Books for Writers: "The Chicago Manual of Style"
 by: Lisa Silverman

"The Chicago Manual of Style," now in its 15th edition, is the style bible for anyone in the book industry who works with the nitty-gritty of the words on the page: copy editors, proofreaders, indexers, book designers, etc. And it should be a part of any author's reference library.

It's not a thin, prettily designed book of common grammar mistakes that's marketed to the average writer. (See "Eats, Shoots and Leaves.") It's not a book you'll read cover to cover--it's interesting to us word geeks to read sections here and there, but mostly you'll look up grammar or style issues as they come up. It's a no-nonsense, no-frills compendium of everything under the sun related to putting a book together, from the distinction between “that” and “which” to the physical process of typesetting and printing a book—both of which you should know about, whether you're working with a publishing house or you're self-publishing.

In fact, if you're self-publishing, you have no excuse for not investing in the "Chicago Manual." Other media (newspapers, magazines, etc.) use other style guides, but " Chicago " is used almost without exception by book publishers. So if you're your own book publisher, you need it. Different self-publishing or print-on-demand companies offer varying degrees of copyediting or design help, but often you simply set up your book as a PDF file to be printed as is. So why not make it look as much like a “real” book as possible?

" Chicago " takes you through the whole process: writing tips and grammar rules, page design and layout (have you ever noticed that new chapters almost always begin without a paragraph indent?), printing and binding. You can't justify being without it, so don't even try. And it might even give you a few ideas for book industry jobs to help pay the bills: ever thought of taking a class on book indexing?

In short, everyone in book publishing uses " Chicago ," so if you want to know what those in-the-know know, you should be familiar with it, too.

About the author

Lisa Silverman is a freelance book editor and works in the copyediting department at one of New York's most prestigious literary publishing houses. She has also worked as a ghostwriter and a literary agent representing both book authors and screenwriters. She founded www.BeYourOwnEditor.com in order to provide writers with free advice on both writing and the publishing business.