BEST BOOKS

The Oxford Writers Dictionary is recommended but it can be difficult to find. Personally, I prefer to visit Waterstones or Borders bookshops and have a browse round, pause for a Starbucks.  

If you have requested for the Special Report, UK or US versions, you will find relevant books mentioned there, for example the famous Chicago Manual of Style (US version). 
  
 
 

Review 

I keep my copy of "The Chicago Manual of Style" with me constantly. I find myself opening it and reading a section whenever I have a free moment. I've learned more from this book in two weeks than in the years before buying it. 

One of the most useful books in the UK is the Writers' & Artists' Yearbook: 

  
Review 

Amazon.co.uk Review 
Now in its 96th year, Writers and Artists Yearbook is a trustworthy old friend to anyone trying to sell creative work commercially and needing a one-volume all-purpose reference book. It may not be quite as up to date (several of the newspaper section editors named are no longer current) as younger rival The Writer's Handbook but it's much fuller because it serves professional and amateur artists, designers, illustrators and photographers as well as writers. 

The magazine listing is impressive because it includes so many trade, membership, in-house and limited issue titles alongside the news-stand ones. Another strength is the number of publishers listed both in the UK and elsewhere. The directories of Societies, Associations and Clubs, Prizes and Awards and Festivals are eclectic too. If you want to contact the Scattered Authors Society, The Caine Prize for African Writing or the Manchester Poetry Festival then all the details are here. 
 

Synopsis 
This resource includes up-to-date listings of all media markets, including artists, illustrators and designers. For writers, it covers more listings of national newspapers/magazines, more Websites, and practical information on writing for newspapers and magazines. Also included is advice on marketing your book, how to get an agent and how to submit a typescript. For the artist, topics include freelancing, picture research, market for greeting cards and cartoons, illustration for the children's book market, artists' agents, and Websites for artists.  

For the freelance proofreader and/or copyeditor, it has hundreds of contact details for UK/US publishers (and other countries in the world). 
 

Review 

For those familiar with the first edition of 1981, this second edition will come as something of a shock. No longer is the book the size to slip into a pocket, or perch on that rare space on your desk. The pages are now three times bigger, but what has been lost in convenience has been balanced by greater coverage and easier use, so that someone wanting to check the spelling of blameable now gets an entry reading "blameable not blamable (US)", rather than an instruction to "see -able". The Oxford University Press way, given here, is not the only way of doing things. Other publishers have other preferences, particularly for such things as spellings in -ise or -ize, but what this book will give you is a guide to a set of rules on when to hyphenate or combine words (use "blacklist" for the noun, not "black list" as recommended in the first edition); on doubtful or variable spellings ("gettable" not "getable"); the punctuation of abbreviations; dates and spellings of proper names, and all those other little things that are so difficult to be consistent about when writing. It is also an invaluable guide to words that are often confused such as biannual "twice every year, every six months" and biennial "every two years". This edition also keeps its charm for the browser, and is full of surprising, editor-confusing terms such as Aelia Laelia "an insoluble riddle" and pickelhaube "a German spiked infantry helmet". --Julia Cresswell  
 

Review 

Since first published in 1975, Judith Butcher's Copy-Editing has become firmly established as a classic reference guide. This new edition has been revised and redesigned to provide an up-to-date and clearly presented source of information for editors and for all those involved in the process of preparing typescripts and illustrations for printing and publication. The copyeditor is shown as an essential link between the authors and those who work on the actual production of the publication. The copyeditor ensures that the material is well organized, consistent and properly presented and helps remove any features that might cause unnecessary difficulty, expense or delay. From the basics of how to mark a typescript for the designer and the typesetter, through the ground rules of house style and consistency, to how to read and correct proofs, Copy-Editing covers all aspects of the editorial processes involved in converting author's typescript to printed page. 
Cambridge University Press; ISBN: 0521400740 
 
 
Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers  
at the University Press, Oxford,  
Horace Hart.  
Price around $19,  
hardcover, 39th edn,  
182pp.  
ISBN: 019212983X. 
 
                               
NB: You can complete the Freelancers course without any books as the course material contains all the information you need. 

Later, it's a good idea to equip yourself with just one or two reference books.