Frequently Asked Questions

Why do you need a faq page?
What is your favorite book on editing?
What is Substantive Editing and Copy Editing?
What is Proofreading?
What Style do You Use?
Why do You not Care about Style?
What is copyright?
Do you think that Workshops are valuable?

Why do you need a faq page?
This page is here because I have tripped over proofreading jobs that ought to have been copy edited long before I got to it, and similar snafu's. What some people think as proofreading, is often copy editing. I have gained some insight working with new small publishers, traditional publishers and self published authors. The work involved in traditional publication often has to get streamlined with a small ebook publisher. Well, not just streamlined; often those different jobs have to get squished together in favor of small budgets. Which is, for me at least, all part of the fun.

With different ideas of what's involved for people new to the industry, or have deferent needs or takes on the matter, the lines get fuzzy and confusion ensues: hence the faq page.

Beginning writers may be eager for editing that he or she is not quite ready for - thinking that their finished draft is ready for a quick copy edit to get into the hungry hands of some eager editor or publisher - when it might need a serious substantive edit. Their beta-readers cannot always do more than say: "Wow, I like that." I've felt that hope, that dream of a book being ready...when it isn't. A serious writer cannot live with encouraging but useless commentary. It's good for the ego, but does not exactly move things forward. Sometimes a writer needs professional help.

What are your favorite books on editing?
What a yummy question. Top on my list is Joseph Williams Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. New York: Pearson Education, 2005. I now have the 8th edition. I'd recommend any of his books.

When I needed a refresher course on language use, one of the local college students came over to tutor me for a while. Amanda Griffin's enthusiasm for editing went a long way towards rediscovering my own passion for language. We used this book. During our discussions we'd often find ourselves standing or pacing in what must seem like odd, geekish excitement to those who think writing or editing is a chore. I knew I loved writing; I hadn't discovered the joy of editing till Amanda and Joseph Williams.

Other standard favorites are The Chicago Manual of Style, Noah Lukeman's The First Five Pages, as well as Shrunk and White's Elements of Style and Elements of Editing.

Honorable Mention goes to what is not a book on editing, but is one of the best motivational books for any artistic pursuit: Steven Pressfield's The War of Art.

What is Substantive Editing and Copy Editing?
The other day I noticed a blurb to help viewers select a particular video clip on a news website. Let's just say the sentence construction was terrible. What it was speaking about was already nasty enough. The bad construction made it even worse. I'm using the particular sentence, because it makes the illustration pointed.

The sentence that caught my attention implied that a girl had been assaulted when "two men entered the house she was in to burglarize it." See the problem? It implies that she was in the house to rob it, and was then assaulted, rather than the men compounded their initial crime. The bad construction adds to the horror. It was a sloppy move, written in haste (or to add to the horror appeal and curiosity). It is a good example for the need for copy editing. It focuses on the language. The original construction is vague enough, and most people can figure out what really happened, but it takes a bit of work on the reader's part. A good copy edit would allow the reader to work less for more clarity.

Substantive editing might focus on that sentence as well, because it looks for errors on its way as it looks at the whole work. If the construction of the sentence impeded the comprehension of the whole story, then it would be targeted, fixed and possibly even moved to a better place in the whole narrative. Substantive editing deals with the larger, comprehensive structure of the body of work. It ensures that the story - nonfiction or fiction - flows clearly in its presentation of information. With substantive editing, the story line has been improved so the copy editor can get to the details and improve the language.

What is Proofreading?
The different proofreading jobs I have done look different from publisher to publisher. I suspect that's part of the reason for confusion when independent writers and self publishers ask for proofreading. Some want proofreading when they really need copy editing. It has been with "proofreading" jobs I've experienced the most confusion and lack of communication with former clients.

A good illustration of what proofreading is, is an illustration of "proofing to copy." The work I do for one publisher is early in the process. After the manuscript has gone through a substantive edit, I'm sent a copy to fact check at the same time its being copy edited. By the time the manuscript has gone to proof, many people have made changes to the manuscript. The editor, the copy editor, and the writer. Then there's layout. When the proofreader gets it, she has the proof copy (which looks like a print ready copy) as well as at least one manuscript that has been marked for changes. Her job is to look at both (and sometimes all the different marked manuscripts she's been given), and check them to see if all the changes have been made. She needs to catch any egregious errors in language - though presumably they have been caught already - spelling errors as well as formatting issues, from headers to footers and page number placement. And even after the first proof, the manuscript might go through another three rounds of proofreading.

It looks like copy editing, and copy editors use what The Chicago Manual of Style call proofreading marks. The job is not editing, however. The manuscript is almost ready to go to print.

What Style do You Use?
I've used the standard Chicago, as well as APA, and what I call 'Janet L. Eriksson's semi-AP'. With editing, the main importance for me is consistency. If the writer prefers a particular style, then I'll use it. If they're not focused on any particular style, I look for what's language use is most consistent.

For instance, one writer, whose book I copy-edited, used a variety of spaces after final punctuation. One, two, and anywhere up to five or more. I marked them all. Three quarters of the way through the book I knew that she was more consistent with double spaces. As she was not choosy about any particular style, it was a small matter to go back, find the instances of ones and whatevers, and say: go with two. That suggestion would make her job of fixing her manuscript that much easier, than going with one space. She was self publishing, but if she had a particular style, it would have been a simple matter to use that style and go from there. She had an inconsistency with commas, which was easy enough to track as well.

Why do You not Care about Style?
The above illustration might illuminate what it is that I do. I see patterns. The subject matter isn't important. I can see it even in an introduction on a paper for theoretical physics, or a wild book on brand marketing. If the "story" is there, it has a pattern. If it doesn't, I can see that as well.

Language also has a pattern. When its wonky, I don't need to be an expert in the subject matter to know where it jangles. I mark it, and suggest a fix. When it works, it's glorious. Any particular style is used to help make the language that clear and readable.

I care about style very much. But I'm also aware that different people use different styles. For instance, some publishers want to use one space after full stops, others two. Consistency and Clarity is what I look for when editing, no matter what the style.

What is Copyright?
Copyright is more than a little symbol that looks like this: ©. I'm not trying to insult your intelligence. Clearly everyone knows the nifty little thing. But a lot of people do not realize what it involves.

There have been two instances I personally know of where copyright has been infringed upon. It ought to help you understand copyright better.

A favorite band of mine paid a graphic artist to design their CD cover. They were under some time constraints, and trusted the fellow. He found the perfect knot work on the web and believed it to be shareware. He altered the image to fit the band's theme. The final cover was beautiful. Sometime later, the original artist of the knotwork received a copy of their CD and discovered her artwork had been used without her prior knowledge or permission. People were getting money from its use...and she wasn't. Though the image had been modified, one could clearly recognize her original work. It was under copyright. She had a website where she was selling prints of that particular art. The artist was well aware that no one from the band had bought the art, and certainly not for the rights to use it with a reasonably large distribution. Yes, a minor legal hullabaloo ensued, but it ended to everyone's satisfaction.

One of my best friend writes nonfiction. She has written several text books for the middle school crowd. One day she happened upon a home school site that had one of her books on their site in its entirety. From cover to cover, and included all the contents and illustrations. Now, it's quite wonderful that her book was being read, however it was now available to the public for free. No one had to buy it. Worse, the publisher had had to pay for the rights to use some of the images used in the contents. Those images were still under copyright. Needless to say, the home school site wasn't supporting the fee the publisher had to pay. Nor did the site realize they were infringing upon copyright. The writer informed the editor, who took care of the issue. Even more impacting, if people did not buy the book, then the publisher would not earn any money, and would eventually not be able to pay my friend to write more books.

People can quote material to a certain length, as long as they acknowledge their source (otherwise that's plagiarism). Copying books, or art, or songs may not seem like a big deal. It's only one copy right? Imagine this: if a song writer were to sell a song to a band for 1% of CD profits; he has some chance of putting a roof over his head. It took time to write the song, as well as experience and talent. He had to probably pay for music lessons down the line as well. That took effort as well as money. Now if a growing group of individuals were to copy that song for free off the web, then that could impact his ability to feed himself and possibly a family. His ability to continue writing songs that people obviously enjoy would be impacted. Sure there's the whole image of starving artist, but infringement is theft of an artist's real ability to earn an income.

I've heard the argument that only the wealthiest of authors, bands and songwriters need to worry about this issue. Not true. And financially it's the emerging authors, song writers and bands who are hit the hardest by plagiarism and infringement.

In the corporate world, if someone were to take credit for a particular project but didn't do the work, and then get a promotion because of it, that act robs the person who did the work of those benefits. This impacts the person's ability to support his family. For writers, artists and musicians, plagiarism and copyright infringement do the same kind of damage.

It would be delightful if we could write (or edit) for free. We can't though.

Do You Think that Workshops Are Valuable?
Well, it depends on the workshop. As Steven Pressfield writes in The War of Art, it can often just be another time waster. Not all workshops are created equal. There is one that deservedly earns it's title of "boot camp for writers." The Writers Retreat Workshop, especially for the first year, is one of the safest places to learn how to do major surgery on your writing.

At the workshop - when I wasn't holding my head, moaning: "there's no more room for all this information!" - I found my tribe. All these people took ten days off to devote to writing. It wasn't all just silly conferences and no work. We worked! And it was fantastic.

It is also where I rediscovered my confidence. It was the last day, I was facing a tough situation at home, and needed to find a way to support myself. I looked at two of my new writer friends, one of whom was also an ebook and POD publisher. I said, "I don't know if I'm good enough to edit other people's works." The editor and the writer looked at each other in shocked amazement. They laughed. They had worked with me at least once in a diagnostic group, and we'd spent some time brainstorming as well. My editor friend gave me the url for a website for freelance editors. More importantly, she gave me work.

All content on this web site is under copyright: © 2006 by Maria Boers Morris