Editusrex’s Comments (group member since Apr 18, 2015)

Editusrex’s comments from the To Boldly Go ... Split Infinitives and All group.

Reading

Saturday

coffee

Not long enough!

Poster 1 lists a song title and artist, e.g., Red Rain, Peter Gabriel
Poster 2 uses one word of title or artist to match the post above, e.g., Here Comes the Rain Again, The Eurythmics
Poster 3, e.g., The Eurythmics, Sweet Dreams
Etc.


To start, Paradise by the Dashboard Lights, Meatloaf

While I'd never advocate removing a lyrical, evocative word simply for the sake of grammar in a song, which tends more toward the emotive (you can't put a price on the way something makes you feel!) . . . there are still song titles and lyrics that make my brain spark with "Ohhhhhh, I know the fix for that!"

Lay Down Sally (Eric Clapton) is one. And there's the argument over The Eagles' Peaceful Easy Feeling ("I like the way your sparkling earrings lay").

Is there a song lyric/title that raises your grammar pet peeve ire?

As a freelancer (not so much in my full-time job, since we proof our edits along with adding author corrections after typesetting), things seem to go one way or another. If I'm copyeditor, they want me to perform both copyediting and proofreading jobs, under just the copyediting rubric. If I'm the proofreader, it seems like the job is often a "just proofread but add a little copyediting flair in there" sort of mentality.

What have you run into?

There's always a pic out there -- it's worth a thousand words right? -- to describe your day.

Mondays always are urggghhh for me, so . . .

Just an area for Words Games and the like. Run across a funny meme or image during your work day and want to share? Post it! Want to gather around the coffee (tea, your beverage of choice) cooler and chat? Come on in!

I haven't freelanced full time in almost eight years. But starting out in 1997, when my eldest was still a newborn, I remember vividly cold-calling prospective clients to check on freelance opportunities with a baby in a body sling. I'd walk up and down my hallway and kitchen area (I had a really long cord on the landline phone cause, well, cell phones, who knew??), crossing my fingers that kiddo the elder wouldn't wake up in the midst of a serious conversation I was having about my editing skills.

Experiences as a freelancer you all have had?

Even though I set the group up mainly for the ins and outs of the editorial field, I'm betting many of us who do edit love to read as well.

Hoping to do a read every two months. It can change if we're finding we read faster and want to chat more frequently. As with many of the other groups, some people will read faster, some not as much. There can be threads that dissect the book piecemeal and then a full thread at the end.

I'm up for tailoring the Reads to how we'd all like, but the main thing is now that I've found some time for myself to readreadread!, I don't want to let it slide away.

This group is really an "all-genre" sort, so . . .

Without further ado -- what would people like to see as the May Read?

Filled with family!

What books have you thoroughly enjoyed from an editorial perspective? That is, continuity, characters, and storyline were all spot on.

As an editor, we might have a different view on what makes a just-right read.

Does the length of your style sheet vary from project to project?

Do you use a template?

How does it vary between fiction and nonfiction?

As a freelancer, it happened to me more often than not. I would be asked to copyedit a book, be it a statistical manual, a historical dictionary, a writing textbook, and yet what the publisher really wanted was a substantive edit or even developmental editing. It happened on proofreading jobs as well. I would get to proofreading and discover errors -- or at least consistency issues -- that seemed as if they should have been fixed by the copyeditor or at least queried.

Queries are my friend!

It happens to me less in my full-time manuscript editor position, as far as expectations of being asked for one level when what was meant was much "heavier." That's because I have a defined position.

A minimalist short-version answer, for me, when I hear the words:

editing: more extensive revision (often rewriting), suggestions for adding more text/explanations or removing text, line by line text restructuring and moving of information around if needed (if needed), clarifying anything confusing.

copyediting: grammar, word misuse, typos, structure (formatting: headings, table/figure placement, and the like), syntax, style guide consistency, author- or editor-querying at any point if there are problems -- you go in with an eye toward these.

proofreading (a very important, shouldn't-be-forgotten stage): ensuring no new errors were introduced after the copyediting/typesetting stages; checking for missed spelling issues, spacing, use of correct font.

The editing category, of course, can even be broken into acquisitions, developmental, substantive, technical . . . there are more breakdowns.

Thoughts?

To start, how long have you been in the business?

Do you find that you're expected to edit more fully even though someone has told you it will be a "quick" proofread (or copyedit)?

How do you see the differences between the editorial levels?

I have a long commute, so I use audiobooks galore.

Adore George Guidall and Jim Dale. I could probably listen to anything they read!