I’ve heard the stories at the conventions. Editing is hard work. Editors are poorly paid. Editors do a lot of work for little kudos and next-to-no recognition. And I believe those stories. The people telling them have no reason to lie. Yet, here I am thinking "I’m a writer. I can edit my own work. That means I can edit other people’s work too." Right?
When an editor I know asked for assistance with proofreading, I volunteered. It was just proofreading. That’s even easier than editing. What I never considered, until I was in the middle of this project, was that proofreading is editing of its own sort, even if it’s a step below editors, copy editors, assistant editors, etc. It’s not just about grammar and punctuation; proofreading is about theme, structure, and making sure all previous established characters, history, and world rules hold true for the piece being proofread.
I’m a bibliophile. I have to have paper product in front of me for editing, proofing, and rewriting. I reuse old drafts (printing on the blank side) to save paper,and often print two pages to a sheet, but I have to have the physical copy. So my proofreading experience consisted of marking up the copy with my notes, etc., then (for this project), I had to re-enter all those notes on an electronic copy of a proofreading master. "Page 2, paragraph 5, sentence 8, <enter reason for change>, Replace: XXXX With: YYYYY." It took me several hours per chapter to mark it, then several hours to enter it in the master doc (where other proofreaders where also entering comments).
There was a day, two weeks ago, when I spent 9 hours at my DBA job, then another 6 & 1/2 hours entering edits for one chapter. I have repeated this, in the midst of other writing assignments, on and off since the middle of January. It took me far longer to do these proofreading than I expected, and I was far more anal about the edits than I expected myself to be.
I wasn’t even doing half the work a real editor does. I didn’t have to line up multiple stories for an anthology. I didn’t have to worry about whether or not the writer was meeting her deadlines, following the theme, and had a good enough piece to publish. I didn’t have to send out rejections, coordinate with publishers / publishing houses, and make sure everyone got paid and signed the contract. All I had to do was proofread.
And it was hard. Darned hard. It wore me out. It made me want to bang my head against my desk repeatedly. Editing is easy for a writer? How did I become this delusional? Because the delusional editor of this blog is definitely me.
Here’s what I’ve concluded. Editors are the true, unsung heroes of the publishing industry. I respected them before. Now, however, that respect reaches a whole new level. So, here’s a shout out to every editor I’ve ever had. Russell Davis, Stephen D. Sullivan, Jean Rabe, Robert Vardeman, Lee Martindale, and Jason Hardy. You people are fantastic. If I have not thanked you before, I thank you now. You have my undying respect for the jobs you do. Thank you for teaching, and thank you for fixing, and thank you for braving the never-ending slush pile. It is appreciated more than I can possibly express.
