tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102611692024-03-14T02:08:12.723-04:00This Crazy IndustryA weblog about the glamorous publishing industry: books, editing, writing, style, language, long hours, poor salaries (or no salaries), grant money, authors, and very few cocktail parties.jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-85558242764743615892011-06-28T17:34:00.003-04:002011-06-29T00:21:48.863-04:00What We DoA new commenter, Sym, in a comment to my long-ago post on How to Become an Editor, posed the following excellent question:I'm also aware that editing is so much more than just taking care of sentence flow and typos at that level, but includes the need for an ability to look at the storyline itself and decide where it's too drawn out, where it needs to be beefed up, which characters might need jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-10817658690277605632010-07-07T12:34:00.002-04:002010-07-07T15:31:53.215-04:00Editing Out Oppression: Disability and NarrativeJust two weeks after we discussed oppressive narratives in the context of editing and writing, Lisa Coriale writes in the Tyee about some of the narrative boxes into which she has been unwillingly stuffed:The way people with disabilities are covered is problematic because it suggests attention is merited only when a person with disabilities can be portrayed as a superhero or a victim.Don't feel jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-59804579963830955262010-04-25T22:07:00.002-04:002010-04-25T22:22:25.551-04:00Witch Editing SkoolBecause it's come up a few times in comments to Becoming an Editor and in conversation, I'm putting this disclaimer in a separate post.The question in question is some variant on "Should I go to Ryerson or George Brown?"* The answer is "I don't know." The Certificate in Publishing is offered through Continuing Studies at Ryerson University. It's a comprehensive look at publishing in Canada, with jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-33397612286278203192008-10-01T13:04:00.002-04:002008-10-01T13:12:44.230-04:00A Horrible Sign of the Times.My heart is breaking, and some of my cherished dreams are dying:Oxford closes Canadian dictionary divisionTORONTO - The Oxford University Press has laid off all employees at its Canadian dictionary division in Toronto, shutting down the department due to "changing market conditions," according to a statement released Wednesday. David Stover, the president of the Canadian branch, said the closure jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-71962582391484259232007-12-18T14:31:00.000-05:002008-02-05T15:19:49.612-05:00Quotatious!A friend asked about how to punctuate with quotations, and since I'm pretty happy with the examples I came up with, I'm sharing them here. As always, comments and corrections are welcome. Also, as always, the OWL at Purdue has done it first and better.We use quotation marks to enclose direct quotations—things other people (who may be published, real, historical, or imaginary) have said. In North jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-65518082025544413082007-12-10T16:20:00.000-05:002007-12-10T16:25:24.166-05:00Were it Indeed a Subjunctive ...Claudette Reed-Upton's Notes on the Practical Subjunctive is an excellent look at the use of the subjunctive—the verb form that "expresses what you might call wishful thinking"—and I recommend it highly.jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-29438910692730070052007-12-09T01:28:00.000-05:002007-12-10T14:31:32.508-05:00Language of Oppression, Language of Respect, and the Etiquette of Written ProsePart of an ongoing series of musings about language and oppression, and bias-free* language (or, as I prefer, affirmative language or language of respect).At the beginning of the semester, one of the students in my Grammar for Writers and Editors class asked me whether we were going to discuss "politically correct language" in the course. I checked the outline, and replied, "I tend to prefer the jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-1933622624266339112007-09-25T09:17:00.000-04:002007-09-25T09:36:54.375-04:00Outside My WindowAnyone who works from home is familiar with the perks: flexible hours, the ability to arrange one's office to one's own tastes, complete control over the soundtrack of one's working day (and no headphones!), and generally better comestibles than most publishing offices offer. Of course, all this freedom and flexibility do come at a the cost of, in my case, much less security, and an office that jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-12158418868163311662007-09-10T14:57:00.000-04:002007-09-11T09:29:36.281-04:00The Freelance Life, Again, and an Instructive AbominationAlas, my time managing the editorial department at the Little Shop of Textbooks has come to an end, rather sooner than I should have preferred. When publishers want editors to do acquisitions, they should either have an established acquisitions procedure, or hire people who have done acquisitions before. At the very least, they should be prepared to tell the inexperienced editor how they'd like jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-38150105295583799102007-04-19T10:59:00.000-04:002007-04-19T11:22:21.287-04:00Worse than a Waste of TimeI'm running away for the weekend, but here's a quick, drive-by post:When James Frey's A Million Little Pieces was revealed to be a work of fiction, rather than the memoir it purported to be, readers respoded with shock and horror. Frey's name was reviled and his publisher, his promoters, Oprah Winfrey, and, well, just about everyone, was called to account for the time and empathy readers felt jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-2481610174776598372007-03-26T10:06:00.000-04:002007-03-26T11:17:48.021-04:00Hey! I think I know that girl! I have no idea what her name is, though.Heather Corinna gives a good overview of some of the challenges inherent in producing a cover that doesn't make the author want to disown the book:Here’s the thing: your book cover has to somehow do the miraculous feat of pleasing you, the author (and if you’re not the sole author, also any co-authors), your editor, the art department, the marketing department, the publicity department and the jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-70664571409957660242007-02-06T10:25:00.000-05:002007-02-06T11:23:39.932-05:00So I'm Supposed to Tell You How Our Book Flerbelsnerps the Wobblejob?From the curriculum document:By the end of this course, students willidentify the requirements, including basic equipment standards, preparation (e.g.,warm-up and cool-down exercises, training requirements), and specific safety issues that maximize performance and participation in recreation and sport activities;Somehow, I need to demonstrate, in tabular form, where our textbook enables students jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-11396825584167827052007-01-31T15:00:00.000-05:002007-01-31T15:04:23.201-05:00Bad AdviceDear Guidance Teachers, Career Counsellors, and other Purveyors of Job-Planning Advice,Stop with the advice to job-seekers and career-planners to cold call random people in their desired careers to ask for information regarding how to get into that field, already! I receive at least one call a week from someone who thinks they want to enter the glamorous world of publishing as an editorial jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-1162851233657995422006-11-06T17:02:00.000-05:002006-11-06T17:13:53.700-05:00Publishing 102: Publishing is a Business—Advances, Royalties, and CostingIt's time for another Basics of Publishing post! Cue the frenzied crowd. This started in response to James D. Macdonald’s true but less than explicit statement over at Making Light: I see that faux-statistic that 70% of books don't earn out, therefore 70% of books don't make a profit all over the place, and it's equally false all over the place. Publishers start making a profit on their books jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-1162506221798498982006-11-02T17:10:00.000-05:002006-11-02T17:23:41.906-05:00Miss Snark Sets Everyone StraightIt seems that Miss Snark's mailbag has been unusually full of imperfect submissions. So she's setting people straight, with some advice about submitting and writing that anyone who is submitting a manuscript or writing anything that they intend to publish would do well to study, memorize, apply, and copy onto their bathroom walls so that they must consider the wisdom of Miss Snark. Not being jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-1162413056403275672006-11-01T15:20:00.000-05:002006-11-01T15:30:56.433-05:00Did I Say Write That? I'm Sure I'd Remember!Jim Crace was fascinated to discover that his latest novel Useless America was available via Amazon. Especially since he had no memory of having written it.During the few minutes it took me to access Useless America's details on Amazon's web pages, the novel's sales rank jumped from 70,301 to 69,844. It jumped another 60,000 places when I submitted my own order. Sadly, sales have tailed off a bitjenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-1162338133888039592006-10-31T18:41:00.000-05:002006-10-31T18:42:13.890-05:00Technorati ProfileTCI has a Technorati Profile.It seemed like a good idea at the time.jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-1162324253381999842006-10-31T14:41:00.000-05:002006-10-31T14:50:53.406-05:00Important Note to All AuthorsMake your will.Neil Gaiman has explained why this is a good idea: While you may not care about your possessions, consider what may happen to the rights to your work after you die. Having your literary executor named in your will helps your survivors respect your wishes with respect to your work.Neil's also provided a form that U.S. authors can use to create their own wills. Canadians, consider jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-1162248849271541322006-10-30T17:17:00.000-05:002006-10-31T16:31:52.103-05:00And Then There Were ... ?I'm a bit behind on noting this: Educational publisher Nelson Thomson is selling off its textbook division. Or, as the biz-jargon-laden report on CBC says, Thomson is undertaking a sweeping revamp, and completing its "transformation into a provider of high-value electronic-based 'workflow solutions.'"This leaves the number of publishers providing core materials for the elementary, secondary, and jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-1161709735431728952006-10-24T12:45:00.000-04:002006-10-24T13:08:55.496-04:00I Don't Think This is What PublisherDude* Means When He Says Our Books Should Be Bullet-proofA candidate for State Superintendent of Schools has proposed giving used textbooks to students to use as shields in case of a school shooting:"People might think it's kind of weird, crazy," said Republican Bill Crozier of Union City, Oklahoma, a teacher and former Air Force security officer.You don't say.Crozier and a group of aides produced a 10-minute video Tuesday in which they shoot math, jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-1161637001217316392006-10-23T15:33:00.000-04:002006-11-06T16:25:13.526-05:00From the Mailbag: Publishing Is Weird (Publishing 101, with Helpful Digressions)I had an e-mail from an old acquaintance asking for some basic publishing information, which highlit some of the common bits of mystification. Since my response was ... erm ... comprehensive, I figured, I'd share. I have an editing/publishing industry question for you from a friend of a friend, and I hoping that you can at least point him in the right direction.The guy's an artist and musician jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-1150752676565697052006-06-19T17:00:00.000-04:002006-09-29T17:10:54.256-04:00Bringing it In-House: Chronicles of a New Managing EditorA couple of months ago, I left both the Textbook Mills and the Freelance Lifestyle for a new job as the managing editor of a small textbook company. After fifteen years in the business, my new employer thought he should have an editorial department in-house, and hired me to start it. He furnished me with a big desk, a sexy laptop computer, a minion junior assistant, and the formatted, unreviewed,jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-1149252898027117802006-06-02T08:40:00.000-04:002006-06-02T08:54:58.043-04:00M & S Being Subsumed?Do McLelland and Stewart's close marketing and publicity ties with Random House weave ill tidings for independant Canadian publishing? Doug Pepper, president of M&S, (quoted here) says no:“We decide on the books we want to publish, how much we want to pay for those books, how much we price those books at, how many to print, how many to reprint, how long to keep it in print. All of those decisionsjenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-1147970691902002282006-05-18T12:20:00.000-04:002006-05-18T12:44:51.920-04:00My New Literary Hero: David BodanisFrom yesterday's news: David Bodanis, author of Electric Universe—How Electricity Switched on the Modern World and recipient of the 2006 Aventis Science Book Prize has pledged the £10,000 prize to the family of David Kelly. From the Grauniad:"Science is all about truth. There's one realm where a lot of people feel that truth hasn't come out and truth is known but it hasn't been acknowledged," he jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10261169.post-1146779611971549062006-05-04T17:39:00.000-04:002006-05-04T18:26:55.133-04:00"A problem arises, however, when every book is touted as 'brilliant.'""This Book Will Change Your Life" examines "the reckless art of book blurbing," in all its hyped-up, hyperbolic, hyper-adjectival glory. Some of the examples cited:Adverbs describes adolescence, friendship, and love with such freshness and power that you feel drunk and beaten up, but still want to leave your own world and enter the one Handler’s created. Anyone who lives to read gorgeous writing jenniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037166221209286178noreply@blogger.com2