by Jamie Chavez | Oct 22, 2016 | Your Editor Says …
It’s a mark of how little things change that I can go back to a list of links I set aside to write about here, find two that are nearly three years old—and they are still timely. Why? Because folks are still confused or mistaken about how to get where they want to go...
by Jamie Chavez | Sep 26, 2016 | Your Editor Says …
You may have noticed in some of my previous entries I have used the noun best sellers (“my mother’s collection of best sellers from the ’40s and ’50s”). Not bestsellers. Nor best-sellers. Best seller, a noun, is an open compound, friends, and frankly I’m tired of...
by Jamie Chavez | Aug 21, 2016 | Your Editor Says …
Dear Author: If your sentence has the exact same structure as that sentence in WaPo, but you just change a word or two … it’s still pretty much plagiarizing. Just sayin’. No, really. Kindly, Your Editor No, really, y’all. This stuff is important. I know you’ve got a...
by Jamie Chavez | Jul 25, 2016 | The Book Biz, Your Editor Says …
A while back I got this question from an author: Do you need to have a trail of every iteration of changes—or could we put this on Google docs and always have a master at hand? I’ll spare you the litany of #CrankyEditor thoughts that went through my head, and get...
by Jamie Chavez | Jul 18, 2016 | Your Editor Says …
Your Editor spends a lot of time checking facts. Particularly the sorts of facts that can be stated in the form of a question: Really? Are you sure? Did Abraham Lincoln really say that? Because yes, I spend a lot of time researching (ahem) famous quotes. More than I’d...
by Jamie Chavez | Jun 20, 2016 | Your Editor Says …
I’m a pretty organized/obsessive person when it comes to work. I have systems to keep track of current projects, to file work that’s finished, and to keep an eye on tracked changes (I save every version, both incoming and outgoing). It helps me keep my sanity. I read...
