Editing and proofreading

[Guest Bill Barton]

If she was going to completely rewrite your piece, she should have at least had the decency to tell you and offer you the option of having your byline removed.

And if any board (bored) members are aspiring writers and live in that area, please take this as a caveat emptor.

Edited November 6, 2009 by Bill Barton

[Guest Bill Barton]

Editors suck until proven otherwise.

[doneth]

When I started this thread I had forgotten my best publishing story of all. I sold the Serbian language rights to my biography of Billie Holiday to Narodnaknjiga in Belgrade for $1,000. The contract (dated 'this 26th day of 2006') says that the money was to be paid 'on execution of this agreement'. They have published a book, ISBN 86-331-2068-2, a copy provided to me by a member of Organissimo, and the translation copyrighted 2005 (?) but have never paid me a dime.

RIPPED OFF (boo hoo)

[Christiern]

Boo hoo

It rhymes with sue

[Nate Dorward]

Bill--thanks for the compliments about the STN editing--I'm very pleased to be working on that magazine for Pete, as I think he's got a good savvy for interesting features & a strong stable of regular contributors. It's also been a pleasure working with Dan at Paris Transatlantic.

That does sound like a terrible experience with having someone else's writing foisted off under your byline! But I have occasionally been forced to do drastic rewriting or adding my own work when someone hands in copy just under the wire & it's got major problems (like obvious factual errors: e.g. a CD review where I know that the personnel information or instrumentation is incorrect)... The main thing here is that unless time really is of the essence it's vital to run the rewrite by the author (the corollary is: if an author wishes to avoid extensive editing, hand in clean, accurate copy well before the last minute). But that doesn't always happen, unfortunately, & sometimes rewriting seems to be more about the editor's itch to stick their oar in....

[Tom Storer]

I just learned of the existence of Muphry's law: "if you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written." This seems like the just thread to bring it up!

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_law.

Edited November 12, 2009 by Tom Storer

[doneth]

Boo hoo

It rhymes with sue

Sue who? In Serbia? I should try to hire a lawyer in a country that is still hiding Ratko Mladic?

[Christiern]

I wasn't serious, having had dealings with that which was once behind Churchill's Iron Curtain. At least the Poles were up front when they wanted my words, many years ago—they told me that they couldn't pay me in any currency that I might find useful, so they offered to do so in sausages.

Really.

[AllenLowe]

years ago a friend of mine wrote for the East Village Other - some of you old folks may remember it - and they added a whole lot of four letter words to his piece in the editing - they thought it needed more "shits" and "fucks" (in a manner of speaking).

as for myself, I have given up on contemporary editing. The biggest problem (as with Barton) is when they make changes that are personality or style changes and that alter the meaning of what you wrote.

Incidentally, I have been told by more than one person that the best editor in the business is Bob Christgau.

[Hoppy T. Frog]

Incidentally, I have been told by more than one person that the best editor in the business is Bob Christgau.

That's good, since as a rock critic, he stinks.

[Big Beat Steve]

One man's meat really is another man's poison, it seems ... :D

[AllenLowe]

I don't think so. Been going through his site; a lot of good stuff.

[gmonahan]

I wasn't serious, having had dealings with that which was once behind Churchill's Iron Curtain. At least the Poles were up front when they wanted my words, many years ago—they told me that they couldn't pay me in any currency that I might find useful, so they offered to do so in sausages.

Really.

I just saw this! Did you take them up on it?!

gregmo

[Christiern]

I turned down the sausages, but gave them permission to translate and publish my article—an interview with Manfred Eicher.

[gmonahan]

I turned down the sausages, but gave them permission to translate and publish my article—an interview with Manfred Eicher.

Cool. I've only been to Poland once--to Krakow. Lovely city. Nice people. I do remember trading in some currency and getting a bucket-full of zloties. I think I would have preferred sausage.

gregmo

[Chris Parker]

Had a weird situation with the Ornette Coleman book. The American and British publishers published it simultaneously but used different copy editors, Ben Ratliff in the US and the late Chris Parker in the UK. Naturally, I thanked both editors in the book introduction. But the British edition deleted my thank you (the American edition kept the thanks). Chris wrote to me about how cruelly I had hurt his feelings by not crediting him -- like me, he gigged as a free-lance copy editor, a highly insecure occupation, so those thanks would have gone on his resume -- and since I lost his address, I never get to explain that it was his London employer who had fouled up.

Chris is a pal of mine, and I hope to heaven he is not 'late'!

He edited some novels by Jeffery Archer, who makes a lot of money spinning stories but is a terrible writer, and will not allow anything to be changed, including nonsensical errors of chronology, like having a character 28 years old and 34 two pages later.

Yes, I'm alive, & have just seen this. It's good to hear I can finally stop heaving this 20-year grudge about (never one to Forgive & Forget, I'm a founder member of the Remember & Resent School). I'd like to apologise for what was probably an unpleasantly tetchy letter - consider this an e-hug, John...

PS: It's true about Jeffrey Archer; I recently corrected the 93rd reprint of "Cain & Abel" & found he'd (in all those 93 editions, presumably) attributed a quote about sex to Dr Johnson, when it was actually from Lord Chesterfield, as any skoolboy no. Funnily enough, he's never thanked me...