Subversion and professionalism

 A book that I spent way too long working my way through because I only read it at work, and I didn't have a lot of time to read books at work, was Carol Fisher Saller's The Subversive Copy Editor: Advice From Chicago (Or, How to Negotiate Good Relationships With Your Writers, Your Colleagues, and Yourself) (Second Edition). As such, I don't really remember the earliest chapters too well; it's been a long year.

 

The first and most important thing to know about this book is that it is not actually a book on how to copy edit; that is, it is not a book about grammar and syntax and tightening and when to use that vs. when to use which. It is much more of a book on how to approach copy editing and how to succeed in being employed as a copy editor, as is hinted at in the subtitle. The book discusses how to figure out when to fight for a correction and when to let go, what to do if you screw up, what to do if other people screw up, email management best practices, useful tools of the trade, and other such things related to navigating the editorial process in a large publication house that actually has stuff like "an editorial process."

 

Definitely worth a read for anyone who's interested in editorial work. Should also be eye-opening for anyone who thinks that going nuclear over Oxford comma opinions is supposed to be a positive trait for copy editors, although I'd hope those folks would figure out otherwise before pursuing serious work in the field.