Be Your Own Editor

JC writes:

I write in the fantasy genre and there are certain expectations that readers
have where language is concerned. However, the copy-editor I’m working with has balked at my use of “upon,” to the point where she changed all of them into “on.” She must have done a search and replace all because “whereupon” became “whereon.” *sigh*

My question is: How can I convince her that “upon” sounds more appropriate after words like “wait,” “lay,” “set,” “look,” and in phrases like “upon the instant,” “evening was upon them”?

JC, your question brings up two other questions: Does good writing mean different things in different genres? and, Why do you have to “convince” your copyeditor of something?

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This question is from Sunitta:

I am interested in venturing out to be a publisher and start my own business. I write well and have contributed to various websites. I have also completed two books of poems. Writing is only a part of me but the whole process of publishing, writing, editing, proofreading, and finally, the completed book really interests me. Kindly help me on how I should go about it. I have a large investment but don’t have the right perspective and the approach. Kindly help me.

Oh, my. How to start a book business. I’ll do my best, Sunitta.

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Rao from Bangalore, India, asks:

Please tell me:
What copyediting is.
What is expected of a copyeditor.

As I mentioned in my previous post about the role of a book designer, in the most basic terms, the copyeditor takes a manuscript that’s fresh out of an author’s printer and prepares it for the compositor/typesetter. The process involves numerous steps that can play a huge role in shaping a book.

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Before I started working in the book business, it somehow never occurred to me that the inside of a book needed designing. Oh, sure, I saw those “About the Typeface” pages that appear at the end of some books and give a brief history of Bookman Old Style. But that’s the publisher’s only decision, right? It doesn’t take a whole person to do just that. And if it does, it’s probably the same person who designs the jacket. You give them the words, they print them on paper, someone makes a pretty cover, and that’s that. What’s left to complicate matters? A whole lot more than which typeface to use, it turns out.

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It’s been right under my nose all this time: a fun and effective tool for promoting yourself, your published book, or your book idea. I just didn’t see it because I was too busy ordering that mug that said “MEH.” on it. CafePress.com sells mugs, T-shirts, mouse pads, and most any other article of clothing or other small item that can be printed upon, with most any words or images one could think up printed on them—so why not the title or cover image of your book? Oh, and they can even help you self-publish.

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A question from Russell in Irvine, California:

Should an unpublished fiction writer pay thousands of dollars for extensive editing: plot, characters, style, POV, and so on?

The answer, Russell (as so often) is “it depends.” Ask yourself the following questions: When? Why? Who? What? Where? How much? My experiences in this field, both positive and negative, are what led me to create Be Your Own Editor—the suggestion to hire a freelance editor is thrown at more and more unpublished novelists and nonfiction writers these days, and too many blindly follow it because, after all, an agent said it.

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