Style Sheets and Style Manuals

Style sheets are sometimes confused with style manuals. Both play important roles in the book industry. Style manuals are the giant documents that communicate specific preferences for how grammar, punctuation, references, format, and other aspects of a written document are handled. Most novels and nonfiction will follow The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) if they are being published or marketed in the US as it focuses on American English. The current edition (eighteen) came o

If you’re writing a novel, you’re probably already keeping lists of your characters. Their physical descriptions, personality traits, and maybe even their accent or speaking style could be on it. A style sheet can contain these details and more. It is usually the job of the copy editor to create the style sheet. Not all copy editing assignments will require them, and not all copy editors create them. But for a book-length manuscript, most do. Those that don’t probably should.

No, style sheets are not required. As an independent author, you have the freedom to steer your writing and publishing in the direction you want and you have the freedom to cut corners! Will this impact the quality of the final product? It is likely. It means the memories of the editors and proofreaders need to be relied upon more. It also can set up the awkward situation of a proofreader “correcting” words and style that were the author’s choice. In a complex or unusual manu