Guess what I'm doing today?

[lagilman]

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I've had excellent CEs before.  I've had mediocre/mostly harmless ones before.  I've never had one that changed words to WRONG usages, had no idea about basic epic fantasy terminology (and failed to look it up), AND rewrote random sentences not because they were incorrect but (apparently) because the CE didn't like them - and then chirpily asked "ok?"  No.  NOT OKAY.

I should be done with this by now, not barely 1/4 of the way through.  Your job is supposed to be to make things cleaner, not muck them up.


[and yes, my editor has been informed that I am Not Thrilled.  But the damage has been done]

Comments

[firynze.livejournal.com]

...oh god, it's like me on Proofs Day at the day job. SO MUCH STETTING YOU STUPID WOMAN WHY DO YOU INSIST ON MAKING WRONG CHANGES?

Admittedly, I go and rewrite sentences all the time when I'm editing, but I'm a MANAGING EDITOR, not a copyeditor or proofer. You're a proofreader, you do not get to tell me that X should be rewritten just because you don't understand the use of the semicolon.

*growl*

So much sympathy for you.

[0eris0.livejournal.com]

So how permanent are those changes? Is it something you can change before the book gets produced?

HULK ANGRY!!!

[ubiquitous-a.livejournal.com]

AND rewrote random sentences not because they were incorrect but (apparently) because the CE didn't like them

OMG, I hate it when people do this. I do technical/business proposal writing, and it drives me nuts when people tear things apart not so much because they're wrong as they didn't like the wording for reasons surpassing understanding. Part of me feels like they're doing it just so they can look as if they're somehow doing something, when all they're really doing is being an attention whore.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. I have so been there and done that, worn out my stetting-pencil...

Right now, I am a little flummoxed by receipt of a CEM which is just an electronic document with no tracked changes, no comments, no indication of what has been changed and what not. Am I supposed to remember? Or to compare it word by word with my original? Or - this, I presume - just skim through it and let it pass...?

[chaoticgoodnik.livejournal.com]

Gah. I'm reminded of a post CJ Cherryh made recently, on the topic of a similarly ... life-complicating ... copy editor. She amplified in the comments:

It was no intern. It was a guy of some experience—who then, after that screw-up, which had to be totally redone for the paperback, told Warner he was 'my regular copyeditor' and got the job of copyediting Cyteen. That all had to be undone. I had over 200 stets on one page, you couldn’t see the text for the corrections, and I was on the phone to my editor saying: "Go straight from my typescript and it’ll save us both from a rubber room." (source (http://www.cherryh.com/WaveWithoutAShore/?p=2708&cpage=1#comments))

Here's hoping that the person whose errors you're dealing with never eats lunch courtesy of this genre again.

one of these is mine. the other is not.

[lagilman]

"Kai lunged as he spoke the order, swinging his mock sword down with the same force as he might use in a true battle."


"Even as Kai ordered, he lunged, swinging his mock sword down with the same force as he might use in a true battle."


What do y'all think?

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

That's horrid. Sympathy (and cake).

[debg.livejournal.com]

Oh for EFF'S SAKE, kill her. Kill her a LOT. Here's my crossbow (which this ninnyhammer probably wouldn't recognise until she was bleeding).

Here's my FOAD stamp. Use at will. Or whatever her name is.

[seachanges.livejournal.com]

And this person is still employed why, exactly?

You have my profound sympathies. You may also have my titanium spork, should you want it.

[naienko.livejournal.com]

And this is exactly why I /want/ to be a copyeditor! /headdesks I would be so much better than this ...

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Having had two of those (in fact, I bet you've got the CE I've had), I have learned from Garth Nix's excellent advice, which was to send the manuscript back with a note that says "Don't waste my time." Next time I'm doing that. (He did that on his third book. I wish I had.)

[lietya.livejournal.com]

That is amazingly frustrating. The most basic job description of the copyeditor is, as you say, "do not actively screw things up."

What boggles my mind AS a copyeditor is the conscious choice to make a huge amount of extra work for oneself to no actual purpose...