Copy-Editing and the Importance of a Brief… with editor Antonia Maxwell
You have a finished manuscript. Your ideas are on the page. You’ve developed and drafted and crafted your words. Then you’ve redrafted. And redrafted. Perhaps you’ve had input from crit groups, beta readers, trusted friends, or worked with an editor or mentor, and done some serious heavy lifting with narrative, story structure, character arcs and pacing. And the word is – from your trusted circle – it’s pretty good! Your text is just in need of a final polish before you send it on its way into the world…
Enter the copy-editor. Whether your book is destined for self-publishing or submission to agents and traditional publishers, a final polish and clean-up (for errors and inconsistencies that distract the reader) will give your text a backbone of quality and authority and improve its chances of being noticed. But handing over your manuscript to a stranger with a red pen is both exciting and scary. To get the most out of this stage, you need to think about what you want and expect from it: you need to create a brief.
An adept copy-editor will of course tidy up spelling, punctuation and grammar – but whoever takes a red pen to your manuscript must do so with sensitivity and respect to your voice and not blind adherence to a grammar rulebook. Are there quirks that must stay? Or are you really hoping your copy-editor will iron out all the wrinkles? This is where the brief comes in. And to create a brief, it’s time to get out of your writer’s head and think about your reader.
One issue to consider is whether your book is destined for US or UK readership. Yes, other Englishes are available, but broadly speaking you need to know which side of the Atlantic your prospective reader is on, so your editor can steer the text in the right direction – they need to know whether your characters see in ‘colour’ or ‘color,’ and whether to put that comma inside the quote marks or outside (and indeed, are those quote marks double or single?). Then there are em rules, en rules, -ise and -ize… these small things can be distracting for the reader not accustomed to them. Basic style choices are governed by whether the text is US- or UK-bound – or you can always drop somewhere in the Atlantic if you’re trying to appeal to a world market. Your brief can be general and your copy-editor can fill in the detail – but if there are any other specific issues you want them to review, be specific in your brief too (for example, you may have changed details along the way – did those brown eyes turn blue?).
The brief is all-important. If you say what you want and expect – your copy-editor can deliver it.
Antonia is a freelance editor with over 25 years’ experience in book publishing. She started out at HarperCollins Publishers, before moving to manage lists at Cassell (now part of Octopus) and Hodder & Stoughton (now Hachette UK). She currently works with a wide range of publishers on a diverse variety of books (mostly non-fiction), as well as manuscripts for unpublished authors, offering writing, development editing, structural editing, copy-editing and proofreading services. She is an Advanced Professional Member of CIEP and a tutor for CIEP editing courses. She has a BA Joint Honours Degree in French and German Literature and Language. A writer herself, she was shortlisted for the 2018 Writers & Artists Writing Children’s Fiction competition, a result of which she has a novel for MG on submission. Antonia is an industry copy-editor and proofreader – contact the office if you’d like to work with her on your novel!
