Editing hat on

As some of my Twitter followers will be aware I am trying my hand at a bit of editing. I freely admit that I have never edited for someone else before but this is not any old editing job. This is the editing of a Sherlock Holmes pastiche.

I can say nothing specific about the title at this stage but the task has proved an eye-opener. It is one thing to self-edit, another to deal with an editor who is going through your work, it is quite another to do the editing for someone else.

The problem of course is that you have to be critical, bordering on nasty, about the things that don't seem right. I'm also putting a lot of myself into someone else's work and, even though my name will not appear on the end result, I feel that my reputation is on the line as much as that of the author.

Why? Simple. Not only am I doing the regular thing of hunting for typos and anachronistic language I am also having to recommend changes where my Sherlockian knowledge tells me things are amiss. So the part of my reputation that is on the line is not my reputation as an editor (I have none to damage) but my reputation as a Sherlock Holmes 'expert'.

Gulp!

Comments

  1. Think of it as being precise in a non-confrontational manner. Be matter-of-fact. Stay strong. Just recognize how you feel about it (does it disgust you when you find that an author has not done his/her proper due diligence and has facts and story lines wrong?). If you email the corrections, the curl in your lip or the flare where your teeth are showing won't be as obvious. Good luck!

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