Q. I am copyediting a website that includes testimonials from authors of various books. If this were a print publication, there would be no question that the book titles would be italicized. However, since it is a website, are the rules different? The Yahoo! Style Guide, which deals specifically with digital content, recommends enclosing book titles in double quotation marks. Several other style guides I have come across recommend using italics. I am the person expected to create the style guide for the organization. What do you say?
A. Putting book titles in italics in running text is a strong convention, and italics should not be a problem on a website. In display headings, however, it’s common to see various styles. At our own site, for example, you can see book titles in bold, in roman caps/lowercase, and in italics, depending on context.