22 July 2024

Out with the old – in with the new! Goodbye, reams of paper mark-up. Goodbye, squiggly little proofreading symbols. Goodbye, Tipp-Ex and Post-it notes. The new era has arrived!

Okay, so it’s been arriving for a while now. This isn’t exactly news. But it is a call to arms. Shedding old ways of working is essential for the evolution of publishing practices and – let’s face it – the global pandemic and homeworking sealed the fate of the paper-proof workflow.

Enter PDF mark-up! With a multitude of mark-up tools, the power of automated functions and utilities, and the ability to share content and collaborate in real-time, digital proofreading is a dream come true …

Or is it? From fiddly corrections, messy pages, errors and missed changes to magically moving mark-ups, cluttered and confusing instructions, and PDFs crashing midway through a job – life in this ‘new era’ isn’t all plain sailing.

Marking changes on PDF proofs, most commonly using Adobe Acrobat, has become the new standard. And with a new standard come new rules. ‘But who’s making the rules?’ I hear you ask. Well, that’s the thing – everyone’s sort of making them up as they go along. With predictably mixed results.

Marking changes in Acrobat is deceptively easy. Choose your favourite tool, explain your change and move on. But what happens next? Was your choice the best method for the rest of the workflow?

Where once we had best practice standards, designed by industry professionals with oversight of the whole publishing workflow and upheld by the British Standards Institution (BSI), now we have a hotchpotch of approaches from self-taught professionals, eager to use the technology but unclear how their choices impact the wider workflow. Let’s take a step back for a moment.

What is PDF mark-up and why do we do it?

If we work in a team, we often mark up changes that someone else will make. That person may be sitting next to us or they may be on the other side of the world. How well we communicate our intentions is key to the quality of the proofs we will get back.

Of course, there is no single correct way to mark up a change. But there are implications – for you, your colleagues, the content, and your schedule and budget. Opting to use the sticky note or highlight tools because they are easy to access or peppering the page with text boxes, freehand pen drawings or, worse, BSI stamps, might seem efficient, but the resulting mark-up can be confusing and laborious to implement.

Understanding how our colleagues work and respecting their time and process will produce better results, ensuring changes are taken in quickly, accurately and cost-effectively.

Do you know what you don’t know?

As someone who learns by doing, I appreciate the value of teaching myself a new skill. But the risk with this is that I then don’t know what I don’t know. When teaching students how best to mark up PDFs, I start by asking about their experience using Acrobat. Those who have been using the tools for several years usually feel pretty confident but often find they didn’t know the implications of their choices. Why a particular method or tool is better (or worse) in a given scenario. Why a designer won’t be able see a change they have made or could be confused by what they mean. Why using specific tools can halve (or double!) the time taken to make changes to the design files.

Keeping pace with changes

In 2019, Adobe introduced a feature that means text changes in Acrobat can automatically be applied in InDesign. It’s a game-changer, hugely reducing the time needed to take in changes and cutting the risk of errors. Are most teams using this feature? No. Because few people know it exists or how to work to enable the functionality.

And that’s the thing about technology – it keeps changing. In 2022, Acrobat launched collaborative workflows, which enable multiple people to view, comment and reply on a single PDF, in real-time. This is another game-changer, allowing the whole team to efficiently share and discuss changes. In 2023, Acrobat’s interface underwent a major overhaul, completely altering the way we access (and think about) the commenting tools. While it might take some getting used to, like any change, the potential is for much quicker and more efficient access to the tools we need.

With Acrobat and InDesign so widely used, it’s essential to keep abreast of these changes, sharing our experiences and ideas with our colleagues, and setting out the new standards. We need to understand the potential of the software and the digital workflow (as well as the limitations) and the implications of the choices we make.

But it’s not enough for some of us to be working one way and others another way. As an industry, we need a systematic, standardised approach. The real benefits will come when there is a sea change across publishing, ensuring our teams, internal and external, work in synchrony.

Sarah Sodhi is a Project Manager, Editor and Trainer. She tutors the PTC courses How to Mark Up PDFs with Adobe Acrobat, Editorial Project Management, Introduction to Editorial Skills and Progress in Editorial Skills. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.

23 May 2024

I think of myself as an accidental editor. It was never part of my grand plan to work in publishing. However, like many parents, once I had children and could enjoy magical times reading with them, I thought I’d try writing for young readers. Several rejections later, I began to work with a small publisher and was commissioned to write picture books for the pre-school age group, and stories and resources for 7-to-11-year-olds. This became the unwitting gateway to my editorial career.

At first, I took on small proofreading jobs from my publisher on a freelance basis. Through research into how to find editorial work, I discovered Louise Harnby. Her book, Marketing Your Editing and Proofreading Business, became my springboard into the publishing profession. I took the Publishing Training Centre (PTC)’s course (then called ‘Basic Proofreading’ and now ‘Essential Proofreading’), and made the leap.

(By the way, if you plan to follow suit, don’t let the course titles fool you. The training is anything but ‘basic’. It’s in-depth, rigorous and tough, but is all the more excellent for that.)

The craft of editing children’s books

I see editing as a craft. Copy-editing is not just about implementing grammatical rules. For me, it’s about ‘hearing’ the text; listening to its rhythm. The action taking place can be reflected in the way the words describe that action. Short, sharp sentences help to convey suspense, for instance. They work to increase the pace of a story. A variety of sentence lengths also adds interest for the reader. Without shorter sentences to balance longer ones, the experience of reading a book can become monotonous.

Because I’d been writing for children, specialising in editing children’s books seemed a natural progression. For this, as with editing generally, I believe you need a good ear. I could never edit in a room with anyone else because I read every sentence aloud. That’s the way I get a proper feel for how the book will sound to its readers. I find this invaluable, whatever genre I’m working in, and it’s something I advise authors to do with their own writing. When you hear the words, rather than just looking at them on the page or screen, you’re much more likely to pick up glitches.

This is especially true if you write or edit rhyming picture books. I’ve worked on many of these, and getting the rhythm right across the whole story is key to creating the best possible reader experience. It’s also the biggest challenge with this type of writing and brings us back to why, as an editor, you need a good ear – to be able to hear what’s working and what isn’t.

Children’s publishing also has its own parameters. Both authors and editors need to understand the requirements for the target age group. That may sound obvious – age appropriateness of material encompasses not just themes and storylines, but writing style, sentence length and vocabulary choices. Editing children’s books means appreciating the age suitability of all these elements and pointing out where they don’t quite fit.

Picture books require a fairly stringent editorial approach. A story has to be told in few words – 800 to 1,000 is the ideal in the UK. Every word has to count. If an adjective isn’t necessary, it can be cut. (Description is largely redundant in a picture book because the illustrations support the visual aspects of the story.) Adverbs can be replaced with verbs that describe the action. There are always ways to create succinctness of expression and greater fluidity. This is the craft of editing and it applies to any genre.

My top tip for aspiring children’s editors

For editors wanting to enter the world of children’s publishing, my biggest tip would be the same as it is for authors: read. Read as great a variety of children’s books for the different age groups as you can. Pay attention to the structure, the chosen themes and storylines, the vocabulary, the sentence length. When you’re steeped in the art of brilliant, targeted story-writing, those elements will be at the front of your mind as you edit; as you craft.

I’ve met and worked with the most fabulous people since I started my editorial business, and it’s expanded in ways I could never have dreamed of. I cohost The Pen to Published Podcast for self-publishing authors, with colleague and independent publisher Alexa Whitten. We also run an online Facebook group for writers, The Writers’ Refinery, which has grown into a lively, informative and supportive community.

For an accidental career, being an editor has turned into something surprising and special.

Alexa Tewkesbury is an award-winning author of numerous children’s books, as well as a freelance proofreader, copy-editor and copywriter. Follow her on X and LinkedIn.

If you are interested in a career in children’s books, download the PTC’s free guide to Children's Publishing.

20 June 2024

Editor or project manager?

The job titles will vary – you may come across desk editors, production editors, project editors, editorial managers and/or managing editors – but project management is at the heart of what most editors do. They will possess excellent editorial skills, but their expert eye for detail will also be useful for overseeing multiple projects, ensuring that schedules are kept on track and within budget. Liaising with the author (or sometimes multiple authors), commissioning editor, designer and production controller will be key, although editors may also need to work with illustrators, typesetters, photo researchers and sales, marketing, publicity and rights teams.

For editors, there is usually the e-book edition to consider, and sometimes the audiobook too. Especially in education and academic publishing, the print title could be accompanied by online resources, such as quizzes, worksheets and audio-visual resources. Plus, there’s the online side: databases that feed online retailers, sample chapters, covers for websites, and as promotional materials for social media. Depending on the company, one project manager might need to oversee all this, or these aspects will be looked after by different people, who might be freelance or in-house. Either way, there are a lot of moving parts to consider, even with just a single publication!

Why project management is important

For my role as fiction managing editor for a trade publisher, strong project-management skills are essential. I have around 100 books within my remit, and I’m responsible for ensuring that they are scheduled, copy-editors and proofreaders are booked, and corrections are checked, liaising with authors as appropriate. I meet our editors regularly to confirm that manuscripts are on track for copy-editing, and I sometimes need to revise schedules. For example, an author might need more time for rewrites; we need a bound proof for an event; or the copy-edited manuscript has to be ready for a foreign publisher by a particular date.

Project management isn’t just about dealing with issues here and now; it’s important to think ahead and imagine any future problems should a schedule change. Some things to consider are whether that impacts the editor’s workload; the author’s time, especially if, for example, they are expected to edit book 2 at the same time as promoting book 1; or the copy-editor and/or proofreader’s time, because they might not be able to accommodate a late project due to prior commitments.

Schedules and spreadsheets aren't everyone's cup of tea. However, schedules are essential for meeting important deadlines, while spreadsheets are handy for keeping numerous tasks or books on track. Embrace these tools and you will be a more effective project manager.

For me, a spreadsheet is invaluable. I record all schedules (as well as details such as the names of the author/copy-editor/proofreader and the print deadline) in a single shared grid, which the editors can also access. I can filter by each editor’s name so that we can focus on their titles in our catch-ups, but I can also see all the schedules at a glance in my weekly catch-up with the publisher.

I also witness good project management within other departments too. Here are some examples:

• The rights team need to liaise with editorial teams to gather materials to take to book fairs. They then have to gather sample chapters and manuscripts to share afterwards.
• The marketing team need to liaise with various editorial teams to agree on titles to submit to The Bookseller’s September Children’s Previews, and then co-ordinate with the editors, designers and myself to collate the material.
• The in-house designer has to liaise with multiple illustrators, ensuring that the cover, art briefs, rough art and final art are briefed and delivered on time. In some cases, they might need to work with the illustrators to create a staggered schedule for artwork delivery, and ensure that layouts are ready for samplers and book fairs.

Even in my capacity as a freelance copy-editor, project-management skills are essential to manage my own workload, especially when schedules slip.

Whatever your role in the publishing process, it's incredibly useful to be aware of the project-management skills required to keep things moving, whether it's the bigger picture or how your particular role fits within the process.

If you love a spreadsheet and being organised, you just might love project management. But what if you don't? Give it a go – it's always worth building up your transferable skills!

Wendy Shakespeare is a Managing Editor for Scholastic UK and a freelance editor and consultant. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.

The PTC runs a number of open courses on project management for those working in digital, editorial and other areas. The e-learning module Essential editorial project management takes you through the process of managing a publication from start to finish.

23 April 2024

Are you thinking about becoming a proofreader? Perhaps you’re a career-changer looking for inspiration, or you’re already a proofreader but lack formal training. Whatever your starting point, here’s some guidance on the next steps that you can expect to take.

The role of the proofreader

The proofreader gets involved in the final stage of the editorial process, before publication. In book publishing, the publisher sends the author’s typescript (raw manuscript) to the copy-editor, who checks and corrects it. They ensure that it’s consistent, readable, free from errors and correctly formatted, among other things.

When this stage is completed, the typescript is typeset (into its final layout) and sent to the proofreader who checks that the copy-editor’s instructions were followed (e.g., pages are numbered correctly).

The role of the proofreader is important in acting as a second pair of eyes, catching any missed editorial errors (e.g., grammar and spelling). They will also check the typesetter’s work, and fix any errors in fonts, styles and layout, for example, before final production.

What qualities do you need to be proofreader?

A love of reading helps, but this is a nice-to-have. To be a successful proofreader, you need:

• the ability to concentrate
• excellent interpersonal skills, to build positive relationships with colleagues and clients
• a good grasp of the English language, grammar and punctuation
• well-rounded general knowledge
• an eye for detail.

Other qualities include a willingness to learn, adaptability, curiosity, perseverance and patience.

Why training matters

As with other careers, proofreading takes time to master. Training is important because it shows that you’re serious about becoming a professional proofreader.

Gaining an industry-recognised qualification can give you confidence in your abilities, help improve your professional credibility and build trust. This is important, particularly if you’re a career-changer. Potential clients need reassurance that you’re competent, that you have the basic skills and also expertise in the field.

Each proofread is an opportunity to broaden your knowledge and sharpen your skills. So not only does initial training matter, but continuing professional development is important too.

The PTC’s bestselling Essential Proofreading course is ideal for learning the skills and knowledge required to proofread effectively.

The type of proofreading work available

Mention the word ‘proofreading’ and traditional publishing houses come to mind. The reality is that publishers hire trained, experienced proofreaders. The good news is that there is a wealth of proofreading opportunities outside traditional publishing, so it’s worth approaching:

• local businesses
• organisations with a publishing/marketing function
• charities and professional organisations
• self-publishing authors
• family and friends

You’ll find an array of documents that require proofreading, including theses and dissertations, websites, annual and business reports, and marketing materials.

Where to get answers if you have a proofreading question

It’s fine if you don’t know the answer to queries in the text that you’re proofing. You aren’t expected to know everything – no one does! What’s important is that you know where to find the answer. Depending on your question, the information might be found in the client’s house style guide, or in other reference materials (e.g., the style guides New Hart’s Rules for British English, or The Chicago Manual of Style for American English). Or, you could contact the client with a query that’s specific to them.

The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading is a membership organisation for editorial professionals. It offers access to benefits including a members’ forum, where you can post questions and all aspects of proofreading (and editing) are discussed.

Getting proofreading experience

Start by telling family, friends, and people you work with (past and present) about your proofreading plans. They may know someone who could benefit from your skills.

You could also consider the following:

• ask your current employer about proofreading opportunities
• volunteer for a charity or other organisation producing print or digital content
• mentoring (your current employer may offer opportunities)
• internship with a publishing house (many publishers advertise on their websites and on social media)
• paid work with a publishing house (advertised on publishers’ websites and social media, The Bookseller, recruitment agencies, job boards; freelancers could try cold emailing publishers).

Before contacting potential clients, you need to think about how to market yourself, which could mean updating your CV and highlighting relevant skills and training. Research potential clients and market yourself to your ideal client, making sure you have the proofreading skills and knowledge they want.

Keeping the work coming in

If a client is happy with your work, don’t be shy about asking for a testimonial, which you can use to gain more experience.

It takes time to become established and visible as a proofreader. Here are some activities to keep the momentum going:

• update your CV, website and portfolio regularly
• promote your proofreading service
• network with other proofreaders (online or in person)
• hone your skills and knowledge.

Tania Charles is a freelance proofreader specialising in fiction and narrative non-fiction. She is also a tutor for the PTC’s Essential Proofreading course. Follow her on LinkedIn.

To find out more about the role of the proofreader, download your free copy of the PTC’s guide to Copy-editing and Proofreading.

Discover if a career in proofreading is for you, with the PTC’s e-learning module An introduction to proofreading.