On 2/12/07, Fred Fausz wrote:
> I have learned
never to trust information unless I have found it, seen it, and
verified its accuracy myself.  This is especially critical these
days, because all of the careful copyeditors and conscientious
critics seem to have become extinct.  Was there a purge? <

As good as. Publishers don't pay enough to attract the kind of
well-educated editors I used to work with. In fact, many of them
explicitly tell copyeditors to fix only the most egregious errors and
not to "waste time" on fact-checking. They usually dispense with
content and line editing altogether unless a book is expected to sell
in very large quantities. Some authors hire their own editors, knowing
that they won't get more than a cursory glance from their publisher's
hired hands.

And most colleges don't pay attention to writing skills, so their
young graduates are generally ill-prepared to learn the editorial
craft (the exceptions seem to be self-educated). Well-trained editors
are dying and retiring, and the pipeline is running dry.

Kathleen
The Book Doctor

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