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The Subversive Copy Editor: Advice From Chicago (or, How To Negotiate Good Relationships With Your Writers, Your Colleagues, And Yourself) (2009)

by Carol Fisher Saller(Favorite Author)

4.08 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0226734250 (ISBN13: 9780226734255)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

University Of Chicago Press

review 1: As a fledgling copy editor, I’ve encountered a handful of problems that extend beyond a manuscript riddled with grammatical and logical errors--logistics and relationships that surround the manuscript and can sometimes cause problems with its publication. Some of these come in the form of varying deadlines for projects of varying levels of importance; some in the form of negotiations over price of labor; and others in the form of difficult authors who seem like “stet” was their first word as a child. Not all problems originate with elements outside of the editor, though. The editor loses projects because he didn’t file them properly; the project takes longer than expected because he didn’t discuss with the author the exact tasks needed for the project. Worst of a... morell, he spends too much time meticulously editing a hyphen into every instance of what he thinks are compound adjectives without doing the research on the project’s vernacular, and in effect, misses other grammatical mistakes. Carol Fisher Saller understands the myriad of situations that editors can end up in during their profession. She walks the reader through her own professional experiences, sharing her missteps and frustrations with a sober shake of the head and a pleasingly candid narrative voice. One gets the comforting sense that she understands the compulsive perfectionism that editors (and writers) inherently possess, having been there herself, and that her advice to resist impulsively listening to that “little voice” in one’s head is sound. At times, this voice causes editors to become overzealous in their quest to create a “perfect” style and ignore authors’ conscious stylistic decisions that have no bearing on official citation styles. She’s not saying that editors’ instincts are always wrong (what kind of world would that be?), but that editors should consider whether a) their viewpoint is supported by published evidence (such as in a style guide), b) the issue is a harmless style choice, or c) the issue is worth worrying over at all. Saller points to the audience as every project’s top priority. Refocusing the editor and author’s priority on the reader is one of the couple of key concepts that I took away from the book, as a lot of her advice is centered on only a few themes. I was able to skim through a chapter or two, like the chapter on Word Processing, which seemed built more for someone who hasn’t been exploring the ins and outs of Office programs and email systems since elementary school. She does provide some useful tips in other areas, however, such as keeping several versions of one document: organization is a small detail that sometimes even experienced editors forget. Carefulness, transparency, and flexibility are her key themes for handling difficult situations, clients, employers, coworkers, and compulsions. While I would definitely advocate for reading this book for more details, I will say a main lesson of the book is this: make well-supported changes that adhere to the given style rules while being completely up-front with the author; otherwise, do no harm and consider the author’s style (with reader as priority). Overall, this is a less a handbook for beginners in my eyes than it is a conversation with more experienced editors, freelance or otherwise. Saller cites more resources within the book to further the education of rising copyeditors, so I definitely suggest picking it up. I will be incorporating some of her tips into my work, and hopefully get out of my own straight jacket soon.
review 2: Wonderful little book, with great advice on editing. I edit as a small portion of my job, but it is a responsibility that I would like to improve. This book doesn't offer advice on how to edit per se, it's more about how to be a good editor, as in, how to have a productive relationship with a writer, a supervisor, a coworker, etc. There's lots of advice on how to stay sane, to keep the big picture, and how to essentially chill out about rules of editing. less

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