There is only One Rule to copyediting. However, there are more than two dozen tasks set forth on the Checklist herein to implement the One Rule.
This book was written for the hands-on author who either does it all or knows how to do it all--the research, the typing, finding or creating the cover, preparing front and back matter, jacket blurbs, etc.
I began my copyediting career in 2007 freelancing for one of the well-known traditional publishing houses in New York City and have loved copyediting the eighty-nine manuscripts to date. My tools of the trade are Webster’s 11th Edition, Chicago Manual of Style 15th Edition—although the 16th Edition is now out--plus the in-house rules for that particular house which overrule both.
Although the CMS15 contains 801 pages of actual rules, the first 471 pages deal with novelists. Read them along with A Copyediting Checklist for Novelists.
