Recently one of our authors asked me for a list of of ALA Presidential Themes, 1990 to the present. I knew that our in-house library staff would have the answer, and I could have walked or called upstairs to the library, but I’m all about the multi-tasking, don’t you know. So I pasted the question from the author’s e-mail message into the Ask-the-Librarian VR chat box on ilovelibraries.org, which is staffed by our very own librarians.

Snip, snap, and the answer is served up, easy as pie. A great service for our authors and our copy editors! Thanks!

It’s a frustrating fact of the print publishing business that we sometimes have to decline a good book topic because the market for it is just too small. To cover the costs of editing and production for a low-sales book, we would have to charge much more per book than the market would bear.* This happened recently, and while I tried to direct the authors to other avenues within the association that might be able to publish the material, I doubt that it will see a life in print. I’m hoping that there will be a home for it online.

But even an online offering is not without editorial and production costs. Advising authors on how to present their content, editing it for clarity and style, and designing and executing a pleasing and useful layout is part and parcel of what we do here at Editions, regardless of the final format. And while an online offering saves the time and costs of printing and binding, it also results in reduced sales. Customers are not yet ready to make the switch from print to electronic in sufficient numbers to allow us to “pass that savings on to you,” as they say.**

I’m waiting for that day, though, and it may finally be coming around the corner with the introduction of the .epub file format standard and free tools like BookGlutton’s Unbound Reader (now in beta).

*For an extreme example of “small market = big unit cost” take a look at The 2007-2012 Outlook for Polyethylene Household Food Storage, Sandwich, and Freezer Bags and Pouches in Greater China. 144 pages in paperback, available from Amazon for the low, low price of $495.

**There are other things to consider such as DRM, distribution, and preservation, but (I think) these are issues that we can find our way through, not solid obstacles to success.

*But Were Afraid to Ask

In this guest post, Editions Marketing Manager Catherine English reflects on the joy of stress as she sends the latest version of the ALA Editions catalog off to press. (Congratulations, Catherine!) –JLF.

I have what well-meaning friends would term a toxic relationship with the ALA Editions catalog. I feel chronically tired, angry, and frightened throughout the process, and sustain a morbid fear (usually realized) of losing control. So what keeps me coming back for another onslaught every six months or so? The end result. That solitary glorious print sample that arrives on my desk before it reaches the homes of 150,000 ALA customers nationwide. The vibrancy of the new book covers and the smell of the freshly inked pages. The high fives from my Editorial and Marketing colleagues as I swagger down the ALA hallways basking in my catalog afterglow. In short: the prestige.

Putting together the Editions seasonal catalog is an onerous task and requires the input of a number of ALA staff.

CAST OVERVIEW (first billed only):

Catherine English, Marketing Manager: Catalog producer, design coordinator, marketing copywriter, book cover design coordinator, author biographer, list manager, new product trainer, and all around Orson Welles

Eugenia Chun, Editorial Assistant: Marketing packet wrangler

Jenni Fry, Acquisitions Editor: A recurring role involving my catalog copy, her red pen, and many strikethroughs and question marks

Christine Schwab, Managing Editor: See Jenni’s role, above, and multiply x 10

Mary Mackay, Director of Marketing: The “Post-It Queen,” Mary provides suggestions and cross-marketing tips

Patrick Hogan, Director, Online Resources: While still in his former role as Editorial Director of ALA Editions, Patrick and I defined the current frontlist. He also gently talked me off the ledge when I asked to include books that hadn’t yet been signed.

Tina Coleman, Editions Marketing Coordinator: Index proofer and list coordinator

Kimberly Saar, Production Designer: Catalog designer, book jacket designer, and all around marketing design guru. (After the ninth pass of our current catalog, Kim has taken leave for exhaustion.)

If you, too, like the smell of freshly inked pages, you can request a print copy of your very own.–JLF.

On Monday, Christine and I will roll bleary-eyed out of our respective beds for a 6 a.m. conference call to discuss the various stages of text editing that will occur during the production of Resource Description and Access (RDA). In preparation for the meeting, I sent to the participants definitions of all the possible flavors of editing. Not every project goes through every stage, and often the stages are combined in some fashion—but I think seeing them laid out in a formal progression is useful.

Do a quick Google search and you’ll find plenty of people using different terms for these same definitions, and different definitions for these same terms. My definitions are no more right or wrong than the others (well, OK, they’re more right than most because, hey, I’ve been at this for 15 years), but this list is a good place to start if, say, you want to hire someone to shape that novel that you just wrote on your Nokia.

1. Developmental Editing
Working closely with the author at the draft manuscript stage to help direct and shape the content.

2. Substantive Editing
Improving the organization and expression of ideas. Identifying places where the author needs to rewrite or add content. (I think of this as a paragraph-level edit because it typically involves moving paragraphs around and reshaping the flow of the content.)

3. Line Editing
Improving the writing at the sentence level. For example, eliminating jargon, passive voice, wordiness. Querying any remaining problems that would fall under substantive editing.

4. Copy Editing
Correcting (or making consistent) capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar, usage. Querying any remaining problems that would fall under line editing. Creating an editorial style sheet.

5. Editorial Proofreading
Reading, with reference to the editorial style sheet where one exists, to make sure that the copy editing is complete. Typically this stage occurs only if the copy editing stage has been skipped for some reason, or if the copy editing was done by a subject matter expert rather than by a professional copy editor.

6. Traditional Proofreading
Comparing final copy word-for-word against an edited manuscript to make sure that they match. Marking anything that the copy editor has missed.

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At last year’s ALA Annual Conference, I caught the end of Chris Anderson’s presentation on his “long tail” concept. His book The Long Tail had just been published. I slipped out the door as questions began and bought a copy, reading it in the week after conference. It’s fair to say it rattled my world. For a while, I was bringing it in our editorial meeting so often it created a sort of comfortable, predictable rhythm to our discussions (right, Jenni?). After all, the concept seemed to suggest that what I’ve been doing the past 15 years or so, finding and publishing the experts, wasn’t important. Around the same time, the Economist published a special section on participative publishing. Words like revolutionary carry heft in a publication not given to hype. And it was their business they were covering. I continue to think hard about the new place of ALA Publishing in a time of participative publishing.

The value of authority is also a concern of the academy. Barbara Fister at the ACRL blog pointed out a Chronicle of Higher Education article on scholarly communication and Web 2.0.

As we work on the “reference canon” Guide to Reference, we consider authority and community is a big issue in our Guide to Reference project, as do other reference publishers. Bob Kieft, our general editor will lead a panel discussion Monday morning at Annual Conference, “Reference Works: From Authority to Community: A Discussion Forum on the New ALA Guide to Reference.” Along with fellow panelists John Dove of Xrefer, Alan Poole of Birds of North America Online, and publishing consultant Judy Luther, he will explore ways in which professionally published reference works can take advantage of social networking to strengthen their appeal and usefulness to librarians and library users. The discussion will be in the Washington Convention Center (WCC) 204C, 10:30 am - 12:00 pm.

Didn’t I think I was so clever in my “24 weeks to a finished book” post, until I was one-upped by Dan Kraus upstairs at AL with his video “One article: From beginning to end.” Ah, well, that’s OK.

Very cool stuff, Dan. And I love the new AL Focus site!

I’ve answered a few questions this week from authors who are a bit confused by our job titles here at Editions. These titles are standard in the publishing industry, so it doesn’t often occur to me to explain the organizational relationships. Perhaps most confusing is the title of managing editor. What is the managing editor’s organizational relationship to the editorial director? How about to the acquisitions editors? The copy editors?

These relationships can vary a bit among publishers, but here’s the skinny at Editions: Our managing editor, Christine Schwab, reports to the editorial director (fellow blogger and my boss, Patrick Hogan) and is a peer to the acquisitions editors (me and, until recently, Laura Pelehach).

Christine effectively has one foot in editorial and the other in production. She takes what an acquisitions editor has deemed to be a final manuscript and

• evaluates the level of copy editing it will require
• queries any missing or unsuitable bits in the text or the illustrations
• preps the manuscript for copyediting
• hires and supervises one of our regular freelance copy editors
• facilitates communication between the copy editor and the author
• preps the copyedited manuscript for production
• reviews the proof layouts and vets the work of the proofreader

The “managing” bit in her title refers both to managing the copy editors and to managing the editorial aspects of the production process.

Some of our products are rather more complex than others, so the steps described above are a bit simplistic. Indeed, she wouldn’t forgive me if I didn’t mention her work on Guide to Reference. She is not only vetting the copyediting and answering a raft of questions about the huge and idiosyncratic editorial stylesheet, but also training the copy editors to work within an online authoring system. Luckily for Editions, Christine is more than up to the task.

Christine joined Editions early last year, but she and I have worked together off and on in some capacity for 11 years now. We even shared adjoining offices for a while at the University of Chicago Press. Well, actually it was an office and an adjoining storage closet. (You might think that Christine had the short end of the stick there in the storage closet, but it depends on your perspective. I had the only window, but she had the only door.)

On GR, Christine works closely with associate editor Steven Hofmann . . . and this just got too complicated for one blog post. Look out, Steven. You’re next.

Art Plotnik, who hired me at ALA and was my first guide to libraryland, writes me occasionally. His recent e-mail complemented our catalog, commenting on the editorial mugs. Having seen my post on LibraryThing, he asked if I had catalogued his book Spunk & Bite, now in paperback. Yes, I have! The harcover edition. Although it wasn’t in my first handful when I set up the account, I did demo LibraryThing for my wife, who had asked about it, and Spunk & Bite is what I pulled from my shelf.

Corresponding with Art, an author of books on writing, I sometimes feel self-conscious about my flat responses to his elevated expression. So I was heartened to see that he is not above the cheap pun. He writes in Spunk & Bite:

Perceived correctness can be comforting to the reader, like a tidy house. But what distinguishes a piece of writing is the ambiance—the environmental mood—that language can create. That’s why locution, locution, locution is so important to us realtors of the words.

Plotnik defines locution as the use of a word or turning of a phrase in a stylistic manner. As he does throughout the book, he provides examples. “If a thing can be done, why do it?” from Gertrude Stein. The British, queenly locution, “We are not amused,” as an understated way of expressing displeasure. And a curious locution that he claims New Yorkers will recognize: “That terrific woman, which you should have married her!” In the bell-ringer category, he quotes the “jailhouse locution” from Tom Wolfe’s novel A Man in Full.

Look bruvva . . . I ain’t tryin’ a disrespectchoo . . . I ain’t tryin’ a sweatchoo, an’ I ain’t tryin’ a play you. So whatchoo doggin’ me for?

Plotnik admits to doggin’ E.B. White, co-author with William Strunk, Jr., of Elements of Style, but only because “few American locutionists stand taller than White,” yet his advice to writers “concerned itself more with boundaries than White-like flights above rooftops.”

What’s number one in LibraryThing’s Spunk & Bite recommendation machine? Elements of Style, of course. Writers, read them both.

It has been on my list for some time, and late last night, when I wanted to go to bed though my kids were still doing homework, I did join. On Jenni Fry’s advice, I upped the commitment to a lifetime membership, taking advantage of the low introductory rate of $25 while it lasts. As I went through the impressively streamlined administrative process from basic to fee-based membership, I received each time the enthusiastic confirmation message “Happy cataloging.” Happy cataloging? What the heck am I doing, I thought. Do I want to spend my limited free time cataloging my books? Is accessing them really a problem? Not considering all the other stuff around the house that needs doing. Of course, I’m joining Library Thing because I’m a publisher. I made a mental note to save the receipt and deduct the $25 at tax time.

I’m not a book collector. As a publisher’s sales rep in the late eighties, I would receive a steady stream of free books. They were a source of clutter in my apartment; then a source of side income by sales to used bookstores or tax-deductible donations. Still many I saved thinking I might read them later. Some I kept because an older rep tipped me off that first editions of our low print-run books might actually be valuable some day. Six years ago, I moved from a 2-bedroom apartment to a small house with lots of windows. Lacking wall space for bookshelves, I had to get rid of a lot of books, including a full-set of Encyclopaedia Britannica, another freebie from when I worked there. Now I see book-buying as a zero-sum game. For every one I buy, one has got to go. Instead, I use the library.

Nonetheless, what Library Thing lacks in utility for me will be made up for in Wow factors. I was particularly impressed by how fast its Z39.50 search engine pulls records. Our Guide to Reference project pulls records from Library of Congress and, for a few weeks more RLIN, but not lickety-split like this. Also a kick to see how many records Library Thing holds for your books. Walden, by Henry David Thoreau was among the handful of books I pulled from my shelf to test out. The edition was an old one that I had pulled from my childhood home and kept all these years (OK, I collect a little), part of a Time-Life series with a 1962 copyright and no ISBN. After a bit of search refining (and letting go of the urge to just pick any old Walden), I actually found the record. I learned 1,600 users had this book. Surely not my odd edition? I dug around some more and learned that those numbers account for the Work (it’s a FRBR thing); though indeed three others claim to own my edition.

My dad has always had only a vague idea of what I do for a living. I recall early in my a career his asking, “Do you mean mergers and acquisitions?” Now that Laura has moved on, we’re down an acquisitions editor. Down a what, you ask?
The acquisitions editor does acquire, occasionally merges, and is always looking to make deals, though no investment bankers are involved. The job title is specific to book publishing. An analogous title from other industries would be product manager.

We look to our acquisitions editors to scan the field, spot trends, and meet leaders (established, emerging, and— my personal favorite — the undiscovered). What about editing? Yes, they do a bit of that too. Key skill areas are creativity, problem-solving (including recognizing problems to be solved), and judgment. A former boss used to ask routinely in response to a book idea, “What’s the problem? . . . How does the book solve the problem?” The best editors know what people want before they know they want it. The time frame of a book publishing demands such foresight. The time from conception to published book typically is 18 months, often longer.

Tasks include: recruiting prospective authors, reviewing proposals, presenting proposals to colleagues, giving direction to authors on draft chapters, reviewing final manuscripts, giving direction to colleagues on editorial and design needs of the manuscript, positioning the book for marketing staff, batting around ideas with ALA colleagues and librarians in the field, keeping current.

Lots of variety in the job, which appeals to the generalist. The best editors are creative and analytical; personable, yet willing to toil silently with a manuscript for hours at a time. It’s a fun job. Editors especially enjoy working with the authors. In the course of the project, friendships are often formed, and loyalty runs two ways.