 Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash From a copyeditor’s perspective, a style sheet is essential. It offers a structured way to track and maintain consistency in your writing. From fiction to nonfiction, first draft to series, a style sheet will help you create cohesiveness in your work. It communicates preferences to your editors and ensures your timeline, character and setting descriptions, and word use are consistent throughout your book or series. Style sheets serve as a tool for rooting out errors and improving manuscripts offering uniformity and preserving your vision and voice through the editing process. Not convinced? Join me as we look at five reasons why you need a style sheet for your current or future manuscript. Build Consistency in Your Writing I copyedited two books recently. They were different authors. Different genres. But both books were part of a series. And neither one had a style sheet. I was even told I didn't need to invest time in creating one. This told me that the benefits of a style sheet are largely unknown. In both cases, I created style sheets and compared book one to book two as part of my copyediting process. And in both cases, the style sheet identified inconsistencies that we were able to address. So, let’s start with one of the biggest benefits: consistency.
When writing a book (or even more so with a series), it’s easy to lose track of the small details. Style sheets provide a structured method of tracking these details throughout the book or series. They are an easy reference point for double-checking how an author prefers to emphasize words or how they prefer a specific construction or spelling. They also provide consistent editing from start to finish. Imagine sending your manuscript to a copyeditor only to have all your capitalized deity pronouns changed to lowercase. You receive your manuscript back, capitalize the pronouns, and send it to a proofreader before publishing. When your manuscript comes back, you find that once again all the pronouns have been changed to lowercase constructions. This is a tremendous waste of time and money for you, and this is where a style sheet is invaluable. It communicates your preferences to the editors (one or many) throughout the editing process. This takes us to the next benefit, a streamlined editing process. Get a Streamlined Editing Process Not only does using a style sheet prevent editors from editing out your preferences, it streamlines the entire process. When you provide your editing team with a style sheet, you reduce unnecessary correspondence around preferences and style choices. This makes the editing process faster, reduces ambiguity, and ensures your editors have clear guidelines to use, giving you the best edit for you and your story. It also keeps you from wading through unhelpful feedback and ensures that the edit you receive is most aligned with your vision and voice. Save Time and Money We touched on this point with the first two benefits, but let’s look at this one a little deeper. When you are writing and publishing a book, the value of time cannot be understated. The entire process takes months or sometimes years to complete, but when you finally reach the editing stage, you have a specific publication date in mind. A light at the end of the tunnel. The day your hard work will be shared with the world. To meet that deadline, you need to make the most of the editing process. However, editing isn’t a quick one-stop process. It takes time to edit a book well. And editors are often booked months in advance. This means when they are taking on a new project, one that requires the creation of a style sheet, they may not be able to fit it in quickly. Style sheets are valuable, but they are also labor-intensive. That means editors need to block more time to complete these projects. In contrast, an author who has already created a style sheet will drastically reduce the amount of time that project takes to edit giving you a better chance of meeting your publication date. Not only will having a style sheet expedite the editing process because it doesn’t have to be created, it will expedite the process by serving as a reference for the editor to use quickly without wasting additional time on research or emails. And we all know that time saved = money saved. Enhanced Reader Experience A style sheet is also a great tool for enhancing your readers’ experience. What do I mean by that? Well, readers want to be immersed in the story world you’ve created. They want to be emotionally connected to your characters. And nothing snaps a reader out of the story faster than a glaring inconsistency in plot, tone, character description, or timeline. When you use a style sheet, you reduce the opportunity for inconsistencies and errors. This builds credibility with your readers, enhances your professionalism, and encourages readers to return to you for future books. And this doesn’t only apply to fiction. Readers of nonfiction count on you to inform, encourage, and teach them something specific. When inconsistencies and errors are found during the reading process, aspects of your message can be lost, or readers may walk away from the book completely. Uniformity Across a Book Series For authors writing series, whether fiction or nonfiction, style sheets help build uniformity across multiple books. They provide a guide for future editors and collaborators to use when establishing continuity and smooth transitions. They preserve your voice and tone. And they serve as a sort of history for where your project began. I am a huge advocate for using style sheets with every copyediting and proofreading project, however, they are a must with books in a series. It simply becomes too difficult to keep the details, tone, characters, and timeline accurate without the use of style sheet. Conclusion: Elevating Your Writing with Style Sheets Style sheets require time to create. They are a bit labor-intensive. But the rewards of using a style sheet are so valuable. For professional authors who want to be known for their writing, they are essential. They promote consistency and uniformity, save time, enhance readability, and elevate professionalism. By integrating a style sheet into your workflow, you not only improve the quality of your manuscript but also simplify collaboration with editors and enhance the overall reader experience. Readers will notice your effort. You’ll create professional quality books that can compete effectively in the market. And your readers will want to come back for more. Categories
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About MeNycole Sinks is the owner and editor for Positive Proofing. With a background in business and education, she has a passion for helping authors share their stories with the world. 
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