Though not every editing job is put under contract, even low-risk projects would benefit from outlining the details with the client.
Articles Tagged copyediting
Queries: Skilled Negotiation Required
Negotiating is important, even for copyeditors. Learn how to guide your author or supervisor to get the answer you desire from your queries.
Black and White: When Should We Capitalize?
Language changes with use. Who’s capping “Black” and “White”? How can editors decide which style to follow? Read on to find out.
Proving Copyediting’s Worth
As practitioners, copyeditors know why editing is important. But those who would hire us sometimes need convincing.
Breaking into Copyediting, Part 3: Getting Your First Editing Job
In this series, I’ve been digging into how to get started in copyediting. In part 1, I outlined the knowledge and skills you need to get started. In part 2, I discussed how you’ll need to continue your education to move into the journeyman stage. But how do you get that first editing job? Do
Breaking into Copyediting, Part 2: Continuing Your Training
In part 1 I outlined the basic knowledge and skills you need to become a copyeditor. The list is long, but even the longest training programs (university certificate programs with several courses) can be finished within a year. And once you’ve done the training, you’re ready to go, right? Well … Editing is a craft.
Breaking into Copyediting, Part 1: Training Required
There’s a popular idea that if you’re good at spotting typos, you can be a copyeditor. Spotting typos shows an eye for—and an interest in—details, and that’s a great start. But there’s so much more to catch. A colleague recently shared some typical editing math. Given 15,540 words in a book chapter (62 manuscript pages)
6 Tips to Fact-Checking as a Copyeditor
Fact-checking is often an added task to a copyeditor’s already long list of duties. 6 tips to doing it better.
Making the Case for Copyediting
Last week, one of my corporate clients asked me to do a rush proofread on a PDF file. Time was short, but the team publishing the document had reviewed and approved all the text. There had been no copyediting stage, however.
Oh boy.
When One Door Closes …
For the last three years, I’ve been running two businesses: this one and Pilcrow Group, which owned Copyediting, publisher of content and training for copyeditors. Before that, I was the editor-in-chief of Copyediting with its previous owners for five years. Running two business has been fun, if challenging. I’ve been able to dig deeply into
