| The Chicago Manual of Style, now in its 15th | | | | Other media (newspapers, magazines, etc.) use |
| edition, is the style bible for anyone in the book | | | | other style guides, but Chicago is used almost |
| industry who works with the nitty-gritty of the | | | | without exception by book publishers. So if you're |
| words on the page: copy editors, proofreaders, | | | | your own book publisher, you need it. Different |
| indexers, book designers, etc. And it should be a | | | | self-publishing or print-on-demand companies offer |
| part of any author's reference library. | | | | varying degrees of copyediting or design help, but |
| It's not a thin, prettily designed book of common | | | | often you simply set up your book as a PDF file |
| grammar mistakes that's marketed to the | | | | to be printed as is. So why not make it look as |
| average writer. (See Eats, Shoots and Leaves.) | | | | much like a "real" book as possible? |
| It's not a book you'll read cover to cover--it's | | | | Chicago takes you through the whole process: |
| interesting to us word geeks to read sections | | | | writing tips and grammar rules, page design and |
| here and there, but mostly you'll look up grammar | | | | layout (have you ever noticed that new chapters |
| or style issues as they come up. It's a | | | | almost always begin without a paragraph indent?), |
| no-nonsense, no-frills compendium of everything | | | | printing and binding. You can't justify being without |
| under the sun related to putting a book together, | | | | it, so don't even try. And it might even give you |
| from the distinction between "that" and "which" to | | | | a few ideas for book industry jobs to help pay |
| the physical process of typesetting and printing a | | | | the bills: ever thought of taking a class on book |
| book--both of which you should know about, | | | | indexing? |
| whether you're working with a publishing house or | | | | In short, everyone in book publishing uses |
| you're self-publishing. | | | | Chicago, so if you want to know what those |
| In fact, if you're self-publishing, you have no | | | | in-the-know know, you should be familiar with it, |
| excuse for not investing in the Chicago Manual. | | | | too. |