What do I mean?
I mean that an editor with 20+ years of experience editing AP style is an expert at AP style. She is trained to pay attention to all the particulars of her style. But she automatically sees anything written in MLA or APA or Chicago or by an amateur without a style guideline as wrong.
She may be less likely than the average reader to jump between styles when reading or editing, and more likely to be bothered by elements of style that go against her ingrained guidelines. However arbitrary.
After speaking with an AP editor, having a discussion with an MLA editor (or any other style) with 20+ years of experience would be a litany of the ways and reasons that AP is out of its mind with its abhorrently incorrect rules of style.
So it goes.
Of course, a publication house may/will have their own in-house style guidelines, and if you’re publishing through a publication house, follow their rules.
But, luckily for you, if you’re a self-publishing fiction or nonfiction writer, you (basically) have the freedom to build your own style guidelines, based on your preferences.
All you need your style to be is: consistent and clear.
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