A Blog's Life: The Importance of Editors July 26, 2007
I've written about this in the past, but this week Salon's Gary Kamiya expanded on it: the role of editors, not just in shaping good writing, but in choosing what we read, see, digest, and know.
As far as I'm concerned, everybody needs an editor. The more information, products, ideas, and choices that are out there, the more crucial it becomes to have people who can help you decide what's best. These people, are, of course, known as "mavens." (I'm laughing, but just read The Tipping Point if you don't believe me.)
But enthusiasm isn't all, especially not for the bookish. (If it were, we'd all be reading Harry Potter... wait... ) We need some discernment, don't we?
Well, we do -- but as Kamiya points out, the discernment isn't about making the writer look good; "an editor's primary responsibility is not to the writer but to the reader." As I said, this is even more important in our age of choices. "The online world is not just about millions of newborn writers exulting in their powers. It's also about millions of readers who need to sort through this endless universe and figure out which writers are worth reading," writes Kamiya.
However, bookmarks, aggregators, MySpace pages, and blogrolls are not editors -- they're simply sorting mechanisms. Another one of Gary Kamiya's fine points (do read his piece) is that there's not only an art to editing, but an art to being edited. Allowing one's prose and ideas to be honed, whether by a single line editor or by a team, is a step away from self-interest and towards community. It's not easy to apply old-school editing techniques to the new media world, so perhaps we need to find some new-school techniques.
July 26, 2007 In response to:A Blog's Life: The Importance of Editors CHRISTINE commented:
Shaping good writing? I'd be happy if what was published was readable. Does no one proofread for typos? Or grammatical errors? Simple consistency? If a hero's dog is a pit bull in the first chapter, I don't expect it to suddenly change to a basset hound in the third. Forget new media, the old could use a red pen and a few standards.
July 26, 2007 In response to:A Blog's Life: The Importance of Editors Kat Brokaw commented:
I think editors are under-valued and under-appreciated, and I think the literary world suffers for it. How many books have you read lately where you hated the ending? The book went on and on after the story ended, or it didn't meet the criteria set up at the beginning? An editor could have fixed that. A good editor could have made you LOVE it. Forget my kingdom for a horse, how about my book for an editor?
July 26, 2007 In response to:A Blog's Life: The Importance of Editors Carin Siegfried commented:
Christine, don't forget there's a big difference between an acquisition editor (who edits for content, character, dialog, pacing, plot, etc), a copyeditor, and a proofreader. The last two are the ones who should catch those pesky inconsistent details, typos, and grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors. Kamiya's article (and this blog entry) are about the first type of editor. Thanks for the article, Bethanne.
August 9, 2007 In response to:A Blog's Life: The Importance of Editors Susan Edwards commented:
Amen, Bethanne! A skilled editor has an eye for talent and knows how to identify and mold talent--and how to make a good book better. I agree that an editor should always be an advocate for the reader, but I wish more writers understood that a good editor can keep them from looking stupid too. I find that certain unnamed uber-successful authors who don't have to listen to editors anymore have become redundant and self-indulgent.
