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50 Best Blogs By and For Editors (OnlineUniversities.com 2-1-11)
"I submit as a law of editorial physics that the author's desire to include a fact in her narrative is directly proportional to the effort she expended to find it out, not to its relevance."
~ Peter Ginna, When journalists become authors: a few cautionary tips (Nieman Storyboard) A good novel about a proofreader! The History of the Siege of Lisbon by Josι Saramago (translated from the Portuguese by Giovanni Pontiero) "Work from Home", how the phrase evolved from "work at home," by Jan Freeman (The Word, Boston Globe, 1-30-11). See Freeman's blog, Throw Grammar from the Train
Winner of an Ig Nobel Prize (administered by Improbable Research (research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK): The definite article: acknowledging The in index entries, Glenda Browne's article in The Indexer on the many ways "the" causes problems for those who try to put things into alphabetical order. See also Paul Krugman's 24/7 lecture ("24 seconds of impenetrable jargon, followed by a 7-word explanation of your field"). "One of the great things about being a copy editor is freedom from vulgar desire for public recognition."
Testy Copy Editors
"No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else's draft."
~ H.G. Wells
"An index is not an outline, nor is it a concordance. It's an intelligently compiled list of topics covered in the work, prepared with the reader's needs in mind."
~ Indexing Evaluation Checklist, American Society of IndexersThe Carver Chronicles, D.T. Max's long, fascinating 1998 story in the NYTimes Magazine about the effect (good and bad) editor Gordon Lish had on Raymond Carver's short fiction
"For every writer with a tin ear who is helped by a competent editor, there is surely an inexperienced editor who will take a fresh and well-voiced text and edit the life out of it.... You might think that the overachieving copy editor suffers from knowing too much, but the opposite is true. Knowing too little, she hangs on white-knuckled to her small bag of tricks, unaware of the many alternatives. So the first step in doing no harm is to expand your bag of tricks."
~ quoted from Copyediting , in a review of The Subversive Copy Editor: Advice from Chicago (or, How to Negotiate Good Relationships with Your Writers, Your Colleagues, and Yourself) by Carol Fisher Saller, who provides answers for the Q&A page of The Chicago Manual of Style Online
"Helene [Pleasants] had no literary theories she had literary values. She valued clarity and transparency. She had nothing against style, if it didn't distract from the material. Her blue pencil struck at redundancy, at confusion, at authorial vanity, at the wrong and the false word, at the unearned conclusion. She loved good writing, therefore she loved the reader: good writing did not cause the reader to stumble over meaning."
~Dorothy Gallagher, "What My Copy Editor Taught Me"
A harsh reality of newspaper editing is that the deadlines don't allow for the polish that you expect in books or even magazines.
~Bill Walsh
"If you re-read your work, you can find on re-reading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by re-reading and editing."
~William Safire
"Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
~Antoine de Saint-Exupιry
"A very good editor is almost a collaborator."
~Ken Follett
"Who knows why certain notes in music are capable of stirring the listener deeply, though the same notes slightly rearranged are impotent?"
~ Strunk and White
"I'm exhausted. I spent all morning putting in a comma and all afternoon taking it out."
~ Oscar Wilde
"All writing is a process of elimination."
~ Martha Albrand |
E-mail Pat (pat at patmcnees dot com)
Dying: A Book of ComfortThis site built to support the book expanded into Illness and Recovery
Writers on Writing(complete archive of the NY Times series, writers exploring literary themes. Requires free membership.)
Letters of Note (fascinating letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes, and memos--that you were never expected to see)
Aha Moments (from the brilliant Mutual of Omaha campaign to record people's stories about moments of clarity, defining moments when they gained the wisdom to change their life)
TED: Ideas worth sharing Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world
Freelance National Anthem (Bill Dyszel, 4 minutes)
KeepMeOut (addicted to a website? bookmark this page and it will remind you to get back to work!)
Today's Front Pages (check out Newseum's U.S. map -- move your cursor across the map and see the front pages change)
Online Education Database150 resources to help you write better, faster, or more persuasively
Help a reporter out (HARO)(useful for reporters and for sources)
Paris Review "Writers at Work" Interviews (selections from 1953 on, a gift to the world, and with a single click you can view a manuscript page with the writer's edits)
The Onion (if the news is making you sick, try this approach)
Truth-o-meter (St. Petersburg Times, www.politifact.com)(St. Pete Times on whether, and how much, various notable people are telling the truth)
Fact Check (Annenberg sorts political truths from half-truths)
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Editing is not just finding and correcting spelling and grammatical errors. In looking to hire an editor, be sure to figure out which purpose you are hiring them for. Different types and levels of editing call for editors who charge different rates, or require different amounts of time and levels and kinds of expertise (and eye, or ear). For an excellent essay on what magazine and literary editors do (acquiring pieces for publication), and why, read "No" by Brian Doyle (Kenyon Review, Spring 2008).
Chapter 1 of the Editorial Freelancers Association's online Code of Fair Practice describes the various types of writing and editorial services (abstracting, copyediting or line editing, copyfitting and page makeup, desktop publishing, developmental editing, evaluating a manuscript, illustrating, indexing, project management, proofreading, researching, rewriting, substantive editing, technical writing, translating, typemarking, writing).
What an editor charges depends very much on what the local market will bear, but a proofreader will generally charge less than a copyeditor, who will typically charge less than a substantive editor, who will generally charge less than a writer. Book publishers tend to pay on the low side. Technical and marketing copy command higher rates than other copy, for different reasons (the technical writer must be able to make the meaning clear without changing it; the editor of marketing copy must aim for the best "selling" copy, which requires a different kind of flair). Experience and expertise count for a lot, so an editor with a law degree, for example, can expect to be paid more for more editing legal documents. Good judgment, common sense, and a deep and wide enough knowledge either to spot errors or to know when to check things out are important skills in an editor. Tact in editing will help you keep clients returning with more work.
Pick any two."
~ An old business maxim, never truer than with editing
American Agricultural Editors' Association (AAEA)
American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors (AASFE)
American Cinema Editors (ACE)
American Copy Editors Society (ACES) (for journalists -- members can get job listings)
American Medical Writers Association. AMWA has an excellent private Editing-Writing email list, particularly helpful for medical writer-editors; member directory and member access to job bank
American Society for Indexing (formerly American Society of Indexers, ASI)
American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE), which has local chapters
American Society of Healthcare Publications Editors (ASHPE)
American Society of Indexers (advancing indexing, abstracting, and database building)
American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME), with its important National Magazine Awards
American Society of News Editors (ASNE), which publishes The American Editor
Archivists. National Archival Organizations in the United States, a directory on the website of The Society of American Archivists, which links to societies of medical archivists, religious archivists, regional history archivists, business archivists, and state organizations of archivists. See So You Want to Be an Archivist: An Overview of the Archives Profession.
Associated Press Media Editors (APME, for editors of consumer magazines and business publications sold in U.S.)
Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE)
Association for Church Editors (ACE) Association for Documentary Editing (ADE)
Association of Alternative News Media (AAN)
Association of Art Editors (AAE)
Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors (Capitol Beat, for reporters covering state and local governments)
Association of Earth Science Editors (AESE). Member directory and job bank (members only)
Association of Freelance Editors Proofreaders and Indexers (AFEPI) (Ireland)
Association of Personal Historians (APH). Not an editors association per se, but personal historians do custom publishing for private clients and need editors, proofreaders, transcribers, indexers, and designers. Personal historians interview people to get their life story; those interviews need to be transcribed and shaped into narratives, as memoirs, tributes, ethical wills, etc. (Formats: print, audio, and video.)
Bay Area Editors' Forum (BAEF) (searchable public member directory and EXCELLENT resources for editors on the website)
Board of Editors in the Life Sciences (BELS), founded in 1991 to evaluate the proficiency of manuscript editors in the life sciences and to award credentials similar to those obtainable in other professions. See how to become a board-certified editor (the ones that add ELS after their names). Members-only job listings, email list; publicly accessible directory of freelance BELS editors
Bookbuilders of Boston(publishing professionals involved in book publishing and manufacturing throughout New England, with public searchable directory)
Cambridge Academic Editors Network (CAEN) (searchable public member directory)
Copyediting (formerly Copy Editing, excellent publication and webinars) and Copyediting job board (formerly Copy Editor, excellent newsletter, free job board for which you can set up profile to get alerts when gigs are available)
Copyediting-L Community (a free listserv-based discussion list for CE-l subscribers only, to prevent spammers, but readable by the public). "Stalking Danglers Around the World" (with a freelancers directory, and frequent exchanges of macros that make copyediting easier, etc.)
Council of Science Editors (CSE) (formerly Council of Biology Editors), job board lists freelance and in-house jobs with medical and science journals, publishers, and pharmaceutical companies
Editcetera (a self-governing association of freelance publishing professionals in San Francisco area)
Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA), for editors, writers, indexers, proofreaders, researchers, desktop publishers, translators, etc. New York City-oriented. Clients can find you through free online freelancer directory and free job listing service. You can post questions on the private email list. Editors' Association of Canada (EAC) , which has six regional branches
Electric Editors (Internet community for editors, proofreaders, indexers, translators and publishers, with excellent links to resources, such as Resources for translating and interpreting
European Association of Science Editors (EASE), which has excellent links to further resources likely to be useful to editors
Fraternity Communications Association (formerly the College Fraternity Editors Association)
Freelance (discussion list for publishing industry freelancers, moderated by Chuck Brandstater, available as e-mail only or as archives
FreelanceWritersEditors (forum for published professional freelance editors, mostly, and writers, moderated by Ruth Thaler-Carter, a breakoff group from Freelance)
Help Authoring Tools and Techniques listserv (HATT) (a Yahoo group, with frequent Yahoo ads)
InDesign Talk (discussion listserv about the Adobe page layout product)
Indexer's Network (online coffee shop for indexers)
Indexing Society of Canada (Sociιtι canadienne d'indexation). Resources include links to indexing discussion groups.
Institution of Professional Editors Limited (IPEd) (Australia)
International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) (for professionals in corporate communications, marketing, and public relations)
International Society of Managing and Technical Editors (ISMTE), training and networking for editorial office staff in academic, scientific, medical, technical and professional publishing (new in 2008)
Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE serves those doing investigative journalism)
Mediterranean Editors & Trnaslators (English-language editors & translators for the Mediterranean area)
MPA, The Association of Magazine Media (formerly Magazine Publishers of America)
The National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (NAIWE) (not a nonprofit organization, so far as I can tell)
National Federation of Abstracting and Information Services (NFAIS) Northwest Independent Editors Guild (NIEG). Here's an interesting 10-year history (by co-founder Sherri Schultz, in 2007)
Professional Editors' Group (PEG), professional copy-editors, proofreaders, and other practitioners in South Africa
Professional Editors Network (PEN) (editors, writers, proofreaders, indexers, book layout specialists, and allied professionals in Twin Cities area)
ReligionWriters (free tools and tips for writing about religion with balance, accuracy and insight, a free resource of the Religion Newswriters Association, or RNA)
San Diego Professional Editors Network (SD/PEN)
Society for Editors and Proofreaders (sfep), UK, which publishes SfEP suggested minimum freelance rates and an interesting Code of Practice
Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) (for publishers, printers, e-products developers, technical service providers, librarians, and editors in scholarly publishing)
Society for the Preservation of English Language and Literature (SPELL, with members from many professions and walks of life)
Society for Technical Communication (STC), which has a Technical Editing SIG (special interest group). For editors involved in producing instructional manuals, online help, multimedia, training resources, and other forms of technical communication.
Society of American Archivists (SAA)
Society of Editors (Victoria) Inc., Australia
Society of English-Native-Speaking Editors (SENSE), Netherlands
Society of Indexers ( (British and Irish)
Society of Writers, Editors & Translators (SWET, Tokyo-based society of writers, editors, and other English-language publishing professionals in Japan). Publishers of Japan Style Sheet: The SWET Guide for Writers, Editors, and Translators, most useful perhaps for translators
TECHWR-L (Internet-based group for technical communicators)
Testy Copy Editors (Phillip Blanchard's discussion group for newspaper copy editors)
Textbook Publishing Professionals (LinkedIn group)
26 (UK writers, editors, language specialists, designers and anyone with a love of language)
Western New England Editorial Freelancers' Network
World Association of Medical Editors (WAME). [Go Top]
American Literary Translators Association (ALTA)
American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association (ATISA) (to further the study of translation studies)
American Translators Association (ATA)
Association of Audio-Visual Translators (avtranslators.org) (subtitlers, dubbers, and adaptors), with Nordic member organizations
Canadian Translators, Terminologists and Interpreters Council (CTTIC), formerly Society of Translators and Interpreters of Canada (STIC). See paragraph on What is a terminologist?
European Association for Studies in Screen Translation (ESIST) (organized to support the exchange of information and to promote professional standards in the training and practice of screen translation)
European Council of Literary Translators' Associations (CEATL, or Conseil Europιen des Associations de Traducteurs Littιraires -- supports information exchange, best practices, and good translation)
European Society for Translation Studies
International Association of Conference Translators (AITC: Asociaciσn Internacional de Traductores de Conferencias, Association internationale des traducteurs de confιrence). Founded in 1962 to "standardize the working conditions and terms of employment of short-term language staff employed by international organizations, particularly those belonging to the United Nations system."
International Medical Interpreters Association (IMIA)
Japan Association of Translators (JAT)
Language Services, U.S. Department of State (where to go to become or find a contract interpreter or translator for the State Department)
National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT) (promotes quality services in the field of legal interpreting and translating)
Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) (advancing the profession of interpretation)
Translators and Interpreters Guild (TTIG) (a union seeking better compensation and respect for translators and interpreters)
Following is a site that looks like it might be useful, but I don't know if it's legitimate (let me know, if you know: Is this a helpful way to find translators or for translators to find work?): TranslationDirectory
There are also a number of local organizations and organizations of court interpreters and recorders--and, of course, many organizations in other parts of the world.
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Admitting mistakes to authors. Should you?
Say you're sorry (John E. McIntyre, You Don't Say blog, April 2010). Skip the "If I offended anyone" bit.
Pretty Apologies: For When You're Really Wrong (Carol Fisher Saller, The Subversive Copyeditor, 4-20-11). Andrew Wylie: The superagent on upholding great literature in an e-reading world (Daniel Gross's edited interview with Wylie about the state of publishing, the need to get world rights right, and book publishers' early (wrongful) attempt to insist they already owned digital rights to backlist titles and wouldn't buy new titles without those rights.
An Editor (Who Helped 'The Help') and an Agent Talk About Revision. Listen to Alexandra Shelley (editor of Kathryn Stockett's "The Help") and literary agent Eleanor Jackson discussing revision, publishing, and how to know when a book is 'finished' (on She Writes Radio).
Benchmarks for Estimating Editing Speed by David W. McClintock (originally published in Corrigo: Newsletter of the STC's Technical Editing SIG (June 2002), pp. 1, 3.
Bob Miller: The Coming Editorial Crisis. HarperCollins chief Bob Miller tells Media Bistro about economic variables shaping publishing industry and prospects of "more work for fewer people" ahead, with YouTube video of his comments.
Book Editing Associates FAQ . This is a great model for a FAQ page for editors and an interesting system of marketing a group's members' services
CONSORT statement. Guidelines in the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) statement are used worldwide to improve the transparent reporting of randomized, controlled trials.
** Copyeditors' Knowledge Base (superb links from KOK Edit: Katharine O'Moore-Klopf), on several themes, including The Basics, Business Tools, and Editing Tools. Copyediting Online Training, taught in learning modules, for $50 each.
Dear Writer: Reasons to Love and Fear Your Copyeditor (Sally Fisher Saller, the Subversive Copy Editor, in Prime Number)
Dependency Calculator (Evaluating the complexity of a project--including such factors as how well I can depend on your getting back to me quickly with answers)
Digital Imaging Guidelines (guidelines prepared by the UPDIG Coalition, to establish photographic standards and practices for photographers, designers, printers, and image distributors). The guidelines cover Digital Asset Management, Color Profiling, Metadata, and Photography Workflow.
Edifying Editing by R. Preston McAfee (PDF file). Among the qualities of a good editor of a refereed journal, writes McAfee, co-editor of the American Economic Review:
Having a vision on which to base decisions about what is published
"Obsessive organization, processing work unrelentingly until it is done" -- a "clear the inbox" mentality.
Having no personal agenda (no bias)
Having thick skin (as authors will complain about your decisions)
Being a super referee (respond quickly with thoughtful reports)-- a good quality in someone wanting to become top editor.
He also writes about common reasons papers are rejected.
Editorial skills, defined (EAC). Definitions covered: Developmental/project editing; substantive or structural editing; stylistic editing; rewriting; copy editing; picture research; fact checking/reference checking; indexing; mark-up/coding (designer-written specs for typesetter or word processor); mock-up (rough paste-up); production editing. (The Editors' Association of Canada/Association canadienne des rιviseurs)
The Editor's Interest: Copyright or Not (An American Editor, 3-1-11, on claiming copyright for an edit, relinquished only on full payment for services rendered)
Edits -- it's just you and me, and we both disagree... (Behler's blog, an entry on how to make author-editor disagreements constructive)
Editors' role model: Robert Loomis, on his retirement from Random House (read these for great tales from publishing, for a glimpse at pre-corporate publishing, and for hints on editing well):
Nurturer of Authors Is Closing the Book (Julie Bosman, NY Times, 5-8-11). Profile of Random House editor Robert Loomis (retiring after 54 years). One of the last of the gentlemen editors with power.
Great Book Editors Are Not an Endangered Species (Peter Osnos, The Atlantic, 5-24-11)
Bob Loomis Talks Cerf And Turf Ahead Of His Retirement (Dan Duray, New York Observer, 5-31-11)
Robert Loomis, editor of Styron, Angelou, retires (Hillel Italie, AP, on ABC, 5-6-11)
The Fallacy Files (wonderful analysis of various logical fallacies)
Humor among peer reviewers. Cιsar Sαnchez, in his blog Twisted Bacteria, quotes from the annual December issue of Environmental Microbiology, which features humorous quotes made by peer reviewers while assessing manuscripts submitted to the journal.
Indexing, getting started. Study the Chicago Manual of Style on indexing, read Nancy Mulvany's book, Indexing Books (second edition), and attend workshops of the American Society for Indexing. Get started by specializing in a niche, a special area you are knowledgeable in. Join an editorial or indexers' listserv as you'll want a place to ask peers questions about problems that come up.
Interviews with editors(Poets & Writers interviews with Agents and Editors)
Agents & Editors: A Q&A With Editor Jonathan Karp by Jofie Ferrari-Adler (Nov/Dec 2009)
A Q&A With Jonathan Galassi by Jofie Ferrari-Adler (July/Aug 2009)
A Q&A With Four Young Editors by Jofie Ferrari-Adler (interviewing Richard Nash, Lee Boudreaux, Alexis Gargagliano, and Eric Chinski, March/April 2009)
A Q&A With Editor Chuck Adams by Jofie Ferrari-Adler (Nov/Dec 2008)
A Q&A With Editor Janet Silver by Jofie Ferrari-Adler (July/Aug 2008)
A Q&A With Editor Pat Strachan by Jofie Ferrari-Adler (March/April 2008)
Metadata, about:
Metadata Demystified: A Guide for Publishers (PDF, Amy Brand, Frank Daly, Barbara Meyers, Niso Press)
Publishers Take Seat at Metadata Table with Giant Chair (Jennifer Zaino, Semantic Web, 3-1-10).
Metadata is the new most important thing to know about (Mike Shatzkin, IdeaLogical, 6-8-10) Pay rates for technical, business, and trade editing (Megan B. Wyatt, Suite101.com, 8-23-09). Average payment for medical, science and corporate editors
PDF Editing Stamps (Copyediting-L's stamp tool for making proofreader marks on a PDF document. Go to "Resources" tab and under Miscellaneous you will find Diana Stirling's zip file of proofreading marks in red and black. Louise Harnby offers a set of stamps for UK proofreaders and editors.
Picture research and permissions: Adding to your editorial toolkit. Panelists Kris Ashley, Veronica Oliva and Tim Cox on a Bay Area Editors' Forum; notes by Micah Standley 3-24-09.
A Primer on Medical Copyediting, Health fellow Angilee Shah interviews medical editor Katharine O'Moore-Klopf (for the Reporting on Health blog, 7-1-11). Much of KOK's work is editing medical articles from ESL (or EFL) authors, of which the supply is increasing, according to this article: China poised to overhaul US as biggest publisher of scientific papers (Alok Jha, Guardian, 3-28-11). The subhead: Royal Society report shows China pushing UK into third place in scientific publishing
Publishing: A helping hand (Karen Kaplan, NatureJobs.com, orig. pub'd in Nature 12-1-10). Can the growing number of manuscript-editing services turn a mediocre paper into a publishable one? A plug for the legitimate editing of scientific papers, with sidebars on Opportunities in editing and How to choose a manuscript-editing service. Writes Kaplan, "Prices which vary depending on the level of service, the length of the paper and the turn around time can be anywhere from $250 for a 6,000-word paper with a 14- to 21-day turnaround to $5,000 for a 12,000-word paper with a 48-hour turnaround."
The Relationship Between Editors and Freelance Writers (Joe Pulizzi, Junta42, on Content Marketing, 4-17-08)
So You Think You Can Self-Publish an eBook? by Candice Adams, EditorMuse. See also her Proofreading Ebooks. Good info; varied spelling of e-book.
Tangled Web. Victor Navasky and Evan Lerner report on a Columbia Journalism Review Survey, which finds that magazines are allowing their Web sites to erode journalistic standards. See also the full CJR report: Magazines and Their Web Sites (click on opening page to get text).
21 top tips to make the most of your freelance copy-editor or proofreader (Society for Editors and Proofreaders, UK)
21 top tips to make the most of your project manager or managing editor (Society for Editors and Proofreaders, UK)
Twitter, who's on:
A directory of Twitter handles for book trade people
Twitter lists for editors (KOK Edit). Follow the tweeters on Katharine O'Moore-Klopf's lists of good Twitter feeds. By category: Health and medicine, news media, science resources, scientists, freelancing resources, and edit-Long-Islanders.
Unicode Standard, Unicode Character Code Charts (scripts), and Unicode Character Code Charts (punctuation, symbols, and notational systems)-- links to the formulas for Unicode characters in many languages
Writing Tics: Now You See Them, Now You Don't (The Subversive Copy Editor, 7-22-10, an interesting way of framing a common problem)
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Where to find work
This is a very partial listing, for editors and other publishing professionals.
Finding Work Katharine O'Moore-Klopf (KOK Edit)'s) excellent links and descriptions --for finding work on sites where jobs are posted, or by getting yourself posted or showcased on sites where people come looking for subcontractors. A good place to start if you're looking for job postings.
Freelance Mailing List Job Links
American Society for Indexing Jobs Hotline (free to ASI members, $100 a year to nonmembers)
ACESjobs (American Copy Editors Society, for news and journalism editors)
Bay Area Editors' Forum
Bookjobs.com. All kinds of jobs in book publishing on site of Association of American Publishers
Council of Science Editors Job Bank
Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA). List yourself there, and members also get access to this EFA Job List
Journalism Jobs
Publishers Lunch Job Board
Publishers Weekly Job Zone
Society of Technical Editors STC's) Career Center for technical communicators
The Write Jobs.
Remember, it often pays to join an organization that provides searchable listings of members that job-providers (or contract providers) can look through. (See Organizations for Editors and Publishing Professionals.) And sometimes it pays just to join an organization UNRELATED to publishing but about a subject you are passionate about -- and let everyone in that organization know that you edit or proof for a living. (You may be the only editor those people will ever hear about.) People with money to spend and specialized skills that don't include wordsmithing don't have time to go through gazillions of resumes from people with limited skills, so they like the winnowing out that a targeted membership or a specialized directory helps provide. As my old friend Alex Bespaloff used to tell me, "You have to spend money to make money."
What editors and copyeditors do.
Do you want to hire (or be) a developmental editor, substantive editor, copyeditor, production editor, assignment editor, or proofreader? Read up on the different functions:
Becoming an Editor (from the blog, This Crazy Industry)
Black day for the blue pencil (Blake Morrison, Guardian)
Classifying editorial tasks (Jean Weber, Technical Editors' Eyrie). When rules-based and analysis-based edits ovelap, which editorial decisions are negotiable with the writer, and which are not?
Clarity for Editing (Justin Baker suggests clearer names for levels of edit, STC Technical Editing Sig 4-20-07)
Copyediting: A Duty of Care )Corporate Writing Pro, 12-7-11). An excellent list of the things a good copyeditor does, well-phrased, including, "Revising sentences to bring subjects and verbs closer together," "Moving subjects to the front of the sentence," and "Discovering hidden verbs, otherwise known as nominalizations."
Definitions of Editorial Services (Bay Area Editors' Forum)
Definitions of editorial skills (Canadian Editors) on developmental/project editing; substantive or structural editing; stylistic editing, rewriting, copy editing, picture research, fact checking/reference checking, indexing, mark-up/coding, proofreading, mock-up (rough paste-up), and production editing
Developing New Levels of Edit (Judyth Prono, Martha DeLanoy, Robert Deupree, Jeffrey Skiby, and Brian Thompson, STC, revising levels of edit for technical editing, as originally spelled out by Van Buren and Buehler), PDF
Editing: What? (Delores Farmer and Sherry Southard on levels of editing)
Editorial skills, categorized and defined (Editors Association of Canada)
Editors on Editing: What Writers Need to Know About What Editors Do ed. Gerald Gross
Editors Roundtable: Introducing Nancy Wick and Julie Van Pelt (Kyra Freestar interviews two developmental editors of fiction, on The Editor's POV (a forum for freelance editors of fiction and creative nonfiction)
Editors: Scourge of the Earth or Cheap Psychotherapists? (Rebecca Rosenblum, The Afterword, National Post, 12-6-11). An excellent explanation and appreciation of the differences between substantive or developmental editors, line editors, copy-editors, and proofreaders -- as distinct from acquisition editors and production editors.
i>eLife: Can a Top-Tier Journal Run Without Professional Help? (Phil Davis, Scholarly Kitchen, 12-1-11). Davis predicts that a scientific journal with no professional editors will soon face the same problems PLos Biology and PLos Medicine did.
ELSS Editing Requirements (Rick Weisburd on what's required for scientific editing and translation from Japanese, at one serious firm)
An Evolving Model for Editing (Deborah Howell, Ombudsman, WaPo, on the changing role of the editor as newspaper staffs are cut)
How (Freelance) Editors Operate (San Diego Professional Editors Network)
How to Become a Developmental Editor (Scott Norton)
Levels of Edit (San Diego Professional Editors Network)
The role of the editor in the technical writing team (Jean Hollis Weber's excellent outline of what editors do, types of edit, and interactions with the writing team)
Showcasing the Work Editors Do (Bay Area Editors' Forum), links to many useful articles
Stop Editing Me (Scott Norton on the editor's natural bent)
Unraveling the Mysteries of the Editing Process (Erin Brenner, The Writing Resource)
What Do Hiring Managers Want? (Gail Saari's notes on a BAEF panel in 2003 featuring Lasell Whipple, managing editor at Jossey-Bass; Joy Ma, former managing editor for PC Games magazine, currently with Key3Media; Lorena Jones, managing editor at Ten Speed Press; and Walter Keefe, of Synergy Personnel Services, Inc.)
What Editors Do (Lynette Smith's useful chart, San Diego Professional Editors Network), PDF
What exactly does a newspaper copy editor do? (Bill Walsh, The Slot, and check his other entries, too)
What a permissions editor does (Julie Cancio Harper, Permissions Trackers, on Publishing Careers 1-31-08)
What It's Really Like To Be A Copy Editor Lori Fradkin, The AWL, 7-21-10)
What We Want in a Copyeditor (Jossey-Bass Managing Editor Lasell Whipple, for a BAEF gathering, 2003/4)
Your Copy Sucks: You Don't Even Know What "Edit" Means (TJ Dietderich, PRBreakfastClub)
Why Editing Matters
Why Editing Matters (microsite of the American Copy Editors Society, ACES)
Humbled by Copyediting (Elizabeth Fama, guest posting on Subversive Copy Editor blog, about how shamed and grateful she felt for a thorough copy editing -- 8-8-11)
Spelling mistakes 'cost millions' in lost online sales (Sean Coughlan, Education and Family, BBC News, 7-13-11)
The Price of Typos (Virginia Heffernan, Opinionator, NY Times 7-17-11). On a home page or a site offering commercial products, where there are concerns about trust and credibility, "In these instances, when a consumer might be wary of spam or phishing efforts, a misspelt word could be a killer issue."
Students armed with sub-editing skills are given tools for life (Tim Luckhurst, The Times, Higher Education, 3-5-09 on the immense value of the sub-editor, "the lowest caste of editorial personnel who earn their meagre livings correcting the style, grammar and accuracy of their 'betters' on news and features desks." Even the finest journalists make mistakes, and bloggers, you need sub-editors, too!
Why Editing Matters (Jake Sherlock's amusing video slideshow of images of typos in public, at ACES regional conference--there's a whole page of related videos on that YouTube page)
Mind if We Watch? Copy editors matter. (Karen Dunlap, Poynter 11-9-02)
Review of a book that really needed editing (both developmental -- who is your audience? -- and copyediting)
Why you need a copy editor (marked-up memo from Toronto Star about reduced need for copyeditors)
Readers prefer edited news, research sponsored by ACES finds (American Copy Editors Society 3-17-11)
Regret the Error on the issues of media errors and accuracy. This page contains links to excellent resources on the public's perception of the press, human error, studies of newspaper accuracy, studies of broadcast accuracy, fact checking, and more.
Book Doctors: What They Do
Independent (freelance) consulting editors who help authors fix their books often call themselves "book doctors." Some are better than others and charge accordingly. Here are some stories about what to expect.
Book Doctors: The Real Deal (Susan A. Schwartz on what to look for in an editor)
The Doctor Will See You Now (interview with Lisa Rojany-Buccieri, who explains the difference between book doctors, editors, and ghostwriters and offers practical insights into what a book doctor can and cannot do)
Common Rates for Editorial Services (Editorial Freelancers Association)
Frequently Asked Questions about Editors (Tara K. Harper, who doesn't put much faith in book doctors)
Independent Editors and Assessment Services (Writers Beware's excellent article and links, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America)
A Professional Critique: What Should You Receive for Your Money? (Margot Finke)
Ten Signs of a Scam Book Doctor (Jerry Gross, an old hand in the business!)
What a Good Editor Will Do for You (Jerry Gross interviews Viking editor Beena Kamlani on what to expect from an editor in a publishing house, Writer's Digest, 2-11-08)
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BOOKS FOR EDITORS:
AP Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law (an essential style guide for magazine and newspaper writing and editing, but absolutely not okay for editing books)
The Art of Literary Publishing: Editors on Their Craft by Bill Henderson
As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto, ed. by Joan Reardon. (See also the story about DeVoto's involvement with publication of Elizabeth David's Italian Food: Importing Italian Food (Laura Shapiro, NY Times, 11-18-11)
Book Business: Publishing Past, Present, and Future by Jason Epstein (based on series of lectures he gave at the N.Y. Public Library in 1999)
The Business of Books: How the International Conglomerates Took Over Publishing and Changed the Way We Read by Jason Epstein (a reality check for the idealistic)
The Chicago Manual of Style by University of Chicago Press Staff (16th edition, baby blue cover: the style bible for books, geared to professional and academic authors. The Subversive Copy Editor offers a sneak peek at changes from the 15th edition. If you have the budget, you might also want Words Into Type)
Copyediting: A Practical Guide by Karen Judd (read the reviews before buying this one)
*** The Copyeditor's Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications by Amy Einsohn (3rd edition, -- essential for learning the basics or fine-tuning your skills, with helpful exercises and answer key.
Developmental Editing: A Handbook for Freelancers, Authors, and Publishers by Scott Norton, posted on Scrib'd
Editing by Design by Jan V. White (well illustrated book on graphic design through which even wordsmiths can learn the value of white space etc.)
Editing Fact and Fiction by Leslie T. Sharpe, Irene Gunther, and Richard Marek
The Editor-in-Chief: A Management Guide for Magazine Editors by Benton Rain Patterson and Coleman E. P. Patterson (have not reviewed this one)
Editors on Editing: What Writers Need to Know About What Editors Do, by Gerald C. Gross (these essays by various editors in book publishing explain how the book publishing business works and what various types of editors do)
Edit Yourself, by Bruce Ross-Larson (how to edit bureaucratic flab into clearer, crisper, and more effective sentences); Bruce also has a series of workbooks for writing courses at the World Bank and similar organizations
The Fiction Editor, The Novel, and the Novelist, by Thomas McCormack
The Fine Art of Copy Editing by Elsie Myers Stainton
The Forest for the Trees: An Editor's Advice to Writers by Betsy Lerner
A Freelance Editor's Guide to Book Production by Rachel Hockett (EFA)
Garner's Modern American Usage by Bryan A. Garner (the very best guide to word usage, for such things as the difference between "historic" and "historical" -- an invaluable tool for wordsmiths)
The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time by Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson
Handbook of Writing for the Mathematical Sciences by Nicholas J. Higham
Levels of Technical Editing, by David E. Nadziejka (Council of Biology Editors)
Line by Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing by Claire Kerhwald Cook (line by line examples of how copyeditors fix sentences)
Making Word Work for You: An Editor's Intro to the Tools of the Trade by Hilary Powers, download for $10.25, 80 pages, or order the book for slightly more.
Mark My Words: Instruction and Practice in Proofreading by Peggy Smith (exercises and answer keys help readers learn skills step by step)
Max Perkins: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg (Perkins edited F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe, among others)
The NY Times Manual of Style and Usage by Allan M. Siegal
Recipes Into Type: A Handbook for Cookbook Writers and Editors by Joan Whitman and Dolores Simon
Selected Takes: Film Editors on Editing by Vincent LoBrutto
*** Self Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself Into Print by Renni Browne and Dave King (teach yourself the basic principles of fiction writing AND editing)
Side by Side: Five Favorite Picture Book Teams Go to Work, by Leonard S. Marcus
Stet: Tricks of the Trade for Writers and Editors by Bruce O. Boston (for Editorial Eye)
Stet Again: More Tricks of the Trade for Publications People, from the Editorial Eye
Style: Toward Clarity and Grace by Joseph M. Williams (an excellent book for deeply understanding the structure of a sentence and paragraph)
The Subversive Copy Editor: Advice from Chicago (or, How to Negotiate Good Relationships with Your Writers, Your Colleagues, and Yourself) by Carol Fisher Saller, the woman who writes those witty, informative responses for the Chicago Style Manual Q&As.
Technical Editing, by Carolyn D. Rude
*** Technical Editing, by Judith A. Tarutz (learn how to do this more highly paid kind of editing)
Thinking Like a Designer: How to Save Money by Being a Smart Client, by Michael Brady (at least one copy editor buys this to give to his clients, so they understand the intersection between editing and design)
The Time of Their Lives: The Golden Age of Great American Book Publishers by Al Silverman (a delicious read)
Words into Type (3rd Edition) by Marjorie E. Skillin (better organized that the Chicago Style Manual, and very useful for explaining the process of book editing and production, though way behind the times on technological changes)
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Courses on Book Publishing, Editing, and Proofreading
Columbia Publishing Course. Formerly a six-week summer course in which college trained in the basics of book editing, sales, design, and publicity, this year, writes Julie Bosman in the NY Times (7-15-11), the E-Book Revolution Upends a Publishing Course. Writes Bosman, "This years 101 students were chosen from more than 475 applicants, the highest number in years, showing that they were not deterred by the $6,990 fee for tuition and room and board on the Columbia campus or by the limitations of entry-level positions that pay around $30,000 a year."
Editorial Boot Camp (various locations) and Fiction Editing Boot Camp
Copyeditors' Knowledge Base KOK Edit's very useful directory to places to get training and certification as an editor, copyeditor, or proofreader.
Editorial Freelancers Association, one-day workshops, seminars, and classroom and online courses for editorial freelancers
Editorial Practices certificate, The Graduate School (formerly USDA, Washington DC)
Certificate program, classroom training, online training
EEI Communications Training (the publishing think tank, Washington DC area)
NYU Summer Publishing Institute (book, magazine, and digital publishing) and NYU Continuing Education
Radcliffe Program (now at Columbia). See Salon.com article about the change of venue
UC Berkeley Extension Professional Sequence in Editing. A four-semester sequence, either classroom and online training. Four required courses: grammar, mechanics and usage for editors; introduction to copyediting; intermediate copyediting; and either substantive editing or a professional sequence in technical communication.
University of Chicago editing courses
University of Denver (The Publishing Institute) (four-week introduction to book publishing)
Yale Publishing Course, two versions of an intensive, week-long course for publishing professionals: Magazine and online publishing (July 10-15, 2011); Book Publishing, print and digital (July 24-29, 2011). Tuition: $4995. Earlier we ran this link to a story about Yale's course: Yale launches course for the magazine and book publishing industry (to fill the gap left by the closure of the renowned Stanford Professional Publishing Course (SPPC), which was offered from 1978 to 2009).
Book publishing courses (listed, but not evaluated).
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Books on Design
Brady, Michael. Thinking Like a Designer: How to Save Money by Being a Smart Client
Bringhurst, Robert. The Elements of Typographic Style
Hendel, Richard. On Book Design
Lee, Marshall. Bookmaking: Editing, Design, Production, 3d edition
Lupton, Ellen, and Abbott Miller. Thinking with Type: A Primer for Designers: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students. See Ellen Lupton's website
Tufte, Edward. Envisioning Information and The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. See Edward Tufte's website, including PowerPoint Does Rocket Science--and Better Techniques for Technical Reports.
Books on Indexing
The Art of Indexing, by Larry Bonura
Beyond Book Indexing, edited by Marilyn Rowland and Diane Brenner
Indexes: A Chapter from The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition
Indexing: A Nuts-and-Bolts Guide for Technical Writers, by Kurt Ament
**Indexing Books, by Nancy C. Mulvany
An Indexers Guide to the Internet, by Lori Lathrop
The Indexing Companion (Website Indexing), by Glenda Browne and Jon Jermey
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Interesting examples of heavy editing in literature
Sometimes the editor helps create a piece, by carving away the flab and helping to find the artistic center within. Sometimes such heavy editing does not have such felicitous results. Among the most interesting examples of heavy editing in literature:
F. Scott Fitzgerald's heavy cutting of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises
Max Perkins' heavy editing and reorganizing of Thomas Wolfe's long, long novel manuscripts (including Look Homeward, Angel)
Ezra Pound's beautiful editing of T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland (Eliot's title was He Do the Police in Different Voices
Gordon Lish's editing of Raymond Carver's short fiction (the subject of at least two fascinating magazine pieces, linked to below)
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