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.

What's your subject ellbell (apart from cultural significance of The West Wing...)

I wonder if I've 'done' you UQD ...

Some authors clearly know their spelling/grammar. Others don't, but can tell a great story anyway. I find the toughest jobs are the books that have been written in a hurry, or that have been rewritten so much that all the dates/ages of the characters are muddled. You fix one bit and another bit falls out of place.

In answer to Aitch: I was briefed today for my next job and told 'take out the really offensive bits'. Last year I did a boy-band's - ahem - autobiography and was told to 'make them sound less like idiots'. That's the sort of thing.

I do love my job, though. Even the crappy books. They all present a different challenge. And when you get a really good one, it doesn't feel like work at all.

Well... definitely not thermodynamics, pw! Yes, science is probably different. In fact, a friend's dh is a mathematician and his articles use English words, but they don't add up to anything that sounds English to me! My own field is modern languages, but specifically medieval literature (so not 'modern' at all, really...). (Am still trying to work out how to link that to The West Wing!)

Ooh err, at ladymixalot 'doing' UQD . Didn't think this was that kind of a thread!

Do you really take the red pen out so ruthlessly policywonk -- compress paragraphs to a sentence? I'm more hands-off than that, tho' I've never worked on a DPhil-to-book conversion, and I guess they are probably the worst culprits for pointless incomprehensibility.

I think I should probably be a bit more intrusive in my editing. I'm too polite!

When I get things that are as bad as policywonk says (i.e. whole paragraphs that could be compressed into a sentence) I just send it back and ask the author to rewrite it. If they can't/won't we just don't publish it.

What on earth were you doing up at 5am?

I'm only that ruthless when I have very technical monograph-type books written by authors for whom English is not the first language (God that's a bad sentence right there). I get these quite often when working on development stuff - the politics of sanitary provision in Brazil, say, or transport networks in Kenya. Where these things are written by Brazilian/Kenyan authors, it's not possible to go back and ask them to do it again, so really it's part of my brief to rewrite as well as edit. I quite enjoy it really.

I do the early-morning shift to make up for the fact that I really can't face working in the evenings. When I am behind schedule (i.e., always -- especially since discovering mumsnet) the guilt hangs over me all day if I contemplate a routine of evening work. But getting up early lets me steal a march on my guilt.

I used to work in a role that involved a lot of rewriting, and writing. Lots of fun. Most of the authors I deal with these days write well, so not much rewriting to do. A little light tinkering, and a politely phrased query when I can't penetrate their intended sense.

I work at a few different things: some teaching, some feature writing for a magazine, some editing (currently, for example, a medical journal, though medicine nowhere near my thing). Also, as usually strapped for cash, I write some ad copy, though I'd love to do more editing and fewer ads. I write fiction too (I've never edited fiction professionally) but I'd love to write a non-fiction book, I am steaming with ideas but pressed for even five minutes to sit and think them through.

Interesting thread - does anyone mind if I ask a question? Possibly a stupid one.

How do you get into editing? I'm a final year music undergraduate whose dissertation is an editing project. Much as I love editing music there's not a lot of call for it because all the good stuff got grabbed 20 years ago so I'm looking at playing with words. What do I need to do? Or did I do totally the wrong degree and should have read English Literature instead?

I started as a secretary (you could do that in my day) and worked my way up.

Nowadays people either do unpaid work experience and hope for a job at the end of it, or do one of those post-graduate publishing courses - they can look good on your CV but I'm not entirely convinced of their usefulness. Expensive too.

Some companies have internship programmes - check websites.

I studied English, but it's not essential. Music would certainly be a useful degree for a specialist music publisher (obviously).

frannikin - you don't need to have done Eng Lit (though I did, just because I loved it and couldn't imagine doing anything else). I did a short postgrad publishing course (6 months) immediately after graduating, which I found helpful. Towards the end of my course I wrote to more than 40 companies asking for work experience and received replies from 2 . The second one was a large publisher and I filled in for an editorial assistant while she was on holiday. It turned out she had resigned just before going away, and after my two weeks there I got her job. My starting salary was £12k (though this was 10 years ago), which always provided amusement for my graduate friends...

Mine was 9.5k (13 years ago)!

That's one thing I neglected to mention - be aware that editorial work isn't particularly well paid. I love my job, but I do earn less than most of my friends.

Ex-editor, now web manager. I did a degree in EngLit, spent a brief spell as a drudge in arts admin before having DS1, then went to work for a telecoms consultancy as an editor. We did everything - proofreading, copy-edit, structural edit, graphics creation and editing, layout (to corporate templates), print production and HTML for the online - on an enormous range of docs (proposals, client reports, presentations, published research reports, marketing bumph...). The deadlines were stupid, it was practically impossible to do a proper job, and some of the authors very difficult to work with, but actually I kind of miss it even now.

I now work for a literary magazine, but have no involvement at all in the editing of the text (though I share print production work with my boss). Having always been the literary one in a techie environment, I've now swapped sides, and it is just weird.

Can I ask all you freelances, how do you decide what to charge?

HI Dramas -- I tend to find most publishing houses set their own rate, and the decision is more 'Is that really too crap a payment for this job?'
Then I take it regardless. Methinks I need assertiveness lessons.

Thanks PiW. Do they tend to offer close to NUJ (or other - who else?) recommended rates?

PiW, I'm afraid that's about right. Budgets are set in advance and we usually set a flat fee for the job. We do try to be reasonable though, and if a fee is completely ridiculous for the job, we are open to negotiation (usually me begging my boss for more funds).

I'm poacher and gamekeeper. I am a novelist and I also do some copy-editing and proofing as a day-job. Starting to feel the day-job is taking up too much of my energy, though.

When I have to proof my own copy it feels very strange.