Editor — Substantive and Copyediting: Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy
After a brief hiatus, one of my favorite literature-related blogs is back in business. Contrariwise: Literary Tattoos.
I don’t have any literary ink on my own skin (…yet?), but the thought fascinates me nonetheless. It’s always as interesting to see what people have chosen as important to them as it is to see the creative ways they’ve chosen to immortalize them. I check back with this one often.
The Editorial Freelancers Association is (as its website will tell you) “a professional resource for editorial specialists and those who hire them”. Its members include editors, writers, indexers, proofreaders, researchers, desktop publishers, translators, and more, and some of the benefits of membership include networking opportunities for members, job postings, online references and resources, and the prestige of belonging to an editorial association endorsed by the Chicago Manual of Style.
As of today, I have agreed to become EFA’s San Francisco chapter coordinator. I’m excited to have this opportunity, and I’m looking forward to getting to know more of my fellow professionals!
Time is money, and that’s something you feel keenly when you go into business for yourself. Whether you’re a writer, an editor, a designer, or a freelancer in any other field.
Your first priority, when you’re starting up, is to get work. You’re probably still doing something else full-time, whether it’s some kind of schooling or some other kind of employment. This is when your focus should be on taking whatever work you can. Get a portfolio or a resume together. Get experience. Get clients, paying or not, who can vouch that you’ve done work—and done it well!—for them.
Once you’ve got some footing, your next priority is to get paid for your work. I know, this sounds like a given. It is. It’s great to be able to do what you love full-time, but if you can’t pay the rent with it, you won’t be able to do what you love for very long.
Here’s where it gets tricky, though. If you’ve started out by taking free jobs, or low paying jobs, it’s hard to get out of that mindset that tells you that you have to accept every request for free work that comes along. It’s hard to say no to a project. It’s hard to learn to be picky. What if this is the one that gets you the exposure that you want? What if this is the one that makes it big?
This counts for other sorts of self-promotion, as well. Whether it’s attending a conference, agreeing to speak publicly, getting involved in an organization that promotes your business or your field, or even taking time out from work to write regular posts to a forum or blog. *cough*
Chances are, no one paid you to print up your business cards, but business cards are a good promotional tool, and that makes them a worthwhile business expense. When you consider taking unpaid or low-paying work, treat it as same sort of thing.
The key is balance. Ask yourself the following questions:
Worthwhile non-monetary compensation can take such forms as exposure, which could lead to referrals and more paying work; or improved credentials (through professional certifications, for example) which could justify charging an increased rate for your paying work.
Your paid work is the goal of your self-promotion. If you pass up paid work—or if your paid work suffers because you’re spreading yourself too thin—for an unpaid project, you may be shooting yourself in the foot. Ideally, an unpaid project shouldn’t take time away from your other priorities.
As a professional, you need to always be thinking about and moving toward your professional goals. Constantly set your sights higher. If a project is going to take you up a rung in some way, whether in credibility, exposure, networking, etc., then jump on the opportunity. If it’s going to take you down a side path that you feel is a dead end—one that would only provide exposure or opportunities in a direction that you wouldn’t want to pursue—let it pass.
As a freelancer, you have the opportunity to choose your projects. There is freedom in that, but there is responsibility in it, too. Each job you choose should be moving your career forward in some small way: either by paying you at the rate you’ve deemed reasonable and acceptable, or by advancing your exposure, networking with the kinds of professionals whose connections can help you advance, or improving your professional credentials. It’s a balancing act, but a necessary and worthwhile one.
Several years ago, I had the good fortune to attend a talk given by one of the top editors in the children’s lit field. In it, he discussed the decision that had been made to Americanize a very popular series of books written by a prominent British author. The reason, he had said, was so that the novelty of the unfamiliar-but-real foreign words wouldn’t get in the way of the novelty of the author’s world and the unfamiliar-and-made-up magical words that were an integral part of the story.
When there’s a balance to be reached between preserving the original work of the author and making that work more accessible to its readers, there is a lot of room for compromise. There are many levels of cultural adaptation that a novel can undergo, and the decision is often out of a writer’s hands. It rests with the publisher, ultimately, because they want the book to be as marketable within their market as it can be.
I’ve worked on manuscripts which followed UK rules for spelling and punctuation rules. I had to be well enough versed in the differences so that I didn’t change anything that looked ‘wrong’ to my American eyes. I’ve also worked on manuscripts for which I’ve had to change an American manuscript for the UK, or a UK manuscript to American.
There are more international differences in spelling than the casual reader might realize. If you’re going to be undertaking such a project, it’s important that you do your research and not just go with what you think you know. You’re responsible for all the rules, not just the obvious ones. Do know whether to use toward or towards, and whether you have the right shades of gray and grey. Know whether—and when—to leave an e before an ing, even if it looks horribly wrong to you.
Often, an author will alternate between the correct and incorrect words, out of a simple lack of certainty about which choice is right. (Even when there isn’t an international issue involved, I always make sure to check a manuscript’s greys and grays.)
It’s not just the spelling, either. It’s the vocabulary. This gets trickier, because it can become a more substantive change, but it’s no less important. A reader may get momentarily tripped up by kerbs and tyres instead of curbs and tires, but you might throw him from the car completely if you expect him to know its boot from its bonnet. Words like pavement are especially slippery: does the author mean the sidewalk, or the road?
In a case like this, it’s simplest, of course, to translate the unfamiliar into the familiar. The unfamiliar, as that editor I mentioned said in his talk, will stand out and catch the eye. The thing to watch out for, obviously, is becoming so familiar with the foreign rules that they aren’t novel to you anymore, and your mind accepts them as normal and skips right over them. It’s a natural thing, but honed practice at attention to detail will help you overcome it. In time, a fluency develops and it becomes like flipping a switch between UK/US rules. A color or realize will stand out to you in the wrong context just as boldly as honour or aluminium. In this field, knowing British and American really does make you bilingual.
I’ve noticed that my audience here is predominantly writers and other editors, with a sprinkling of a few friends and fans (hi, mom!). Today I thought I’d pose a question to you, the writers (and editors) who read this blog.
Writers seem to fall into two camps with regard to reading. Most of them love to read, of course. If you didn’t love to read, you’d probably have very little interest in forging a career based on writing things for other people to read. Finding time to read is another matter entirely. That’s a matter of circumstance, and not due to any particular personal philosophy on the issue. The division I’m talking about is more in what writers read.
Some writers read extensively. Some pay particular attention to what’s going on in their own genre, to keep up with the field, with the trends on the bestseller lists, with the hot names and the up-and-coming.
Some writers avoid their genres just as studiously. They may read about the market, but they won’t read the books themselves. They worry that anything they read may soak into their subconsciouses and become accidental fodder for their own creative processes, lessening the originality of their own work.
I can see both sides. I’m curious about your perspective as writers, whether hobbyists or professional. Do you read your genre and keep up with the trends, or do you avoid it to maintain intellectual distance and keep your ideas your own? Please drop me a comment.
Last week was busy around here. I edited proofs for an anthology, finished up the last pass on one manuscript and received another. I also started making some holiday and business travel plans.
I also ended up doing a little research and fact-checking on legal issues surrounding writing, and when I found this link I knew that I wanted to share it. Ivan Hoffman, Attorney at Law, has a website offering relevant information for the entertainment professions, including Articles for Writers and Publishers. These articles are for educational purposes and are not legal advice. They should not be taken as blanket interpretations that apply to any situation, since, as his disclaimer explains, “the specific facts that apply to your matter may make the outcome different than would be anticipated by you.” They’re an excellent starting point, though, addressing important issues such as fair use, copyright, pen names, foreign rights and contracts, illustrated by relevant cases. With this collection of legal articles, Mr. Hoffman has provided a great resource for writers and editors alike.
My call for questions brought in a couple of good ones. Some are questions about me, some are more particular questions about the editing business and how I handle specific situations. Please drop me a line via the contact me tab above, if you have a question or a comment.
A question I’m asked frequently is, “How did you become an editor?” This is almost as frequently followed up with “How do I become an editor?” I’ll address that in a future post, but today I thought I’d back up a little and start by answering a more basic question I received this week:
What made you interested in editing?
Three things, really, I think: A love of books, an eye for detail, and a sense of humor.
I learned to read at an early age, with parents who encouraged my education and raised me on a diet of science fiction, fantasy, and the classics. We had the leatherbound rune-inscribed edition of The Hobbit, and I remember getting a chapter a night at bedtime when I was very young. I remember that sometimes I was read to, but sometimes I would read it myself and just get help on the hard words. I grew up in a house full of books, and I grew up learning to love books and the flights of imagination they held.
My second year of high school, I spent a summer working in the school library for credit. Thereafter, I worked in the library every summer, and every day before class and at lunch, if I could. When I graduated, I got a summer job with the library system. I would work at one school cataloging new books, or I’d go to another school that was just automating their checkout system, doing inventory and barcoding old books.
When I first entered the workplace, I found myself with an aptitude for data analysis, and ended up working data analysis jobs across a number of industries. It was that attention to detail and the inherent knack for proofreading that made me successful at it. (That, and a lack of fear of Excel formulas!)
I’ve always been the sort to point out questionable wording or typos, or teasingly question the literal meanings of things. I’ve been spotting typos and photographing funny signs for a long time.
Eventually, I got the opportunity to work for a major publishing house. I wasn’t an editor, but I was responsible for catching errors in other people’s work, and in the corporate database as a whole. Like any muscle that strengthens with use, my existing aptitude was sharpened greatly. I learned to stop assuming that facts were correct just because they were in print. I learned to second guess what I saw, and how to research facts, and how to point out errors and request their correction in a tactful, professional way.
And I met editors. They were people just like me, doing a job very similar to mine, just on different kinds of files. And then I realized that I could be doing what they were doing. I had met people who spotted typos for profit, not just for fun; and with a little focus and training, I could be one of them. I love books, and the thought of getting involved in such a deep, hands-on sort of way with their creation was a very appealing one. So I set out to make it happen for myself.
How did I do that? Stay tuned, dear reader. That’s a topic for another post.
I did, actually, have plans for a post on the use of made-up words in fantasy; on how much is too much, on making sure that they serve a purpose other than to just look cool and give an otherworldly feel. But then the twisted genius of xkcd posted this strip, and it says it all for me in one concise panel. Summary: moderation, dear author. Moderation.
(As with all xkcd strips, hover your mouse on the image for the alt text.)
