What are [A] [B] heading notes?

December 16, 2007 3:53 PM

What are "heading notes"? This is a book publishing question, not computer programming.

I'm tech editing a book. I've been asked to "Add heading notes [A], [B] etc" to the text. When I've run into this before I've faked it -- just adding [A] for the title of a chunk, and [B] for any lesser headers.

I'm tired of faking it, but can't find a relevant section in Words into Type or Chicago. Looking it up on-line brings me a lot of pages on programming. I don't want to ask the editor, because I should've done that several projects ago and now I'm embarrassed to admit I don't know this part of my job.

Can you point me towards a clear explanation of [A] [B] heading notes?

posted by anonymous to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Well, they've worked so far, right? If you don't get a better answer (and you might not—this doesn't seem like some widespread publishing phenomenon to me), you can just ask the editor if the way you have been doing heading notes so far is working out okay.
posted by grouse at 4:18 PM on December 16, 2007

From what I understand (I work as an editor, but it's been a while since I worked on books), you've got the basic idea down. The only trick would be to be consistent, both within the individual text and (possibly) across all the books y'all publish.

This page of tips for authors submitting manuscripts lays it out as:

Please choose a style for each level of heading and sub-heading and stick to it throughout the text. Make sure that the hierarchy is clear but do not number the heading levels. The only numbered headings should be the chapter headings and, if the book has them, the part headings.

For example:
Chapter 4 Power for pumping [CH]
Human Power [A]
Handpumps [B]
The rotary drive handpump [C]

It's possible your organization has internal rules for what they'd like to see. You'd probably be safe asking your boss if you can just "doublecheck that the hierarchy you've set up is consistent with internal guidelines" or something along those lines if you want feedback that you're doing it correctly. (That is, it is one of those things that can vary publisher to publisher, so you won't look incompetent for double-checking this organization's rules.)
posted by occhiblu at 4:22 PM on December 16, 2007

This is a standard convention in publishing. It sounds like you already know what you are doing, though -- when I copyedit and code levels of heads, it's basically just a question of looking at the structure of the text and determining how the headings should fall. I'm not aware of any good professional guides on coding heads; a lot of it is just common sense. In case it's helpful, here is a more detailed explanation of how I determine what level of head to use.

Going through the chapter, I would call the first heading I encounter ("Cookies") an A-head. All of the sections that are part of this broader heading would then be B-heads; in this case, maybe my B-heads are "Snickerdoodles," "Chocolate Chip," and "Oatmeal." The next head in the text is "Cake and Pie." Since this doesn't fall under the previous A-head, I make it its own A-head. Then come "Cake" and "Carrot Cake. "Cake" will be a B-head, since it falls under the A-head "Cake and Pie." "Carrot Cake" is a subset of the B-head, so it will be a C-head.

You can also picture it as an outline:

[A] Cookies
   [B] Snickerdoodles
   [B] Chocolate Chip
   [B] Oatmeal
[A] Cake and Pie
   [B] Cake
      [C] Carrot Cake
   [B] Pie
      [C] Lemon Meringue
posted by Siobhan at 4:35 PM on December 16, 2007

Chicago actually does address this in 1.71-1.79, but my excellent colleagues occhiblu and Siobhan have done a better job of explaining it; I doff my headgear to them.
posted by languagehat at 5:22 PM on December 16, 2007

"Heading notes" explain to a typesetter what level of head each head should be—like what Siobhan says.
posted by cass at 9:15 AM on December 17, 2007