Here's what the cover looks like. Yahoo! is publishing its own stylebook for the Internet.

"The Yahoo! Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, And Creating Content For The Digital World" will hit stores on July 6, 2010 at $21.99 for retail. Amazon will sell it for $13.49 before shipping.

Here's a photo of the galley, snapped by PaidContent's Rafat Ali.

Chris Barr, Yahoo's senior editorial director and CNET's founding editor-in-chief, is the top editor of the book, along with other senior editors at Yahoo!.

According to Amazon's description of the book: "Is it Web site, website, or web site? What’s the best on-screen placement for a top story? How can I better know my site’s audience? The rapid growth of the Web has meant having to rely on style guides that are intended for print publishing, such as The Chicago Manual of Style, Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, or The Associated Press Stylebook. But these excellent guides do not address writing for the Internet."

Well, actually, the AP Stylebook does address many Web terms. But could Yahoo!'s book compete with the traditional bible for media writing?

We called up AP Stylebook's product manager, Colleen Newvine, who said their guide "has been evolving to include more online guidance."

She told us AP Stylebook's 2010 edition, which should hit printers this week, will include a social media section. It will define some terminology like "crowdsourcing" and "retweeting," but also some tips on how to use social media effectively as a reporter.

"There is definitely a recognition that writers are not all working with ink on paper," she said. "So many reporters are multi-platform rather than single platform, for print or online or whatever the next thing is."

Maybe there will soon be a guide for iPad app writers!



As for competition like Yahoo!'s Style Guide, "there have always been multiple stylebooks out there," she said. "It will be up to writers and readers to decide whether one serves their needs more than others."

So who is going to buy it? Perhaps all those new Yahoo! News reporters will pick up a copy.

Here is their full description of the book, as posted on Amazon:

Is it Web site, website, or web site? What’s the best on-screen placement for a top story? How can I better know my site’s audience? The rapid growth of the Web has meant having to rely on style guides that are intended for print publishing, such as The Chicago Manual of Style, Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, or The Associated Press Stylebook. But these excellent guides do not address writing for the Internet.



The Yahoo! Style Guide does. Writers and programmers at Yahoo!, faced with a lack of industry guidance fifteen years ago, began cobbling together a set of guidelines for Web writing. The seeds of The Yahoo! Style Guide were planted with their first in-house reference guide, and Yahoo! content creators have built and added to the guide ever since, making it the go-to manual inside Yahoo!. Polished and expanded for its public debut, this resource will cover the basics of grammar and punctuation as well as Web-specific ways to perfect a site, such as:



• Identifying the audience and making the site accessible to everyone



• Constructing clear and compelling copy



• Developing a site’s unique voice



• Streamlining text for mobile devices



• Optimizing Web pages to increase the chances of appearing in search results



• Streamlining text so that people can read your pages at Internet speed.



The Yahoo! Style Guide will help anyone who writes, edits, or designs for the Internet accomplish their work with clarity and precision.