Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Back to the Future: the Manuscript

This excerpt from my freelance book editing colleague:

"Assuming his battle guard was no larger than what it was later, it numbered at most a thousand men."

That one shorts out my flux capacitor.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

ISO . . .

Technical Writer Neededddd (Fairfax)

They also might need an editor, or perhaps someone to fix a sticky keyboard.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

I love contributing to our educational system.

I just edited an article on "Soap Bubble Projects" for wee little school children.

Hopefully it will facilitate the development of the imagination of one of them, and that child will go on to lead our nation out of the darkness.

For want of a soap bubble, a nation can be lost. And you can quote me on that.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

The World's Most Expensive Liquid?

(Follow up to "Tenacious," below)

Long story short. I saw an ophthalmologist today about "Dusty." It turns out I have some dry eye and a touch of blepharitis. She prescribed AzaSite.

It costs $99 for 2.5 milliliters. If my math is correct, that comes to $158,400 a gallon.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Tenacious

A speck of dust found its way onto my right cornea yesterday, and a stubborn little bastard he is.

A head-on, hurricane-force wind would be most welcome right about now.

Dusty is putting a crimp in my editing style.


Saturday, February 13, 2010

Deep Questions

How many editors can dance on the head of a writer?

If an editor corrects a typo and no reader is aware that the typo ever existed, has the edit actually been made?

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

In sicness [sic] and in health

One of my fellow editors asked for my opinion the other day related to "[sic]." I've got her back, she's got mine.

V: Quoted material in MS: "Despite any efforts put into the surge, the first six months of 2007 was still. . ." Would you insert [sic] after "was"?

ME: Either that or just fix it without the sic, to not draw attention to it. Of course I couldn't find this in CM [Chicago Manual of Style], but aren't we allowed to simply fix errors of this kind?

V: So I should change the "was" to "were" and leave it at that? Suppose that would work.

ME: It works for me. Who's going to object?

Monday, February 8, 2010

A First in My 27 Years of Editing

As I approach the end of my first proofing pass through a horribly written book, I am struck by what a struggle it must have been for this poor schnook of an author to complete the book.

He reached down deep and employed redundancy and wordiness almost at will to reach the finish line.

And I almost wish I had been there to cheer him on. Almost.

After all these years, could I be mellowing? I hope not—too much empathy will destroy the gatekeeper.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

A Winter’s Tale

(My brother editor, Kieran, from Ardfinnan in Ireland, sent me this email on the occasion of the snow storm that hit the mid-Atlantic region this weekend.)

Dear Bud,

Upon seeing reports of the storm—and I’m sure you grow weary of hearing it called the Snowpocalypse—it brought to mind a fond memory from my childhood.

On many a cold winter evening, with peat burning in the stove, Mam would add to the warmth of the fire by telling us stories which had been passed down through her family’s generations. Below is her favorite.

As you will see, it was tales such as this that helped put this wee little editor on the right path.

Best wishes, K

The Four Horsemen of the Commapocalypse

Once upon a time in the Kingdom of Fer Manach, the four Royal Wordsmiths incurred the wrath of the mighty and feared Queen Marrigan when they submitted a particular weekly Queen's Report for her blessing before it was released to members of the Court.

Several of the Queen's closest handmaidens, hesitant yet obliged to deliver the report to Her Highness, forewarned her that she would not be amused by what she read.

Indeed, she was not. For what she saw in the wordsmiths' writing were more errors related to the use of the comma than all the potatoes in the Royal Garden.

Upon hearing of the Queen's displeasure, King Crimthand summoned the wordsmiths to Court and decreed the following:

Wordsmith Breccan, you are guilty of the incorrect placement of the comma, as you have scrivened, “Her Majesty wore a, purple gold and black, gown.”

Wordsmith Narbflaith: you are guilty of using a comma rather than a period, as you have scrivened, “Her Majesty reviewed the troops, She then presented Captain Muirgel with the Royal Cross.”

Wordsmith Tanaide, you are guilty of the omission of the needed comma, as you have scrivened, “Her Ladyship Rosaleen born and bred in Mide will accompany HRH to Temuir the capital of our western provinces.”

Wordsmith Larlug, you are guilty of over-using the comma, as you have scrivened, “Young, Prince, Ultan, has begun his, military training, at Castle Dunguaire in the, Arderins Mountains.”

These punctuational offenses leave me no choice but to ban you from Court until you return from the Great Royal Forest at Glencree, where you will meet for a fortnight to review the Royal Comma Rules.

You will each be provided a steed from the Royal Stables and will then proceed, respectively, to the East, West, North, and South Royal Entrances, after which you will navigate your way to the Royal Middle Forest Glen. Upon reaching the Glen, you will spend the aforementioned fortnight dedicated to mastering the Royal Comma Rules.

You will then immediately return to the Court Annex, at which time you will have five days to draft the next Queen's Report for Her Majesty’s handmaidens to review. May God have mercy on your souls if you have not heeded the Royal Comma Rules.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Ignorance can, indeed, be bliss.

The question is: Does an editor need to be well versed in a subject in order to successfully edit material related to that subject?

Some editors say yes, others no—for reasons that should be fairly obvious. And depending on context, our answer might change.

I believe how an editor views this depends in large part on our editorial mentors and how they defined the role of an editor. And, of course, that early influence is then tempered by our experience until we arrive at our approach to our role and to how we answer the above question.

Regarding my online article editing work, there is a seemingly limitless number of topics that end up in our editing queues, ten at a time. We can select any of them, and how we choose is, again, directly related to the question.

The other day, the following title appeared on my list: "Oracle SQL Tuning Tips." I know nothing about SQL.

Once we select an article, we own it and must edit it. There is no way to preview content. But given the title, I figured this had to be an extremely technical and esoteric article.

So I put on my "ignorant" hat and clicked on the title, taking comfort in knowing that I would not be held responsible for fact-checking or the accuracy of the content—just spelling, grammar, and structure per our editorial guidelines. Here's an excerpt:

If you're writing multiple table joins, make sure you consider the benefits for each EXISTS, IN, and table joins. IN is usually the slowest. Since the majority of filter criteria are in the parent-query, EXISTS will be the most efficient:

SELECT columns FROM tables WHERE EXISTS (sub-query);


After making several simple edits, I gave it an excellent rating, approved it, and submitted it for publication.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Exploitation Masquerading as a Job Ad

Editing is one of the few professions that requires job applicants, regardless of their experience, to take a test. Fair or not, that is the reality. Virtually every editor job I've applied for entailed a test.

Tests range from a relatively short spelling and grammar test up to what amounts to the prospective employer taking advantage of applicants by essentially getting them to edit an actual written product—in other words, the editor is providing his labor/editing gratis.

In a recent ad on Craigslist, the employer—a "leading publishing company of Urban Fiction" seeking to expand its "Reader Program"—asks applicants to provide certain material, including:

"An analysis of an Urban Fiction book—preferably a [company] title, but an analysis of any Urban Fiction book will be accepted. An analysis is a minimum 2-page examination of any combination of plot development, character development, writing style or themes that make the title successful. Please feel free to include critiques of the above elements regarding parts of the book that were not successful."

Exploitation by any other name . . .

How to Meet Contractual Obligations

By hook or by crook—or more specifically, by redundancy—the author of the book I'm currently proofing has met the word-count requirement.

All 143 pages are peppered with this sort of writing:

". . . no longer a capability of that office anymore." And, "Yet the diplomatic corps is also greatly at fault as well.

This brings to mind the phrase, "the letter, if not the spirit."

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

What's past is past.

My freelance colleague V is proofing a book I edited for the nonfiction publisher she and I work for. It was a horrible, messy manuscript: 12 or so different writers, with the lead writer/editor not doing squat to pull it together or even ensure that each chapter was "complete" in terms of the contractual agreement between himself and the company.

She asked me some questions regarding my editing approach to the book, particularly in the area of style. For the most part, I couldn't answer her questions.

Me to V: The reason I block out much of my work is simple: self-preservation, mental health, unloading baggage . . .

V to me: I have selective retention for the same reasons. If you're going to save brain "disk space" for important stuff—bank balances, TV schedules, birthdays, PIN numbers, for instance—gotta let the other stuff go. Can always look it up later if you need it.

Monday, February 1, 2010

The thrill is gone.

Got up early this morning to get a jump on my work.

I've completed one online article, sent two back for rewrites, and proofed four pages in my current book project.

I already need a work break.