Is There a Place for Editors in Publishing Today?
Publishing today is either (a) breaking wide open with exciting new platforms that give unknown authors a chance for their voices and ideas to be heard or (b) spewing ill-conceived, badly written goop all over our beautiful world in the literary equivalent of an environmental catastrophe. I happen to think publishing is both opening (in [...]
Politics: The Grammar Effect
Here’s a question to consider as you prepare to cast your vote next week: Have you thought about the candidates’ grammar? According to a recently published study, you may have thought about it, even if only subconsciously. Two psychologists had college students read statements about made-up political candidates and then rate the candidates’ electability. Sadly [...]
Ready, Set, Write!
This post is for all you novelists and would-be novelists. November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo if you want to sound cool, or plain old NaNo if you’re super cool and in a hurry). If you want to write a novel but think you don’t have time, or if you think it would be [...]
The Fallible Editor
Here’s another little gem from the 1906 Chicago Manual of Style: Editors are fallible, and should be made to live up to their own rules. (p.100) This one makes me squirm a little—or a lot. It comes from the “Hints to Proofreaders” section and is part of a reminder that the proofreader should not assume [...]
Is It Editing or Proofreading?
Recently a writer contacted me and asked very specifically about editing and proofreading services. I replied with a description of my editing services (mostly copyediting, though I do help with developmental editing from time to time) and explained that proofreading (checking proofs against the edited manuscript) isn’t my area of expertise. The distinction between editing [...]
Viagra for Editors?
Lately I’ve been getting frequent spam e-mails encouraging me to buy Viagra from interesting sources. This morning’s e-mail was from “Trustable Viagra Reseller.” “Hi, editor,” the subject line began. Apparently I can get 70% off, which is not nearly as impressive as “Viagra for editor, 77% off.” The place with the bigger discount wasn’t trustable, [...]
Why I Edit
Last Monday was a gray, rainy, and generally icky day here in the Washington, D.C., region. I felt gray and generally icky and wondered why I ever decided to be a freelance editor. Didn’t I know I was resigning myself to a life spent stuck in front of a computer monitor, worrying about eye strain [...]
English Circles the Drain
The English language, according to journalist and funny guy Gene Weingarten, died of shame on August 21 of this year. The death went unreported until yesterday, leading some language lovers (well, me) to suspect that the event has been hushed up by the comma-splicing, apostrophe-abusing, word-misusing media. I won’t repeat the gory details—I don’t want [...]
Where Are All the Editors?
Sometimes I think I should start a new blog devoted entirely to mistakes that make their way into print. Could be a full-time job, but I’m not sure who would pay me to do it. This week has been particularly bad—and I’m talking about obvious errors, not nitpicky little stuff that only editors and other [...]
-
Meta
