Working Words. Elizabeth Manning Murphy

just what is the editor’s regular job? Where does the editor’s job end and someone else’s begin? Is an editor supposed to get involved in design work, or indexing, or making decisions about how documents should be presented?

      Why not? Some might contend that indexing is not an editor’s job. Designers might feel that they are the best qualified to advise on the look and feel of a book – and so they probably are in most cases. Some publishers restrict the editor to working on the text and not interfering with any other aspect of the publication. Others welcome the editor’s suggestions.

      Often we editors are asked ‘Oh, by the way, would you have a look at the cover too, and while you’re about it, could you do an index?’ Now, if I didn’t have some design skills, or know something about indexing, or have a feel for the whole document and not just the words, nobody would ask me. But I do, and they do ask.

      It’s like plain English. Many people think of plain English as just readable text, but that’s only half the battle. Text can be perfectly correct, straightforward, easy to read, yet miss the mark because it’s set in uncomfortable surroundings.

      Anyone editing for plain English needs to consider white space, paragraph length, type size, readability of font, placement of graphics, and so on. Without consideration of all these, the text might as well be gibberish.

      So editors have a wide-ranging role to play, if they want it. They can be part text editor, part designer, part indexer, part writer, even English grammar tutor or mentor, all at once. Or they can stick to the narrow path of, say, copyediting or proofreading on certain jobs. Editing jobs are as varied as that, and 6 the work is the more enjoyable when that variety challenges all of our skills at different times.

      However, all of the above is only the editing part of the job – the words. How about other things that must be considered, such as explaining your recommendations to your client, following through to see that the document reads well and expresses the author’s intentions clearly, and checking that any instructions to designers and printers are carried out? Let’s look at each of these.

      While you might not be a teacher in the accepted sense, you still have an explaining role as an editor. Your written comments on the text or your comment notes in Track Changes or your verbal explanations must all be clear. For example, there’s no point telling the client that they ought to use active voice instead of the passive construction that’s in the text if they don’t understand the difference between active and passive. You need to be confident that you can explain that difference and show the client how much better the material would be if they followed your recommendation.

      You need, at the same time, to have respect for the client. It won’t help them if you write a stream of negative comment notes – this will only demoralise and discourage them. If you find yourself with material that will not get to publication without major restructuring, your responsibility is to help the client understand the value of good structure – achievable by means of a few short examples from an early part of the document and a word of praise for the ideas they are trying to get across. Having understood that your recommendations have merit, the client is likely to be in a frame of mind to accept that much more of the same is going to be required throughout the document, and that you are willing to help. At this point, they may well ask for guidance in English grammar, or whatever the problem area is. Great! You’ve won a friend and a convert to good writing.

      Leaving the document after the initial edit is not always a good idea. You may have only one opportunity to work with the author (as perhaps with an academic thesis), but if you can follow through (as perhaps with a novel), all the way to final proof or pre-press stage of the document, do so. A book often has to go through many stages before it is ready to go to the printer. Try to stay in control throughout.

      Some jobs include illustrations, photographs with captions, complex design issues and so on. It is the editor’s responsibility to get the document to publication; therefore you as editor need to liaise with designers and anyone else involved, so that you can keep control of all these aspects that impinge on the effectiveness of the words that you have carefully edited. This doesn’t mean that you need to have design qualifications, or be an indexer or an artist, 7 but such people need to keep you informed and you have to be happy with the work that they produce, or the document will be a failure. If you have agreed to take the project right through to printing, you then need to liaise closely with the chosen printer to make sure that you all agree on the stock (the paper) to be used, the colours for the cover and any illustrations, the print run (and nowadays how it will appear in ebook formats).

      The editor’s job is as big or small as you want to make it. Having an interest in all aspects of the process of getting ideas into print makes the actual editing all the more interesting and satisfying.

      2. Who exactly are you, editor?

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      Obviously what follows is my personal view of the editing profession, professionalism in editing, the responsibilities of an editor and the skills an editor ought to possess – in my opinion, that is.

      What exactly do we mean by the term ‘editor’?

      For the purposes of this book, let’s think of an ‘editor’ as being a member of one of the branches of IPEd or societies of editors around Australia. We do not usually mean a newspaper or magazine editor. That person’s job is to select material for publication, to cull stories that can’t be included and to decide just how much of any particular story will make it to the publication and on which page, in all likelihood.

      Such an editor doesn’t always have a great deal to do with checking spelling, grammar, punctuation, style and so on, but is very likely to have more to do with restructuring and even refocusing stories to bring the meat of a story to the most prominent position so that it will ‘sell’ the publication. There are often subeditors to do the detailed checking.

      What we generally mean, thinking of the editors who are accredited, or currently seeking accreditation, as professional editors, is a text editor. As text editors we work at various levels of edit, and, if we’re wise, we don’t quote for editing anything until we’ve looked at what level of edit is required for the job. The client frequently has no idea. A common question to me is: ‘What do you charge for editing?’ Well, you can imagine my response. It goes something like this: ‘That depends on what is to be edited, the complexity of the document, the level of edit required, and perhaps whether I’ve done editing for you in the past, among many considerations’.

      Mind you, there are magazine editors who also edit text (this would describe me in one of my roles) – they have to because their organisations are small and can’t afford two separate people for the two aspects of the editorial function. However, a lot of our training and interest is in text editing. Perhaps our professional societies should broaden their horizons and include magazine and newspaper editors, and provide more topics at meetings that would interest such people too.

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      Professionalism

      Professionalism and accreditation go hand in hand but are not joined at the hip. Editors can be totally professional and not bother about accreditation because they already have a good reputation around town as meticulous editors with professional standards. Accreditation alone can’t make you a better person. It can’t make you more professional in outlook. Your personal standing among your peers is still a good gauge of a professional approach to the job.

      Having said that, there is a great deal to be said in favour of accreditation of editors as a necessary step towards full professionalism in editing. It will be the norm in years to come – it will become increasingly difficult to get editing work without accreditation at some level or other. My earnest hope is that accreditation will be a rite of passage from ‘learning to be a professional editor’ to ‘being a professional editor’. But remember that accreditation can’t teach you professionalism – it’s something, like adulthood, that you grow into.