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What Editors Do: The Art, Craft, and Business of Book Editing
Editing is an invisible art where the very best work goes undetected. Editors strive to create books that are enlightening, seamless, and pleasurable to read, all while giving credit to the author. This makes it all the more difficult to truly understand the range of roles they inhabit while shepherding a project from concept to publication.
In What Editors Do, Peter Ginna gathers essays from twenty-seven leading figures in book publishing about their work. Representing both large houses and small, and encompassing trade, textbook, academic, and children’s publishing, the contributors make the case for why editing remains a vital function to writers—and readers—everywhere.
Ironically for an industry built on words, there has been a scarcity of written guidance on how to actually approach the work of editing. This book will serve as a compendium of professional advice and will be a resource both for those entering the profession (or already in it) and for those outside publishing who seek an understanding of it. It sheds light on how editors acquire books, what constitutes a strong author-editor relationship, and the editor’s vital role at each stage of the publishing process—a role that extends far beyond marking up the author’s text.
This collection treats editing as both art and craft, and also as a career. It explores how editors balance passion against the economic realities of publishing. What Editors Do shows why, in the face of a rapidly changing publishing landscape, editors are more important than ever.
In What Editors Do, Peter Ginna gathers essays from twenty-seven leading figures in book publishing about their work. Representing both large houses and small, and encompassing trade, textbook, academic, and children’s publishing, the contributors make the case for why editing remains a vital function to writers—and readers—everywhere.
Ironically for an industry built on words, there has been a scarcity of written guidance on how to actually approach the work of editing. This book will serve as a compendium of professional advice and will be a resource both for those entering the profession (or already in it) and for those outside publishing who seek an understanding of it. It sheds light on how editors acquire books, what constitutes a strong author-editor relationship, and the editor’s vital role at each stage of the publishing process—a role that extends far beyond marking up the author’s text.
This collection treats editing as both art and craft, and also as a career. It explores how editors balance passion against the economic realities of publishing. What Editors Do shows why, in the face of a rapidly changing publishing landscape, editors are more important than ever.
310 pages, Paperback
First published October 6, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 145 reviews
January 2, 2018
A book about the business of books, and the people who make them, particularly those who work in traditional publishing and developmental editing. Since that's been my work and business for almost 20 years, I found a lot to love. Those who are curious about making an editing career will benefit from listening to those who have gone before, even in this time of disruptive change.
Like most collections, some essays are stronger than others. Jon Karp's guide for acquisitions is insightful about how gatekeepers, when faced with more projects than they can ever undertake, make their decisions. Matt Weiland's look at nonfiction editing was both passionate and practical. There were a few others that I skimmed after the first few paragraphs.
Overall, though, this seemed like a chance to honor a career path and tradition that has come under fire in recent years, but I fear it focuses too much on the past. There's only one essay about self publishing, and it was oddly out of sync with the rest of the book, written not for other editors but for the writers who hire them. And I wished for more from the younger generation of editors and agents, the digital natives who approach their manuscripts with a mouse, not a red pen.
Like most collections, some essays are stronger than others. Jon Karp's guide for acquisitions is insightful about how gatekeepers, when faced with more projects than they can ever undertake, make their decisions. Matt Weiland's look at nonfiction editing was both passionate and practical. There were a few others that I skimmed after the first few paragraphs.
Overall, though, this seemed like a chance to honor a career path and tradition that has come under fire in recent years, but I fear it focuses too much on the past. There's only one essay about self publishing, and it was oddly out of sync with the rest of the book, written not for other editors but for the writers who hire them. And I wished for more from the younger generation of editors and agents, the digital natives who approach their manuscripts with a mouse, not a red pen.
December 21, 2017
This is a VERY informative book. It gives an up close and deeply personal look at the many varied jobs that go on in the publishing industry. What sets this book apart from similar ones is that this one is not specifically written for authors, it's aimed equally at those who might be interested in working in the publishing industry as editors, researchers, copy editors, cover designers, publicists, ect. I learned a lot. Highly recommended.
January 18, 2021
DeliDolu Yayınları'nın yayın politikasını, eserlere gösterdiği özeni çok beğeniyorum. Seçkileri çok iyi ve benim beğenilerim ile paralel. Çevirileri, kültür hayatımıza sunduğu kitaplar mihenk taşı. İşte "Editörler Ne İş Yapar?" da bunlardan biri. Fiyatına rağmen edindim ve 288 sayfada aradığımdan fazlasını buldum; bir kez daha. Yayın sektörünün bir yerindeyseniz, yerinde olmak istiyorsanız müthiş bir kaynak. Makaleler konuların uzmanlarından, doyurucu, zihin açıcı. Tebrik ediyor ve öneriyorum.
December 9, 2020
Yayına hazırladığımız en kapsamlı kitaplardan biriydi bu. Sonra da sordular bana, bu kitabı kimler, neden okumalı? diye. Yanıtladım:
Yeni çıkan bir kitap hakkında “bu kitabı herkes okumalı” ifadesini kullanmak yarardan çok zarara yol açabilir aslında, emin değilim. Fakat inanın ki bazı kitaplar, kitabın özü olduklarından belki de, bu cümleyi hak etmeyi başarıyor.
Editör Ne İş Yapar? öyle bir kitap. Kitap okuyan uçsuz bucaksız azınlığın gayriresmî kullanım kılavuzu. “Kitap” adlı ürünün epik (hatta yer yer fantastik) yolculuğuna ışık tutan bir tılsım.
Peki, herkesi hariç tutarsak tabii, bu kitabı kimler okumalı?
Bu kitabı, iyi okurlar okumalı evvela. Çünkü iyi bir okur, tıpkı herhangi bir işte iyi olan herhangi biri gibi, ilgilendiği uğraşın her şeyini merak eder. Nereden çıkmıştır bu ürün? Neden ve nasıl bu hâle gelmiştir? Bundan sonra nereye gidecektir? Geleceği gibi, geçmişi de karmaşık mıdır?
Zaten sonrasında, bu soruların yanıtlarını merak eden bir okur, eser miktarda hevesi de varsa, yönünü de bu doğrultuda çizecektir. İşte o yüzden, editörlüğe, yayıncılığa, belki yazarlığa; yani kısacası kitapla ilgili herhangi bir kariyere merak salan herkes, kesinlikle okumalı.
Ayrıca bu kitabı yazarlar okumalı. Bu kitabı ilk önce yazarlar okumalı. Yazdığı kitabı yazdığı hâliyle yayımlatabilen pek fazla yazar olmadığına göre, her yazarın bir editöre ihtiyaç duyduğu gerçeği istisna kaldırmadığına göre, bu kitabı yazarlar da okumalı. Çünkü yazar-editör ilişkisinden, doğru ve açık yazabilme yetisinden, içeriğin öneminden, kendi kitabını tanıtabilme yeteneğinden bolca bahseden bu kitap, yazarlar için müstakbel bir yol arkadaşı.
Dil, edebiyat, sanat ve çeviribilim öğrencileri okumalı. Önlerindeki farklı ve açık yollardan birini tercih etme zamanları geldiğinde, yayıncılığa nasıl (ve daha da mühimi neden) girmeleri gerektiğine dair kapsamlı anlatılar barındıran bu kitabı, onlar da dikkatle okuyup dersler çıkarmalı.
Çevirmenler de okumalı. Redaktörler ve düzeltmenler hele mutlaka okumalı. Grafikerler, dizgiciler, satış temsilcileri, iletişimciler... Yani, evet. Yayıncılık sektöründeki herkes okumalı.
Fakat herkesten önce, bu kitabı elbette tüm editörler okumalı. Pek çok yararlı bilginin, püf noktasının, ufuk açıcı deneyimlerin, yapılan işi yeniden düşündüren tüm o satırların yanı sıra, editörlüğün nasıl da evrensel bir iş, sevinçlerin ve sorunların nasıl da her yerde aynı olduğunu fark ederek, sayfaları yüzlerinde müstehzi bir gülümsemeyle çevirme zevkini tatmak için, tüm editörler bu kitabı okumalı. Hatta belki de yalnızca bunun için okumalı.
Kitap, yazardan okura ilerleyen uzun bir yolun son halkası ve bu yol her seferinde bambaşka serüvenler barındırıyor. Fakat ister yürüyün, ister kaçın, isterseniz de ağaçlara binin, yanınızda her zaman bir Samwise Gamgee olmak zorunda. Çünkü yolculuğun zevki ve hakiki anlamı yüzüğü götürüp götürememenizde değil, yüzüğü nasıl götürdüğünüzde yatıyor.
Yeni çıkan bir kitap hakkında “bu kitabı herkes okumalı” ifadesini kullanmak yarardan çok zarara yol açabilir aslında, emin değilim. Fakat inanın ki bazı kitaplar, kitabın özü olduklarından belki de, bu cümleyi hak etmeyi başarıyor.
Editör Ne İş Yapar? öyle bir kitap. Kitap okuyan uçsuz bucaksız azınlığın gayriresmî kullanım kılavuzu. “Kitap” adlı ürünün epik (hatta yer yer fantastik) yolculuğuna ışık tutan bir tılsım.
Peki, herkesi hariç tutarsak tabii, bu kitabı kimler okumalı?
Bu kitabı, iyi okurlar okumalı evvela. Çünkü iyi bir okur, tıpkı herhangi bir işte iyi olan herhangi biri gibi, ilgilendiği uğraşın her şeyini merak eder. Nereden çıkmıştır bu ürün? Neden ve nasıl bu hâle gelmiştir? Bundan sonra nereye gidecektir? Geleceği gibi, geçmişi de karmaşık mıdır?
Zaten sonrasında, bu soruların yanıtlarını merak eden bir okur, eser miktarda hevesi de varsa, yönünü de bu doğrultuda çizecektir. İşte o yüzden, editörlüğe, yayıncılığa, belki yazarlığa; yani kısacası kitapla ilgili herhangi bir kariyere merak salan herkes, kesinlikle okumalı.
Ayrıca bu kitabı yazarlar okumalı. Bu kitabı ilk önce yazarlar okumalı. Yazdığı kitabı yazdığı hâliyle yayımlatabilen pek fazla yazar olmadığına göre, her yazarın bir editöre ihtiyaç duyduğu gerçeği istisna kaldırmadığına göre, bu kitabı yazarlar da okumalı. Çünkü yazar-editör ilişkisinden, doğru ve açık yazabilme yetisinden, içeriğin öneminden, kendi kitabını tanıtabilme yeteneğinden bolca bahseden bu kitap, yazarlar için müstakbel bir yol arkadaşı.
Dil, edebiyat, sanat ve çeviribilim öğrencileri okumalı. Önlerindeki farklı ve açık yollardan birini tercih etme zamanları geldiğinde, yayıncılığa nasıl (ve daha da mühimi neden) girmeleri gerektiğine dair kapsamlı anlatılar barındıran bu kitabı, onlar da dikkatle okuyup dersler çıkarmalı.
Çevirmenler de okumalı. Redaktörler ve düzeltmenler hele mutlaka okumalı. Grafikerler, dizgiciler, satış temsilcileri, iletişimciler... Yani, evet. Yayıncılık sektöründeki herkes okumalı.
Fakat herkesten önce, bu kitabı elbette tüm editörler okumalı. Pek çok yararlı bilginin, püf noktasının, ufuk açıcı deneyimlerin, yapılan işi yeniden düşündüren tüm o satırların yanı sıra, editörlüğün nasıl da evrensel bir iş, sevinçlerin ve sorunların nasıl da her yerde aynı olduğunu fark ederek, sayfaları yüzlerinde müstehzi bir gülümsemeyle çevirme zevkini tatmak için, tüm editörler bu kitabı okumalı. Hatta belki de yalnızca bunun için okumalı.
Kitap, yazardan okura ilerleyen uzun bir yolun son halkası ve bu yol her seferinde bambaşka serüvenler barındırıyor. Fakat ister yürüyün, ister kaçın, isterseniz de ağaçlara binin, yanınızda her zaman bir Samwise Gamgee olmak zorunda. Çünkü yolculuğun zevki ve hakiki anlamı yüzüğü götürüp götürememenizde değil, yüzüğü nasıl götürdüğünüzde yatıyor.
June 28, 2020
Excellent book. I recently went from working in digital publishing to traditional publishing. This book actually answered some questions I had and gave me information on aspects of publishing that I didn’t know.
The book is, no surprise, excellently edited. Very well written, too.
The book is, no surprise, excellently edited. Very well written, too.
November 3, 2018
What Editors Do is a collection of 26 chapters by 27 authors about all aspects of professional editing. Often multi-author volumes such as this have a lot of ups and downs: some chapters are excellent, other chapters less so. But this entire book is a fascinating read. I enjoyed every chapter and wouldn't single out any of them as "skippable."
As a freelance copyeditor and proofreader myself, it was enormous fun to read other people who understand that way of seeing the world. As Carol Fisher Saller (the Chicago Manual of Style's own "Subversive Copy Editor") writes, "It's important to examine your temperament and leanings when considering a copyediting career; if it strikes you as an exciting alternative to the monastery or tuna factory, you're on the right track" (113). Somewhat more wistfully, Erika Goldman says that "Being an editor is a lifelong apprenticeship: the books you read, the jobs you have, influence your approach to any given text. Yet in a sense I'm the same editor I was at the beginning of my career, an idealistic former literature student who took pleasure in books whose form and content I understood to be symbiotic, indivisible" (151). I understand all of that, and it's why I dream of being a full-time editor.
What Editors Do is an excellent way to get an overview of how many kinds of jobs editors may be responsible for. A lot of people might equate "editor" to "grammar police," a person who corrects all of the spellings, apostrophes, commas, and so forth. In fact, that seems to be the kind of work that many professional editors long to do but have little time for. More of their day-to-day work is the hectic social networking of building relationships with authors, agents, and the rest of their colleagues at the publisher. Actual line-by-line editing is, for many editors, the smallest part of their daily work, and a luxury they crave.
I recommend this book to anyone who loves books—it's a beautiful glimpse into how the books we love get to us. I especially recommend this to any writer, including self-publishing authors. Understanding the publication process is invaluable. Kudos to editor Peter Ginna for collecting these chapters and ensuring such high quality throughout. I'm also grateful for the long list of "Further Resources" in the back of the book—so many good books to check out!
As a freelance copyeditor and proofreader myself, it was enormous fun to read other people who understand that way of seeing the world. As Carol Fisher Saller (the Chicago Manual of Style's own "Subversive Copy Editor") writes, "It's important to examine your temperament and leanings when considering a copyediting career; if it strikes you as an exciting alternative to the monastery or tuna factory, you're on the right track" (113). Somewhat more wistfully, Erika Goldman says that "Being an editor is a lifelong apprenticeship: the books you read, the jobs you have, influence your approach to any given text. Yet in a sense I'm the same editor I was at the beginning of my career, an idealistic former literature student who took pleasure in books whose form and content I understood to be symbiotic, indivisible" (151). I understand all of that, and it's why I dream of being a full-time editor.
What Editors Do is an excellent way to get an overview of how many kinds of jobs editors may be responsible for. A lot of people might equate "editor" to "grammar police," a person who corrects all of the spellings, apostrophes, commas, and so forth. In fact, that seems to be the kind of work that many professional editors long to do but have little time for. More of their day-to-day work is the hectic social networking of building relationships with authors, agents, and the rest of their colleagues at the publisher. Actual line-by-line editing is, for many editors, the smallest part of their daily work, and a luxury they crave.
I recommend this book to anyone who loves books—it's a beautiful glimpse into how the books we love get to us. I especially recommend this to any writer, including self-publishing authors. Understanding the publication process is invaluable. Kudos to editor Peter Ginna for collecting these chapters and ensuring such high quality throughout. I'm also grateful for the long list of "Further Resources" in the back of the book—so many good books to check out!
August 19, 2021
This book is an absolutely fantastic representation of the many various lives of "editors" in and around the book publishing world. I work in publishing, and I can say this is very accurate. It's a wonderful resource for anyone looking to learn more about the industry. I especially appreciated the fact that Ginna pulled in voices from all over: executives at the top, assistants at the bottom, people in trade and academic, staff from different departments, editors of widely different kinds of books in different subjects, and descriptions of other non-editing kinds of work editors do. There's discussions on diversity, self-publishing, and recent changes in the industry (up to about 2016/2017). There's also a glossary at the back explaining common vocabulary used in the book publishing industry.
This book feels like a kind of sequel, or modern-day version, of Editors on Editing: What Writers Need to Know about What Editors Do, which is also good, but dated.
For more info, see Peter's review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This book feels like a kind of sequel, or modern-day version, of Editors on Editing: What Writers Need to Know about What Editors Do, which is also good, but dated.
For more info, see Peter's review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
January 15, 2018
Odporúčam každému, kto sa chce dozvedieť veľa o práci editorov. Nehovoriac, zme by to malo byť povinné pre nás aj pre študentov editorstva.
Nie všetky štúdie mi prišli zaujímavé, ale to len preto, že sa daným špecialtám nevenujem.
ODPORÚČAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nie všetky štúdie mi prišli zaujímavé, ale to len preto, že sa daným špecialtám nevenujem.
ODPORÚČAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
December 15, 2021
Bir yayın evinde işe başladığımdan beri başucu kitabım olacağından emin bir şekilde başlamıştım bu kitaba. Çoğu yerde editörümün bana öğrettiklerini ve daha önceden bildiklerimi fazlasıyla aşsa da çoğu noktada ABD yayın standartlarıyla ilgili olduğu için biraz canımı sıktı. Aynı minvalde Türkiye yayın evi olaylarını okumayı daha çok dilerim şahsen. Zira ABD ile Türkiye yayıncılık anlayışı arasında çok büyük farklar var. Ha bu demek değil ki bu kitaptan bir şey öğrenemiyorsunuz. Öğreniyorsunuz tabii! Başınız sıkışınca "Acaba şu kişi ne yapmış bu durumda?" diyip bakmanız için ideal. Ama Türkiye yayın standartları için bir tık yetersiz.
February 11, 2018
I've no interest in becoming an editor, but as an author I figured there'd be some useful stuff in here. From that perspective I'll say this - writers, even ones who only want to self-publish, would do well to breeze through this to not only get a better understanding of a process they've been through or want to go through, but also a better understanding of the editors themselves.
June 26, 2018
As one might expect from a bunch of editors, this book is elegant and balanced, with a collection of voices who are at least diverse enough to point out each other's biases. The picture they give of the profession is by turns charming, cynical, and uncertain, but they all care deeply about what they do, and that alone makes it a worthwhile read.
March 25, 2018
This is an informative book for new authors as well as anyone interested in a career in publishing (or the curious reader who wants a peek into the business of the book world.)
January 18, 2021
4.5. The best book I’ve read on the business of book editing. I appreciated the comprehensiveness—everything from acquiring to developmental editing to diversity to being an editorial assistant.
January 14, 2019
It's ironic that this book so needs an editor. As with any edited collection, the authors were given a pretty broad latitude. That means there's a LOT of repetition, with the various roles of the editor laid out in half a dozen different chapters—and done perhaps best by Ginna, in his introductory chapter The book would likely have been stronger if he'd just written it himself, interviewing his friends rather than turning the mic over to them directly. This is one of those cases in which the whole is less than the sum of its parts.
I can imagine this book being a valuable introduction to the profession for young people interested in entering the publishing business. For those of us writers not in the editing profession, though, the overall project adds to the sense of discouragement about ever breaking through the castle walls. Editor Jonathan Karp says, "All of the editors acquiring for the five major adult trade publishers wouldn't even fill a Broadway theater, and if you asked them afterward what they thought of the show they just saw together, they would probably disagree on almost everything—the quality of the work, whether it was too long or too short, whether the leading man was annoying or charming, and whether the show would run for a week or a year." (31) The book does little to dispel the mysteries of publishing, though it gives us a better vocabulary to describe what we don't understand.
I can imagine this book being a valuable introduction to the profession for young people interested in entering the publishing business. For those of us writers not in the editing profession, though, the overall project adds to the sense of discouragement about ever breaking through the castle walls. Editor Jonathan Karp says, "All of the editors acquiring for the five major adult trade publishers wouldn't even fill a Broadway theater, and if you asked them afterward what they thought of the show they just saw together, they would probably disagree on almost everything—the quality of the work, whether it was too long or too short, whether the leading man was annoying or charming, and whether the show would run for a week or a year." (31) The book does little to dispel the mysteries of publishing, though it gives us a better vocabulary to describe what we don't understand.
December 5, 2017
“...for those with a passion for books, editing offers rewards that are hard to improve on--including a community of like-minded colleagues. One effect of the mediocre entry-level pay in publishing that that those who enter the business, almost to a one, do it because they love to read. Though it may sound simplistic to say, I have found that a peer group self-selected in this way is an incredibly congenial one.”
“...a good editor asks the right questions, makes you better than you are, or more willing to stretch even with you resist. It’s a known fact that the comments you hate the most are the most important to grapple with.”
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about what editors do and especially if you want to take a look under the hood to see how publishing runs. I picked up a few tricks to try out and enjoyed the read overall.
“...a good editor asks the right questions, makes you better than you are, or more willing to stretch even with you resist. It’s a known fact that the comments you hate the most are the most important to grapple with.”
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about what editors do and especially if you want to take a look under the hood to see how publishing runs. I picked up a few tricks to try out and enjoyed the read overall.
May 15, 2024
I loved this book so much. It gave cool insight into publishing and helped me figure out what I want to do as a career. I was glad it was a bunch of essays and not one author talking about it because I would have been bored. It's also a book you don't have to read cover to cover, but it was helpful for me to read everything. I think this is a great starting point for people who are looking at publishing and editing as a career.
August 11, 2018
Never before have I read a text that so perfectly encapsulates my day job; I found myself nodding along to so much of this. If you’ve ever wondered what editors do and why they’re so vitally important in the publication process, pick up this book.
March 1, 2025
A 3.5 for me. Pretty good read, very informative, especially for someone who might not know the ins and outs of editing and what it entails in traditional publishing. Some of the essays were repetitive and a lot focused on the older, more traditional approach to editing (and being overworked). I was also left wanting to read about all the non-editorial work that editors do, particularly as it comes to marketing materials and admin/accounting work.
But all in all, a very interesting book. The list of resources and glossary in the back matter are pretty handy.
But all in all, a very interesting book. The list of resources and glossary in the back matter are pretty handy.
March 9, 2020
Could I give this 10 stars ✨😍
July 23, 2018
This varied collection of essays tries to give a snap shot of the world of editing in its various forms. As with many multiple-author collections, the essays vary in quality and in approach. I do think this book does a good job of conveying the wide variety of tasks editors perform. There are in fact many different types of editors, and what various types of editors do in any given company can vary rather widely. I think this book does adequately convey that. Some of the pieces are very good. There are clearly some experts in their fields who pass along tidbits of their distilled knowledge here. The book will be less good as an introduction to editing for someone outside the editing world, as the varied pictures of the editing task will probably confuse someone who doesn't already understand the varied and somewhat shifting landscape of "what editors do" (and especially which types of editors are responsible for which tasks). For myself, I enjoyed getting a deeper sense of what the editorial process looks like in different contexts and also why and how editors go about their work. It's also worth noting that this book focuses much more on naming what editors do than teaching what editors do--that's not a criticism; just an observation. If you want to know about the editorial task, this is a good place to start. The essay "The Book's Journey" by Nancy Miller is an especially good overview of the steps a book takes in the publication process.
September 22, 2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is an incredible tactical resource for anyone who wishes to learn more about the publishing industry and the role of editors. I found Peter Ginna’s writing to be easy to follow and insightful. He also covers a lot of good information regarding self-publishing.
A few takeaways I appreciated:
- Publishing, it turns out, is a job you can learn while doing, if people are willing to help a little.
- What’s the payoff of having a more diverse workforce? Well, there’s obviously the moral case to be made — and that’s a case that I think applies to any industry. But in book publishing, I think we have a special obligation, given our central role in shaping the culture.
- A person doesn’t have to pass any kind of test or get a license to call herself an editor. All she has to do is say she is one.
- Last but not least, there’s the proofreader. Though not technically an editor, the proofreader is the eagle-eyed person who makes sure that any silly typos along the way get fixed, that a weird line break gets unbroken, that a chunk of text that got inadvertently removed gets put back.
This is an incredible tactical resource for anyone who wishes to learn more about the publishing industry and the role of editors. I found Peter Ginna’s writing to be easy to follow and insightful. He also covers a lot of good information regarding self-publishing.
A few takeaways I appreciated:
- Publishing, it turns out, is a job you can learn while doing, if people are willing to help a little.
- What’s the payoff of having a more diverse workforce? Well, there’s obviously the moral case to be made — and that’s a case that I think applies to any industry. But in book publishing, I think we have a special obligation, given our central role in shaping the culture.
- A person doesn’t have to pass any kind of test or get a license to call herself an editor. All she has to do is say she is one.
- Last but not least, there’s the proofreader. Though not technically an editor, the proofreader is the eagle-eyed person who makes sure that any silly typos along the way get fixed, that a weird line break gets unbroken, that a chunk of text that got inadvertently removed gets put back.
August 28, 2018
Great resource for editors and publishers. The essay about "the alchemy of acquisitions" is worth the price of the whole book. If you're an agent or an acquisitions editor (or a writer trying to get a book proposal accepted) then I encourage you to at least read that essay.
July 21, 2019
I was pretty underwhelmed with this book, to be honest. As someone who's been in the business for a few years, both in small press and as a freelancer, there wasn't a lot here that was really new to me, and what was new tended to be repeated in multiple essays. I also didn't care for the self-congratulatory tone prevalent throughout. I'm proud to be an editor, don't get me wrong, but something about the tone of "without us this whole industry would crumble" was off-putting.
I did find value in this book, especially the essays discussing the different "levels" of editing, working as a freelance editor, editing genre fiction, the author-editor relationship, and the problem of the lack of diversity in publishing. While I did highlight passages throughout and will keep it on my shelf as a reference book, I would recommend What Editors Do to someone who is looking to get started in the industry, rather than someone who's already in.
I did find value in this book, especially the essays discussing the different "levels" of editing, working as a freelance editor, editing genre fiction, the author-editor relationship, and the problem of the lack of diversity in publishing. While I did highlight passages throughout and will keep it on my shelf as a reference book, I would recommend What Editors Do to someone who is looking to get started in the industry, rather than someone who's already in.
January 18, 2018
This was SUPER informative. I learned so much about editing, what editors do every day at the office, how to start a career in editing, how to deal with authors, and all the different types of editors there are in the world. This only made me want to pursue this career even more. It also made me realize what was for me and what wasn’t (I don’t think I would want to self-publish, work for a university press, deal with textbooks, or edit nonfiction unless it was a memoir or something). Hearing about all the responsibilities was awesome, I just kept thinking “hey I want to do that!” Overall this book covered a lot of bases and did a great job with them. Anyone who thinks this might be the career for them, read this book!!!
January 2, 2018
Needless to say, I learned a lot about book editing from this book. For me, the chapters on University Presses and freelance editing were a bit slow, but that's mainly because I am not interested in those fields myself. There are a lot of good quotations about what makes "good writing" in this book too.
June 12, 2018
If you’re already in the biz, I wouldn’t bother. If you’re new to the publishing world, the book will offer some glimpse into the more mundane details of how books get made. The essays are generally solidly written but too much time is spent on the intangible “magic” of acquisitions. At times the essays turn more self congratulatory exercises than legitimate commentary on life in publishing.
April 1, 2018
After 17 years of writing and publishing books, this taught me stuff I didn’t know, and made me appreciate - even more - the hard work (and HEART WORK) of my editors. Writers, if you want to understand what goes on behind the scenes, this is an interesting and helpful read.
February 2, 2018
One more for the “books I wish I’d read in graduate school” list.
December 18, 2021
A must-read for writers and editors.
January 28, 2021
I appreciated the opportunity of reading this book as a member of the Freelance Editors Book Club.
What struck me the most when I first read about it (and it still does inspire me!) is what Peter Ginna mentioned in the Introduction regarding “Conceptual Editing.” I’ve always approached editing as a three-to-four-tiered process: developmental editing, line editing, copyediting and proofreading but thanks to Peter Ginna’s enlightening me on the concept, if you will, of Conceptual Editing, I feel that the work we do before we actually roll up our sleeves and dive into the editing, is actually justified as actual editing. Allow me to share this in Peter Ginna’s own words: “I refer to the most fundamental, “macro” interventions as conceptual editing—this is not a common industry term, perhaps because a conversation over lunch doesn’t seem like “editing” and indeed a pencil may be nowhere in sight. But sometimes the most important contribution an editor can make is to help an author frame her approach to a topic in a compelling way or steer away from a poorly chosen subject.”
Chapter 8 on Developmental Editing in Part 2 had the most effect on me because I’ve been spending a greater amount of time over the years in this editing phase due to my writing students who end up hiring me to edit their manuscripts. For years (even now!) I’ve had to straddle the (“often blurred”) lines between manuscript critiquing and developmental editing (and now book coaching). Even though parameters have been set between and among levels of editing, I still find myself wondering where the “boundaries” of manuscript critiquing end and the developmental editing begins. Sometimes, I’ve encountered that I do a bit of both simultaneously depending on the genre of the book I am editing. The passages of Scott Norton’s essay regarding the developmental editor’s role that ring true for me include: “Maintaining subject expertise is an ongoing commitment.” Right now, I’ve been doing fun research about the Regency period as well as consulting resources on writing a Regency novel in order to better serve my client’s Regency manuscript which I’ve been critiquing/editing.
Scott Norton also wrote: “Coaching involves providing summary feedback about suggestions for improvement.” This is a good reminder for editors involved in this early stage of editing where we can help the writer shape her story while still honoring her narrative voice and unique vision.
I also love the Erika Goldman quote about literary writing. While I didn’t appreciate the blunt way Matt Weiland wrote about the marginal comments he gives his authors, he sort of redeemed himself with the comment about editors “being useful to the author but invisible to the reader.”
Since I’ve been editing the works of two women of color: a Filipino American and an Indian American, I was so moved by what Chris Jackson wrote in his Chapter Twenty-Two essay on “Why Publishing Needs Diversity”:
“I knew from my own life experience as an outsider what can be lost when we aren’t allowed to speak our own languages—the ways meaning and nuance are diminished, the way some stories go untold altogether, or are told wrong.”
So I strive to make sure that these women’s narrative voices are presented and preserved in the most authentic way possible.
Katharine O’Moore-Klopf’s essay on “Making a Career as a Freelance Editor,” also rang true, but thanks to my Freelance Editors Club coaching calls, I was already aware of the nuances of building a career as a freelance editor.
I especially appreciate how Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry explained in their essay, “The Self-Publisher as Self-Editor,” the importance of beta readers and how that offering differs from developmental editing because often times I would get potential clients who would want me to “developmental edit” their work for free when what they really need is someone to beta read their manuscript first. I also appreciate how these two writers really highlighted and emphasized how the books that are self-published are just as good as the ones that are traditionally published. But that it’s still important for indie authors to make sure their works are professionally edited so they stay on par with traditionally published books.
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