Publishers BAN Exclamation Marks?!?

Anyone who has corresponded with me personally knows that I do love my exclamation marks! But a fellow writer has told me she's heard of a publisher that limits authors to one lonely exclamation mark per BOOK! That's just nuts!!

Okay, so I get that publishers don't want us to get carried away in print. They may even want us to express our emotions with words rather than punctuation. But honestly, the exclamation mark is as valid a punctuation mark as commas and periods and I don't see publishers clamping down on those puppies! In fact, if you have a tendency to run-on in your sentences your editor may even suggest that you apply a few more commas and periods. Perhaps even a semi-colon!

But the lonely exclamation mark sits like the wallflower of grammar, unwanted and discouraged despite its effervescent enthusiasm for expression...

Despite my better nature, I will continue in my efforts to tamp down my exclamatory inclinations. I appreciate that it's overuse lessons its effect so I will pull as many as possible, sending them whooping and hollering back to whatever spot in my brain the over-animated writer in me resides. I miss them already, poor little things. But really, I can't promise to hold it down to just one. (!!!)

**exclamation point courtesy of www.theinkprosblog.com