Don't knock it

[shunn]

I was reading a major novel from a major genre publisher last night (okay, it was Half the Blood of Brooklyn by Charlie Huston, from Del Rey), when a character suddenly "knocked" an arrow into his bowstring.

Not to knock the book's copy editor, but the nock is the notch at the end of the arrow into which the bowstring fits. When you slide the arrow into place against the string, you have nocked it.

But this was also a book where "puss" leaks from one character's eyes, so maybe I shouldn't snatch at hopes that the copy-editing will improve.

Comments

[silk-noir.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Damn.

[karen-w-newton.livejournal.com]

Well, I can't blame the "puss" one on this (it must hurt to have a cat come out of your eye!) but sometimes it seems copy editors don't always know the genre. I heard of a copy editor who turned the 19th century slang expression "Coo!" into "Cool!"

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

Listen you, are these complaints going to help install a new gold-plated Jacuzzi in Bertelsmann Castle's maid's quarter's dog house? No! They got rid of their salaried copyeditors years ago, and those dumb freelancers take on as much as they can and more, because you never know when some German billionaire will turn off the spigot just to laugh at the sport of seeing someone wilt and starve, hahahaha! So keep your head down, keep buying, and stop complaining.

It's what we're all here for, after all. Your job in particular is to poop out some nerdbabies and rebuild the genre's audience, not complain about "major genre publishers" (those gracious sorts who are kind enough to own your soul, if I must remind you).

[shunn.livejournal.com]

My bad for thinking literacy is important.

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

See, you mistyped P-R-O-F-I-T M-A-R-G-I-N-S.

[shunn.livejournal.com]

Prophet whats?

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

Margarine. It's like butter, but disgusting.

[readwrite.livejournal.com]

The dumb freelancers may take on as much as they can and more, but we intelligent freelancers are enough in demand that we can, to a certain extent, pick and choose. I've been freelancing for over 20 years and have never lacked for work.

Random House had, I think, already started to phase out its in-house copy editors before it was acquired by Bertelsmann, though at least a few were there until pretty recently. I think they may still have one or two on staff. But these people mostly work on large, complicated and/or high-profile books.

In fact, as I'm sure you're aware, virtually all trade books are copy edited by freelancers. You, as author, get pot luck, though if you know someone good you can recommend that he or she work on your book, and you might get what you ask for.

The situation now is actually much better than during the Depression, when the in-house editor often did the copy editing and proofreading. In my experience, many editors are excellent copy editors and proofreaders, and many are not. So you're probably better off with an experienced freelancer.

But any proofreader should have caught "knock" for "nock" (even if LJ's spell checker doesn't recognize the latter) and "puss" (!) for "pus." Now if you'll excuse me, the writer has just referred to the Ventures as "the premiere guitar-based combo"...

[(Anonymous)]

Hopefully no one shutters in the cold later in the book.

The real question is, does the book still rock?

John Klima

[shunn.livejournal.com]

I didn't quite finish it last night, but so far, spelling quibbles aside, it fucking rocks.