Editors, Your Authors Are the Experts on Their Own Names

We editors should all listen to our authors when they tell us how their names should appear on what we edit.

I think that in the USA it's purely privilege—both white privilege and male privilege—that causes the gatekeepers in English-language publishing systems to tell any authors with two surnames that they're doing it wrong. Grrrrrrrrr!

"Now I needed to ask [the committee member] the question that had been nagging me since I began to work on the manuscript: 'How should I publish my name?' 'However you want,' she replied. 'It is time for people to understand that Latin American scientists have two last names.' ...

" 'Two last names are too much for 'them' to handle, and they will butcher them anyway,' my Latin American friends say when explaining why they hyphenate or use a single last name for their publications. ... This is not an isolated issue for Latino and Hispanic scientists; it also affects members of other groups whose names do not conform to a 'first-name last-name' norm. And insisting on being able to present our names as we choose is not 'picky' or 'capricious.' It is a matter of respect for our identities as scientists and as citizens of the world. ...

My mate and I encountered this "you're doing it wrong" attitude in the 1990s. When he and I married in 1993, we decided to both hyphenate our surnames. Before marriage, my surname was O'Moore, and his was Klopf. So we both took the surname O'Moore-Klopf. Now, we're privileged white people, yet he still caught grief for the first few years that he had the new surname, because, you know, "men don't hyphenate"! That annoyed both of us so much. All these years later, we have two grown sons who inherited the surname O'Moore-Klopf.

"When in doubt, ask scientists how they would like to be addressed. When you cite their work, check their previous publications, their ORCID account, and their web pages. Next time you add a paper to your reference manager, double-check the author line to ensure the system has imported it correctly. Above all, make sure researchers from all backgrounds have the opportunity to claim their identities and feel validated in their workplaces."

Dear Newly Self-Employed Editors . . . Here's an Update

Back in 2014, I wrote a blog post because I "wanted newbies to know that I have hard days too—and that I love freelancing despite those days." Well, it's 2021 and I'm still self-employed, and there has been a pandemic, so it's time for an update.

My children are now 19, 26, and 38. And for the last couple of years, I have been the daytime caregiver for my elderly mother-in-law, who lives in my intergenerational household. She has dementia and is now 86 years old; she also has type 2 diabetes, as I do. While all the other adults are out of the house at their day jobs, I provide her with nutritious meals and monitor her blood sugar levels and adjust as needed the amount of insulin that I inject her with.

The 19- and 26-year-olds still live here, along with the 26-year-old's mate and their now 6-year-old daughter (our brilliant and fun youngest grandchild). (The 38-year-old, who is the mother of our two older wonderful grandchildren, comes by on Friday nights to hang out with us.) The 6-year-old is attending kindergarten remotely here at home, because we're wary of exposure to COVID-19 from outsiders. (All 6 adult family members who live in our home now have had at least one dose of a COVID vaccine; all second doses will have been had by the end of this month.)

My office is still in my kitchen, even though my handy guys (my husband and our two adult sons) have built me a lovely 12 foot × 12 foot office in our backyard. If they ever quit having to work overtime on Saturdays (they're all cabinetmakers) and it quits raining here on Sundays, we'll move me out there, and I'll be delighted. But I'll still be my mother-in-law's caretaker.

Fortunately, the county agency for the aging has grants that fund the services of a health-care aide who works here to take care of my mother-in-law on 4 days of each week, for 5 hours each day. This does give me some mental space for working, but not as much as I want, of course.

The woman who would become my mother-in-law used to commute by train to her job in Manhattan, just as I did: she was a designer of children's clothing for a clothing manufacturer; I was a full-time employee for a publisher. We became such good friends that she introduced me to her only son in 1992. He and I fell in love very quickly, and we married in 1993. It is that great gift of hers that helps me continue to provide care for her on the days when things get tough.

And yes, I still do find joy in being self-employed.

Jargon and Plain Language in Science Writing

My authors who write reports on their research for publication in medical journals tend to use a lot of jargon. I try to help them make their writing easier to understand for the very reason discussed in this New York Times article:

"[A] team of researchers has analyzed jargon in a set of over 21,000 scientific manuscripts. They found that papers containing higher proportions of jargon in their titles and abstracts were cited less frequently by other researchers. Science communication—with the public but also among scientists—suffers when a research paper is packed with too much specialized terminology, the team concluded."

I'm not at all suggesting that my authors completely eliminate jargon in such reports. But I ask them to use plainer language wherever possible, and even to define some of the terms, because people other than their departmental supervisor, who insisted that true professionals write impenetrable prose, are going to read their articles. And those people need to be able to understand the articles so that nonscientists in government and in the general public don't make unscientific decisions concerning public health and the environment.

Take a look at this blog post by my colleague Mike Pope on "good" and "bad" jargon.

JAMA Deputy Editor Is Fired After Denying the Existence of Structural Racism

Edward H. Livingston, MD, a white man and the deputy editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, hosted a podcast in which he questioned the existence of structural racism: "Structural racism is an unfortunate term. Personally, I think taking racism out of the conversation will help. Many of us are offended by the concept that we are racist."

And such behavior is exactly how structural racism is perpetuated.

Thank goodness that after public outcry, JAMA's editor-in-chief asked for and accepted Livingston's resignation.

And the American Medical Association itself issued a statement:

"To be clear, structural racism exists in the U.S. and in medicine, genuinely affecting the health of all people, especially people of color and others historically marginalized in society. This is not opinion or conjecture, it is proven in numerous studies, through the science and in the evidence. As physicians, and as leaders in medicine, we have a responsibility to not only acknowledge and understand the impact of structural racism on the lives of our patients, but to speak out against racial injustices wherever they exist in health care and society. ...

"Importantly, the AMA is investigating the circumstances that led up to the podcast and tweet and will make the changes necessary to address them. The AMA and JAMA have taken immediate actions in this past week, and more will follow. ..."

________________________

Sources:

• "JAMA Editor Resigns Over Controversial Podcast," at WebMD


• "Speaking Out Against Structural Racism at JAMA and Across Health Care," on the website of the AMA

#structural #racism #racist #medicine #editors #editing #JAMA #AMA #EditorMom

Building Author–Editor Relationships

It's always so satisfying to establish a good working relationship with my authors. After working through 2 revisions of a manuscript for a research report on a procedure for repairing spinal cord problems, I told the corresponding author that I like to have photos of my authors so that I can picture them helping patients in doing the procedures and techniques that they research.

This made my author happy. He said, "I am very glad to do it like this."

So this an operating-room photo of 4 of the 15 authors of the manuscript. Left to right, they are Dr. Jing-Chuan Sun, Dr. Chen Yan (the corresponding author), Dr. Hao-Yuan Tan, and Dr. Huai-Cheng Jia, all from China. The patients on whom they and their coauthors operated and whose cases they studied to determine best practices for a particular surgical technique came through any of 7 different hospitals: Changzheng Hospital, Changhai Hospital, Shanghai First People’s Hospital, Linzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fifth Hospital of Southern Medical University, Shenzhen Hospital of Beijing University, and General Hospital of Nanjing Military Command.

I'm so glad to know that these surgeons—and all of my other surgeon-authors—are out there working to make life better for so many patients. And it is an honor to be entrusted with editing for them so that they can share their research findings with English speakers around the world.

How Self-Employed Editorial Pros Can Use Social Media to Get Work

I don't understand why self-employed editorial pros don't find social media useful for getting work. And I'm an introvert.

I’ve long used LinkedIn, along with Twitter and Facebook, not to ask people for work or referrals but to post links to articles about editing, medical editing, and self-employment to make clear that I have a wide and deep knowledge of editing and to sound so interesting (in my commentary on the linked articles) that people think of me whenever they need a medical editor. This is not sales or bragging; it’s sharing knowledge and resources. And it works well for me. I get inquiries from potential clients and referrals from colleagues because of it.

It's not that you do sales pitches on social media. You just must be consistently present, in the particular venues that feel comfortable to you, and you share ideas and information about the things you know about in your profession. You don't brag, and you don't say, "I'm sharing this because I want you to see how smart and skilled I am." You just share helpful stuff and answer questions about it when asked. You'll be remembered as that helpful person who has #editing or proofreading or indexing experience in, for example, astronomy or animal health or human rights or public education.

Remember, this technique doesn't work overnight. It's part of playing the long game of marketing.

Epicene "They" Spreads to Science and Medical Writing

Even writing in medical journals, often seen as being very formal academic-speak, is now using singular "they," also referred to as "epicene 'they.' "

You can find evidence of this in section 11.12.2 of the new 11th edition of the AMA Manual of Style:

Avoid sex-specific pronouns in cases in which sex specificity is irrelevant. Do not use common-gender "pronouns" (eg, "s/he," "shem," "shim"). Reword the sentence to use a singular or plural non–sex-specific pronoun, neutral noun equivalent, or change of voice; or use "he or she" ("him or her," "his or her[s]," "they or their[s]"). The use of the "singular they" construction is permitted when rewriting would be awkward or unclear (see 7.2.3.2, Pronoun-Pronoun Agreement).

The post "Singular They" on the AMA Style Insider blog talked about this before the manual's 11th edition was published:

The AMA Manual of Style will follow suit [ie, follow the lead of the AP Stylebook and the Chicago Manual of Style] with the next edition, allowing the use of plural pronouns with singular indefinite antecedents (eg, Everyone allocates their time) in an effort to avoid sex-specific pronouns and awkward sentence structure.

If you are a paying member of the Council of Science Editors, you can read more about the history of epicine "they" in the article "The Epicene Solution" in the spring 2020 issue (volume 43, issue 1) of the journal Science Editor.

What Non-Native English Speakers Need When Submitting Manuscripts to Western Science Journals

This article from The Scientist is right that language problems aren't always what get international authors' research manuscripts rejected by English-language science journals. Most often, there is a problem with the research described in the manuscript. But still, even though many journals will say publicly that poor English won't cause rejection, authors and editors alike know that's not always the truth.

Sometimes the problem is cultural differences between authors and the staff of target journals. If authors are unfamiliar with how a journal's publishing culture operates, they can lose chances to get published. If, on top of that, they are not native speakers of English, there can be rejection-inducing misunderstandings in communication. And finally, some journals' peer reviewers truly will not even review a manuscript if they can tell that English is not the authors' native language.

When authors who are non-native speakers of English look for editors outside their target journals to help them, they may encounter some editors

• Who aren't highly skilled and thus who introduce errors into manuscripts


• Who are in financial relationships with the journals and thus don't have the authors' best interests at heart


• Who aren't willing or able to help authors understand the journals' culture


• Who fit all of the preceding descriptions.

It can take time, but authors can eventually find editors like me who are quite skilled, who have no financial connections with the authors' target journals, and who are happy to "translate" the culture of authors' target journals. And once they find such editors, they can build long-term work relationships that benefit both parties.

Authors who want more information on working with good editors should read the book Editing Research: The Author Editing Approach to Providing Effective Support to Writers of Research Papers, by Valerie Matarese. [Disclosure: I am one of the expert authors quoted in the book.]

Purging Plagiarism: Why Authors Plagiarise and How to Fix It

One of the most difficult situations for an editor to deal with is finding plagiarism in a client’s work. The initial reaction is often shock or disbelief, which is the result of the editor’s knowledge and understanding of the legal and ethical issues surrounding plagiarism. This understanding is not always shared by our clients. Regardless of culture, or author awareness of the ethics of plagiarism, both native and non-native English speakers may struggle to identify plagiarism in their own work, and so it is good practice to never assume that plagiarism has been done maliciously or was intentional.

With this in mind, Joely Taylor and I teamed up to co-author a presentation on plagiarism for the 9th Institute of Professional Editors Limited national editors conference in Melbourne, Australia, in May 2019. We have since expanded on the content in the talk and have written a paper to provide authors and editors with a more comprehensive guide on plagiarism.

In the paper we explain that there are numerous methods for finding plagiarism in text, including relying on the editor’s own ear in picking up sudden changes in language, finding hotlinks in text and using commercial plagiarism-checking software. We also describe the different categories of plagiarism, including self-plagiarism, patch-writing and copy-paste writing.

In an increasingly digitised world, with exponential growth in publications, in this case scientific publications, preventing plagiarism becomes a larger and more complex issue. In addition, English may be the international language of science, but increasingly non-native English speakers are contributing to science by writing journal papers. It is the role of the international research community to ensure that the privilege of native English speakers does not stand in the way of the continued unification and dissemination of good research by researchers across the globe.

Despite the reason for plagiarism, understanding the different categories of plagiarism and how it comes about will assist authors and editors in better managing plagiarism when it appears in text and in being able to confidently and knowledgeably understand plagiarism and how to avoid it in the future.

“It is the role of the international research community to ensure that the privilege of native English speakers does not stand in the way of the continued unification and dissemination of good research by researchers across the globe.”

Download the paper ‘Purging plagiarism: Why authors plagiarise and how to fix it’.

View this blog post and the paper on Dr Joely Taylor’s blog, Well Writ.


Dr Joely Taylor is a former research scientist. Specialising in academic, technical and scientific editing, Dr Taylor is an Accredited Editor with the Institute of Professional Editors Ltd in Australia, an Editor in the Life Sciences with the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences in the US, and an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (the former Society for Editors and Proofreaders) in the UK.

Katharine O’Moore-Klopf, ELS, is a self-employed medical editor with board certification in the life sciences. Her editing has helped researchers in more than 20 nations get published in more than 50 different medical journals. She is a member of the Editorial Freelancers Association, the Council of Science Editors, the American Medical Writers Association, the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences, and ACES: the Society for Editing.

US State Laws About Independent Contractors

The US state of California enacted a law in January 2020 that redefines the role of independent contractors, aka freelancers. The American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) recently wrote to its self-employed members, who include self-employed medical writers and self-employed medical editors, to say this:

One unintended consequence of this effort is a potential chilling effect on companies that hire freelance medical writers and editors. If companies stop hiring freelancers because they are afraid their state might later redefine those freelancers as employees entitled to all appropriate benefits and required income tax withholding, this will threaten freelancers’ businesses, livelihoods, and ability to work as they wish.

See this news story from the LA Times and this information from the State of California Department of Industrial Relations for background on these kinds of laws.

Because AMWA has heard concerns from its self-employed members, the organization has issued two documents that you as a freelance editor might find helpful:

• "Background information for the AMWA Position Statement on Legislation That Negatively Affects the Livelihood of Freelance Medical Communicators"

• "AMWA Position Statement on Legislation That Negatively Affects the Livelihood of Freelance Medical Communicators"

If you're a self-employed editorial worker who lives in the USA, check with your professional organizations (the Society for Editing, American Society for Indexing, Association of Earth Science Editors, Council of Science Editors, Editorial Freelancers Association, Northwest Editors Guild, etc.) to see what they're doing and saying about similar laws in your state.

Courses About Medical Editing

A colleague on an email discussion list asked about continuing-education courses in medical editing. I'm sharing here the info I gave her:

• "Medical Editing 101: An Introduction," a recorded 3-part webinar available through the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA)

• "Macroediting" (has nothing to do with using macros), webinar available through the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA)

• "Microediting," webinar available through AMWA

• "Macro and Micro: Taking Editing All The Way From Measurement to Meaning," webinar available through AMWA

• "Editing Activity Package," webinar available through AMWA

• "Eliminating Wordiness: How to Effectively Shorten Abstracts and Other Writing," webinar available through AMWA

• "Ten Characteristics of Effective Tables and Graphs," webinar available through AMWA

• "Working with Authors Who Are Non-native English Speakers," webinar available through AMWA

• "Medical Editing," webinar available from the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP)

• Updated on 6/8/2019: "Editing Medical Manuscripts," course available from the Art of Copyediting

• Various courses available from the Drug Information Association; see its catalog

How to Run an Editing Business

Self-employed editors don't just edit. They must also run their own editing business. No one just hands them clients and projects; they have to go out and get those themselves. In this guest post, my colleague Amy J. Schneider explains for editors new to business what that entails. What appears here is a version of material that she originally posted in an editors' Facebook discussion group. She has given me her permission to repost it here.


Let us remember that even a part-time business is still a business, and we must treat it like one. All businesses require capital investment: professional training and development, equipment (computer and peripherals, Internet connection), software (general and industry-specific: Office, Acrobat, editorial plug-ins, etc.), and more. You'll need to consider taxes, local business licensing (if any), bookkeeping, time tracking, scheduling, quoting and setting appropriate rates, invoicing, contracts, client relations, marketing, networking, online/social media presence, IT self-education and maintenance, and the list goes on. Much if not all of this is covered in Katharine O'Moore-Klopf's Copyeditors' Knowledge Base (CKB).

Remember also that your clients will not be interested in what editing will do for you, but rather what you can do to meet their needs. You may have to do less of an edit on a project than it needs, or than you think it needs. You may need to edit to different styles (style guide or house style), or be asked to make or leave things "wrong." Your clients will expect you to be a problem-solver and a self-starter, with minimal hand-holding from them, to give them the edit they want. You are a vendor to them, just as a service provider such as a plumber is to you; they expect you to take care of things so they don't have to.

When I started as a freelance editor, I didn't know what I didn't know. Now when newbies approach me for advice, I send them to three resources: CMOS [the Chicago Manual of Style], Amy Einsohn's Copyeditor's Handbook (the 4th edition will be available in May 2019), and the CKB. That's enough to keep them busy for a while. In my 24 years of self-employment, no one has ever come back and said that they still wanted to be a freelance editor after reviewing those references. They all apparently had a very different idea of what it was all about. It's a lot more work than many people think, and it's not always glamorous or fun. It is most certainly a profession and a business that requires a generous infusion of cash, time, blood, sweat, tears, and, yes, talent. But the least of these is talent. You will get out of it what you put into it.

______________

Amy J. Schneider is the owner of Featherschneider Editorial Services and has been providing professional editing and proofreading of textbooks, trade books, and fiction since 1995.

Where to find Amy: editing and proofreading; LinkedIn profile

Writers and editors: Do you know why and how to use patient-friendly language in documents? In this article I wrote for ACES: The Society for Editing, I share some of my tips for creating patient-friendly language.

Self-Employed Editors, Can You Build a Clientele Instantly?

I’m seeing requests everywhere from new editorial freelancers who are seeking tools and techniques that will get them get a steady clientele very fast.

I’ve been self-employed almost 24 years, and my experience tells me what other self-employed editorial pros have said in various venues: building up a clientele takes time. There are no methods that work instantly. It would be lovely if there were.

But keep marketing, to make your presence and skills known. This involves doing things like these:

• Blogging

• Commenting on the blogs where potential clients hang out (without doing a hard sell)

• Participating in professional associations

• Contacting clients (past, current, and desired) to talk about how you can help lighten their project load—and not starting by reciting all of your academic degrees and training

• Sharing your professional knowledge (without doing hard sales pitches)
• In email discussion groups
• In Facebook discussion groups
• On Twitter
• On LinkedIn
• All over the place
• Doing presentations to share helpful knowledge at meetings where potential clients hang out

• Teaching courses in person or via the internet

• Finding ways to build up the number of word-of-mouth referrals you get

If you don’t take the time to do at least some of those things on a regular basis, clients just won’t land on your desk. There are ways to do them without using up all your editing time and without spending lots of money.

I know you can do this. I’m an introvert, and I do it.

How to Scope Out Associations' Cultures, Keep Up with Their Conferences, and Learn from Them

Here is a 3-part tip for those who can't afford to attend annual conferences of editorial associations and/or who are considering joining one or more associations:

• First, bookmark links to the websites of associations you're interested in. If you want to know about more associations than just the few you've already heard about, check out the association links in the "Networking" section of the Copyeditors' Knowledge Base (CKB).

• Second, watch those websites for notice of upcoming conferences. During conference time, head to Twitter to find the associations' Twitter accounts. (Follow the links to those Twitter accounts that appear in the "Networking" section of the CKB.)

• Third, follow those accounts' tweets that are about the organizations' conferences. Most associations include an appropriate hashtag, or topic marker, in their conference tweets. For example, ACES: the Society for Editing is using the hashtag #ACES2020 for its tweets about its 2020 conference. You can search Twitter for that hashtag if you know it. [Updated October 11, 2019.]

You'll get a good sense of what the organizations have to offer you, and you'll also be engaging in some continuing professional development. Note: You do not have to have a Twitter account of your own to follow those tweets.

A Tale of Parenting and Self-Employment from the Low-Tech Days

This tale may resonate with those of you who are self-employed and have small children at home to care for. It's funny to me now, way after the fact.

Back in 1996, I was already self-employed as an editor. A child of mine, who shall be referred to as Toddler here, was in diapers. [Kind readers, please do not reveal Toddler's real name in the comments.] One morning I was editing a book manuscript—I don't remember whether it was fiction or nonfiction—and needed to do some fact-checking using reference works other than the ones I owned. I didn't yet didn't own a computer or cell phone, much less a smartphone, so I couldn't do Internet searches for the information I needed. That meant a trip to the library.

Did I want to take Toddler with me? No, Toddler would be bored because the reference section was nowhere near the children's section of the library. What to do? Brilliant idea: leave Toddler with my father-in-law, who at the time was a jazz-and-blues musician who worked nights, so both Toddler and I would be happy during the 30 minutes or so when I was at the library. Father-in-Law agreed, so I left him with Toddler and some of Toddler's toys.

I did my research at the library, and I returned home, thinking how happy the book manuscript's author and acquisition editor would be with the thoroughness of my fact-checking. I went to the downstairs apartment within my home, where my in-laws live and where Father-in-Law was taking care of Toddler.

I opened the door, and there stood Toddler, wearing a disposable diaper that was secured on each side with silver duct tape. I found that very odd. How had the duct tape gotten there?

I had forgotten to leave Father-in-Law with extra diapers, so when Toddler filled up his diaper, as toddlers will do, Father-in-Law improvised. He removed the diaper, disposed of its contents, put it back on Toddler, and used duct tape to secure it because he couldn't get the diaper's adhesive strips, put in place by the diaper's manufacturer, to work.

And that happened because I had no cell phone on which Father-in-Law could have called me to request clean diapers.

What You as a Researcher Get for My Fees

As an international physician-researcher, you can pay another editing service less to edit your manuscript, but will you get the same level of attention and care that you can get from KOK Edit?

Medical journal editors want manuscripts that are spelled and punctuated correctly. They want manuscripts to have proper grammar and to follow the journal's preferences. And other editing services will do that for you.

But journal editors want more than that. They want manuscripts to be well structured, to have the right tone for their publication, and to tell a research story rather than just recite data. That's where I can help you.

In addition to having extensive training in editing, I am board-certified as an editor in the life sciences. I will advise you when a table or figure will illustrate your findings better than text alone, help you report your research concisely, and even help you write a cover letter to accompany your submission.

For more than 2 decades, I have been editing manuscripts written by non-native English writers, so I know exactly how to help you hone your writing to meet journals' expectations. Authors whose manuscripts have been rejected by journals often come to me for help and then achieve publication after my in-depth editing.

You will face competition from many other researchers when you submit your manuscript to a journal. I will work with you to set deadlines that will honor your manuscript, so that I can take the time necessary to help you make your manuscript its best.

When I edit for you, I am your advocate in the publishing process. I help you communicate your research well to your English-speaking peers worldwide. I polish your writing so that it sounds as if you are a native English writer. And I help you decrease the amount of jargon in your manuscript so that more people will want to read it.

Contact me today to get started.

Talk Up the Profession of Editing or Watch Editorial Budgets Shrink

Copyeditors at the New York Times have sent a letter to the paper's executive editor and managing editor outlining why the plan to chop the editing staff by half is going to cause big problems, including putting the paper at risk for lawsuits.

From the letter, this is why editors are necessary:

After all, we are, as one senior reporter put it, the immune system of this newspaper, the group that protects the institution from profoundly embarrassing errors, not to mention potentially actionable ones.

I believe that all editors should spend a lot more time, all the time, educating the people who make the budgets about why editing is necessary.

I see lots of posts, in various editors' Facebook groups and on editors' email discussion lists, about how we editors should never toot our own horns. Such self-effacing behavior is exactly what gets editorial budgets cut, and I'm not talking about just newspapers' budgets. Yes, of course remember that the author is the one who created the work and the one whose voice should generally not be tampered with, but why hide from the world and never tell anyone about what makes your profession valuable?

By keeping a very low profile, we editors have helped create this problem. Now we must work to resolve it.

What Editors Do

I'm a published chapter author!

Editor Peter Ginna put together a book commissioned by the University of Chicago Press: What Editors Do: The Art, Craft, and Business of Book Editing.


And I was asked to write the chapter on what it is that freelance editors do, how they come to be self-employed, and what professional and business issues they must deal with. Take a look at page 2 of the table of contents to see the listing for chapter 24, which is mine. (Click on the photos to enlarge them.) I hope all of you self-employed editors feel, when you read my chapter, that I have represented us well.

Some very cool people whom I admire also contributed chapters, including Scott Norton, who wrote the book Developmental Editing: A Handbook for Freelancers, Authors, and Publishers; the Carol Fisher Saller​, who wrote the book The Subversive Copy Editor; and Jane Friedman.

As Peter says in his most recent blog post, the book was written because

It seems ironic that for those who are interested in going into the book business, or those outside it who want to understand it, there is a dearth of published guidance about how editors do what they do, or why, or what constitutes best practices in editing. There are a few very good exceptions to that statement, most notably the late Gerald Gross's essay collection Editors on Editing, first published in 1962, updated twice since, and still in print. I read the second edition avidly when I got into publishing in the early 1980s, and it is still well worth reading, with contributions from many accomplished (in some cases legendary) editors. But EoE was last updated in the early 90s, before Amazon and the internet, among other factors, transformed the industry. It was long past time for another crack at the subject.

You are invited to preorder the book now; it will be available in October. It will come out first in paperback and hardcover, and then there will be an e-book version later.

Why Editors Don't Work for Free

Would you ask a computer repair technician or a real estate agent to work for free? Of course not. Then why would you ask an editor to work for free? Editing isn't a hobby or a cause; it's a profession that requires training.

But maybe you don't know what editing entails. Maybe you think anyone can do it because it's just like reading for pleasure (hint: it's not!), so you think it should be done for free. Here are links to articles and blog posts about what thorough work editing really is:

• "Let Us Now Praise Editors," from Salon

• "Why Every Author Needs an Editor," from EditorMom

• "Why Editors Should Build Relationships with Authors, and How They Can Do So," from the American Society of Business Publication Editors

• "Why Does Editing Take So Much Longer Than Reading for Pleasure or Interest?" from EditorMom

• "One Editor’s Editing Process," from the blog of the Indian Copyeditors Forum

And here are links to blog posts about the training and continuing professional development necessary to be an editor:

• "How to Transition to Copyediting From Another Career," from EditorMom

• "How to Become a Medical Editor," from The Editors' Weekly