The Chicago Manual of Style is a book created by the University of Chicago Press which was established in 1891. This book is specialized in putting guidelines for how to speak, pronounce & write American English in a right way. It’s the official source for the American language guidelines in the US. They put guidelines for American Grammar & writing any press release.
For ease you can pronounce it as CMOS instead of the long term chicago manual of style.
Every couple of years the University of Chicago Press produces a new edition of its famous book “The Chicago Manual of Style” to add new rules, make modifications, as necessary. In 1906 they released their 1st edition, which you can check for Free from here. In Sep 2017 they released their 17th edition. This book now has more than 100 years of wisdom & experience. It’s journey that started from a 200 pages book for the 1st edition, and reached 1100 pages for its current 17th edition. Imagine that!
Chicago Manual of Style – All editions
Their book is now considered the reference work for authors, editors, proofreaders, indexers, copywriters, designers, and publishers.
CMOS has a questions & answers section that you can access for Free from here.
They also have a nice Free blog with many knowledgeable posts, and a nice forum but the forum is Not Free. It’s available for subscribers only as explained below. They even have created a stylish clothing & accessories store.
Buying options:
You can buy a hard copy of the book, or you can access their book content online on their website with an annual fee. CMOS has more than 1.5 million copies sold till today!
If the price of the 17th edition is out of your budget, then why not have a look for the used books of the 16th edition of the book? … You can get a copy in a perfect condition from Amazon for as cheap as $12.
If you prefer to access the book online, then CMOS offers a $39 annual subscription in average to access the 16th edition & the 17th edition on their website. You can of course try it first before subscribing, by joining their 30-day trial period. CMOS also has a nice forum that you can access when you subscribe to their online edition with your account.
As we are specialized in creating indexes for books we should mention that the Indexes chapter from the chicago manual of style book is being sold
individually, so if you are looking to read this chapter only from the book, then it’s a good chance to save money and buy this chapter only instead
of buying the whole book. You can buy it from Amazon for $12 only.
Finally, if you’re looking to be a professional book indexer, or if you want to create an index for your book, then i strongly suggest that you have a look at our nice book indexing software that we have invented especially to help making the indexing process for books much easier and organized process. We’re also updating this tool every year to be friendly with CMOS rules & guidelines.
