wanted: title inter-item spacing tips/suggestions

[Kieren MacMillan]

[Lilypond 2.13.17]

Hi all,

I'm trying to get a good bookTitleMarkup and scoreTItleMarkup setup...

Basically, all is well. But it's a pain to set/tweak the inter-item spacing -- 
for example, between a dedication and title -- because of [at least] the 
following issues:

    1. \override #'(baseline-skip . X) requires nested columns for complete 
control, and depends on the fontsize (i.e., it's not a consistent "leading" 
value); and
    2. \vspace has some sort of "strut" in it (so \vspace #0 is not zero 
vertical space), and does not accept negative values.

Any tips/suggestions on best practice(s) would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Kieren.