If you’re looking for a copyeditor for your book, you’re looking for someone to ensure consistency across spelling, grammar, and punctuation throughout your manuscript. Essentially, they’re making sure your style remains consistent. (After all, nothing is worse than noticing that the spelling of a character’s name changes halfway through the novel, or you use “leapt” five times, but “leaped” ten!)
Consistency in these elements is the mark of a professional manuscript. And to do that, your editor might start throwing around terms and questions about “style sheets” and “style guides”—two terms that sound so similar to each other, you might just think, “What’s the difference?”
Well, dear reader, let’s find out!
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We’ll cover—
- What is a style guide?
- What is a style sheet?
- Who creates the style guide and style sheet?
- Who uses the style guide and style sheet?
- Why style sheets and style guides are important
What is a Style Guide?
A style guide is a set of guidelines for spelling, punctuation, grammar, and formatting for a large group of documents and publications in a single category. If that’s a lot to think about, let’s put it this way:
A style guide is the set of “rules” for making elements across documents in a single category consistent. (Those elements being spelling, punctuation, grammar, and formatting.)
We’re all actually very familiar with style guides: In school, you were likely asked to format your essays according to MLA (Modern Language Association) or APA (American Psychological Association), and these style guides indicated that you would double space your papers, use Times New Roman font, size your font to 12pt, and more. APA indicated there would be a title page; MLA asked for a simple header. These guides even had you setting up reference citations in a certain manner, prioritizing different information.
So, with that in mind: Style guides just help us make sure books and documents published within a category contain similar elements and follow similar patterns (including spelling and punctuation choices), which makes those documents appear professional and also helps readers know what to expect when they start reading.
In fiction, the standard style guide is the Chicago Manual of Style, or CMOS. When talking to an editor about your book, this is most likely the style guide they’ll bring up as providing a base set of style guidelines for your novel.
(On the contrary, many sources of journalism use the Associated Press [AP], and other nonfiction publications might vary between Chicago, APA, or MLA guidelines, depending on the subject matter and publisher.)
What is a Style Sheet?
Okay, so if a style guide is a set of “rules” (I say “guidelines”) for a large collection of books and documents in the same category, a style sheet is one step down: It is the set of style guidelines for a specific document or book.
So your book might follow CMOS as its style guide, but there are three reasons for the style sheet:
1) Your book might have elements that the style guide doesn’t have rules for, such as terms that aren’t recognized by the style guide or any established dictionary. Speculative fiction falls heavily into this category, as there tend to be scientific terms that are very niche to the genre, or in fantasy you may be making up their own language and terms. The style sheet are where these spellings would be recorded.
2) Your writing style might be contrary to rules established in the style guide. This is really common in punctuation and spelling as well. For example, the CMOS establishes “all right” over the shortened “alright,” but the latter term is more common and colloquial. Many authors, then, might opt for the more culturally common spelling. Another example is ellipses (…); the CMOS establishes that these should be spaces (. . .) with non-breaking spaces, but many authors prefer the ellipsis character (…) in look as well as ease in formatting.
3) The style sheet will record descriptions of characters, a timeline of events in your novel, and other relevant information. That’s right! Most style sheets, in addition to recording rules of spelling, grammar, and punctuation, will also include descriptions of your characters (hair color, eye color, unique scars or tattoos, etc.), important information about places, and also a chronological timeline of events in your novel.
(I know, the non-spaced ellipsis […] and the character version […] might look the same, but there are slight differences in look as well as formatting ease, especially when an ellipsis might break across lines.)
So, where the style guide is the overarching set of guidelines for the novel based on other publications in the same category, the style sheet is where that set of guidelines can be customized to your novel.
Want to learn more about the specific elements and rules that should be included in a style sheet? Check out my post, How to Create a Style Sheet for Your Novel, which includes a downloadable template to get you started.
Who Creates the Style Guide and Style Sheet?
The style guide is created by a whole team of experts behind the style guide’s publication. This means that the CMOS, as well as other style guides like MLA and APA and AP, all have teams whose only job is to keep these guidelines updated. (Note: These guidelines all go back centuries, so they’re not anything new to the present!)
However, style sheets are where you, the author, have the most control. In most cases, the copyeditor will create your style sheet while working on copyedits. Some authors will come to the editing project with a style sheet already started (such as with spelling terms that are unique to the world of their novel), but it’s not required: The copyeditor may simply make regular inquiries about spelling, punctuation, and grammar choices as they go through your novel. This way, they can ensure that the style choices align with your preferences.
In some cases, the copyeditor might not make a query and would simply make a decision based on the consistency of usage within the novel. For example, if I notice a client uses “alright” 90 percent of the time, but slipped into “all right” the other 10 percent, I might simplify things by simply making “alright” the established guideline, and leave a comment in the manuscript letting the author know of this decision.
Who Uses the Style Guide and Style Sheet?
Aside from the author (and I do recommend the author be familiar with these terms), these resources are used primarily by the copyeditor and proofreader. Where the copy editor creates the style sheet, they will utilize the style guide as a place to start. When turning your manuscript over to the proofreader, you should always include the style sheet as well, so they can ensure consistency of elements against already established rules.
Since developmental editors are working with the big picture elements (plot, character, pacing, etc.), the style elements are the last thing on their minds, since we want to make sure the content is established and certain before diving into the word level of the manuscript. Similarly, while the line editor should be aware of and using the style guide for tonal elements and sentence pacing, their concerns are with paragraph- and sentence-level construction. Style sheets are for when these larger elements of your novel are complete and “locked in.”
For more information, see this post on understanding What Type of Editing is Right for You? With the knowledge of what style guides and style sheets are, the difference and usage of these tools will be easy to see.
Why Style Sheets and Style Guides are Important
The copyediting and proofreading stages of book editing are important because they are where grammar, spelling, and punctuation of the manuscript are looked over with a fine-toothed comb. While each of these parts of editing have different jobs and functions (I cover the difference in What’s the Difference Between Copy Editing and Proofreading?), they both rely on an established set of style rules in order to be effective.
The style sheet and style guide are important simply because they help the editors and author of a project communicate about the expectations of style. The style guide helps a novel fit into a long tradition of style expectations within the genre, and the style sheet is where the author’s unique voice and style take center stage. Since manuscripts swap hands so many times, these tools are essential for keeping everyone organized, and making sure the editing process is a breeze.
Rachel Oestreich is a freelance editor and writing coach specializing in science fiction and fantasy, working with independent authors, small presses, and publishers like Orbit/Redhook, Sourcebooks, and Haymarket Books.
She holds an MFA in fiction writing and serves as an adjunct English instructor at her local university and community college, teaching courses on rhetoric, composition, creative writing, and fairy tales. When not working, she writes, reads, crochets, drinks tea, and manages her two cats and a basset hound named Grimm.
You can find her on Twitter @rae_oestreich, Instagram @racheloestreich, and her website, The Wallflower Editing.
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