Press Release
Fri Jul 17 2009
Now, I've been known to get bogged down in editorial details, raging on about inappropriate commas, obsessing over inconsistent numbering of tables and figures, despairing that a book published with an incorrect running head, fuming over passive voice, walking the streets wild-eyed and muttering "the gerund, the gerund!" Well, maybe not that last bit, but you get the point: I am a picky editor who at times cares too much about minutiae.
That said, here's a story I heard that made me furious. Once upon a time, there was an editor who received a typeset manuscript that was red with markups. In response to these bloody proofs, the editor said something along the lines of "Look, we are not getting into the nitty gritty here. No one is looking at those things anyway."
Well...where do I start? I have so much to say about this statement and about this attitude in general. Do I start with, "YES WE ARE PICKING NITS HERE! WE ARE EDITORS!" Probably not. Yelling isn't usually very productive.
OK, so let me start again. This statement makes me particularly steamed because it involves the failure of an editor to recognize the importance of getting details right. Rebelling against editorial and typographical rules does not result in liberation and time savings; it results in poor quality, failure to communicate, and loss of credibility. It means that we don't respect the author and we don't respect our customer, the reader, enough to convey ideas and information with clarity, precision, and elegance.
I think the statement also rankles because it suggests that those of us who do care about getting details right are slow, doddering, old fuddy-duddies who are too unhip to grasp today's need for speed. Well, I get the need for speed. Or do I? We always hear that the world keeps changing faster and faster, and we have to keep up. But speed too often trumps quality and value--and that's especially true in editorial. What if we slowed down a little and got it right? Did it well? Would we really lose so much?
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