Essential References for Writers and Editors The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers. The bible of book, magazine, and business editors. Get the 15th edition. The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law (used to be the Stylebook and Libel Manual, which looked much more, um, impressive on the bookshelf). Required companion for newspaper and magazine writers and editors. Words Into Type. Prentice Hall has been promising a new edition for the last ten years, but no luck so far. Even though it's outdated (the last edition came out in 1974), this publishing guide is a good backup for Chicago or AP. Barron's Business Guides: Dictionary of Computer and Internet Terms, 7th ed. Finally, a good style guide in this area. And they spell "e-mail" correctly, too. For Everyone Strunk & White's The Elements of Style. Your English teacher was right: Buy this and use it. On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing, by William Zinsser. A good guide to nonfiction, with a focus on clarity. I recommend this book to my students and clients. Woe Is I, by Patricia O'Conner. Professionals, amateurs, people writing grocery lists: everyone should buy this book. A clear, simple guide to good usage that I use almost every day. Great chapter titles ("Comma Sutra, "Plurals Before Swine") are a plus. The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed, by Karen Elizabeth Gordon. Go out and get this book—very funny and very, very useful. Essentials Online The Bay Area Editors' Forum offers job listings, seminars, and the opportunity to connect with people who care about semicolons as much as you do. BAEF has also published a useful list of editing service definitions, which I've adapted here. Craig's List is a local legend. I've found some great clients (and furnished my apartment, and met my husband, and...) via this nonprofit bulletin board/nerve center/experiment in community. The place to start if you're looking for a job in most U.S. cities. Much useful advice and heartening support can be found through Writergrrls, an online discussion group for professional women writers and editors. The focus here is on the business end—writing for a living. Copy Editor: Language News for the Publishing Profession is an interesting (albeit expensive) newsletter on the fine points of copyediting. (Note to purists: Webster's has "copy editor" but "copyedit.")