Editors on Editing: What Writers Need to Know About What Editors Do

"Editors on Editing" contains very helpful - and often funny - essays from top Publishing industry people. It is a great read for anyone interested in jumping into the Publishing world. Essays about proofreading, copyediting, acquiring books, and writing editorial critiques are just some of the things this book has to offer.

The subtitle says it all; this book contains everything a writer needs to know about editing and what editors do.

Find out what editors do, what they're looking for. It's good, comprehensive. Check out the table of contents and see if it will help you.

If you are going into editing as a profession, it's a good idea to get information from people who have been around the profession for a while. The editors represented in this book are honest--editing is not all champaigne and caviar lunches with the most famous authors in the land. Editing is a job filled with politics, long hours, and sometimes very frustrating unknown authors.

What is most unfortunate about this book is that it is out of date. The last edition was created in 1995. At that point in time the publishing community was in turmoil. Many of the older publishing houses were being devoured by corporated entities that were more focused on making money than making intelligent literature. The overall sense given by the book is that the publishing field is doomed, and that true editing was being replaced by marketing strategies.

Much of this changed as the Internet took hold. Smaller publishers suddenly became important again, and the rise of on-demand publishing changed the entire publishing atmosphere. It would be nice to see a new edition featuring editors from this new wave of publishing. Still, as a historical reference to what was happening fifteen to twenty years ago in the field, it is a pretty good read.

This book is a series of some three dozen essays written by prominent editors on various aspects of editing. Their reflections range from the thoughtful to the occasionally lighthearted-comments on what makes a successful editor, the history of editing in America, the ethical and moral dimensions of editing, how books are chosen, how editors schedule their work, the editor as negotiator, copy editing, line editing, etc. There are also a number of essays about editing various genres of writing: Christian literature, crime fiction, children's books, mass-market paperbacks, fantasy, reference, romance, and so forth.
While the title of the book indicates that it is written for writers, it is every bit as useful, if not more so, for aspiring editors. Yes, it is a great help for writers who want to work with editors. But there are too few books on the craft of editing. This one will give you an excellent introduction to the subject. Coming from thirty-some authors, it will give you a balanced view of how to be a great editor.