A Beginner's Guide To Copyediting | Part One

As part of an upcoming series on different areas of publishing, I want to start out with an essential part of the publishing industry. Copyediting is a wide-ranging and often overlooked job. In an effort to cover all parts of it, I'll do this in multiple sections.

This post, I will talk about what jobs copyediting could include, style guides, and freelancing.

Copyediting happens toward the end of the publishing process, when the manuscript or article has been developmentally edited and is about to be sent off to final pass pages. In a large publishing house, they'll likely have in-house copyeditors who work steadily and regularly on incoming manuscripts.

In a smaller publishing house or a magazine that's running on a quick operation schedule, copyediting could blend with developmental editing, and it is often commissioned by freelancers. There are a number of networks out there to find a freelance copyeditor. Some of those are typical job networking sites like LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, etc. However, there are also services such as the Editorial Freelancers Association in which you can pitch yourself to employers looking for a freelance copyeditor.

These are important for the practical aspect of finding work as a copyeditor. So, what exactly is copyediting?

A strange part of the job is that there aren't always clear boundaries as to what a copyeditor's job is or isn't. Generally, a copyeditor is responsible for line-by-line edits that correct grammar, clarity, and vocabulary as it relates to the audience.

Correcting grammar is fairly straight forward: correcting comma splices, verb agreements, dangling modifiers, etc. If you're commissioned to do a light copyedit on grammar in a few hours, you might only be checking things like if there are commas between two independent clauses. But every house and magazine has a respective style guide. 

There are standardized style guides such as AP or Chicago which lay out all kinds of rules. When to spell out numbers, how to style addresses, the correct spelling of certain words, hyphenation guides, etc. However, most publishing houses will send a style guide upon hiring you that will declare something along the lines of: "This house uses AP style except in the case of: numbers (spell out up to 100), title abbreviations, and month abbreviations."

Following that, will be a list of words that the publishing house wants formatted a certain way should they show up in the text that you're editing.

While doing a copyedit, these are all things that you must be mindful of. Due to their specification by the publishing house, they're also things that you must be pertinent not to miss. When copyediting, I like to have the text and style guide up side by side to ensure I don't miss a thing.

For any copyeditor to be efficient and successful, it is imperative that they at least have a working knowledge of the AP Stylebook and Chicago Manual of Style. At the very least, most houses base their guides off of one of these two, and while you're of course welcome (and encouraged) to refer to them while editing, the more you know off the top of your head, the quicker you can work.

With all of that being said, more times than most, the job of a copyeditor does not end at grammar and following a style guide.

The specifics of what is being requested of you will almost always be asked upon your hiring, however if a copyeditor proves their attentiveness in doing a little bit more than what is asked of them, that could earn a recommendation or a re-hire from an employer.

So, what could that entail? Copyediting can include fact checking, ensuring the page numbers match up with the table of contents, clearing that addresses and phone numbers are listed right, checking the math within a graph if there is tabular matter, correcting the titles or numbers of references that occur in the text, and enforcing consistency in voice.

All of these things could be a part of your job if you are hired as a copyeditor. Evidently, you likely won't be spending hours working through the math of an excel chart unless you are working for a finance company, or editing copy whose topic is numeric-heavy, but this is always something to be aware of when going into a job. If that really isn't your thing, ensure beforehand that it won't be entailed, because oftentimes that is expected of copyeditors to have as a skill under their belt.

While some of those things may feel like they fall out of line with the job, correcting page numbers even if it isn't asked of you, could be what earns you a good reputation and referrals among the community. This is essential, particularly if you are planning on entering this business as a freelancer. To be a freelancer is to be your own employer in many ways, and a proper investment in yourself and your skill is to lay groundwork for longevity. Going above and beyond and being extra careful will do that.

And I'm sure all this talk of grammar and style guides feels very cut and dry, but at the end of the day, it is also important to remember that all of this must be delivered to the author in ways that are kind and helpful, rather than seen as slashing down their work.

More on that in the next part, which will touch on copyediting marks, queries, and how to practically apply all of these things. That post will be out on Saturday, April 4, 2020. Keep an eye out for it!