So you’ve written your book, and now you finally get to use that perfect title that’s been rolling around in your head for so long. You start to type and that’s when you realize. But wait... aren't titles capitalized? Is it all of the words? If you aren’t sure how to do it, here’s the quick and easy way to get on track with title case.
Title case uses initial capitalization for the words that are capitalized. (That’s when the first letter of a word is capitalized.)
· Always initial capitalize the first word of the title, no matter what type of word it is.
· Capitalize all “important words” (nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs).
· Capitalize prepositions of five or more letters (e.g., about, without, throughout).
· Capitalize the word “than” when it acts as a conjunction, but not when it acts as a preposition.
· Don’t capitalize articles (the, a, an), short prepositions (e.g., in, on, of, at), or conjunctions (e.g., and, but, or).
· Capitalize the last word of the title, no matter what type of word it is.
· Remember to follow initial capitalization rules for subtitles, too.
There are more details about specifics like what to do about colons, or hyphenated words. Consult your favorite grammar source, or as your editor, I am happy to handle any instances not covered by these quick tips.