I was directed to the post "Calling All Editors" in Publishers Weekly.
She asks "Whose responsibility is it these days to make sure that books don’t provide incorrect information?" I think it's everyone's. We can't all catch everything, and that is why there are different people for different tasks.
There should be people working on the manuscript before it even gets to the copyeditor, for things such as basic content, permissions issues, development, major consistencies. Then the copyeditor should fact-check (by which I mean a reasonable search to ensure proper nouns, facts, etc., are right, not read an essay to learn about the topic), fix grammar and spelling, watch the characters. The proofreader (if publishers hire them these days, which some do not, and if not means in my opinion that they are willing to accept formatting errors and typos) should catch all inconsistencies from MS to typesetting.
And hey, if reviewers catch things, then great! While they are pointing out these errors, maybe they should also send a note to the production dept. of that publisher and encourage them to increase their salaries so that good CEs and proofreaders would be willing to sign on. And if that error-filled work came from in-house, well, bonne chance!
The copyeditor can't be the fountain of knowledge on French beetle reproduction. The proofreader isn't hired to be a grammar goddess. The developmental editor probably won't check throughtout for consistency in hyphenation. If all could do one, I'd be out of a job.
She asks "Whose responsibility is it these days to make sure that books don’t provide incorrect information?" I think it's everyone's. We can't all catch everything, and that is why there are different people for different tasks.
There should be people working on the manuscript before it even gets to the copyeditor, for things such as basic content, permissions issues, development, major consistencies. Then the copyeditor should fact-check (by which I mean a reasonable search to ensure proper nouns, facts, etc., are right, not read an essay to learn about the topic), fix grammar and spelling, watch the characters. The proofreader (if publishers hire them these days, which some do not, and if not means in my opinion that they are willing to accept formatting errors and typos) should catch all inconsistencies from MS to typesetting.
And hey, if reviewers catch things, then great! While they are pointing out these errors, maybe they should also send a note to the production dept. of that publisher and encourage them to increase their salaries so that good CEs and proofreaders would be willing to sign on. And if that error-filled work came from in-house, well, bonne chance!
The copyeditor can't be the fountain of knowledge on French beetle reproduction. The proofreader isn't hired to be a grammar goddess. The developmental editor probably won't check throughtout for consistency in hyphenation. If all could do one, I'd be out of a job.
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