Illumination: The Fyrefly Jar Weblog

The journal of a new mom and freelance editor who blogs about both when she has the time!

Thursday, March 27, 2008

I just read a post that directed me to this Q&A to the NY Times Director of Copy Desks, which appears in today's NYT:

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A Vanishing Breed?

Q. I’m a managing editor at St. Martin’s Press in New York City. We are having more and more trouble finding literate freelance copy editors and proofreaders — people who know the basics of punctuation, spelling, grammar, something of what the English language can or can’t do, perhaps enough knowledge of a major European language to add an accent or make a past participle agree with a noun. Are newspapers experiencing the same problem, and if so, how are you dealing with it?
— Robert Cloud

A. You’re right, Mr. Cloud, it’s harder to find people who know what good copy editors need to know. You can argue that English usage has gone downhill, or you can argue that English is changing, but a better answer, I suspect, is plus ça change. My copy of “Elements of Style” has the notes I scribbled in sophomore year in high school, and E.B. White’s foreword, written only about 11 years previously. In it, he discusses his revisions to William Strunk’s original text, and talks about deleting “outdated” references or an “intricate rule of composition.” It’s quite possible that Professor Strunk would have told his erstwhile pupil that so doing would send the English language to hell.

Our language skills have been affected by how we use it, I think. Before radio, most information was conveyed in print. Since then, we get as much information by hearing it as by reading it, and that affects how we learn and use English. How else to explain the morphing of “home in on” to “hone in on,” now accepted by some dictionaries? I admit I can’t explain — or condone — horrors like “all shoe’s on sale,” but if it becomes common enough, dictionaries will start to accept it.

We deal with it by screening as carefully as we can. We test our applicants by having them edit stories, and looking at their use of grammar, punctuation, etc., as well as their ability to spot content problems and offer suggestions for repairs. We don't expect our editors to recite the rules of the nominative case or declination of nouns, but we do ask them to know and love the English language enough to protect it without smothering it, or being smothered by it.

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The response makes a point, but I doubt that plus ça change is the real reason that Mr. Cloud cannot find the type of copy editor he wants. The poster suggested that she knows many people who would meet his qualifications, but perhaps the press cannot find these people because their pay is low, and I would suspect this is true. Or perhaps they ask the freelancers to do too much for the rate.

I think that top-quality editors are working for higher paying legal/STM/academic publishers who seem to better support those of us who actually need to provide for a family and not just make a bit extra to add to a vacation fund. I do work for a number of NYC houses like St. Martin's Press (but not for them), and my clients like my work. Their rates are acceptable but not the tops. I enjoy the work and the people, so I keep on and try to ask for raises when appropriate. But these houses can't be my only work, or even the main work that I do.

The poster also said that she bets that they will be inundated with resumes now. :) We'll see what happens!
I've made the decision to keep a notebook of the time I spend on each project for the next few months so I can track myself and know what each client looks like in the end. Although I do keep track of work time for billing purposes, I retain the paper only until the invoice goes out and then the details are gone. Over and over I read in freelance forums and on sites that as a freelancer I should and must know exactly what time I have to do what projects and how much time each thing takes me. Well, I have an idea, but I can't be sure on some things. I just know I get things done. This will become rather important later in the year when I will need to know exactly which work I could get done in however much time I have.

I've also been struggling with the "work I like to do but doesn't pay much" versus "work I should acquire from offered sources that pays more but would be dry all day." So far I've done a bit of this and that all day each day to keep a balance, but I may have to be much more discerning about what I do. I think I'll put off this decision until later in the summer, after I take some courses on higher level editing, and I'll see if I feel I could move to all dry but better paying work.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

dougalfish recently wrote a day in the life, and I thought it was neat! Here is a recent day in the life:

* Wake at 6:45 when hubby wakes, fall back asleep.
* Wake at 7:40 when hubby kisses me good-bye for work, fall back asleep.
* Jump out of bed at 8:30 – overslept! Shower, grab Mini-Wheats cereal. Eat while starting the proofing of a nonfiction book.
* Get email from hubby at 9:50 about a YouTube cat video. I watch it and it’s amusing, but I am not fond of cats; he and his group love cats.
* Turn on WFUV streaming online at 10 a.m. Keep proofing.
* Hubby emails me about going to dinner with his parents at 10:15. Then keep proofing.
* Phone rings: I check caller ID; it’s telemarketing so I let it go to machine. Keep proofing.
* Get cantaloupe pieces from fridge for snack at 10:23. On way back to computer, turn on tub faucet to a trickle for the cat because he likes to drink from moving water (and thus another reason why cats are a pain in the ass). Eat melon while proofing.
* Rock out to old R.E.M. song on radio at 10:35. Check clock and notice I am running behind on work and start to freak out! Keep proofing.
* My friend D calls for 4 min. at 10:51. Keep proofing.
* Done with proofing at 11:25. Recount the pages I have left in this project and realize I must increase my sessions by 11 pages each day to finish on time! Freak out a bit.
* Start allotted fiction proofreading at 11:29.
* Finish fiction proofing at 12:38. Get up to make veggie sandwich for lunch. Walk by the bathroom and realize that I never turned off the faucet trickle that the cat was drinking from. Shut off faucet and then make lunch. Eat while watching Match Game on GSN.
* Start editing allotted romance novel pages at 1:38.
* Phone rings at 2:09: I ignore another sales call.
* My sis calls at 3:32. We chat until 3:47.
* Get e-mail at 3:48 from a client asking for hours spent on earlier project; I email back.
* Finish editing romance at 4:00.
* Start editing allotted children’s book pages at 4:03.
* Hubby gets home at 5:12. Stay focused for one minute, and finish editing at 5:13.
* Talk to hubby from 5:13 to 5:20, when he gets a call from his sister.
* Check all email accounts, CE Listserv messages at 5:20.
* Check LinkedIn, job post Web sites at 5:30.
* Get ready and go out to dinner with in-laws and hubby.


Now, this is not actually a “typical” day because normally I would work from 6 p.m. to whenever we eat dinner, which is around 8 p.m. Also, I had broken up a lot of projects into little bits and tried to get a lot done on many things this day; normally I might spend a day on only two clients. I think I’ll do another “typical” day next month and see how it compares. :)

Friday, March 07, 2008

Been up to my ears in work, so I have not been blogging of late. I have been doing well and keeping on schedule (actually finished a new book ahead!), so I am proud. I rewarded myself with two PS2 cartridges of old Atari games. I already have the original Atari system and another modern system that plays a bunch of games, but I figured I needed all the good ones on PS also. Hey, they had Chopper Command, which I remember as cool. It will be a good way to blow off editing steam.

I also finished gathering tax info for the accountant, so we will see how that goes! I am a bit nervous. ...

Wednesday we went with friends to BB Kings to see Jon Anderson and the School of Rock. The Mac and Cheese dinner was really good, actually, and the kids were awesome. Jon was great, of course. So funny, always forgetting lines here and there; I just can't get used to the scruffy face though. More on the show later when I get some visual images from M.

I can't believe we lose an hour this Sunday ... like I can afford to do that!! Argh. I read that it actually costs us more instead of saving anything. Sounds about right the way things work here these days!
 
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