Copy Editor for SwD
One of my interlocutors mentioned that I need a copy editor over here.
(Maybe he noticed I misspelled the word foreign, and dropped "policy"
right after that) This is bad news, particularly since I was an
interning as an editorial assistant at Sentinel books just a few months
ago (yes I read the whole Hillary book months before you- and no I
wasn't leaking it to Drudge and Wonkette). Maybe no one from there
speaks to me anymore because of that one afternoon late in the
internship - where I took all afternoon to write a few bits of
correspondence yet they were filled with the most atrocious typos. This
wasn't a matter of homologues- I'm talking about errant numbers in the
middle of proper names. (Sorry Sar5ah!). If I wasn't so busy filling
this digital space with my dashed off work, I would have done a better
job.
So, I hearby resolve to write my posts in Microsoft Word first, before pasting them into these amazing Squarespace boxes.
Now will you send me money through Amazon?
Michael Brendan Dougherty
in Surfeited With Updates
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1 Comment
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Reader Comments (1)
But editing for others is a bit more tricky. I applied for a position as copy editor at Regnery Publishing when I was still living in the more fashionable proximity of Washington D.C. I had to edit a partial manuscript about Ben Franklin. Using Amazon's text search, I managed to find the actual book, but resisted the urge to use it. I instead slaved away, printing out internet commentaries on editorial notation, buying the Chicago Manual of Style in all its thick, orange glory, and sweating over how to edit without changing the author's original style.
In the end, I compared my work to the finished book, and it was quite close. In some cases, I made the exact same changes to smooth the flow of sentences that the final editor made. But I lost the job to someone with more experience. I later applied to be the Publisher's assistant, and again was eked out by someone who had actually done it before. But I was at least persistent.
In the process, however, I realized that I really hate editing. Hate it. Writing is my passion, and I couldn't care less about correcting the mistakes of others. I wanted to change their writing style to reflect my own, something that clearly indicated I was on the wrong path.
So I gave up on that pursuit. And since I am not yet ready to produce any real work worthy of publication, my literary career has never gotten off the ground. Instead I attempt to sell houses to people in between furtive blog spasms, trying to keep the dream alive until some day, I find the discipline to create something worthwhile.
Until then, I keep finding myself singing the line from Pianoman, "Paul is a real estate novelist..."
This was really only tangentially related to your post. Thanks for indulging my narcissism by putting a comment box here for me to vandalize with my own silly woes.