The Copyeditor's Desk

The following heartfelt desideratum comes from the Conference of Historical Journals. Although it was written for scholarly authors, writers of any stripe can profit from most of its advice (except for the passages on peer reviewing).

What Journal Editors Wish Authors Knew

Submitting a Manuscript

Know your journal. Acquaint yourself with the scope and limits of a journal’s subject field before you submit your manuscript.

Consult the submission procedures outlined in the latest copy of the journal.  If the editor requires three copies of a manuscript, send them.  Observe stated word or page limits.  Most editors will respond to telephone inquiries.  Many journals, on request, will provide guidelines for the preparation of manuscripts.

Look at the footnote form employed by the journal to which you are submitting your manuscript and model your notes accordingly.

Double space your entire manuscript, including text, block quotations, tables, and notes.

Use endnotes rather than footnotes.

Many historical journals practice double-blind peer review.  Authors should therefore take steps to preserve their anonymity.  The author’s name and affiliation should appear only on a separate title page.  Do not place your name on the first page of the manuscript or in the running heads.  Do not reveal your identity in the notes through the use of the first person (such as, “In my recent article in the Journal of American History, I concluded that this hypothesis was balderdash”).

Do not send your manuscript to more than one editor at a time.  Historical journals frown on simultaneous submissions.

If submitting illustrations with your essay, send photocopies, not original photographs or artwork.

Most historical journals do not accept material that has appeared in substantially the same form elsewhere or is about to do so.  In addition, some journals will not accept material that is available electronically, such as through posting on a LISTSERV or mounting on a Web page.  If in doubt about a journal’s policies, explain your circumstances to the editor.

Always include a cover letter in which you outline the substance and significance of your work.  What makes your research different from everyone else’s?  You should also identify anyone who has critiqued your manuscript.  If the editors know who has read the work, they will not have to waste time asking someone to comment on an essay only to have that person decline because he or she has already read it.

Include in your cover letter your full physical address, phone number, FAX number, and e-mail address.

If you want your materials returned to you, enclose sufficient postage.

Be patient.  The solicitation of qualified outside readers and the gathering of evaluations often takes two to three months and sometimes more.

After Acceptance

It is the author’s responsibility to obtain the necessary permissions to quote or cite copyrighted or manuscript materials or to reproduce illustrations.  As a courtesy, provide copies of the permission letters to the editor.

Tables are expensive to set, and some journals require authors who cannot provide camera-ready copy of their tables to pay for composition.  Clarify this point with your editor to prevent surprises.

Once a manuscript has been set in type, do not try to rewrite it.  Changes at this stage are very expensive.  Correct only errors in fact, grammar, usage, and spelling.

Reviewing Books

Most history journals do not accept unsolicited book reviews or requests by potential reviewers to review a particular title.

Always include the page numbers of quotations from the work under review and the title and page numbers from other works.  The reference will allow editors to check for accuracy even if the journal does not footnote reviews.

Be prompt.  The historical profession is a small one.  Authors and reviewers who are continually late get reputations among editors.

If for personal or professional reasons you cannot complete an assignment, return the review copy at the earliest possible date so that the editor may find another reviewer.  Remember that tenures and promotions are often affected by having one’s book reviewed.

If you decline an invitation to review, editors welcome suggestions for alternative reviewers.

Compiled for the Conference of Historical Journals by Sara B. Bearss, with the assistance of Roger D. Adelson, John C. Inscoe, Nelson D. Lankford, Michael McGiffert, Ann Gross, and John E. Selby

Simplest answer: Write nonfiction.

Yah, I know: you want to write the Great Novel of the Western World. You want people to read your poetry.

The GNotWW has already been written, and it probably can’t find a publisher. And everyone on the planet wants people to read their poetry…but they don’t want to read anyone else’s.

Publishing is a business. Publishers buy what readers will read. Just now readers are reading nonfiction and genre novels. Precious few genre novels will ever make GNotWW; it’s difficult to get one published (though less so than “mainstream” or literary novels); and when you do, you’ll be lucky if you earn 10 grand on the thing. Ten thousand dollars for a year’s worth of work is not worth the effort. Even if you can crank one in six months, that still gives you a grandiose gross income of $20,000 a year. You can’t live on that. Well, you can, but no one in her right mind would want to.

Nonfiction works have the advantage of being marketable without the aid of an agent. If you have a subject—any subject—that’s useful or interesting to a reasonably large coterie of readers, you can find a publisher on  your own. Or you may be able to self-publish and sell enough of them to make it worth your while. One guy who realized he could write about maintaining his RV discovered he could make a ton of money by marketing a book on that subject through Amazon.com.

Yah, I know: crass. But my dears, business is crass. And publishing is a business.

You can find subjects that make you feel less whorish than some. A friend of mine, for example, a high-school teacher who took up magazine writing as a hobby, wrote a book on how to help your teenager succeed in high school. It was a subject that was right under her  nose: when you write about something related to your job, you are an expert on it. And anything you write that will help people in their lives will sell.

Later she went on to write YA novels. Not GNotWWs, but at least she can say she’s a novelist now.

So, look around you. What do you know, what do you do, what can you share that can make someone else’s life better? There’s your first subject.

My second published book (the first was a rewrite of my dissertation) was a trade book for Columbia, The Essential Feature. It simply described what I did for a living (I was writing for magazines at the time). The target audience was the kind of person who takes community college courses in feature writing out of a desire to become a writer with a capital W. It was not designed for journalism majors, but for people with a laptop on the kitchen table.

You’re listening? Target your book tightly for a specific reader. Tell that person something that matters for him or her.

Visualize the person in your mind and address that reader. Do not write for yourself. Do not write about yourself, except insofar as some experience you’ve had can demonstrably be useful for the reader. Writing is not an ego trip. It’s a business.

Next: Organize your content efficiently and intelligently. With the reader in mind, present the subject in a way he or she can understand easily and access quickly. Map out a rough table of contents before you start writing. You can always change this as you go, but it will serve as a guideline to keep you going in the right general direction from the outset.

Write tight! Get yourself a copy of Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. Read it. Memorize it. Internalize it. Use it!!!!!

When you have a draft, revise and rewrite until you have clean copy that you feel confident actually will work for your target reader.

Edit your  manuscript. Produce clean, grammatically correct, double-spaced copy with correct spelling and consistent style throughout. Follow Chicago style for book manuscripts and Associated Press style for magazine and newspaper copy.

Find a publisher. We’re talking about books here: for periodicals, you must have a contract before you begin writing. Here’s how you find a publisher for a nonfiction book:

1. Go to the library and get a reference worked called Literary Marketplace (LMP). This book, the bible of the American book publishing industry, indexes publishers by the subjects that they publish. It also gives the names and addresses of the relevant editors.

2. Make a list of subject headings and genres relevant to the book you’re writing. For example, if you are writing a book on how to beat alcoholism, look up subjects such as “self-help,” “addiction,” “recovery,” “psychology,” and the like. If you’re writing on how to sew quilts, look up “crafts,” “interior design,” “fabric art,” and such.

3. Look up publishers that say they’re publishing in those subjects and genres. Carefully note down

a. the acquisitions editor’s name (look for titles such as “managing editor,” “nonfiction editor,” or anything that appears relevant to what you’re doing);
b. the person’s correct title;
c. the publisher’s complete address, including the zip code; and
d. the publisher’s telephone number, FAX, website URL, and e-mail address.

4. Double-check to be certain you have spelled all of these things right! The fastest way to put off an editor is to misspell his or her name. The second fastest way is to get the person’s title wrong.

5. Compile a list containing this information for ten or twelve publishers.

6. Write a proposal package (more about which below).

7. Write a cover letter to go with the proposal. Customize it for the first six publishers on your list (i.e., address it to the correct editor and adjust whatever you say in the first paragraph to target that publisher).

8. Mail out a half-dozen proposals at once. (Yah, I know: publishers hate that. Writers hate getting screwed, too.)

9. As each rejection comes in, send another proposal to the next publisher on your list. Always keep your proposal in circulation!

10. In the unlikely event that you go through the whole list without selling your book proposal, go back to the library compile a list of another dozen potential publishers, and repeat the process.

Sooner or later you will find someone who will publish your book. If you don’t, then it’s time to come up with some other subject.

What is a book proposal and how do you write it?

A nonfiction book proposal is simply a description of what you’re writing plus an argument for why it should be published. It consists of these elements:

1. a cover letter stating what the book is about, who will read it and why, what similar works are on the market, and who you are and why you are so eminently qualified to write it;

2. a table of contents;

3. a detailed outline of the book’s contents (i.e., what’s in each chapter); and

4. three sample chapters, or an introduction and two sample chapters.

As you can see, the beauty of this for the wretch who dreams of making a living as a writer is that you need not have completed the book before you present it to publishers. A proposal is just that: a proposal. Once you have a running head start on your  manuscript, you’re ready to start marketing it. If you’re even moderately successful, you should land at least a small advance that will help support you while you’re writing.

Unless you stumble upon a very hot topic, as a beginning writer you can’t expect much in the way of an advance. Once you have a couple of books in print, though, you should be able to command $10,000 or $20,000 for a salable proposal. Maybe.

If you want to earn any more than that—or sell future books to publishers—you’ll need to do most of the marketing yourself. That’s another story.

Just remember: Publishing isn’t art. Publishing is a business.

–vh

We just finished copyediting a manuscript that was freaking torture to read.

Why?

Not because the writing was so bad (well, it wasn’t great, but it could have been tolerable). The author turned an otherwise workable book manuscript into a horror show by infesting it with an unending series of word-processing quirks.

For reasons unknown to God nor Man, he set all the paragraphs hanging indent. Then, trying to fix that, he pushed the first lines flush with the indented lines by HITTING THE SPACE BAR. Over and over and over again. Where he wanted an indented first line, he hit the space bar a few more times. Where he wanted an indented block, he set the copy boldface.

Irrationally, he varied the fonts throughout the copy. Some of the stuff was set in Comic Sans! No, not heads & subheads: this would pop up in the middle of a paragraph.

And he had no clue about subheadings, and so he set them with zero consistency…at what appeared to be the same level, some were boldface, some were italic, some were bold-face run-in; some had line spaces before and after, some had no line spaces. Figuring out how to set the subheads turned into an endless, annoying guessing game.

If you are a writer, please: get smart about typing your manuscript. Even if you’re going through a vanity press—which this guy was doing—someone has to copyedit and typeset your golden words. Try not to make their lives miserable.

First, learn to use a word processor. If you don’t know how to use Word or WordPerfect and you don’t want to take the time to learn, hire a typist to prepare your manuscript.

Next, decide what the heads and subheads will look like and stick to it. Headings are organized by “levels”: Level A is the chapter heading. Level B is the highest level of subheading. Level C is the next level. And so on to infinity: these correspond roughly to what your copy would look like if it were outlined:

I. Level A
A. Level B
B. Level B
1. Level C
2. Level C
a. Level D
b. Level D

Each of these should have its own format.

Level A, a chapter heading, is typically flush left or centered, 14 points, roman (“regular” type), caps and lower-case.

This Is a Level A Head

Level B is commonly set boldface, 12 points (the same size as the body copy), caps and lower-case, flush left, one line space before and one line space after.

This Is a Level B Head

Level C is usually italic, 12 points, caps and lower-case, flush left, one line space before and one line space after. If your MS has no level D heads, then Level C heads may be set run-in: as the first line of the paragraph, set flush left.

This Is a Level C Head

Level D is usually italic, 12 points, sentence style, flush left, run-in to the paragraph.

This is a level D head. It is set run-in to the paragraph, like the first sentence of the graf only set in italic. It may or may not be a complete sentence, but all should be grammatically consistent. If one is a full sentence, they all should be full sentences.

All body copy should be set flush left, 12 points, sentence style, DOUBLE SPACED!!!!! No space between the paragraphs!

Hanging indents must be made with your word processor’s hanging indent function! Do not, do not, do NOT hit the return key at the end of each line and the tab key at the beginning of the next line! Writers who do this will spend eternity in Hell trying to learn the Devil’s Own Word Processing System.

In Word, go to the Format menu and scroll down to Paragraph. In the window that comes up, find the line that says “Special.” Click on the little down arrow next to that word and, in the tiny menu that comes up, select “hanging.” You can either highlight the typed copy you would like to set as hanging indent and apply this function retroactively, or you can select Format > paragraph > special > hanging before you start to type a passage. To stop the hanging indent, go back to Format > paragraph > special and select “None.”

Block indents are similarly NOT MADE by hitting the return key and the tab indent! Don’t even think of trying that stunt.

In Word, on your standard toolbar (at the top of the screen) you should see an icon (a tiny picture) that shows a little squiggly line of type, then a right-pointing arrow with two more little squiggly lines, and then another line below the arrow. This is the “increase indent” button. Click on this to make a whole paragraph indented. To undo it, find the similar icon with a left-pointing arrow. This is the “decrease indent” button. It will make an indented paragraph set flush left.

Again, you can highlight a passage you would like indented or simply turn the function on before you start to type material you would like to set as indented block and then turn it off when you’re done.

Use the same font throughout, and use a standard font! Restrain yourself from trying to be artsy-fartsy with your manuscript. Remember that the page size will be different from the 8 1/2 x 11-inch pages you are typing on, and so attempts to take a passage and “shape” it will be lost. The best you can do is suggest to the layout artist how you would like to see the passage (if, for example, it’s one of those poems where the bard tries to use line lengths to build an urn or some such). Do not expect that the printed version will look the same as your manuscript, and do not try to force it to do so. IMHO, the best choice of fonts, unless your publisher asks for 10-point Courier, is 12-point Times or Times New Roman.

Some writers and publishers like to use the Styles function. I personally do not care for this, because it can complicate on-screen copyediting, and I wish people would not use it.

So, the Rules:

1. Use a plain-vanilla font.
2. Double-space throughout.
3. Set body copy flush left, using either the indent first line function (Format > paragraph > special > first line) or the tab indent key to indicate the first line of each paragraph.
4. Use the word processor’s hanging indent function to create hanging paragraphs (Format > paragraph > special > hanging) and the block indent function to create block indent paragraphs for quotations and the like (“increase indent” and “decrease indent” buttons on toolbar).
5. Set subheads flush left, no indent.
6. Decide on formatting that will distinguish each level of subhead, and use it consistently.
7. Refrain from trying to create cute or artsy effects with the type. Leave that to the typesetter, please. Show the typesetter with a separate page demonstrating what you want, title the page something like “Graphic 1,” and mark the passage to be cutesified with a call-out: <COMP: please follow formatting shown on Graphic 1>.

This is not hard.

When authors approach us with their manuscripts, many are not sure what an editor actually does. We cannot magically force a major publisher to accept your work or convince the masses to drive to the nearest bookstore to purchase it. But, we can take your words and clean them, polish them, and give you new perspective.

In this way, an editor, at least a good one, will aid authors in finding their voices. This is done by ensuring consistency, clarity, and an honest opinion of the possibilty of finding an audience for a specific work. An editor thus works hand-in-hand with an author making suggestions and changes as the work evolves.

A proofreader, on the other hand, is a final set of eyes. A good proofreader is looking more for the ever-present mistakes that happen in the process of transforming an electronic file in to an actual physical object. This process lends to minor errors in spelling, a missed comma here or there, and the typical spacing issues. The proofreader does not communicate with the author (unless a major issue arises), and is employed instead by a publisher that needs a keen, sharp set of eyes.

So, whether you are in need of an editor or proofreader, or are looking to work as an editor or proofreader, be clear that there is a difference. Editing takes a great deal more time and effort, and is thus a more costly service for authors…although we here at The Copyeditor’s Desk believe an editor’s input is worth every penny.

-TM

The ever-resourceful Mrs. Micah has a wonderful post at Frugal Hacks that is so nifty I had to forward it to all my hard-copy friends (those are the ones who live in the nonvirtual world). Did you know that through iTunes you can download whole university courses, FREE? Yes. You, too,  can attend Yale, Harvard, Stanford, or even the Great Desert University. Subjects range from the ponderous (math!) to the lighthearded (humor!). Go to Mrs. M’s post for full instructions on how to get at this bounty.

So…what does that have to do with editing? Only this: effective editors are educated people. The better educated you are, the better you do your job, the faster you do your job, and the better you can earn. A curious mind is the editor’s most powerful tool. Like any tool, it must be primed, polished, and honed.

When, for example, Author refers to  ”a fairly common set of historicomaterial and theoretical conditions and concerns,” it’s useful to know she probably is alluding to Lowith’s Meaning in History rather than intending to say “historically material” in jargonesque form.  It’s useful, too, to have some familiarity with the workings of more than one language, so you can recognize a typo or a misspelling when Author uses a non-English word, without having to look up every third word (QUICK! is it Mémoires de la Société académique d’archéologie or Mémoires de la Société academique d’archéologie?).

So…just imagine the opportunity to study with some of the greatest teachers on the planet—without the onus of grades, and free of cost! And just imagine how much more I can earn than certain of my colleagues do, because I happen to know these things off the top of my head. Check it out: iTunes University, an amazing resource.

—VH