One of the least talked about aspects of book writing and self publishing, especially in the Age of AI, is the quality of what you have written, not just the words – which of course, are really important – but the quality and consistency of your spelling, punctuation and grammar. If you want your book to make an impact, drive discussion and debate, build your reputation, you need to be prepared to get into the detail of your writing. And this is where a Writing Style Guide is going to help you and make a significant difference.
Just what is a Writing Style Guide?
A Writing Style Guide is not someone that helps you go through your wardrobe to give you an ‘Author style’ fashion make-over.
A Writing Style Guide is a written document that is a reference point for you, your proofreader and others to follow when deciding what spelling, punctuation and grammar conventions you choose to use in your book.
Creating your own Writing Style Guide is important as high-quality writing is in short supply these days and to cut through in any meaningful way your book has to stand up to scrutiny and stand out from AI Slop.
Creating and applying a Writing Style Guide will also save you time and money. If you have this in place before you start writing you can apply it from the beginning rather than having to back track through your whole manuscript and fix it up. The more consistent your writing is the less time it will take a proofreader to check and fix it… and this will save you money.
The top 7 Writing Style Guide decisions you need to make BEFORE you start writing.
1. Dictionary choice
What dictionary are you using as your primary reference source?
US – Merrian-Webster; UK – Oxford English; Australia – Macquarie
The dictionary you choose has a big impact on how you spell words. For example, US spelling uses ‘z’ instead of ‘s’ in many words, leaves out the ‘u’ in some words and uses ‘er’ for the end of French derived words (think center, theater, meter) – Australian English uses ‘re’ for centre, theatre and metre.
The battle over the spelling of program has largely been won by ‘program’, consigning ‘programme’ to the edges of the written word.
There are also different words for the same thing. Again, let’s use the US/Australian example
US: gas, Australia: petrol
US: lorry, Australia: truck
US: Garbage, Australia: rubbish
US: Apartment, Australia: flat (although this is changing)
And then there are slang words and colloquial phrases that are specific to a country. These are generally not appropriate for business, leadership, political books but if you’re quoting someone they may well use these, so you need to think about how you write them.
2. Capitalisation
Another important area to be clear about is what you capitalise and what you don’t. Some people prefer to use capitals for the titles of people, departments, processes… everything.
Then there is the issue of company names, brand names, product names. Many now have lower case letters where they should technically be caps, or the opposite. A spell checker won’t pick many these up, so you’d better pay attention.
Personally, I don’t like capitalisation. I’m a lower case girl.
3. Specific symbols
There are so many to choose from so let’s take the ones I come across regularly.
% – do you use the symbol (%) or do you spell it out (per cent), and if you spell it out do you have a space or not: per cent OR percent?
& – when should you use this or not instead of ‘and’,
! – the exclamation mark. I have a simple rule for the use of this, don’t. I subscribed to the approach of Elmore Leonard: “You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.”
– the ’em dash’. The now tell-tale sign that something has been concocted by AI. Most people would not know what an ’em dash’ is other than for AI slop. For me, the occasional em dash is just fine, but you need to either understand the difference between hyphens and dashes and dashes or pay a proofreader to do this for you.
4. Quote marks
Do you double quote marks like this “ “ or single ones like this ‘ ‘, or a mixture? American Style: Double quotes are the standard for direct dialogue. Single quotes are used for a quote within a quote
British & Australian Style: Single quotes are traditionally preferred for primary quotes. Double quotes are used for quotes nested inside. In other words, the exact opposite of the US. No wonder it gets confusing.
5. Dates
There are various styles you can choose from, look at these four examples
16 June 2026
16th June 2026
June 16, 2026
June 16th, 2026
My preference is the first one as it is the simplest.
6. The titles for people
Here I am referring to using Dr, Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms or other.
Again, it depends on the dictionary you choose and your preference.
American English puts a period (full stop) after the title: Dr. Mr. Mrs. Miss.
Australian English doesn’t put a period after the title.
Technically Miss is not an abbreviation so doesn’t need a period.
And then you have to be aware of the preference of the person you are writing about. They might not want any title. I don’t and never have, I am simply Jaqui Lane.
7. Numbering
The standard rule is that numbers up to ten are written out in full and then after ten the numeric form is used. BUT, some people don’t like this and use numbers for all numbering.
What writing style should you use?
It’s really up to you. I advise our clients to think about their primary target audiences, where they are based and what, if any, is the most common usage in their industry. The main thing is to be consistent across everything you write. Most draft manuscripts I see use a mixture, which means some rather boring work ahead for the writer to go and fix it. Of course, you can outsource this to your proofreader, it will just cost a bit more money.
And, be very, very careful about AI spelling and grammar checkers. Check what dictionary they use and if you can change it. Once you have run your manuscript through it, check it yourself. They are not perfect and often change the meaning of phrases and words incorrectly. Yes, it’s a bit tedious to have to go through your manuscript yet again, but it’s essential if you want your book to be the best it can be.
Similarly, if you copy and paste from AI make sure you apply your Style Guide to what you use… but not to direct quotes. Direct quotes should always stay in the ‘dictionary style’ of the author.
High quality writing includes accurate spelling, punctuation and grammar. It shows your reader that you respect their time, care about what you have written and published and, more and more, that it was written by a human.
If you need some advice on what style guide to use and how to use it contact me.
And, I’d really like to hear about your pet word/style/grammar dislike.
