How was this Editing books list created?

We searched for "best Editing books", found the top 5 articles, took every book mentioned in 2+ articles, and averaged their rankings.

How many Editing books are in this list?

There are 20 books in this list.

Why did you create this Editing books list?

We wanted to gather the most accurate list of Editing books on the internet.

20 Best Editing Books of All Time

Our goal: Find what the internet ranks as the best Editing books (instead of one person's opinion).

Our process:

Search for "best editing books" and study the top 5 articles.
Add only the books mentioned 2+ times.
Rank the results neatly for you here! 😊
(This took a long time, but we do the research so you don't have to!)

(Updated 2023)

1
i
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers
How to Edit Yourself Into Print
Renni Browne
Appears in 5 articles
2
i
The Elements of Style
William Strunk Jr.
Appears in 4 articles
3recommenders
3
i
The Artful Edit
On the Practice of Editing Yourself
Susan Bell
Appears in 4 articles
MOST RECOMMENDED!
4
i
On Writing Well
An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction
William Zinsser
Appears in 3 articles
4recommenders
5
i
What Editors Do
The Art, Craft, and Business of Book Editing
Peter Ginna
Appears in 3 articles
6
i
The Subversive Copy Editor
Advice from Chicago
Carol Fisher Saller
Appears in 3 articles
7
i
Developmental Editing
A Handbook for Freelancers, Authors, and Publishers
Scott Norton
Appears in 3 articles
8
i
Copyediting and Proofreading For Dummies
Suzanne Gilad
Appears in 3 articles
9
i
Writing Down the Bones
Freeing the Writer Within
Natalie Goldberg
Appears in 2 articles
1recommender
10
i
The Chicago Manual of Style
University of Chicago Press Staff
Appears in 2 articles
1recommender
11
i
The Best Punctuation Book, Period
A Comprehensive Guide for Every Writer, Editor, Student, and Businessperson
June Casagrande
Appears in 2 articles
12
i
Woe Is I
The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English
Patricia T. O'Conner
Appears in 2 articles
13
i
Words into Type
Marjorie E. Skillin
Appears in 2 articles
14
i
The First Five Pages
A Writer's Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile
Noah Lukeman
Appears in 2 articles
15
i
The Copyeditor's Handbook
A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications
Amy Einsohn
Appears in 2 articles
16
i
Revision and Self Editing for Publication
Techniques for Transforming Your First Draft into a Novel that Sells
James Scott Bell
Appears in 2 articles
17
i
Quick Fixes for Business Writing
An Eight-Step Editing Process to Find and Correct Common Readability Problems
Jim Taylor
Appears in 2 articles
18
i
Missed Periods and Other Grammar Scares
How to Avoid Unplanned and Unwanted Grammar Errors
Jenny Baranick
Appears in 2 articles
19
i
Max Perkins
Editor of Genius
A. Scott Berg
Appears in 2 articles
20
i
Making Shapely Fiction
Jerome Stern
Appears in 2 articles

Sources

FAQ

How was this Editing books list created?
We searched for "best Editing books", found the top 5 articles, took every book mentioned in 2+ articles, and averaged their rankings.
How many Editing books are in this list?
There are 20 books in this list.
Why did you create this Editing books list?
We wanted to gather the most accurate list of Editing books on the internet.