Why I create a proofreading style sheet for authors

A style sheet is one of my best friends when I'm proofreading.

When a client hands over a style sheet that a copy-editor has created during their stage of the editorial process, I know that my head-scratching time as a proofreader will be minimized.

​If the editor has done their job, the style sheet will tell me everything I need to know about the decisions that have already been made.
 
When I'm working with independent, self-publishing authors, I ALWAYS create my own style sheet.

Proofreading for independent, self-publishing authors
To date, I've never received a style sheet from a self-publisher. I suspect this is for one of several reasons:

• I am the first editorial professional who has worked on the project since the writing was completed. The author hasn't created their own style sheet.
• A copy-editor has worked on the project prior to it landing on my desk, but they haven’t created a style sheet. Or, if they have, they haven’t given it to the author.
• The author has received a style sheet from the editor, but didn't realize that it would be valuable to me.

In any case, I always like to create one of these for my customers. Why? Because it helps me and it helps them.

Why create a style sheet?
Professionalism: I make a promise to my independent author clients that I’ll professionalize their work to publishing industry-recognized standards. However, I can’t assume that my clients know what these are – after all, it’s not their job to know. Some of my clients write full time but most have day jobs; many are producing their first books so the world of publishing is new to them. They need to be able to rely on the editorial professionals with whom they are working to amend their writing in a way that does no harm and that can be defended by reference to understood and industry-recognized conventions.

The bigger picture: Even if the author worked with a copy-editor before the proofreading stage, a proofreader’s style sheet shows that I am still looking at the bigger picture – making decisions based on publishing standards, or author choice, or consistency, or for ease of readability. It's not just about finding spelling errors – it’s about providing a professional service that acknowledges that the client is publishing a book, and that their book should look professional.

Clients appreciate them: I've had positive feedback from indie authors about my style sheets. Clients have told me that the style sheet helped them to understand why I've amended as I have; that it acted as a reminder of the decisions they can implement in future projects at the self-editing stage; and that it's a useful template for recording their own style preferences.

At-a-glance: The style sheet provides the author with an at-a-glance summary of what I've done and why I've done it. This provides clarity as well as an understanding of the proofreading process.

Appropriate focus: A style sheet allows the author to focus on what they’re good at – the writing – and me to focus on what I’m good at – the proofreading.

Tracking: Style sheets help me to keep track of decisions and spot any problems. I may be the first person to work on the project – proofreading for indie authors can turn into more than a prepublication check, and the boundary between copy-editing and proofreading can blur. And, even if the text appears to be in great shape (in terms of spelling, punctuation, and grammar), there may still be logic flaws that everyone else missed.

Laying things out in our own way: We all design our style sheets in ways that make sense to us – so even if I'm using a copy-editor’s as the foundation, creating my own (and embedding my colleague’s decisions into it) sharpens my senses and enables me to lay out the decisions in a way that makes the best sense to me.

Reducing queries: The style sheet shows my author why I've made certain decisions. I can validate my amendments by citing the resources I've used. Authors won’t ask themselves, or me, why I removed the quotation marks around the name of a pub, or why I changed a set of nested single quotation marks into doubles – I've already told them.
 
What is a style sheet?
Those new to proofreading, or who are considering whether it is a viable career choice, may not be familiar with what goes into a style sheet. And if you’re an author, you might not be either.
 
Broadly speaking, a style sheet is a record of preferences – the author’s or their publisher’s; a style manual's; or some other agency's. In many cases, authors are happy for me to make the decisions based on my publishing knowledge and my use of recognized style manuals (e.g. New Hart's Rules and The Chicago Manual of Style).
 
Ultimately, style sheets aren’t about rules but rather about tracking choices for the purposes of consistency and professionalism. They enable the editorial professional to keep track of decisions about spelling, punctuation, grammar, text layout, idiom usage, and (in the case of fiction) characters’ key features.
 
Tracking these elements helps the proofreader to minimize inconsistency, spot flaws and attend to problems with regard to how the words in the book actually work on the page.
 
What might a style sheet look like?
You can see a sample of a style sheet by visiting my dedicated Self-publishers page. Scroll down to the heading “Want to see a style sheet?”.

And if you’re a new proofreader or writer and you’d like a Word template for your individual use, feel free to download my sample style sheet. You can tweak it so that it meets your own needs. (I'm happy for this sample to be shared, too, as long as the appropriate url-linked attribution is given).

My style sheets can be fairly comprehensive, so I include embedded links to enable the author to move between the various elements (language preferences, formatting and layout decisions, main character names and key features, reference sources, and spelling preferences) with ease.

Resources

• Guidelines for New Authors (Louise Harnby | Proofreader)
• “Manuscript Management Tools for Fiction Authors (and Editors)” (Mary McCauley, 2014, Letters from an Irish Editor)
• Self-publishers: information page (Louise Harnby | Proofreader)
• Style sheet examples (academic, medical and fiction) (Katharine O’Moore-Klopf, KOK Edit)
• “Style Sheets—The Setup and the Benefits” (Beth Hill, 2012, The Editor’s Blog)

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Louise Harnby is a professional fiction proofreader and copyeditor. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

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