Rating: 
Summary: A must-have reference for writers and editors
Review: This is a condensed version of a detailed review posted on my web site, The Purple Crayon.
The 14th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style was for years the standard style reference for many book publishing companies. The new edition, the first revision in ten years, and the most substantial in more than thirty, seems likely to play the same role.
Contents: The new edition opens with "The Parts of a Publshed Work," which covers magazines as well as books. Then come chapters on manuscript preparation and editing, proofs, and rights and permissions (which includes a useful introduction to U.S. copyright law). After these is a new chapter on grammar and usage, followed by what has always seemed to me to be the meat of Chicago: detailed guidance on handling punctuation, spelling, names, numbers, foreight languages, quotations and dialogue, illustrations, and abbreviations. Sizable chapters on documentation of sources in notes and bibliographies and on creating indexes wrap up the body of the book. Then come an appendix on the basics of design and production and another consisting of flowcharts showing the publishing process, the bibliography, and the index.
The 15th compared to the 14th edition: The design is significantly different, to start with. The 14th edition uses a simple approach, which some would call classic and others old-fashioned. The 15th edition uses a greater variety of typefaces and weights in an effort to make information easier to locate on the page. It introduces blue as a second color. Blue has its greatest impact in the grammar information, where it is used to pick out the examples.
What's more important is that there is a considerable amount of new information. They now take account of the fact that much editing is now done on screen, and provide guidance for electronic publication and for citing information found on the Internet. The chapter on grammar and usage means that Chicago now answers many questions that were not addressed in earlier editions. There are many other updates throughout the book, and I see quite a lot of revision. For example, the material on commas has been reorganized, given new sub-headers, and designed to fit in about ten pages instead of fifteen. The intention seems to be to make it easier to use. Those used to the 14th edition may feel otherwise, of course.
Each item is, as before, numbered sequentially within a chapter, so that to find information on interjections, for example, you turn to 7.32. But the numbering of items has changed from the previous edition, so you will not be able to turn to the 14th edition if a copyeditor refers you to "CMS 6.104" on the issue of square brackets. That number will only take you to the right place in the 15th edition.
Comments: Chicago subtitles itself "The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers." I think that is a reasonable claim.... The new edition has quickly been put into use by trade and academic publishers, and anyone with a copy of the 14th edition will find that it is no longer of practical use, as it is the 15th edition that is being used to answer questions of punctuation, capitalization, citation style, and other thorny issues.
Look at this as several different books bound together. One slim book explains the parts of a book or journal, how to prepare and edit a manuscript, and how copyright law underlies publishing. Another small volume covers grammar and usage. A large central chunk covers the minutiae of treatment of names, capitalization, abbreviations, and the like. Then comes another book on footnotes, bibliographies, and indexes. Last of all comes a pamphlet on design and production, followed by a very useful bibliography and index.
Rating:
Summary: Can't live without it
Review: Those of us in the publishing business could not get through a week without the book. Congratulations to the Chicago Manual of Style on its 15th edition.Eric Bollinger
McKenna Publishing Group
Publisher of "Two Dozen Lessons From An Editor" by Jim Woods.
Rating: 
Summary: Sorry, it's the editor in me
Review: Well, the spine type on the copy I bought is right-side up. But what's with the '40s typeface on said spine? Sloppy printing job! And the grid was not thought out carefully; the pages do not back properly. [Tip to newbie book designers: Check your margin and gutter settings on your master pages.] Am I picky? You bet. How am I supposed to use this as a training tool? This is THE style bible for books, so it should be a shining example in itself. It seems as though the attention to design and typesetting issues is dwindling away with each revision. I can't claim to have read the new edition in its entirety, so perhaps much of that information has been assimilated into other chapters. My experience is that a designer who is new to books is not going to read the entire manual to find the finer points about specifications and composition. By the way, I save my old versions to look up style examples not covered in the newest edition. And I still use my old WIT for help with grammatical constructions that Chicago doesn't cover.
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