Quantity is not quality
Published by Deanna Hoak September 25th, 2006 in blogI’m currently working on a project that doesn’t need much in the way of editing. In some ways, this is almost frustrating because it’s for an author and editor with whom I haven’t worked before, and I’d really like the opportunity to show off. :-) As I’ve said before, though, sometimes it’s even more important for a copyeditor to know what to leave alone than it is to know what to change.
And while a lot of marks on a manuscript might very well mean that a great deal of work went into the copyedit (whether that work was useful or not is another story), a lack of marks does not indicate a lack of work. Sometimes, for instance, a novel will require little editing but a great deal of verification. That was the case for me recently with Alan Dean Foster’s Sagramanda. Alan’s one hundredth book came out this summer, followed quickly by several more, and he has the business down pat; his manuscripts are extraordinarily clean (industry-speak meaning they don’t require much marking up), which I can say from experience, since I’ve copyedited seven or eight of his. (I think I’d have an even ten with Alan, but I had to turn down several.) Sagramanda is set in a richly detailed near-future India, though, and the number of geographical terms and words in foreign languages and facts I verified was staggering. (Very few of them were wrong, btw–he does have this down–but a good copyeditor still checks. :-)) Someone outside the industry could easily assume, looking at the markup of that manuscript, that I hardly did a thing; they’d be incredibly wrong.
Sometimes the work shows, in the form of queries or marks. If you got a bad or inexperienced copyeditor, that work might be wrongheaded and a waste of everyone’s time. (I’ve noted before that you can often tell inexperienced copyeditors by the fact that they change too much.) It also happens, of course, that a book might truly need a heavier edit than the author realized–not every heavy edit is a bad one.
But the quality of a copyedit can’t be judged by the number of marks and queries, whether they’re few or many. Far more of this job is invisible than most people realize.
18 Responses to “Quantity is not quality”
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I'm a freelance copyeditor specializing in fantasy and science fiction. SF/F novels I have copyedited have been finalists for (and have sometimes won) the Hugo, Nebula, Arthur C. Clarke, Golden Spur, John W. Campbell Memorial, Quill, Locus, Philip K. Dick, British Science Fiction, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy awards. In 2007 I was short-listed for a World Fantasy Award for my copyediting.
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Sounds a bit like software testing, where you can spend an incredible amount of time proving that in fact there’s nothing wrong with the code.
If you wanted to show that you’ve done something, perhaps you could send back a check list of items verified (e.g. references to real places and events).
I suspect that if she makes a note of “this was really clean copy” that the author might go all *yay* about it and assume Stuff Was Looked At? Or perhaps I’m biased; everything I look over gets checked over by a perfectionist (and company owner), and I consider a good page to be one with only one or two red marks on it…
(I’m also not nearly so good an editor as I’d like. I hope I’m getting better.)
Cheryl: Yes, fact-checking is perhaps a bit like that. :-)
Michele: I assume they know I’ve done the work. The list would be too time-consuming!
Beth: A page with only one or two marks on it is a good page. :-) It’s a rare author that would be upset that there weren’t many marks on the manuscript, so yeah, I don’t worry about it.
It’s not just me, then? *WHEW*
Now I know to *really* treasure the few pages I got which had no marks at all! (Thank you!)
I asked for recommendations for books on copyediting for my 16-year-old, and Sherwood Smith suggested you as a resource. Have you already posted about this? If not, do you have suggestions to offer? Many, many thanks.
I’m sorry, Jonquil, but I honestly haven’t read any books on copyediting in order to recommend one. All of my experience is hands-on. I’m told that my copyediting posts, many of which I have linked in the sidebar, are very useful, though.
Thank you! I’ll pass them on to her.
The copyeditor of Secret of the Three Treasures won my admiration forever when — after my character commented that she’d wanted to order Rattlesnake Venom once but her Mom wouldn’t let her — the copyeditor looked up Rattlesnake Venom, confirmed it wasn’t a known mixed drink, and suggested Viper Venom, which does exist, as an alternative.
I wound up deciding to let Rattlesnake Venom stand in the end. But I was impressed that the copyeditor went to the trouble of looking it up!
Amen, sister. I have actually had a certain publisher complain about the billing for a copy editing job I did because “there weren’t a lot of markings” on the MS. (This was, of course, because the author turned in a well polished novel that needed little editing.
I think, also, that if you are restrained, and fix not that which is not broke, the author will be more likely to listen when you do change something. Even the most careful of authors will have occasional goofs in fact-checking or slips of the pen. But I know of several houses that actually find it difficult to get copy editors who are restrained with their more polished authors, and yet will find the things that need to be fixed.
It does make me nervous sometimes, though, if I read a lot of text and don’t find much wrong with it…
Jonquil: I hope she finds them useful!
Janni: Yes, that’s the kind of thing we like an author to be happy about. :-)
Robert: Please send me a note and let me know what publisher or production editor did that to you so I can avoid them; that’s terrible.
On the author side, I’d be thrilled to have my manuscriped vetted by a copy editor, and especially pleased if she told me my manuscript was polished *and* well-researched.
Deanna - do you use or create style sheets when copy-editing? (I think that’s what they’re called.) I was encouraged to create a list of names, places and things that are specific to my novel to ensure I always spelled them correctly and as a resource to pass on to a copy editor when that lucky day arrives. My manuscript has scientific names, foreign words and phrases, foreign place names, Ancient Egyptian facts, and an Australian POV (which means using “bitumen” for “pavement” and that sort of thing). On the one hand this seems smart. On the other hand it sounds like busy work. Would a copy editor want something like this from an author?
I’d love to know how to make life easier for a copy edtior in the future.
Hi, Kaytie. I do create style sheets when copyediting; I find it absolutely essential to my job. I’m honestly indifferent to authors giving me a style sheet of their own, as I have to compile one for my own use regardless.
I blogged a bit about style sheets here, if you’re curious.
Hi,
I’m curious, is this level of fact-checking a standard part of what a copyeditor does?
When reading books I usually automatically assume that it’s all a part of the author’s responsibility. If there are plenty of background information bits, and the ones I know seem true, I give the author credit for good research. And if I find glaring mistakes, I assume the author did bad research, or didn’t bother to research (rare, but depends on how obvious the problem is).
But if a copyeditor always does fact-checking, it would mean that if an author always seem to do good background, it may be on some level just that so far he/she had better copyeditors. And on the other hand, the fault for slip-ups is shared…
On a related thing, do publishers insist on accuracy? That is, suppose you find a mistake and suggest corrections, can the author say that they want everything to stay as-is, and to keep the mistake in? Even if it doesn’t serve an explicit purpose for the story, but just a sort of “yes, it’s wrong, but it’s a work of fiction anyway so why bother fixing it?” sort of thing?
Hi, Yaron. Facts are, ultimately, the author’s responsibility. I do a lot of fact-checking when I copyedit, though.
When I query an inaccuracy, it’s up to the author as to whether it needs to be fixed. The author may very well decide to leave something inaccurate that fits the purpose of the story. If the editor disagrees, the author and editor will work through it together.
Rats. Sorry to cause redundancy. :)
Thanks, Deanna.
So blame the errors on the author, and give possible partial credit to the copyeditor for the good facts. ;)
Yaron: I didn’t mean that, no. :-) I do try to make sure everything’s right. Even if I query something, though, the author doesn’t have to fix it.