How to write Little Blue Books

Abridgments of the classics, or of any work which has appeared in print somewhere or other, are at present not much desired for the Little Blue Books. Realizing, however, that the editorial policy may again find it expedient to include material of this kind, I am putting in here a brief chapter on this phase of writing or editing for the Little Blue Book series.

To cut down a work from 100,000 words to 15,000 words is an art. It takes a certain knack, if I may put it that way. You must have an instinct (as it were, though the word is hardly apt in its strict sense) for what is essential in the work you are reducing. If it is a story, you must have a sense of the dramatic; you must know also what it is in the original that makes it worthwhile—if it is a classic, you must have some notion of why it is that generations of readers have kept the story alive.

Editions of the classics for the Little Blue Books have been of two kinds. The more ordinary form is an abridgment, where the original work is too long to fit into a 64-page Little Blue Book, (Plays of Shakespeare, Ibsen, and some other works are exceptions; these are published complete, though they may run to as many as 128 pages.) An abridgment means a cutting down by omitting certain parts. Only the more famous passages may be retained; or possibly only the more interesting portions. If the original is a connected whole, then connecting paragraphs must be inserted in the abridgment to carry on the thread of the work. For example, see Sir Walter Scott’s Lady of the Lake (Little Blue Book No. 616) or Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (Little Blue Book No. 559). In these books much of the original is kept verbatim, the omitted portions being replaced by short summarizing sentences.

The other way in which a classic may be edited for a Little Blue Book is to write a wholly new and condensed version, in your own words, so to speak, making it conform to the required length of 15,000 words. This was done with Balzac’s Splendors and Miseries of a Courtezan (Little Blue Book No. 1067) and also with the fairy tales of Charles Perrault (Little Blue Book No. 836). Occasionally, when a philosopher is treated in this way, the gist or substance of the man’s work is edited for a Little Blue Book.

Footnotes.—In any edition of a classic, explanatory notes are certain to be desirable. It is part of the work of editing a classic, or any reprinted work, to insert explanatory notes if they are necessary. Every Little Blue Book must be prepared with the idea in mind that it may be read by people who have not had the advantages of either a high school or a university education. These people are eager to read classics, but they expect the works to be made intelligible to them, for they have no teacher or professor whom they can ask whenever anything puzzles them.

Footnotes may also be useful in originally written works, especially books which deal with technical subjects. Wherever they may be found advisable, the general remarks set down here about how to insert them in manuscript will always apply.

Do not use the asterisk, dagger, and other typographical marks sometimes employed to refer to footnotes. These are inconvenient to insert in a typewritten manuscript, and their use makes for greater complexity in paging the books. Little Blue Book typography must be kept simple—after all, you must constantly remember that the book is to be sold for five cents.

Use what are called superior numbers⁠[3] to refer to footnotes (unless you have perhaps only two or three footnotes throughout your entire work, when simply an asterisk is sufficient). Note the manner in which the superior (raised above the line) number is used to refer to the footnote at the bottom of this page (the superior number, ³, is placed after the words superior number, a few lines above, thus indicating that an explanatory note may be found at the bottom of the page).

In typing your manuscript, when you come to a place where a footnote-reference must be inserted, turn your platen slightly downward so that you can strike the proper number a little above the line right after the word or words to which the footnote refers. Then, when next you double space, insert your footnote. Place the corresponding number at the beginning of the footnote. It is not necessary to place footnotes in manuscript at the bottom of the typewritten page. Insert the footnote while you have it in mind (otherwise you might omit it), and also while you have plenty of room in which to type it. Then draw a line (in pencil, or on the typewriter, as you prefer) clear across the page both above and below the footnote, separating it from the rest of the text. This will enable both typesetter and printer to recognize the inserted matter as a footnote, and it will be handled accordingly.

Forewords and Introductions.—If you ever edit or abridge any work for the Little Blue Books, it will be useful to future readers if you add an explanatory foreword or introduction to the work. In this introduction you should give a brief biography of the author, if the work is a classic; you should also explain why the work is a classic, why it is perpetuated in the world’s literature. You might quote some critical opinions from outstanding commentators on literature.

In the larger clothbound books it is customary to place the foreword or introduction before the Table of Contents. The order of precedence in large books is usually thus: Title Page, Foreword or Introduction, Table of Contents, List of Illustrations, Body of the Work, Appendix or Appendices (if any), Bibliography (if any), Index.

However, the Little Blue Books are of such a size that this order makes for a certain strangeness. We have therefore always made the order in Little Blue Books thus: Title Page, Table of Contents, Body of Work preceded by Foreword or Introduction (if any), Bibliography (if any), Index. An appendix is rather out of place in a work so short as a Little Blue Book. If inserted, it may be placed before the Index or before the Bibliography.

Incidentally, the Bibliography is a list of works used for reference (as sources of information) during the preparation of the manuscript. These credits are better given, in a Little Blue Book, within the text itself wherever credit is due, or possibly by suitable footnotes. There may also be a bibliography of books to read along the same lines or in the same field, as in Joseph McCabe’s volumes of The Key to Culture.