The Copyeditor's Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications

I was recommended this book to help me prepare for a substantive editing exam. Although I am no copyeditor and have no interest in becoming one, I went ahead and read the book. As far as substantive editing goes, the book is extremely light. It focuses strongly on copyediting (not surprising giving the title), and would likely be of help for those who care about things such as word spellings, etc. In addition to my disappointment due to its particular lack of utility in my situation, I actually had 2 main complaints. 1) The book is quite dated - focusing heavily on editing hard copies of text (in my experience quite rare if not non-existent today). 2) The exercises were not at all helpful. Rather than laying out a clear set of guidelines and then testing comprehension, the text seems to highlight rather than clear up the capriciousness of copyediting and editing in general. Overall, I feel that there are significantly better style/grammar guides out there and that this one should definitely be shelved.