotation mark at the end of the dialog.

Any suggestions? Does anyone know what best practice is in this case? I haven't been able to find an example in a printed book.

Thanks for any help!! :)

[Iffix]

Quotation marks are vital to any dialogue. It's a form of communication from you to the reader. It may be best not to open with dialogue. I can see where opening quotation marks in drop cap style would be awkward. Is it strictly necessary for you to use drop caps? Some simply capitalize the first word or line in a chapter. As far as hard and fast rules, I haven't found any.

[Quantum]

you could simply leave the double quote in a regular font size (or maybe a little bigger) and then insert your drop cap.

it's really a formatting/typesetting thing; so do it in whatever way it looks good to you.

if your line of dialogue is just two or three words, then you might be able to get away with leaving the initial quote out; however, for immediate reader comprehension, it would be best to start w/the initial double quote.

[April]

Thanks, Iffix. You make a good point. I don't want to lose the drop caps, so maybe I should make sure the first sentence of each chapter is simply not dialogue.

You think it would be too confusing to simply omit the opening quotation mark? I guess that would be confusing. I've never seen it done before.

[G.G.]

Can you drop the quotation with the first letter? Would it look awkward? I never ever really paid attention to how the trad pubs do it.

[Quantum]

the formatting should support the writing--not the other way around.

[[deleted user]]

I noticed that when this happened in Harry Potter, that the first double quote did not appear. Like it was just removed and the dialogue commenced as normal with the closing double quote. I guess it depends on how you feel about it. Anything seems to fly.

[Quantum]

ah!

[Joe]

Is it not possible to do both the quotation mark and the first actual letter in drop cap? I've never tried, myself.

[April]

Sarah wrote: "I noticed that when this happened in Harry Potter, that the first double quote did not appear. Like it was just removed and the dialogue commenced as normal with the closing double quote. I guess i..."

That's interesting, Sarah. I wondered if that had been done before. I could see that working. Thanks!

[April]

Joe wrote: "Is it not possible to do both the quotation mark and the first actual letter in drop cap? I've never tried, myself."

I haven't tried that. It's occurred to me, but I don't like having some chapters begin with one drop cap vs. two drop caps. That might look odd. But I'll give it a try, too.

[Jay]

April wrote: "I am using a 3-line drop cap on the first paragraph of each chapter. What should I do if the first paragraph begins with a quotation mark? I want the first letter to be a drop cap, not a quotation ..."

Here's the recommendation from the Chicago Manual of Style Online: http://cmos-dev.uchicago.edu/16/ch13/...

[Quantum]

nice. i bookmarked th link.

didn't think to check my old chicago. it's 10.35 in my 13th ed.

[Michael]

I just finished reading 'Out of the Dark' by David Weber published by Tor Books. Chapters begin with dropped caps, and omit the opening quotation mark if the first line consists of dialogue.

[April]

Michael wrote: "I just finished reading 'Out of the Dark' by David Weber published by Tor Books. Chapters begin with dropped caps, and omit the opening quotation mark if the first line consists of dialogue."

Awesome! If others are doing it, then I feel okay doing it. It just makes sense.

Thanks!

[Jay]

Alex G wrote: "nice. i bookmarked th link.

didn't think to check my old chicago. it's 10.35 in my 13th ed."

It's one of the drawbacks of the communication age that no one really thinks about: Publishers of print media have been doing it correctly for years upon years!

There are great reference books available to all of us, and many of them are online for free.

[L.J.]

Sarah wrote: "I noticed that when this happened in Harry Potter, that the first double quote did not appear. Like it was just removed and the dialogue commenced as normal with the closing double quote. I guess i..."

I'm sure I noticed the same practice myself, about a year ago. And I see a later post also has the Chicago Manual of Style recommend that you omit the opening quote symbol. So I think that's the normal practice. (I remember being shocked when I first noticed it, at first thinking it was a mistake, before I realised why they'd done it.)

[[deleted user]]

Since we're talking about drop cap, let me ask this. Anybody able to drop cap on an eBook?

Thanks, Morris

[Quantum]

Morris wrote: "Since we're talking about drop cap, let me ask this. Anybody able to drop cap on an eBook?"

I just created a text frame (Insert > Frame) in a 1-paragraph OpenOffice.org word-processing file and then used Calibre to convert it to 3 popular formats.

Source: .ODT, openoffice 4.1.1/Mac OSX 10.10.5
Converter: Calibre 2.36
Output:
* Epub: Successful
* AZW3: Successful
* MOBI: Failed

For EPUB and AZW3, the drop cap appeared to the left of the rest of the paragraph text and the lines after the bottom of the drop cap wrapped under the drop cap, as expected.

For MOBI, the drop cap and the rest of the paragraph was converted into separate paragraphs; that is, the rest of the paragraph was inserted below the drop cap. Maybe with some futzing around, it could be fixed.

[P.D.]

I don't omit the quote mark, but I do make it smaller than the drop cap.