Monthly Archive for November, 2008

Acknowledgments

Published
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on November 24, 2008
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The Acknowledgments page of a book is where the author gets to thank all the people who helped along the way and added their professional or moral support toward getting the book into print. Some publications, such as professional journals, don’t allow personal acknowledgments, but they’re common and expected in books.

The Acknowledgments page is the one place where you as a writer can publicly credit your editor. In many cases, it’s the one place where your editor will have verifiable proof that she worked on your manuscript, for her own CV.

Acknowledging your editor is like tipping your waiter. You don’t have to do it, but it’s polite to. You’d give your waiter a minimal tip for acceptable service; it’s polite to at least mention your editor even if you don’t feel he’s made a notable contribution to the book. You don’t have to pile on glowing praise if it’s not sincere. Just a brief “thanks to [editor] and [publisher]” is plenty. Of course, if you feel your editor helped you, developed a rapport with you, or improved your book in some way, glowing praise is always welcome—the same way that you’d tip a waiter a little extra for exceptional service.

I do a lot of work through publishers, but when I create a contract directly with an author, I have a line item indicating how my name should be spelled in the Acknowledgments. That’s the only guarantee I have that it’ll be in there; I still have no control over what the author might choose to write, nor would I want to tell a writer what to say. Firstly, they’re the writer, not me! Second and more importantly, it’s essential to keep things in perspective: My goal is to do good work for an author because I take pride in my work, not to ensure that I get a paragraph overflowing with adjectives in a published book.

What happens when the editor doesn’t get acknowledged?

Are my feelings hurt if I don’t get a mention on the Acknowledgments? Sometimes, depending on how much work I’ve put in. If it’s just been a simple proofreading job, or a once-over on a set of galleys, it’s a lot less of an issue than if I’ve been more deeply involved in the process, through more intensive copyediting or substantive revisions.

Do I take it personally? No. It isn’t personal. It’s business. It was probably either a complete oversight, or the author just didn’t feel the edits contributed that much to the finished product… and authors are not, on the whole, an ungrateful lot. If they feel that way, it’s probably because it’s the case. Catching two typos and adding a comma does not make an editor a hero.

Would I do repeat work for an author who didn’t acknowledge me? Yes. Though at that point I might bring up the subject, politely asking if the author felt I didn’t make a significant contribution to the previous book, and telling them I’d appreciate a mention if they feel I’ve contributed to this one.

It’s not worth getting upset over, but it’s not worth swallowing your perspective on, either. You’re building a professional reputation just as your author is, and put politely in those terms, they’ll usually be perfectly happy to oblige.

The Really Important Proofreading Marks

Published
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on November 20, 2008
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Today, a classic:

editingmarks.jpg (c) Eve Corbel

Oh, if only.

via Geist:Comix.

WriMo

Published
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on November 17, 2008
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Here’s a timely question I’ve received for the middle of November:

How do you feel, as an editor, about NaNoWriMo and other writing activities that stress quantity of words and sheer output over things like, say, quality, or editing?

The answer is, I’m all for them. (As long as they don’t take away from your time working on the next draft you owe me!)

Anything that hones your skill and makes you more disciplined about writing, is a good thing. Whether it’s NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), or a workshop, or a blog or story group you contribute to regularly, or even if it’s just writing fanfic for fun, you’re still writing, you’re still practicing your craft and working your creative muscles.

If you end up learning that you can crank out a huge word count in a month, that’s a good thing to know about yourself. If you end up learning that you can’t, then you’ve pushed yourself and you know where your limits are, and you might still have a good start on something you can finish up and polish later.

Additionally, the forums that spring up to support and offer resources for projects like this are often great sources of inspiration, information and networking. They’re worth checking out and keeping up with. You may find something that helps you on your work in progress, an expert you can query, or a writing group that decides to keep the momentum going all year.

So, to those of you slogging toward your 50,000 words, I cheer you on!

(And, my rates are reasonable should you want someone to edit them for you in December.)

Sadistic tools

Published
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on November 13, 2008
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I don’t advocate this for a serious writing project (see: Kamikaze Mode, below), but as a tool for writing exercises, I think it’s brilliant.

Meet Write or Die, a cruel and twisted little application that nudges you when you get distracted and stop typing.

You set the delay interval, and you also choose your consequences, from the following:

* Gentle Mode: A certain amount of time after you stop writing, a box will pop up, gently reminding you to continue writing.
* Normal Mode: If you persistently avoid writing, you will be played a most unpleasant sound. The sound will stop if and only if you continue to write.
* Kamikaze Mode: Keep Writing or Your Work Will Unwrite Itself

Evil.

Brilliant.

In fact, I’m using it to write this post.

If you try it, let me know how it turns out!

Why they call it “work”

Published
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on November 10, 2008
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Q: What do you do when you have to work on a book you don’t really like?

A: Your best.

There are several differences between reading for pleasure and reading for work.

When you read for work, you have to read more carefully and thoroughly. As an editor, I’m on a mission to catch errors, and I have to be aware and alert at all times. When I feel my attention start to fade, I stop. I take a break. I walk around a little. Focus on something else for a few minutes. An error can’t be allowed through because you skimmed a paragraph. It doesn’t matter whether you skimmed it out of disinterest or out of haste to see what happens next.

When you read for work, it doesn’t matter whether you like what you’re reading or not. I’m not getting paid to like a manuscript. I’m getting paid to make it the best that it can be. Can it be a struggle? Sometimes, yes. Sometimes I find that I work more easily in subject matter that doesn’t interest me, because I never get so caught up in the story that I forget to check the words.

Do I take on work that I wouldn’t read for fun? Absolutely. Do I tell the client that I wouldn’t read it for fun? Absolutely not. It’s not tactful or professional, first of all; additionally, my personal tastes don’t matter. Besides, I can almost guarantee that as long as the manuscript is well-written, I will find something in it to praise and to enjoy.

It never hurts to broaden your horizons and expose yourself to a topic or genre that you wouldn’t expect to hold your interest. At the worst, you’ll have a nice check in your bank account and a satisfied customer. At best, maybe you’ll find a gem in there to take away with you, too.

Dash it all!

Published
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admin
on November 6, 2008
in Tips and Hints
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I’m beginning to think that the em dash is the least understood of the punctuation marks, and that the fault isn’t with writers. It’s with computers.

If you’re joining words or separating syllables, you want a hyphen.

If you’re describing a range of values, times, or scores, you want an en dash. An en dash is the dash that’s as wide as the letter n.

If you’re using a dash in your writing for any of the other purposes you’re likely to use a dash for—such as setting off parenthetical statements like this one, or indicating an interruption in dialog—it’s almost certain that the em dash will be the one you need. (So named because it’s as wide as the letter m. Clever, no?) As Mental Floss Magazine says, “The em dash is the spork of English grammar: It ain’t particularly pretty, but you can use it for most anything.”

Go on, now. Find the em dash on your keyboard. Go ahead. Find it.

You can’t, can you? You’ve got a minus/hyphen thing, and you’ve got an underscore, and…that’s it.

If you ask Microsoft Word nicely, it’ll consider turning two hyphens in a row into an em dash for you automatically. It’s equally probable that it won’t, and that your happy editor will have the enviable task of converting all those hyphens to dashes for you.

How do you find the elusive em dash, then?

In HTML, it hides in plain sight. Just as & will give you an &, – will give you an en dash, and — will give you an em dash.

In your word processor, it hides among the symbols. You probably have an “Insert” menu, with a “Symbol” choice as a submenu, which brings up a whole box of arcane-looking glyphs from which to choose:

the symbol menu in Microsoft Word

The longest dash in the bunch is probably your pick, but check carefully, because it might be a misleadingly-centered underscore.

Once you’ve selected the em dash in the symbol menu, you may notice that it’s been assigned a long-winded series of keystrokes that will let you type it directly into your manuscript. In Microsoft Word, as you can see above, my screen tells me that I can hold down “alt” while I type “0151″ and get an em dash on my screen free of charge. That’s a lot of work to do for a single character, and I wouldn’t expect anyone else to bother to do it. But there is also, on that same screen, a clickable option called “shortcut key”. If your editor is smart, she’s gone into this menu and assigned the em dash a convenient shortcut. This editor has chosen “ctrl -”, because it’s easy for me to remember where I’ve put it when it’s on the key with the rest of the dash-type-objects, but you should choose something convenient that you’ll remember.

According to Chicago Manual of Style, em dashes should not be surrounded by spaces. If you’re going by another stylesheet, your mileage may vary. Check your style, check with your editor or publisher. Whether you space or don’t space, though, you’ll save your editor a lot of time if you use the right dashes in your writing.

We type, ergo…

Published
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admin
on November 3, 2008
in Tips and Hints
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If you work at a computer for eight hours a day for a large company, in a large office, there’s probably an ergonomics consultant or coach, or at least a set of standards that the company conforms to, in order to make sure that workstations are set up in such a way that they foster the most productivity and cause the least harm to the workers who use them. When you work from home, no one comes around to make sure that your computer is at the right height, that your mouse doesn’t cause you undue strain, and that you’re not curled sideways all day with your laptop balanced precariously on the arm of your couch.

Ergonomics are just as important in the home office as they are in the corporate office. Moreso, arguably, since the freelancer’s work is done when it’s done, not at some arbitrary point on the clock. In fact, the later the hour and the longer the workday, the more likely we are to sacrifice the rigid, correct posture at our workstation and go curl up on the couch or in bed to finish up those last few tricky chapters while we try to slip in a couple hours’ quality time with the family.

Repetitive stress injuries may sound like wimpy, modern-age disease, but talk to anyone who suffers from one and they’ll tell you just how agonizing they can be. And they’re a vicious cycle. You put stress on your body because you need to do the work, so by the time things have degenerated enough to put you in pain, you feel as though you can’t afford to stop and take care of yourself because the work needs to be done.

Think about your workstation, take a good look at how you spend your online time and your working time, and make sure that you spend that time in configurations that don’t do you harm. There are many good websites with tips on how to set up an ergonomically sound work area (Seating Ergonomics is a good one), and you’ve probably heard the tips a million times before. Arm height, posture, foot position, wrist position, monitor position… You know these things, but do you do them?

Contact stress, force, and repetition are the three types of ergonomic stress. Contact stress can be internal (tendons, blood vessels or nerves rubbing against ligaments or bone) or external (your wrist rubbing against a rough edge on your wrist-guard, or the edge of the chair cutting off circulation in your leg). Force is the stress of exertion. Even small exertions, like reaching for a mouse that’s too far out of your way, or straining your neck upward to look at a badly-angled monitor, can have cumulative negative effects. Repetition of isolated movements over an extended period of time doesn’t allow your muscles and tendons to recover. Combined with contact stress or force, extended repetition can cause serious harm. (source: http://www.safecomputingtips.com/)

You owe it to yourself, and to your clients, to keep all your tools in good working order. Keep your mind sharp and your body healthy. Invest in an ergonomically correct work area, and your investment will pay for itself repeatedly over the length of your long and healthy career.