Earlier today, I looked at the properties of a Word document—a book chapter—that I'm editing. In the Author line on the Summary tab, I expected to see the physician author's name, followed by his string of advanced degrees, as is usually the case with these kinds of files.
Instead, it read simply: Dad.
I love that. He must've written his chapter on his home computer while logged in under his identity rather than one of his children's identities. He's somebody's dad, someone whom I picture having experience taking tender care of a child who's special to him. It reminds me that he's not only an emergency-medicine expert who often holds patients' lives in his hands and whose writing has often been published, not only someone of high social stature. He's also someone whose work I need to treat with respect just because he's a regular person too, a person with feelings.
copyeditor copyediting editor editing publishing authors EditorMom
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
What a wonderful post! If only I could be sure to remember that my authors are dads (and moms, and daughters struggling through grad school, and sons caring for their aging parents, and sisters living paycheck to paycheck, and brothers who make a mean meatloaf). But sometimes, when the documents are tedious and the deadlines are close, all that goes out the window.
P.S.: When I edited my first book, I did it on my (then) boyfriend's computer. I nearly died when my production manager called me the day I submitted my work and said, "Who is Yo Dawg?" Apparently, that was the "funny" name my boyfriend had given his computer.
Yo Dawg! Hahahahahahaha! I can see how a production manager might not think of that moniker as being the most professional one around.
Post a Comment