Editors on Editing: What Writers Need to Know About What Editors Do

BOOK: Editors on Editing: What Writers Need to Know About What Editors Do

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Editors
on Editing

What Writers Need to Know About What Editors Do

Completely Revised Third Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Scanning, uploading, and electronic distribution of this book or the facilitation of such without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. Any member of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or anthology, should send inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 or [email protected].

Published simultaneously in Canada
Printed in the United States of America

Due to limitations of space, copyright acknowledgments appear on page 379, which serves as an extension of this copyright page.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Editors on editing : What writers need to know about what
editors do /

[edited by] Gerald Gross.—3rd ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

eBook ISBN-13: 978-0-8021-9468-8 (pbk.)

1. Editing. 2. Editors—Correspondence. I. Gross, Gerald.

PN162.E36 1993

808′27—dc20 92-29806

Grove Press
an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
841 Broadway
New York, NY 10003

Distributed by Publishers Group West

www.groveatlantic.com

To unsung editors everywhere,
past, present and future:
May these pages sing your praises

To published and unpublished
writers everywhere:
May these pages guide you
to a better understanding of the art
and craft of the editor

Acknowledgments

My thanks and deep appreciation to all the editors who stole precious time from their crowded days and nights and gave so generously of their talents by contributing such splendid original essays to
Editors on Editing
. Editing editors is a high-wire-without-a-net exercise in delicacy and diplomacy; therefore, I also want to thank the contributors for responding with such grace under pressure to my editorial suggestions.

For their advice, counsel, and recommendations of editors to invite to contribute to the book, I want to thank (in alphabetical order) Carole Abel, Richard Curtis, Anita Diamant, Mitch Douglas, Joyce Engelson, Herman Gollob, Bert Holtje, Gerald Howard, Evan Marshall, Ruth Nathan, Ms. Bobbe Siegel, Ted Solotaroff, Bill Thompson, and Tom Wallace.

(My apologies to anyone I’ve forgotten to mention, but be assured that my
heart
remembers
everyone
who helped—even if my memory does not.)

For sharing my vision for
Editors on Editing
and making important contributions to the focusing and realization of that vision, I thank my dedicated and creative editor, Bryan Oettel.

For his intelligent, perceptive, sensitive, and, yes, even affectionate copy editing, I thank my copy editor, Ed Sedarbaum. His skill has orchestrated this anthology of thirty-nine different voices into a mellifluous chorus of clarity and coherence.

Finally, I thank my best friend and beloved wife, Arlene, for the support and encouragement she has given me in this and each of my other endeavors for over thirty-six years.

Contents

All essays have been written especially for this collection except those prefaced by an asterisk (*)
.

P
REFACE
: Reflections on a Lifetime of Editing

THEORY

What Is an Editor?