Book Review
The book to begin more books.
In the worlds of publishing, editors play a multitude of roles: finding worthy works, guiding those works into books, communicating with authors, helping connect with readers, and more. Editing is a profession, an art, a business, and more; the book What Editors Do: The Art, Craft, and Business of Book Editing(Edited by Peter Ginna)is equipped for all of them with both compiled essays and resources to educate and guide.
The essay “The Alchemy of Acquisitions” lays out some important “rules” for editors in making book acquisitions. Underlying the rules are two simple assumptions: that the editor seeks to cater to the target audience of a “typical” book browser who does not have a specific text in mind and that the objective is to sell enough books and earn enough revenue to keep author and publisher both financially solvent. Books that win the extremes of emotions such as tears tend to be good investments, while editors need to avoid a jaded reader’s cynicism in picking books with preexisting target audiences—hence why editors tend to categorize themselves into specific genres. Nonfiction books must offer a new perspective to be worth buying for both editor and reader. Last of all the rules listed is that a good editor must push for works they believe will win over readers.
“To be a book editor is to work at the intersection of art and commerce,” and Nancy S. Miller lays out the book’s journey through stages of editing and publishing with the details of experience. Developmental editing, one of the first stages in the process, is based on the “big-picture” of a novel on subjects such as plot and structure; line-editing, the next stage, is editing of phrasing, word choice, and syntax. All throughout, the editor schedules the larger-stage journey and communicates with the author to find common ground and ensure that the work goes well and according to the best vision, while also taking care of the legalese of the work. Copyediting, the details of the details, revolves around spelling, grammar, and punctuation to make sure everything makes sense. Only after setting and proofing, jacket and cover copy, can the book be published.
The editor also has heavy responsibilities as a manager, representing the publishers’ goals to an author. The publishers also trust the editor as an investor to find profitable investments, and from that balancing position, the editor needs a big-picture understanding of the company’s management. An editor must be armed with the conviction that their books can inspire passion; perception to identify the right works, articulation to convince the skeptics in the trade, and excitement to share the book with everyone they can reach and hopefully persuade.
“Editing involves a mixture of taste, acuity, craft, passion, and persistence. It’s a subjective process that can feel intuitive but draws on an editor’s experience—both literary and lived. Being an editor is a lifelong apprenticeship: the books you read, the jobs you have, influence your approach to any given text.”
That passage begins Erika Goldman’s essay on literary fiction, a term she uses to describe “writing as an art that uses language as a sort of musical instrument to produce meaning through narrative”, but all types of writing require the same mixture and attitude. Genre fiction is designed to entertain and compel, even as it might navigate its audience through a variety of other feelings and thoughts, and a good genre editor must be just as entertained by the genre in question as potential readers, knowing the conventions, careful to, throughout the editing process, keep to the “rules” while avoiding cliché and keeping the story fresh. General nonfiction writers need to entice the readers into interest, and editors must help the writers keep audiences interested through drive, detail, clarity, and life.
The position of editorial assistant—usually a fiercely competitive position between recently graduated English majors with writing aspirations, many of whom realize that publishing is not what they sought and try attending law school or working on their own works—is one of important contribution; the most efficient and valuable relationships between assistant and editor is one where the assistant is fully tuned into deadlines and authors’ needs while continuing to grow publishing awareness. Above and beyond enthusiasm, curiosity, and interest will give the editorial assistant above and beyond knowledge. The most exhausting job task for editorial assistants is the positions log, which involves securing permission from copyright holders. Sometimes, assiduous work and well-earned know-how will win the editorial assistant the sought-after promotions; however, most of the time, moving out of house to a new publisher is necessary to move up.
Freelancing editors become so for several reasons: laid off from other publishing jobs, seeking a career change related to their current one, wanting self-employment. Whatever the reason, these editors need to learn the art of running their own business, what kind of clients they will have, and more—and although there are plenty of other resources waiting in the wings for that part, running a business means that freelancers have an extra job beyond “just” editing. Generalist self-employed editors can take on a wider range of projects than specialists, but the latter usually commands higher fees for their specificity; sometimes an editor chooses an option, while sometimes the option chooses them. Authors might hire freelance editors directly for self-publishing, developmental help[AF1] , on an agent’s advice, etc.—and when an author usually lacks the knowledge of the full range of an editor’s capacities, freelancers might have to give them the necessary education for a full and appropriate fee, a schooling best done beforehand to establish parameters. The trials of a freelance editor plus extra responsibilities perhaps make the job more difficult, but many relish the autonomy and their own name’s recognition that their self-employment gives them.
What Editors Do provides plenty of information beyond even its essays. A thorough glossary, introducing and defining several terms, gives readers the right lingo to help display their knowledge credentials. Even more importantly, the “Further Resources” lists several practical handbooks, important magazines related to publishing, several publishing courses (from summer courses to college programs to other forms of training), and more. Further education can help give would-be editors a leg up in a fierce competition, and the book is clearly aware of both and ready to help.
“The core—the heart and soul—of editing will always be the editor-author relationship. That relationship begins before, and extends beyond, the act of making editorial suggestions. It starts with the editor reading a manuscript and feeling the spark—that urge to share what he or she is just read with someone else. It continues with editor and author striving, sometimes happily and sometimes painfully, to turn that spark into a flame. And it reaches fruition when the flame becomes a fire, warming a widening circle of readers.”
This book is ready to reach out to a widening circle of readers ready to be editors themselves, and help them fan the flames.
By: Grace Dietz
Grace is an Editorial Assistant at Technica Editorial
