The Editor's Bookshelf

Microsoft Word guides

  • Effective Onscreen Editing: New Tools for an Old Profession by Geoff Hart
  • Making Word Work for You: An Editor's Intro to the Tools of the Trade by Hilary Powers and the Editorial Freelancers Association
  • Microsoft Office Word 2007 Step-by-Step published by Microsoft Press
  • Microsoft Word 2003 Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks by Jinger Simon
  • Microsoft Word for Windows 2003 by Maria Langer

Copyediting guides

  • A Dictionary of Modern English Usage by H.W. Fowler
  • Copyediting & Proofreading For Dummies
  • Copyediting newsletter
  • Editors on Editing, edited by Gerald Gross
  • Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
  • Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tricks for Better Writing by Mignon Fogarty
  • Substance & Style: Instruction and Practice in Copyediting by Mary Stoughton
  • The Associated Press Guide to News Writing: The Resource for Professional Journalists by Rene J. Cappon
  • The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law published by Associated Press (new edition published July 2007)
  • The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition (now available on CD-ROM)
  • The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS): The Easy Way! by Peggy M. Houghton (Author), Timothy J. Houghton (Author), Michele M. Pratt (Editor)
  • The Copyeditor's Handbook by Amy Einsohn
  • The Elements of Editing: A Modern Guide for Editors and Journalists by Arthur Plotnik
  • The Elements of Style by Willliam Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
  • The Forest for the Trees by Betsy Lerner
  • The Gregg Reference Manual, 9th Edition by William A. Sabin
  • The Subversive Copy Editor: Advice from Chicago by Carol Fisher Saller
  • Words Into Type, 3rd Edition published by Prentice Hall
  • Write Right! by Jan Venolia
  • Your Own Words by Barbara Wallraff

 Writing for the Web


  • Content Critical by Gerry McGovern and Rob Norton
  • Designing Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen
  • Developing Online Content by Irene Hammerich and Claire Harrison
  • Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug
  • Forms that Work: Designing Web Forms for Usability (Interactive Technologies) by Caroline Jarrett and Gerry Gaffney
  • Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content That Works by Janice (Ginny) Redish
  • The Web Content Style Guide by Gerry McGovern, Rob Norton and Catherin O'Dow
  • The Web Writer's Guide: Tips and Tools by Darlene Maciuba-Koppe
  • Wired Style: Principles of English Usage in the Digital Age by Constance Hale and Jessie Scanlon
  • Writing for the Web, 4th Ed. by Crawford Kilian

 Reference

  • Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory published by Penguin
  • English: history, diversity and change by David Graddol, Dick Leith and Joan Swann
  • High Definition: An A to Z Guide to Personal Technology by the editors of American Heritage Dictionaries
  • HTML for the World Wide Web, 4th Edition by Elizabeth Castro
  • HTML in 10 Simple Steps or Less by Robert Fuller
  • Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition
  • The McGraw-Hill Desk Reference for Editors, Writers, and Proofreaders(with CD-ROM)

Career guides

  • The Anti 9-to-5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube by Michelle Goodman
  • My So-Called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative Professional for Hire by Michelle Goodman
  • The Boss of You: Everything A Woman Needs to Know to Start, Run, and Maintain Her Own Business
    by Emira Mears and Lauren Bacon

Miscellaneous

  • The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture by John Battelle
  • The Mac Is Not a Typewriter by Robin Williams


Suggest a book for this list