Editorial workers sign in here (even though editors aren't pedants)

[Threadworm]

There are obviously quite a few copy-editors, proofreaders and such like on Mumsnet and I thought it would be good to learn a little about what you all do.

I've put this in Pedants' Corner for want of a better place. But editors aren't really pedants, are we? I don't spend much of my time correcting authors' grammar. For a start, the rules are fluid and they are there to be broken creatively. And for another thing there are too many other editorial tasks to spend time on.

I am a freelance book editor, working on academic publications mostly aimed at higher-level undergraduates and post-graduates. As far as possible, I edit books connected with philosophy, which I studied to post-graduate level. I copy-edit the books myself and commission proofreaders and index writers.

Please tell me what you do.

Go on PW, tell me what packager you worked for. Just an initial letter will do (I'll instantly know if it's the one I worked for 10-ish years ago!)

I've also done my fair share of bollocky feng shui/cat-type nonsense, and have developed a complete aversion to anything mind-body-spirity as a result. Bloody Reiki.

[How was my hyphenation there, by the way? Should those last two have been en-dashes? ]

Bot - keep wanting to call you bottie - initials were IP, based in Lewes. Quite a small one.

Oh God, mind-body-spirit bollocks aaaaargh. I had to do a book once with an author who had started out as a fairly conventional Chinese medicine specialist and had slowly worked his way towards the outer reaches of Crazy. He wanted us to have several spreads about inter-plantary travel (achieved through the meridians and a spot of meditation). I had to tactfully distract him with biscuits.

Also once had an author from Epsom who had decided to become a Native American Healer (I think there's an NVQ you can take ). At my first meeting with him he advertised his powers by saying 'I could kill a man using only my fingers.' I think I was supposed to find it overpoweringly sexy but really he was just a nob.

oops, it's policywonk, forgot to change name back...

Oh, I know the one. Not the one I worked at (mine began with a Q). I have their catalogue sitting on my desk though!

The (now defunct) MBS imprint at my place had a book about consorting with the spirits that had a chapter called 'Ghost Rape'. The mind boggles.

Oh I know Q - in fact I think the IP boss helped to set it up in the first place then sold his stake for a large wodge of cash.

Ghost Rape - ffs.

There are times when you are working on these books when you think, 'I should just shoot myself now', aren't there (or is that just me?)

A friend of mine got commissioned to write a jokey Chinese medicine/feng shit-type book - can't remember exactly what it was about - and IP wanted him to have a vaguely authentic Chinese name (rather that his very pedestrian English name). So he adopted the nom de plume of Penny Chew. How we laughed. Not once person at the US publisher noticed (I guess they wouldn't).

Hello all, gosh, what a lot of us there are. (If I count...not sure I do at the moment.) I used to work in editorial for a legal publisher, then went freelance when I was pg with ds1. I 'retired' when I was pg with ds2 (having had dd in between) but am just starting to mull over the idea that I have to go back to it.

What do you think? Could I get back in? Is there enough work about? And has everything changed in the last five years?

am i allowed on as an ex-sub for a national newspaper? loved it. still get a little orgasmic about headlines. (front page of Mirror today Steve McLaren: I'll get my Croat. )

Ex-copywriter and proofreader here. I now produce accessible information (easy read) for people with learning disabilities.

It's the polar opposite of copywriting - plain English, short sentences, no waffle.

I worked on consumer magazines as a sub-editor, deputy editor and editor before having the DCs.

Had a great time working on a music mag for a few years, then went on to do some bits for outdoor sports/leisure titles. Also had a strange couple of years subbing on a local newspaper, but couldn't quite handle the excitement of the endless chip pan fires and golden weddings!

Love the Croat, Aitch!!!!

I produce copy for and proof read food labels

Would love a proper editing job

Oh I've just noticed how this thread has moved on. Brilliant. It's so good to hear the interesting things that you are all doing.

I'm feeling really lucky at the moment. I'm working on ... wait for it ... a really interesting book. Yes! Truly! And it has a really nice author.

(Better get back to it, I suppose.)

so how do you book people do it, then? do you just read them and go 'yeah, that looks fine'? or is there More To It?

If only. A lot of our authors are chosen for their expertise in a particular field rather than their ability to write, so there is often a shockingly huge amount of work to do on the text (complete rewriting in some cases).

Also, I do lots of stuff that isn't just copyediting/proofreading - project editors are often responsible for the whole book from start to finish, eg working out costings, commissioning copyeditors, designers and illustrators, doing sales presentations - all sorts of nonsense really. For example, I've spent the majority of today trawling a picture library for images for a big book on stately homes (the bit of the day when I haven't been Mumsnetting or eating cake, that is).

bits of the day

As an author, I was amazed when my last editor told me that my manuscript had been a pleasure to work on as it was properly spelt and punctuated and used grammar correctly.

Naively, I asked, "But surely they all are?"

Apparently not!

Oh we like those sorts of authors. Few and far between in this bit of publishing, unfortunately.

What's your area, botbot?

I can't believe that people can be published and not be able to have a basic grasp of the rules of good English.

General illustrated non-fiction. Currently working on three textile art books, a book about tea, aforementioned stately homes book, a book of fairy tales (OK, that's fiction), one on painting in acrylics, one on fashion illustration. All sorts really.

You'd be surprised, UQD. I'm not an editor by profession, but do a lot of editing in an academic context and you'd be amazed at how many academics are unable to string a meaningful sentence together. And as for following a style sheet... forget it!

I insist with my creative writing students that they don't send anything out to agents until they have spell-checked and proofread it (and preferably got someone else to do so as well) several times over!

They'd be thoroughly dispirited if they knew what published authors are getting away with, when they themselves are so desperate to be published...

Freelance writer/editor type here too... currently working on book/dvd series... attempting to think up a specialist column, and wasting time on bloody MN and Facebook.
No will-power and deadline looming!

UQD, you are talking about fiction aren't you? Most of us on here are non-fiction editors (I think), and as botbot says authors are chosen for subject expertise rather than writing skills.

My pet peeve in this context is academic authors (esp. those who have produced PhD theses that are being converted into books) who use fourteen words where four would suffice because they think it makes them look more intelligent, or makes their argument more impressive. When I'm feeling evil I often find I can compress entire paragraphs into a single sentence.

I do fiction and non-fiction - have published 5 novels and 3 non-fic titles (with 4th being written).

But my classes are fo aspiring novelists.

policywonk... I completely agree, and I am an academic. It's one of those things guaranteed to set me off on a rant... Do people suppose that their audience is impressed by their incomprehensibility? I like to think that it's possible to communicate quite complex issues in a clear and readable way.

I think that some junior academics (hopefully they will remain junior because they are not terribly bright) think that if a thought is significant it must also be difficult to express. They also think that, vice versa, opaque language signifies complex thoughts. Whereas I tend to think that the more significant a thought is, the more possible it is to express it clearly and in simple language (although I guess this applies only to the humanities - probably not much help in thermodynamics, say).