Be Your Own Editor

As the number of fabricated or semi-fabricated memoir scandals has continued to build post–James Frey, I have seen more and more articles, blog posts, comments, etc., work themselves into a frenzy making claims about the complete lack of fact-checking in the book business. Let the ignorance end here.

First, it might help to make some sort of distinction between fact-checking and story-checking. The reason, I think, that aforementioned ignorant essays have proliferated is, in part, is that the people writing them are used to the culture of magazines and newspapers, in which (especially in newspapers) no such distinction is made. In a news article, if you’ve got your facts straight, you’ve pretty much got your story straight.

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I thought about writing an “Ode to the Editorial Assistant” in free verse, but I’m too busy because I have to go pester a few editorial assistants about a few projects I’m working on. So let’s just consider this to be very free verse.

If you’re good enough and lucky enough to land a publishing contract, you’ll interact with a number of people at your publishing house during the process of transformation from manuscript to book. None will be more important to you than your editor’s assistant. They might on any given day play the role of go-between, personal assistant, editor, nag, or therapist. No matter the nature of your relationship, it’s in your best interest to understand what they do.

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