PublishEd Adelaide

Ever met a rock-star copy editor? (What do you mean, there’s no such thing?)

I just finished reading a book by someone I strongly suspect is one. Carol Fisher Saller is a senior editor at the Chicago Manual of Style and the expert behind The Subversive Copy Editor blog and book and CMoS‘s Q&A spot. Moonlight Blogger brings together 80-plus of her blog posts, presumably not all of them written in moonlight (they’re far too coherent for that).

I have to admit that this is the first blog-sourced book that I’ve managed to read all the way through. A shameful admission, I know. Most of the time, I get a Kindle sample of something I like the look of, but give up reading after a few posts. I figure that if I like the writer’s work that much, I may as well read what he or she is writing now and not 2-year-old work. And if I don’t like it, well, I haven’t got much invested in the book — after all, I’ve only read a bunch of posts. So, for me, a book like this runs a couple of risks: that it may not hold my attention, and that it may not feel quite as fresh as the blog it comes from.

But neither of those risks turns into reality here. Carol Fisher Saller has a lot going for her with this book. First, her core ideas don’t date because they’re as much about state of mind and approach as technology (‘the age-old problems and quandaries of writers and editors’ as she says at her web page). Second, she writes charismatically, with no b.s., so she’s a pleasure to read. One more plus (which I’m aware may only be me!) is that the format is ideal for a reader only just discovering that — yay! — the celebrated Chicago Q&A lady also writes books.

So what’s the book like? Well, it’s definitely wise and it’s often wry, which is something I like in my editing companions from time to time. Considering Saller is one of the people who works on the rules (at least, the CMoS rules!), she’s pretty comfortable encouraging editors to look outside them. This isn’t about either slavishly following what a style guide says or deliberately thumbing your nose at its advice. Be comfortable with the style you use, she implies, but don’t rely on it to get you all the way there. You’ll need to assess, think through, and decide for yourself what to do in each situation, and appropriately for the context. Unless a rule ‘makes so much sense it would be dumb to flout it’ (like citation styles),  use the style book whenever you can, make informed and consistent judgements when you can’t, and keep a style sheet for whatever off-book editing decisions you make. And remember: ‘The manuscript doesn’t have to be perfect because perfect isn’t possible.’ [My note: aiming for perfection can mean a more time-consuming/expensive edit, so perfectionists may risk ending up on a publisher’s do-not-call list...]

There’s a bit of friendly bubble-popping in how Saller writes about editors. She cheerfully pricks the ego of a profession when she writes:

Copyeditors have to rate among the most self-satisfied and superior folks I know, and it’s not hard to understand why. A body has to work up some kind of defense under the pressure of [its] reputation.

Is this just needling? No, because Saller writes from the standpoint that keeping an open mind to being wrong (or at least not expecting yourself to know it all before you’ve done some serious legwork) helps you improve your chances of being right. I’m with her. It’s about asking questions; learning new techniques and technologies (or improving how you handle them); embracing what other people tell you. And, sometimes, making a mistake and learning from it. As she says:

…let’s liberate ourselves form the stereotype. I’ll go first: I admit it. I mess up all the time. It’s how I know things.

This approach allows Saller to move from basic recommendations pitched to newbies – like the mantra of ‘first, do no harm’, which most editors learn when they start out – to recognising that standard recommendations of that sort are actually incredibly difficult to hang on to when you most need them, no matter how much experience you’ve gained. The message is this: if you don’t know, admit it. Then do your utmost to find out. And if you can’t find out, make a judgement call. Here’s an extract:

Our ignorance is a given. We all have vast deficits, in countless areas of knowledge; that’s no sin. But to challenge, query, or—god forbid—change perfectly good text without making the least effort to check it is one of the great crimes of copyediting.

Don’t get caught on that one! By the way, Saller talks about her wranglings with ‘copy editor’/'copyeditor‘ at the Q&A, where someone asks her: ‘In your book, you use copy editor but in your blog you use copyeditor? How inconsistent! One doesn’t write substantiveditor or stylisticeditor (stylistickediter??) or lineditor, so why copyeditor?’ [I love this exchange. Please visit the Q&A and read it in full.]

As you’d expect from a blogged book, many pieces draw directly from Saller’s ongoing practice: debates with a colleague or author, responses to tricky questions from the Q&A page, and holes in her knowledge that she cheerfully discusses while filling in the gaps for the benefit of us readers. All of which adds an informal and slightly ad-hoc flavour, distinguishing the book from a more traditionally structured editing-advice book. I get a strong sense of the daily grind of editing from Saller’s always-pithy take on her work. As I said, no b.s. here: ‘Just once I’d like to receive a perfectly clean and coded manuscript that would allow me to spend all my time copyediting instead of in rodent control.’

Of course, what Saller knows is impressive. There are hints and tips on electronic editing here that editors will find particularly helpful if they’re in transition from paper to screen or from a publisher who doesn’t require code to one who does (scary stuff). Even if you’re a dab hand at e-editing, Saller recommends revisiting your habits so that they don’t gather dust. There are lightly handled reminders that it’s important to know shortcuts and macros in Word, and that it’s vital to be ultra-careful when making global changes on screen. (Ever had to unpick later a global correction you didn’t realise wasn’t global? Me too.) Saller writes a couple of times about how to use colour in your onscreen edits, and cheerfully brings in a Chicago colleague who says her first attempt wasn’t all that efficient. OK, she says: tell us how you do it. I use colour a lot for structural editing and have promised myself that I’ll look up more detail, and practise, the techniques Saller and co. describe. If you know a bit about using Word tools like wildcard searching, you’ll be comfy with the more specific e-editing tips – but bear in mind that this isn’t a technical manual. It’s about highlighting what’s useful, what’s important, and what can save you time. Look it up online later!

Publisher’s Weekly called Saller’s earlier book The Subversive Copy Editor ‘an ideal complement to any style guide: practical, relentlessly supportive and full of ed-head laughs.’ Just so with Moonlight Blogger. But, although I enjoyed the book, I won’t be popping it on the shelf next to my reference books any time soon, because I reckon that’s not the right place for it. I see it being used wherever an editor who’s having a gritty time with work retreats – maybe the sunny corner of the living room, beside the coffee plunger, or at the bedside. I suggest you try reading it post by post, dipping into it when feeling overwhelmed by the scale of the work ahead or underwhelmed by the reality of day-to-day editorial work. This book isn’t a treatise or a manual — thank goodness — but it’s a great read. No internet required.

Carol Fisher Saller’s Moonlight Blogger is available in paperback and Kindle: check out The Subversive Copy Editor web page for details.