Today in word nerd news, the world learned that September will bring a new edition of the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS)! The University of Chicago Press is already taking pre-orders. Spoiler alert: it costs $70.
More spoiler alerts: e-mail will be email and Internet will be internet! Gender fluidity will the conversation, too, as they report “use of the singular they as a preferred personal pronoun [will be] accepted in formal writing.” The times, they are a-changin’.
I managed to nab a $25 used copy of the 15th edition at Powell’s about five years before I was forced to upgrade to a new copy. MPub required us to have a copy of 16, which had just been released, so I purchased one at full retail price. (Of course there’s also my early edition of CMOS I scored in for $1.50. I wouldn’t part with it for the world!)
We’ve been through a lot, me and ol’ 16. There was at least one late night I needed to read most of the first chapter for editing class, which describes details about publishing as a whole. (Quick, someone quiz me on verso and recto!) As a reference, it felt a little awkward to be reading the book in front-to-back style.
Sadly, my current workplace just doesn’t beg the kinds of style questions I ache to research, so I haven’t been relying upon 16 as regularly as I have in the past. What do I do? I could sell the tome back to Powell’s now for maximum cash (which would then in turn be used to pre-order 17). Or maybe it’s time to start a CMOS collection, so I can research subtle changes that happened between editions.
What’s a word nerd to do?
bookish 