Manuals (see also Proofreading basics; Copy-editing basics; Grammar and style)
Click a title for pricing, discount offers, reviews and availability. Use your browser's back button to return. If you have a suggestion for this category, please use the 'add a title' link at the foot of the page. Synopses are from the amazon.co.uk bookshop.
Basic Editing: A Practical Approach (Nicola Harris)
Synopsis
Now sadly out of print, but superseded by the equally useful Copy-editing: With Exercises and Model Answers by Barbara Horn (see below).
The Chicago Manual of Style (American English style guide)
Synopsis
Provides information on manuscript preparation for the American market, including punctuation,
spelling, quotations, captions, tables, abbreviations, references,
bibliographies, notes, and indexes.

Copy-editing
Synopsis
Since its first publication in 1975, Judith Butcher's Copy-editing has become firmly established as a classic reference guide. This fourth edition has been comprehensively revised to provide an up-to-date and clearly presented source of information for all those involved in preparing typescripts and illustrations for publication. From the basics of how to prepare text and illustrations for the designer and typesetter, through the ground rules of house style, to how to read and correct proofs, Copy-editing covers all aspects of the editorial process. New and revised features: – up-to-date advice on indexes, inclusive language, reference systems and preliminary pages – a chapter devoted to on-screen copy-editing – guidance on digital coding and publishing in other media such as e-books – updated to take account of modern typesetting and printing technology – an expanded section on law books – an essential tool for new and experienced copy-editors, working freelance or in-house.
Copy-editing: With Exercises and Model Answers (Barbara Horn)
Synopsis
A worthy successor to Nicols Harris's Basic Editing, this volume provides the framework for the Publishing Training Centre's excellent distance-learning course and would be my first choice as a means of self-tuition.
Synopsis
This book confronts all the major problems that copy-editors face, including such diverse aspects as word transposition, what to do with artwork and how to handle permissions. It isn't enough to know that you must use correct grammar, or substitute sparkling words for dull ones - you have to know how to deal physically with the manuscript. This book tells how this is done, from the publisher's point of view. The book can be used as a learning tool, a supplement to a style manual or as a reference for experienced copyeditors. In addition, authors can use it to edit their material, university students can use it to polish their theses and all others with the urge to write can use it to improve their work. Not to be confused with the previous entry.
Freelance
Proofreading and Copy-editing - A Guide Add
a title to this category here Please
report broken links here
Copyediting & Proofreading For Dummies® (For Dummies)
Synopsis
This entry-level sourcebook is aimed at those without experience in either the
freelance field or the publishing industry. It contains an overview of the
publishing process and the freelance's role within it; basic proofreading and
copy-editing techniques; where and how to find work and training; and a series
of instructional exercises which are both evaluative and educational.
Purchasers are also granted access to information updates at the author's
website.