Editors on Editing: What Writers Need to Know About What Editors Do (27 page)

Copy editing for style involves attention to matters of spelling, punctuation, and syntax. That copy editors fix spelling seems almost obsolete to some people equipped with spelling-checker programs on their word processors. But copy editors know that the catch with machines checking spelling is that if it’s a legitimate word, the machine smiles, oblivious to whether it’s the right word in context. “Lemon aide”? Well sure. “Lemon” and “aide” are both real words. But can one enjoy a cool glass of “lemon aide” in the garden? The homophone-conscious copy editor gently corrects
the spelling to “lemonade.” Then there are all those bothersome words that are spelled one way in England and another way in the United States. Does the author prefer
traveller
or
traveler? Colour
or
color? Judgement
or
judgment?
Should the British spellings be Americanized? Punctuation must also be scrutinized. Comma before “and” in a series or not? Omit comma before coordinating conjunction when the subject of the two independent clauses is the same? Cap or lowercase after a colon? Moving to another consideration that must be in the copy editor’s mind: Is the author’s syntax and vocabulary felicitous? The bishop “took off his ceremonial sack.” Does the author mean “his chasuble”? The blond movie star tells us in her memoirs that she was by the pool, lying on her chaise lounge. Should that be “chaise longue”? Whose syntax and vocabulary should be used here? Copy editing involves close attention to detail.

Good copy editors know that when it comes to making sure the author has the facts right, guessing is not good enough. Carry Nation? Or Carrie Nation? Was Trinity Sunday before or after May 1 in 1913? Could the hero have sailed from New York to California to join the Gold Rush on a boat that went through the Panama Canal? The copy editor will want to look up the facts in an authoritative reference. [Change to: Around Cape Horn/? (Panama Canal begun in 1883, per McCullough.)]

When the copy editor has found a source that gives a version of the facts different from what the author has stated, good practice requires tact in pointing out the apparent problem to the author. Copy editors try to bear in mind that the author has done the hardest part of the work. This must be respected. An experienced copy editor knows after checking a dozen or so items whether the author has been careful, and the more mistakes the copy editor finds, the more checking he or she is likely to do. Time permitting. And time is almost always a problem. Now that the manuscript is in hand, author, editor, and publisher are eager to get the finished book into the stores. So couldn’t we please hurry?

Copy editors ideally have a broad knowledge of a variety of subjects, but they also have their specialties. Editors know to request someone who has the right stuff for the job at hand. In every case where nonfiction is involved, the author is well advised to supply all the back matter—the appendixes and notes and bibliography—with the text and not wait until later to hand these parts to the editor, because with the back matter in hand the copy editor knows what sources the author has consulted. Copy editors acquire a number of reference books, but they also use libraries to verify information they do not have at hand. It helps the copy editor to know what books or articles the author has used. Copy editors have been known to rent movies from their local video store to check production credits, to call the U.S. Army Office of Information to check the spelling of names of military
installations, to hunt down the sheet music to confirm the lyrics of songs, to stand in drugstores jotting down the correct spelling of trade names of sanitary goods, to twist themselves into pretzels to see if the instructions for an exercise can be followed.

Some publishing houses have copy editors on staff who handle at least some of the manuscripts being prepared for publication, but it is also possible that the work of copyediting will be assigned to a free-lance copy editor who works outside the publisher’s office. The person who assigns the copy editing work will have the title Production Editor or Manuscript Supervisor or Copy Chief, or some variation on that theme. He or she will examine the manuscript when it comes in and, taking into consideration the subject matter and the schedule, try to find the most suitable person to send the job to. The production editor will instruct the copy editor as needed.

Can the author put in a few words with the copy editor? But of course. The easiest way an author can let a copy editor know about preferences or ask for assistance is to draw up a memo and send it in with the manuscript. Does the dictionary give two acceptable spellings for a word and the author have a strong preference for the second spelling? Let the copy editor know. The copy editor can then not only avoid changing what the author prefers but also make sure that the author’s preferred spelling has been used consistently. (This copy editor did, however, find herself puzzling over one author’s assertion that “gray” with an
a
was a different color from “grey” with an
e
, and could only humbly ask, “Will your reader understand the distinction?”) Prefer “Tehran” to “Teheran”? Let the copy editor know. And how about capitalization of titles? Sometimes authors who are used to reading government documents make the assumption that all titles of office are always done with initial capital letters.
The Chicago Manual of Style
, which is widely used by book publishers, tells copy editors to use caps only when the title appears with the name of the person holding the office. So the copy editor will style thus: Secretary of State Baker, the secretary of state. How about pronouns referring to the Deity? Many people assume that they should be capitalized, and indeed, they often are. Now take a look at a Bible: “Then he called the twelve disciples together” (KJV, Luke 9:1). “Then he called the twelve together” (RSV, Luke 9:1). And at
Chicago:
“God in his mercy,” “Jesus and his disciples” (7.77). Another widely used stylebook,
Words into Type
, recommends using initial capital letters in some instances. An author who can’t live with standard book styling (which often differs from newspaper style) or prefers one stylebook over another should say so
before
the work begins.

Is there some nagging detail the author tried to track down and couldn’t find? Let the copy editor know, and perhaps he can help locate the missing bit. Is the author worried that when she changed a character’s name from
George to Frank, she may have missed a George or two? Alert the copy editor. Copy editors are there to help the author.

When the copy editor returns the manuscript, the production editor may review the queries raised before sending the manuscript to the editor. The editor may go over the copy editing, answering some or all of the queries. In most cases the editor will forward the manuscript to the author.

An author going through the process for the first time may be somewhat startled at first to see anywhere from a few to many dozens of query flyers attached to the manuscript. One author wrote saying that when he saw how many flyers the copy editor had attached to his manuscript, he wanted to hire a hit man. But as any author who has had good past experiences with copy editors will be quick to point out, there is reason to feel reassured by those pink or yellow or blue slips of paper. They are a sign that the manuscript has been read closely and with care. (The author who initially wanted to hire a hit man confessed that after he had read through his copy editor’s queries, he changed his mind. “I think I’m in love,” he concluded.) If something has been phrased a bit awkwardly, the copy editor will have made an attempt to adjust the words for greater clarity and will be asking if the change is OK. In some cases, the copy editor will not have altered the wording on the manuscript but will suggest possible rewordings and ask, on the flyer, if one of the suggestions would better convey the author’s meaning. Sometimes the copy editor will be querying a spelling that is inconsistent with the author’s previous (or later) version, This kind of query is most likely to crop up where invented or real but obscure names are used. Perhaps it’s a fact that doesn’t jibe with a previously stated fact—or with the information the copy editor has obtained in a reference book or other source. Did the author guess about the spelling of a brand name? The copy editor may have gone to the supermarket and looked at the package, confirming that it’s Reddi-wip,
not
Ready Whip.

Whatever the queries, it’s the author’s job to read the flyers and answer
on the flyers
the questions raised. If the flyer says, “OK/?” all the author needs to do is put a check mark through the question mark in order to answer “Yes.” If two suggestions are made for possible ways of fixing a single problem, the author need only strike out the one not wanted and circle the one that is OK. Or the author may come up with a third solution, in which case the copy editor’s suggestions should be struck out and the author’s fix written on the flyer. The reason for keeping the dialogue on the flyer is to avoid making the manuscript messy and possibly confusing for the typesetter. If the author wants to make small changes directly on the manuscript, she should use a different color pencil from any used before and let the production editor know what color the new changes are written in.
If a longish passage needs rewriting, the author can type the new version out on a separate piece of 8½-by-11-inch paper and clip it to the original, being sure to put the page number on the new copy. What the author should
not
do, unless specifically given permission to proceed thus, is re-run the manuscript in whole or in part through a word processor. The copy editor—or the production editor—must have the original version of the copyedited script back from the author. And the flyers should be left attached to the manuscript. Whoever does the final cleanup will then go through the manuscript and incorporate the author’s answers and changes into it.

If there’s not enough room left on the flyer for the author to respond to the query, the author should add flyers of his own on which to answer. Those Post-its available from stationery stores, dime stores, and even some supermarkets are handy for this. Just be sure they are wrapped around the edge of the page and not stuck in the middle of the page, where they might not be noticed by someone looking at the edge of the manuscript instead of turning each page.

If the author has questions about how to deal with queries, he or she should call the editor and ask to speak to the production editor or the copy editor. There is no need to work in a vacuum when help is always available. Has the copy editor made markings the author does not understand? Pick up the phone! Again, what the author should bear in mind is that copy editors are there to help the author.

A word of caution: A few copy editors will write some queries in the margins of the manuscript even though they may have been told that this is not a good idea because the author may miss these queries. Production editors have been heard to sigh over this habit and maybe even remonstrate with the copy editor. But they may have resigned themselves to the situation because a copy editor’s work is otherwise so intelligent and helpful. So the careful author will look sharp for these notations in the margins.

When the answers have been incorporated into the manuscript and the flyers removed, the manuscript goes off to the production department for type design and markup, and then to the typesetter for composition.

After several weeks, the author will be sent a set of galleys—or page proofs, when the schedule is tight and going straight to pages is possible. The author should not expect to get the manuscript back with those first proofs. He is expected to read the proofs “cold,” that is, without reference to the manuscript. Proofreading the galleys against manuscript is the job of another professional: the proofreader. There’s a good reason for this procedure. Eyes that have been over a manuscript a number of times are not as likely to spot typographical errors as those that come to the work for the first time. The copy editor will have read the manuscript two or even three
times (unless the book is on a supercrash schedule), the editor will have done the same, and the author … So the proofreader’s fresh eyes are what is called for.

Some publishers enclose instructions for marking type proofs when they send the galleys to the author.
The Chicago Manual of Style
explains proofreading, or the author can consult a dictionary for proofreader’s marks. The important thing for the author to remember is that changes in proof must be marked in the margin of the galleys. One strikes out the word being replaced and then writes in the margin (very neatly and legibly, of course) the word to be substituted. Where it is a simple substitution of one or more words for the original word or phrase, there’s no need to make a delete mark first. Writing the new word in very tiny letters squeezed between the lines of type is
not
how it’s done.

When reading galleys without having the manuscript to check against, the author may be concerned about distinguishing PEs (printer’s errors) from AAs (author’s alterations); the author, after all, knows that AAs in excess of a certain percentage of the composition cost will be charged against her royalty account. Probably the easiest thing for an author to do is mark corrections of what she believes to be printer’s errors as PEs and attach a note to the first galley, asking the production editor to double-check those items against manuscript. When the production editor is transferring the author’s alterations to the master galleys, he should find that all (or almost all) of the PEs have already been caught by the proofreader.

The best proofreaders do more than read the galleys very carefully, word for word, against the manuscript; they also back up the work of the copy editor. Even the most highly skilled, conscientious, and persnickety copy editor may miss something, whether it’s an ordinary spelling error or some mistake of fact. And just as the wise author hopes to be backed up by a good editor and a good copy editor, the wise copy editor earnestly hopes to be backed up by a first-rate proofreader. It’s just possible that, after the author has returned his galleys to his editor and the editor has passed them along to the production editor, the author may get a call with a query or two from the production editor. The work involved in bringing a book as near to perfection as human beings can make it is a process that begins with the writing and continues through not only the editing and copy editing stages but also through galleys, page proofs, repro proofs, and even beyond the typesetter’s proofs to the printer’s blues, a photographic print made from negatives that will be used to make the offset plates from which the book is printed. The author, however, rarely sees any of the later stages of production and must try to remain patient, confident in the professional efforts of the publisher’s staff in the weeks or months of work to be done before the finished book comes off press.