Nichols 1 Ashley Nichols Books are a consistent part of culture that has been treasured for ages. Authors have written their deepest secrets, hopes, dreams and history on pages bound together. They tell stories that inspire, warn and entertain. Books are of as tantamount importance as history itself. Without them, history would be lost, people would be forgotten and the imagination would be stifled. The structuring of words is just as important as the ideas themselves. The author needs to be able to tell the story in a coherent and creative manner while following the rules of grammar and punctuation. This is where book editors come into play; they help bring the story to life by giving it order and lucidity. An important part of publishing or presenting a book to the public is the collaboration that takes place between the writer and editor. They work together to create a polished piece of work that can be read the way it was intended to be read: clearly. Editors are responsible for polishing a writer’s words and for making them as understandable and smooth as possible. Editors, however, are often overlooked, but their role is a very important and necessary one. We live in the age of technology, wherein people expect information to be produced and delivered to them instantaneously. Tablets, for example, were invented to satisfy this need to reed and receive information now, instead of visiting a bookstore and reading a printed newspaper. This journey towards instant gratification, however, has abandoned the art of editing, deeming it outdated. Editors have fallen onto the backburner because people have forgotten their importance. Digital publications began selling books without completing the entire editing process, changing the way a book is read. Grammatical errors are popping up more and society has begun to turn a blind eye; it seems to be so common that errors and misspellings are almost overlooked or accepted. Whereas, books and printed pieces, even just a decade ago were still seen as items of worth that were held to high standards. Now,
Nichols 2 however, publishing a work that has not been fully edited at least once is the new acceptable norm. An unpolished piece is simply a rough draft. It might be a wonderful story, full of compelling words that stimulate the imagination, but without refining, it loses power. Today, the written word has lost the importance of conciseness, the necessity of refinement and the power of eloquence. Publishing a book without editing its content is much like speaking without thinking: sometimes it might work, but usually it is not very clear or eloquent. Books, and writing in general, are an art and they deserve to be refined. It would be ludicrous to try to sell a painting of stick figures and call it art, so why should we allow it to be done to books? Editing is a process that books cannot afford to lose. It is the frame that displays the words, showing them off in their true, intended nature. In response to the art of editing, Carmen Callil1, responded with: “Is there still enough good old-fashioned copy editing going on? Perhaps there isn’t, because over the last decades, publishers have turned more attention to marketing and selling books properly� (Clark 2011). I can whole-heartedly admit that I have purchased a few books solely based on their covers. I have read the back descriptions, not entirely intrigued, but have found myself so entranced with the cover images that I finally purchased them, but as the saying goes, you cannot judge a book by its cover. For almost each book I have purchased based on solely on their marketing schemes, I have been thoroughly disappointed not just with the story itself, but also with the poor editing and common reoccurrence of elementary grammatical mistakes. It is disappointing to see something that not only I love, but that our culture does too, slip into unimportance without a second thought given. My love of books is rooted deeply; in fact, a good 1 Carmen Callil has worked as a book publisher, book publicists, a written word critic, author, and winner of several highly distinguished literary awards.
Nichols 3 portion of my happiest memories have been involved, in one way or another, with books. I have even chosen to follow a career based on my passion for the written word, and it breaks my heart to see it being treated as less than it is. Books are beautiful, but they demand and deserve to be perfected before they are published, if anything out of respect for the reader and writer. Of course, there are other things that obstruct the process of editing, such as selfpublishing. This new fad seems to be very popular in the modern book market, and while being able to publish and edit one’s own book is wonderful, it does have its downsides. It is very difficult to be critical of your own work, and thus impossible to edit it without bias. Self-editing and publishing change the quality of the book. It is best to seek out a professional editor who will be able to provide an objective opinion and corrections without fear of hurting one’s feelings. It is their job to refine a book and to make it the best it can be, not to sugar coat their critiques for the sake of the writer’s self-esteem. Editing a book is an important collaborative process that the writer and the editor work on together. It is about creating art so that the book may be presented to the world as the masterpiece the writer’s mind originally painted. The editing process gives the book a higher quality that allows readers to focus on the words instead of the mistakes. Writers should be proud of their work and want to see it fully polished, no matter how much time it may take. You cannot rush a painter and expect him or her to produce work like Leonardo Da Vinci; in the same manner, you cannot publish a book and expect it to be a prizewinner if it has not been edited properly. In an essay published in 2005, Blake Morrison2 wrote that “when a book appears, the author must take the credit. But if editing disappears, as it seems to be doing, there’ll be no books worth taking the credit for” (Clark 2011).
2 Blake Morrison is a British poet, author, journalist, professor, and winner of literary awards.
Nichols 4 Editing should not be deemed as a lost cause, because without it beautiful words could be hidden inside of unexceptionally published books. The splendor of the story itself could be concealed between bad grammar and poor word choice. Technology, I believe, is a partial cause of the difference between publishing something mediocre versus something great. It allows us greater access to books than we had, but it also gives way to instant publishing that forgoes the process of editing. The refining of words and polishing of ides are necessary parts of writing and publishing a book. Technology is an important tool, and it should be used to better the process of editing a book, not eliminate it.
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Nichols 5 Works Cited Clark, Alex. "The Lost Art of Editing." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 12 Feb. 2011. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.