Do you need a style guide but can’t afford the Chicago Manual of Style and/or The Associated Press Stylebook? This handy soft-cover manual is a great substitute, and it’s much cheaper than Chicago and more comprehensive for the Christian writer than AP. In fact, I think every writer for the Christian market should own a copy.  The full title is The Christian Writer’s Manual of Style: Updated and Expanded Edition (2004), and the author is Robert Hudson.

The manual contains a myriad of spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and usage guidelines in a convenient alphabetical format. Specific to the Christian market are the portions dealing with style issues unique to Christian publications, like Is it Psalms 95 or Psalm 95? Is “biblical” supposed to be capitalized? ? Do you capitalize pronouns like “he” and “his” when they refer to God or Jesus? It’s amazing how much information is included in this book. For a preview, go to the listing on Amazon and take a look at the Table of Contents using Amazon’s “See Inside” feature.

Published writers know that, these days, editors have little time for repairing manuscripts with grammar and usage errors. If you’re an unpublished writer, you may think it’s the editor’s job to clean up your manuscript. However, it’s just not that way any more. Your chances of getting published are much better if you submit manuscripts that are free of errors in grammar and style. And, it’s a big mistake to think, because you made good grades in English in school, that you don’t have anything to learn about grammar and style. Published or unpublished writers, this book will help you present a quality product in a crowded market.