Everything you always wanted to know about being an editor, but were afraid to ask

This email exchange with my managing editor pretty much sums it all up:

ME to me: I meant to mention to you that Yada Yada would like to include the extra information (and credit you) that you added as an "FYI" to him in note 83 of chapter 10 of Blah Blah Blah (about the whatchamacallit being used in Ringydingy in the 1970s). Is this OK with you?

Me to ME: That credit belongs to Whats Hisname.

Whats Hisname, an editorial consultant who occasionally eyeballs manuscripts, added one sentence to the book. I made well over a thousand edits, many of them substantive.

I will receive no credit or thanks of any kind from the author (nor will the layout person who transforms the Word docs into a publishable PDF file in InDesign), and certainly no mention in the book's Acknowledgments section. That little perk always goes to the acquisitions editor who brought the manuscript in and then, with virtually no review, turned it over to Editorial. Every time I read that section of a manuscript and see that acknowledgment, I want to scream.

The Undeserving

Every time I read a thank-you "to my [Acquisitions] editor" in the Acknowledgments section of a book I'm editing, I want to scream.

The acquisitions editors bring in the work (quantity); we copy editors bring it up to publishing standards (quality).

Publishers should have a policy, written into their contracts with authors, stating that in the layout stage of a manuscript they will insert a standard shout-out for the copy editor and proofreader.

Editors are a lonely bunch.

The American Editors Association has released its 2009 "Annual Survey of Favorite Works of Art."

"In a word, alienation," is how AEA President Giuliana Manfredini characterized the survey results. Manfredini elaborated: "We have seen over the past few years, the survey trending slightly in this direction. But for a variety of reasons—some market and some economy driven—the dam seems to have broken last year, carrying our members to a very dark place insofar as their selections."

Here, then, are the top 10:

1. Edvard Munch’s "The Scream"

2. Pink Floyd’s "Another Brick in the Wall"

3. "The Prisoner"’s assertion, "I am not a number—I am a free man!"

4. The Beatles’ "Nowhere Man"

5. Edward Everett Hale’s The Man Without a Country

6. Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man

7. The Coen Brothers’ "The Man Who Wasn’t There"

8. Bob Seger’s "Feel Like a Number"

9. Thomas Harris’s The Silence of the Lambs

10. Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land

The survey, to which nearly 80,000 editors responded, asked members to identify their top pick from the fields of literature, film, music, TV, or any other artistic medium of their choice.

Persona non grata (yet one more last time)

Ten days to go before I leave my hellish FT job, so perhaps there will be another similar entry. But for today, we have this little, telling story.

In the weekly staff meeting, my MoronManager announced that today is the last day for one of our proposal coordinators. LR came in as a temp-to-perm, has done a bang-up job, and is yet another competent professional driven out by, among other things, the gross incompetence of my IdiotManager.

I am leaving next week, but my MentallyChallengedManager said nary a word about my imminent departure.

Oh, how I'd love to be around when the first big proposal blows up in her face. A proposal center without a FT editor; makes perfect sense in her world, wherever that might be.

Ten (among many more) things

September 11 is my final day as a FT, company-employed editor. I will not miss the following (in random order because I’m too lazy to sort in any meaningful order):

Supervised by a “manager” who personifies the Peter Principle

Told, “You decide [a style point], you’re the editor,” and then being overruled by illiterate proposal managers

Underappreciated, undervalued, and underpaid

Editing writing by people who don’t know the difference between, for example, its and it’s, their and there

Working with incompetent temp editors

Rarely, if ever, being thanked

Trying to educate people about the time required to do quality editing

Working with graphic designers and desktop publishers who never proof their own work

Working with managers and coordinators who won’t enforce version control, thereby giving writers access to files after my final edit

Writing and updating style guides no one adheres to, let alone reads

Persona non grata (one last time)

I turned in my resignation on Monday. My final day as the government proposal editor for the IT company will be 9/11. I picked that date for its obvious symbolism. It changed our lives forever. Leaving this god-awful job will do the same for me.

When I told my manager, her only words were, "I was just getting used to the idea that you were going to be around for a while."

I could not have hoped for a better, more representative, ending statement from this dolt whom I have endured since January '08.

After twenty months, she finally realizes that I'm actually there. Well, not quite, because as she puts it, it's merely "the idea" that I'm there.

Persona non grata IV

The players: G is one of our two proposal coordinators. S is a contract proposal manager, called in on a regular basis. He and I have had several conversations. S knows I’m the sole editor in the proposal center.

The following is an unedited email:

Hi G, Could you have a quick edit done on this paragraph (e.g. use of semi colons on last line, etc.. I need this today by say 2 PM. I need to have authors repllicate all but the yellow highlited portion in a number of sections, therefore, I want to get it right the first time! Thanks, S

As you might have noticed, S doesn’t mention me specifically. (Please note: rhetorical question coming.) Is there someone else to do “a quick edit”? G passed his request on to me, and I quickly edited S’s graph.

S was in the office today. Post-edit I passed him twice. Nary a word of greeting or thanks.

I wish I truly were invisible. I could save a lot of money at Starbucks, for example.

Persona non grata III

Here's further proof that editing is, indeed, a thankless profession.

This is an excerpt from an internal, congratulatory, business-is-booming newsletter:

"Among key deals year-to-date, the XX Services Group has won:

"A $119 million extension with XX. We deliver a wide range of infrastructure support to XX's Information Technology Services office in the U.S. and internationally. We have been the incumbent contractor since 2003. Our thanks go to . . . GA, AC, EG, RR, and LM [for their work on the proposal]."

The combined effort of these five co-workers didn't approach mine. But again, I'm the invisible man, chopped liver as it were.

Disjointedness: An Email Exchange

Bud – Trying to refresh my memory from what was discussed during our Team Development session at the Marriot, weren’t you supposed to update the style guide? Reason I ask is because we have new writers for the EDF proposal and they have asked me today to provide them a copy for reference. Just let me know where it is saved and I will take care of printing it. Thanks.
------------------------
Gloria [one of the two proposal coordinators in the Proposal Center],

I finished my work on it several weeks ago and turned it over to Ellen at that time so she could review the DTP section.

Also, I made some changes to the acronym section; I'll finalize the acronym section when Sue reviews the list I made of acronyms that never need to be spelled out. You might remember that was one of my action items coming out of our team building session with Bryn. I did that list immediately after that session, but as of a couple of weeks ago Sue had not yet looked at it.

Theater of the absurd: two characters, one act (Persona non grata II: 2/23 update)

Me: I've finished revising the style guide, except for the acronym section. I can't complete that until the acronym list is finalized, you know, the list I sent to you a couple of weeks ago.

Proposal manager: I haven't looked at it yet. [Nor did she ever acknowledge receipt of it.]

Me: Well, I guess in the grand scheme of things, in the context of the proposal center, you should give it as much attention as it deserves.

PM: I'll try to look at it tonight.

And I'll try to not be bald.

Persona non grata II

At last Friday’s team-building session, we ended with a review of our individual action items. These are designed to improve the functioning of the proposal center.

My action item was to submit to the proposal manager a list of widely used and commonly understood acronyms that don’t need to be spelled out in proposals (e.g., DoD for Department of Defense).

Over the weekend I reviewed several proposals, pulled out a long list of those acronyms, and e-mailed the list to the PM, with a cc to the proposal center manager and the two proposal coordinators.

At yesterday’s staff meeting the proposal center manager again reviewed the action items to ensure we all understand our responsibilities regarding them. She and the proposal coordinators didn’t even acknowledge that I had already completed mine. Nor have I heard back from the proposal manager.

As an editor, I’m familiar with not being appreciated or thanked. As a human being, I’ll never accept being ignored.

Persona non grata

Yesterday a proposal manager (in charge of a group of writers) sent a query to one of our two proposal coordinators (they shepherd proposals through the production process).

Unlike most PMs, he knows there is something called style and wants to consider it before his writers begin their work on the proposal.

He asked her the following style questions: (1) Ft. Monmouth or Fort Monmouth? (2) Service Desk or service desk? (3) information assurance or Information Assurance? (4) Periods at the end of bulleted items or not? (5) Army/DoD Group, or Army and DoD Group?

Not only did she not refer his questions to me, her response was that (1) the items weren't that important, (2) he and his writers could decide, and (3) “the Editor will also try and catch any inconsistency that was missed by the writers.”

Let's break down the three elements of her response. First, how we treat each of these items is what style is all about. Second, I’ve been charged with developing and enforcing house style. Third, I am a nameless editor who will “try” to catch errors.

Because she cc'd me on the e-mail thread, I responded to his questions with specific answers for each item. He thanked me. She didn’t even acknowledge my e-mail to him.

Again, editing is a thankless job, and it is made even more so (what is less than thankless?) when our role is ignored or, worse, undermined.