Blog
How to choose your business name
By Erin Brenner As editors, we know that the right article title is best determined after the article is written. So, too, with the names we give our businesses. Last week, I shared three categories of business names: eponymous, fun, and descriptive. Today, I’ll share how you can define your business in order to choose…
Read MoreKnow your creatures of the night
By Andy Hollandbeck Know Your Creatures of the Night If ever you were going to be visited by an incorporeal creature, Halloween would be the night for it to happen. Such apparitions would have every opportunity to hide in plain sight among the ninja turtles, Jedi, fairy princesses, and superheroes traipsing from house to house…
Read MoreCan you afford to take that editing job?
By Erin Brenner Whether you’re considering a new editing job or just a new client project, pay rate is probably one of the first things you look at. You also likely consider what the work entails, what the company is like, and how well you get along with the people you’d be working with. But…
Read MoreStop writing sorry emails
By Adrienne Montgomerie As an editor, you are a knowledgeable professional. You work with knowledgeable professionals too; experts even. They are writers who deserve deference and respect. But that deference can sound like lack of confidence when editors communicate. As a managing editor, or copyeditor having to impose house style, or proofreader trying to save…
Read MoreThree Steps to Protecting the Author’s Voice
By The Editors at Copyediting An author’s voice is unique, like a fingerprint. The author’s choice of words, punctuation usage, sentence structure, and more add up to a style that readers can recognize as belonging to a specific person. (A publication may also have a voice, with regular authors contributing to that publication’s style.) Authors…
Read MoreHow to attune your ear to the author’s voice
By Adrienne Montgomerie Preserving the author’s voice is one of those fundamental tenets of the Typographic Code of editorial conduct. To do that, you’ve got to be able to hear their voice. WHAT IS VOICE? Simply put, voice amounts to the sum of word choice, order of clauses, sequence of argument, standard vs. colloquial grammar…
Read MoreBridging the gap between writer and editor
By JEANNETTE DE BEAUVOIR Last week, with my tongue only slightly in my cheek, I posed the question, “why do writers hate editors so much?” And I promised that this week I’d give you some of my ideas around what we can do about it; your mileage may, of course, vary. The first way to…
Read MoreThe 3 essential elements of author queries
By Molly McCowan Working with an editor can be a daunting task for many writers, especially if it’s their first time having their work edited by a professional. You can make the process less intimidating and earn the writer’s trust by letting them know that you’re a coach, not a judge, and that you’ll be…
Read More10 ways to word a sensitive query
By Adrienne Montgomerie When you’re worn out, incredulous, and exasperated, it can show in your queries. The samples below give some ideas you can use to word your thousandth query just a little differently, and maybe more softly. What do you think about including [a line about how this person is related]? Would critics agree…
Read More4 Tips to Using Praise in Author Queries
By Erin Brenner Copyeditors work hard to best present queries to authors in order to achieve our goals. In “How to Cushion Author Queries,” Adrienne Montgomerie recommends incorporating positive feedback. “Include some notes of praise alone,” she writes, “such as ‘This is a really evocative scene.’” By praising our authors in comments and cover letters,…
Read More