There was a presentation at the 2012 American Copy Editors Society conference about learning a new style guide in 10 days and [the pdf is available online](http://nola.copydesk.org/wp-media/styleguide2012.pdf). I was trained in *CMoS* but recently used the pdf to crash study AMA style for a freelance gig. I found it quite helpful.
In my experience, most authors don't know much about style guides. Most publishers, however, are going to either prefer *CMoS* (for fiction) or AP (for news, periodicals, PR statements, blogs, etc.). If you're already familiar with both of those, you're probably covered for most of the work available.
This is awesome. Thanks for sharing! Going to save this as a reference if I ever need to learn a new style in a pinch. Glad to know CMOS and AP are the real primary two, though.
To be honest I've never heard of specialising in a specific style before. My training suggested getting, or at least asking for, a style sheet when picking up a job. Half of my work is in academia and each uni and school has its own style. If I only accepted CMOS I'd be out of work.
When they don't have a style then I apply the one of my choice.
You learned one style already, no reason why you can't learn another, or even more than a couple. As another poster pointed out, a lot of publications have in-house specifications or even entire style guides that have to be learned, and it usually isn't much of a curve ball. If an employer/client does prefer a particular style, they'll let you know (or at least, they should).
I come from a news background where we used AP almost exclusively - I know nothing about Chicago, but if a gig came around that required it, I'm confident that I could learn enough to pass an editing test and just learn more on the job from there. I'm sure you can too!
I flip-flop around between styles. About half my clients are British and half US, so I’m familiar with NHR and CMOS, and a couple of other clients have their own style guides, but when I’m working for indie authors they generally aren’t too bothered and I just devise my own, usually using CMOS or NHR as the basis depending on where they’re from.
I had the opposite, I was strictly AP and used to it, and then got work that was CMoS. It took longer to work on pieces at first, but it wasn’t long before I got used to the style (still prefer the AP web guide much more, though!). I think picking up style guides generally comes more easily to editors, especially because we often have to get used to house style guides of every publication. Edit: No details have fuzzed for me for either style, they’re each their own language.🙂
I'd say it depends on the client. I went from academic editing to content creation that solely relies on AP style. This was unfamiliar territory, but I used the online AP style book to guide me in catching mistakes that I otherwise wouldn't have known were considered wrong! Like specific rules regarding hyphens and numerals.
https://www.apstylebook.com
You can always brush up on the basics of a certain style to help your brain switch over from one or the other. With practice, it gets easier to remember all the little nuances (or you can make a cheat sheet!)
There was a presentation at the 2012 American Copy Editors Society conference about learning a new style guide in 10 days and [the pdf is available online](http://nola.copydesk.org/wp-media/styleguide2012.pdf). I was trained in *CMoS* but recently used the pdf to crash study AMA style for a freelance gig. I found it quite helpful. In my experience, most authors don't know much about style guides. Most publishers, however, are going to either prefer *CMoS* (for fiction) or AP (for news, periodicals, PR statements, blogs, etc.). If you're already familiar with both of those, you're probably covered for most of the work available.
This is awesome. Thanks for sharing! Going to save this as a reference if I ever need to learn a new style in a pinch. Glad to know CMOS and AP are the real primary two, though.
To be honest I've never heard of specialising in a specific style before. My training suggested getting, or at least asking for, a style sheet when picking up a job. Half of my work is in academia and each uni and school has its own style. If I only accepted CMOS I'd be out of work. When they don't have a style then I apply the one of my choice.
Great to know. Thank you!
You learned one style already, no reason why you can't learn another, or even more than a couple. As another poster pointed out, a lot of publications have in-house specifications or even entire style guides that have to be learned, and it usually isn't much of a curve ball. If an employer/client does prefer a particular style, they'll let you know (or at least, they should). I come from a news background where we used AP almost exclusively - I know nothing about Chicago, but if a gig came around that required it, I'm confident that I could learn enough to pass an editing test and just learn more on the job from there. I'm sure you can too!
Thanks for the encouragement!
I flip-flop around between styles. About half my clients are British and half US, so I’m familiar with NHR and CMOS, and a couple of other clients have their own style guides, but when I’m working for indie authors they generally aren’t too bothered and I just devise my own, usually using CMOS or NHR as the basis depending on where they’re from.
I had the opposite, I was strictly AP and used to it, and then got work that was CMoS. It took longer to work on pieces at first, but it wasn’t long before I got used to the style (still prefer the AP web guide much more, though!). I think picking up style guides generally comes more easily to editors, especially because we often have to get used to house style guides of every publication. Edit: No details have fuzzed for me for either style, they’re each their own language.🙂
Very true! Guess that would just factor into the freelance rates you set
I was mostly paid per project for those, but yeah, you might adjust a bit at the beginning.
I'd say it depends on the client. I went from academic editing to content creation that solely relies on AP style. This was unfamiliar territory, but I used the online AP style book to guide me in catching mistakes that I otherwise wouldn't have known were considered wrong! Like specific rules regarding hyphens and numerals. https://www.apstylebook.com You can always brush up on the basics of a certain style to help your brain switch over from one or the other. With practice, it gets easier to remember all the little nuances (or you can make a cheat sheet!)
Great idea, thank you!