What a style sheet is
A style sheet is a document that tracks every idiosyncratic spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, and usage decision in your book. It is not a style guide in the general sense. It is specific to your manuscript: the names of your characters and how you prefer them spelled, the invented words of your world and how they are formatted, your preference for American or British spelling, your em-dash and ellipsis conventions, and any deliberate departures from standard usage that you want preserved rather than corrected. It is the document that tells everyone who touches your manuscript which apparent errors are intentional.
Why editors create one for you (and why you should create one first)
Copyeditors build style sheets as they work through a manuscript, logging every decision as they encounter it. If you arrive with your own style sheet, you give the copyeditor a document that reflects your intentions rather than their defaults. Without a style sheet from you, a copyeditor may correct an invented word, normalize an unusual name, or standardize a punctuation pattern that is deliberate. Creating a style sheet before the copyedit begins means the copyeditor is reinforcing your choices rather than potentially overwriting them.
What goes on a style sheet
The core categories: character names with preferred spelling and any nicknames, place names both real and invented, invented words and their definitions or usage notes, series-specific terminology and how it is formatted, American vs. British spelling preference, your punctuation conventions (em-dash style, ellipsis style, Oxford comma preference), and any unusual capitalization decisions. Add a brief note for each entry where the reason for the choice might not be obvious. The more specific your style sheet, the less time your copyeditor spends on decisions you have already made.
The style sheet as series bible supplement
A series bible tracks what happened and who the characters are. A style sheet tracks how the names of those characters are spelled, how your world's terminology is formatted, and which language conventions apply across all books. The two documents complement each other. Your series bible ensures plot and character continuity. Your style sheet ensures language continuity. Both should be updated at the completion of each book. By book three of a series, a well-maintained style sheet is saving several hours of copyedit time per manuscript.
Sharing it with your copyeditor
Send the style sheet as a separate document alongside your manuscript, before the copyedit begins. Keep it to one page if possible. Flag any entries that need particular attention: invented words that look like typos, name spellings that deviate from common forms, punctuation conventions that differ from Chicago or AP defaults. Ask your copyeditor to update the style sheet as they work and return both documents at the end. The updated style sheet, incorporating any new decisions the copyeditor made, becomes the master document for book two.
Updating your style sheet for book 2
Every book in a series adds new names, new terminology, and new decisions. Update your style sheet immediately after each copyedit, before you begin drafting the next book. The goal is to arrive at each new manuscript with a style sheet that already covers every established element of the world, so new decisions are additive rather than retroactive. By the time you are writing book three or four, your style sheet is a substantial asset: a complete language reference for your entire world, built decision by decision across the life of the series.
