The Subversive Copy Editor

by Saller, Carol Fisher

• ISBN13: 9780226734248
• ISBN10: 0226734242
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-03-16
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Each year writers and editors submit over three thousand grammar and style questions to the Q&A page atThe Chicago Manual of Style Online. Some are arcane, some simply hilariousand one editor, Carol Fisher Saller, reads every single one of them. All too often she notes a classic author-editor standoff, wherein both parties refuse to compromise on the "rights" and "wrongs" of prose styling: "This author is giving me a fit." "I wish that I could just DEMAND the use of the serial comma at all times." "My author wants his preface to come at the end of the book. This just seems ridiculous to me. I mean, it's not apost-face."InThe Subversive Copy Editor, Saller casts aside this adversarial view and suggests new strategies for keeping the peace. Emphasizing habits of carefulness, transparency, and flexibility, she shows copy editors how to build an environment of trust and cooperation. One chapter takes on the difficult author; another speaks to writers themselves. Throughout, the focus is on serving the reader, even if it means breaking "rules" along the way. Saller's own foibles and misadventures provide ample material: "I mess up all the time," she confesses. "It's how I know things."Writers, Saller acknowledges, are only half the challenge, as copy editors can also make trouble for themselves. (Does any other book have an index entry that says "terrorists.Seecopy editors"?) The book includes helpful sections on e-mail etiquette, work-flow management, prioritizing, and organizing computer files. One chapter even addresses the special concerns of freelance editors.Saller's emphasis on negotiation and flexibility will surprise many copy editors who have absorbed, along with the dos and don'ts of their stylebooks, an attitude that their way is the right way. In encouraging copy editors to banish their ignorance and disorganization, insecurities and compulsions, the Chicago Q&A presents itself as a kind of alter ego to the comparatively staidManual of Style. InThe Subversive Copy Editor, Saller continues her mission with audacity and good humor.

Author Biography

Carol Fisher Saller is a senior manuscript editor at the University of Chicago Press and the editor of The Chicago Manual of Style Online’s Q&A.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. ix
Working with the Writer, for the Reader	p. 1
The Subversive Copy Editor	p. 3
The Good Launch	p. 13
Working for the Reader, through the Writer: Carefulness, Transparency, Flexibility	p. 23
When Things Get Tough: The Difficult Author	p. 31
Dear Writers: A Chapter of Your Own	p. 43
Working with Your Colleagues and with Yourself	p. 55
When Things Get Tough (the Sequel): The Dangerous Manuscript	p. 59
Know Thy Word Processor	p. 71
The Living Deadline	p. 81
That Damned Village: Managing Work Relationships	p. 91
The Freelancer's Quandaries	p. 103
The Zen of Copyediting	p. 111
You Still Want to Be a Copy Editor? Breaking In	p. 117
Acknowledgments	p. 121
Further Reading	p. 123
Index	p. 129
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