What Is a Style Sheet?

Style sheets are comprehensive guides that help an editor track the writer’s choices and ensure consistency throughout a novel or series. It tracks virtually every major element in the manuscript to ensure standardization, professionalism, and alignment with industry standards.

What Is a Style Sheet?

In this document, editors make notes regarding the author’s choices in terms of grammar, punctuation, spelling, and formatting. This also extends to characters and their key features, geographical locations, world-building rules, and magic systems, if applicable.

If you’d like to get a sense of what a style sheet looks like, click here for more information and free downloadables. You can also use these to self-edit, though it’s important to note that doing so will not replace the need for professional editing services.

Why It Matters

A style sheet helps the editor track everything to ensure a precise edit, and it helps the writer understand the editor’s suggestions and the rationale behind them. This kind of insight and transparent approach is super helpful for both parties.

It can be particularly helpful in regard to future revisions or collaborating with multiple editors. It also makes future editing processes smoother and reduces the need for back-and-forth discussions over minor issues.

Editors also use a style guide like The Chicago Manual of Style, which differs from a style sheet. A style guide is an established reference manual with a set of rules, while a style sheet is a personalized document the editor creates for a specific manuscript. It tracks choices that are either outside or flexible within the guide—or that are author-specific.

At the end of the day, it’s about your voice and your vision for your project. A style sheet helps your editor adhere to that and ensure they do so consistently throughout.

Typically speaking, line editors, copy editors, and proofreaders make style sheets. If your line editor makes a style sheet, your copy editor will refer to that in order to make their changes; they’ll either extend upon that or create a new one with this information.

Developmental editors do more tracking behind the scenes, and what you receive will be more in the form of an edited manuscript and letter.

Let me know if you have any questions about what a style sheet entails, and thanks for stopping by.