Editing?

This is an article from Carl's previous blog, Conversations Across the Table, originally posted on Saturday, June 04, 2005.

When I first started publishing books a half-century ago, editors in trade publishing were mainly what we now call “acquisitions editors.” Or – at Llewellyn – “acquisitions specialists” in particular subject areas. These are the people who find and develop authors to write books on particular subjects, or who look at manuscripts in those subject areas.

I am not discussing academic, scientific, or scholarly publishing – just what we call “trade” which is what most of us are familiar with in neighborhood and chain book stores.

In those early days, most authors were good writers and you could count on a ‘clean’ manuscript. In those days, if a manuscript was presented by an agent, then whatever had been wrong with it was already fixed up. If we liked it, we were ready to “go to press.”

That was lucky for me since in those days I did everything – acquiring the book, designing the interior, designing the cover, writing back cover copy, pricing it, sending it our for typesetting, reading the galley proofs, contracting for printing and binding, writing advertising, selling it to book store buyers, and often – in the late hours at night – packing shipments. As more books were published – back then there were perhaps 2,000 new titles annually, and now there are 200,000 – the quality of writing declined. Not only were manuscripts filled with spelling and grammar errors but factual errors, quotes for which there were neither attribution or permission, illustrations cut from other books and magazines, and so forth.

Quickly I recognized the need to re-invent publishing. Of course, this was happening elsewhere, and as the industry changed and grew so did the many jobs I performed and eventually trained others to perform. I became a copy editor – fixing those problems. And then, with new technology that became known as “desk top publishing” in later years, I became a production editor – designing, copy editing and content editing as I typeset the book. That happened about 45 years ago.

Under a Scorpio Moon

I was reminded of this last week when I picked up the February issue of “The Astrologer” publishing by the American Federation of Astrologers. There I found this fascinating bit of guidance: “When the transiting Moon is in Scorpio, it is unwise to purchase or to wear anything because it can be damaged, sometimes beyond repair.” (My emphasis.) Well, of course, under a Scorpio Moon maybe you do want to go naked, but an editor should have caught that and perhaps suggest that you should not “wear fragile or very expensive clothing” under this influence.

In marketing, the first commandment is “To catch a fish, think like a fish and not like a fisherman.” Know your target market and understand what your buyer wants.

In editorial work (as indeed in all areas of publishing) the commandment is “Think like a reader” and make the book fit the reader’s needs. Don’t leave him “naked” but make the instructions easy to understand and follow.

Strangely, many authors miss this point. They have things to say, but they neglect “thinking like a reader.” Since the publisher is the bridge between author and reader, we have to make sure that the author’s work can be easily understood and applied by the ordinary reader.

Sometimes, being a ‘bridge’ is hard work but most of the time it’s fun and rewarding. It’s a service that we perform, and I hope we do it well.