Category: General

A short entry this week about not much. Consider this spring break for me. The season finally arrived, a couple of weeks late, and I’d rather be out there in the sun. Besides, my pool of notes for this blog has run dry. Will have to generate more content next week. It’s been a year....Continue reading

The farther I get from actually doing the job, the less I like to think about petty style points, which used to take up so much of most days and which weren’t as enjoyable to navigate as syntactical work. There’s a lot of pride available, and at stake, in knowing how to handle that/which question...Continue reading

That’s a straightforward question. Let me complicate it. Obviously, a writer is someone who can write, but that’s basically everyone. Lecture notes, shopping lists, love letters, business emails, blogs. None of that has anything to do with writing well, which brings forward the second definition – a writer is someone who has a knack, or...Continue reading

Bob Dylan was awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature a few years ago. I’m happy for him. It was about time they gave it to a songwriter. But it’s Tom Waits who would have got my vote, or Bruce Springsteen, or Gil Scott-Heron, or Joni Mitchell. When I say that, I’m thinking like a copyeditor...Continue reading

I’ve now been retired for a year. I recall that the batch email I wrote to my clients – and to a handful of authors – announcing my decision was a lot of fun to draft. Gad, I’d been looking forward to it. Yes, I would finish all the half-dozen projects I’d already started that...Continue reading

When the call or email that comes in isn’t from an ME at an actual house, then you’re dealing with a cold client. Be wary, no matter what kind they are. And there are various kinds. Kind One: Someone Googled “copyeditor” and stumbled upon my website. It hardly ever happens, and when it does, I...Continue reading

What does the house expect from you? What will the author tolerate? And what would be useful and helpful? It’s a matter of triangulation. It’s a matter of developing your own judgment and then acting on it. CLERKING basically involves “Just apply the style sheet, and check for typos, that’s all.” And there are houses...Continue reading

It would turn out years after I started that I would be relying on a stable of clients, but I hadn’t begun to acquire them and didn’t know that any success I had would revolve around developing one. The first few years were about seeking first projects for companies while trying to avoid making bone-headed...Continue reading

The house may well tell you to make any queries to author in the form of margin comments. I never do – I place them directly in the text, <between angle brackets, highlighted in blue>. Obviously, your queries should be brief, precise, and respectful. Also, they should be cast in a neutral tone  – no...Continue reading

I have never worked on the acquisition side, though I’ve been an interested observer. If you’ve got a mind to recommend an author to a house, my advice is don’t. It just isn’t your portion – you’re on the production side – and after the first time you try it, ever after you’re going to...Continue reading