How Words Get Good by Rebecca Lee

One for booklovers! How Words Get Good is an absorbing behind-the-scenes look at book production.

And it’s full of cool facts: a stretch of the M6 motorway in the UK being made with 2.5 million Mills & Boon novels being one.

Part One looks at manuscripts and authors: the use of pseudonyms, writing syndicates, ghost writers, and the sorts of successful story formulas used by Ian Fleming and Enid Blyton. There are notes on Elena Ferrante, the James Patterson machine, Dick and Mary Francis, and the curious relationships between Andrew O’Hagan and Julian Assange, and Mark Schwartz and Donald Trump.

The second section prowls the corridors of the publishing house: copy-editing, fact-checking, punctuation choices, and the secrets of a good index. Interrobang (?!) might be my new favourite word, and I enjoyed all the details on hyphens, en dashes, proofreading marks, and footnote symbols. Who knew the spacing of an ellipsis could be so fascinating!

Part Three deals with translation, printing, cover design - including the historical significance of yellow covers, and the history of blurbs, margins, and fonts.

Despite the awkward title and chapter headings (How words get born/ How words get free), this is an entertaining and informative flight through the world of book development and manufacture. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

How Words Get Good was published in 2022 by Profile Books.

WHAT TO READ NEXT

Other terrific books about books include 84, Charing Cross Road by Helena Hanff and How to Write Like Tolstoy by Richard Cohen.