by Jamie Chavez | May 11, 2015 | Your Editor Says …
The final copyedit is not the time for you to do a rewrite, sugar. And this is the third so-called final. Stop it. You should have done all this rethinking before now! Your Editor is losing her patience. It’s time for us to talk about how to let go. And why you...
by Jamie Chavez | May 2, 2015 | The Book Biz
Yes, those are scare quotes. I was reading this review of the two Steve Jobs biographies (the one Walter Isaacson published in 2011 and a new one called Becoming Steve Jobs) and was about to dash off a letter to the editor, noting that a book that uses the phrase...
by Jamie Chavez | Apr 27, 2015 | Your Editor Says …
I really love the left-brain/right-brain duality of editing. It’s both prescriptivist and descriptivist. It’s a puzzle and yet has the same elements. Every project’s different … and every project’s the same—in that it has a need for a style guide. You’ve heard me talk...
by Jamie Chavez | Mar 21, 2015 | Your Editor Says …
I just sent back a first pass edit on a well-researched novel set in the Middle Ages. I can tell you this only because it rang true; the few facts I know about medieval life could dance on the head of a pin with room to spare for several angels. But I knew enough to...
by Jamie Chavez | Mar 14, 2015 | Your Editor Says …
No, really. I’m not. Not outwardly, not inwardly. Promise. The Old Editor Says … Edit to live, don’t live to edit.* It’s not your job to correct other people’s speech. It’s not your job to correct menus or public signage. It’s not your job, however much it may appeal...
