Reader: I freelance as a book editor and recently copy-edited a project for a top press. When the manuscript came back after the author reviewed the editing, I found he had reinstated many grammatical errors that I had corrected. I asked the production editor how I should proceed. I was told to go along with whatever the author wanted. I am not likely to take more projects from this editor, but I am wondering whether I should inform the editor’s boss about the direction I was given. If reviewers complain about the grammar, I have little doubt that I will be blamed, and because I am a freelancer, no one will investigate further. Your advice?
Karla: As an editor with nearly three decades of professional experience negotiating with protective writers; as a writer who occasionally delights in grammatically iffy colloquialisms; and as a reader who physically flinches at clashing subjects and verbs, misplaced “whoms,” and other lapses in published bestsellers — I feel your pain.
I’m aware that for every error that slips through, probably a dozen more were eliminated before they saw paper. I’m also aware that thanks to publishing’s slim profit margins, editing duties have increasingly been outsourced, consolidated, slashed and generally underfunded across the industry. In a trade publishing environment, if the author is a hot commodity, speed of publication may outweigh quality control.
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And that’s assuming most readers will even notice the errors. If the story is good enough, readers can be forgiving about delivery. (Except, that is, when one uses “their” with a singular antecedent to avoid disclosing identity while respecting nonbinary gender constructs, at which point nascent grammarians will swarm to defend the sanctity of the third-person plural pronoun.) Readers and reviewers who notice the errors will assume they originated with the author and will attribute them, at most, to the absence of an editor.
But that’s small comfort to you when your professional reputation with a major publisher and your access to future projects are on the line.
Share this articleShareShould you go up the editorial chain of command to express your concerns? I don’t recommend going beyond the person who hired you for the project. If that person is the production editor, then that’s where the buck stops; going over their head as a freelancer will hurt your prospects at least as much as any perceived lapse in performance. But there are a couple of things you can do to protect your reputation:
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- If you are listed in the acknowledgments or elsewhere in the book, asking to have your name removed from the project is a clear way to register your concern. Take the paycheck and drop this project from your memory and your résumé.
- If it’s possible to keep samples of your markups or email exchanges to show that you brought the initial errors to the author’s attention, then do so, as insurance.
Again, I understand the visceral discomfort of knowingly letting errors be committed to print. The backhanded blessing of being a copy editor is that if you do your job right, no one will notice. Let one error slip through, however, and you feel the universe judging you almost as hard as you judge yourself. But as long as you’re not committing the cardinal editorial sin of introducing new errors, all you can do is point out the existing ones and let the “stets” fall where they may.
Reader query: I’m working on an end-of-year column featuring updates from advice-seekers. If your question appeared in the column this year and you have an update — good or bad — we’d all like to know about it! Please send it to karla.miller@washpost.com.
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