According to Susie Bright in her book, "How to Write a Dirty
Story," yes
(her book is far more of a writer's autobiography than a
erotica how-to). Since she's been publishing since the late
60s/early 70s she reports a steady decline in the skills of
the editors in the traditional houses that she has worked
with. As publishing was taken over by the media giants they
big business practices and profit-focus took over as well.
Personnel always being the most expensive component of any
business (especially trained, skilled, and experienced
personnel) they tended to get rid of the high salary, skilled
workers and replaced them with lesser skilled, junior
personnel who weren't even likely to have more of an English
education than the core requirement. I've noticed a definite
rise in errors within the books I've read that have been
published since the 70s/80s and I'm not even anal about that
stuff. I'm literate enough to fix the errors as I read so in
the end my enjoyment of a book remains seated in whether it's
a good story or not. Not whether or not it was a quality
manufacture. Where I'm seeing less and less errors are in
self-published books. While there are still a lot of vanity
writers (writers who believe their skilled and no one can
tell them otherwise and have an excuse for ever error they
make), there is a growing number of people who love reading
and telling stories who go the extra mile to have someone
skilled proofread their work before they email it off to
their POD or e-Book publisher of choice. About the only place
you're likely to find an anal grammarian to copy edit with
skill your work is at a small press and as Susie Bright
points out, it's also going to be the only place where the
publisher is going to be 100% behind you since they only
choose those works that they believe in.
When it comes to fact-checking, George P. Pelecanos said it
best in response to an audience question this past February
(paraphrased from memory): "That's why I write fiction and
not non-fiction." At least that's what I took away from what
he said. Not that that is a declaration of war on facts. As
Warren Murphy warned recently, don't let research become an
excuse not to write.
-- Anthony Dauer, MSM IS Alexandria, Virginia
2nd Annual Country Noir Issue ...
http://www.adau.net/judas_ezine/
... submit by 4 May 2002
-----Original Message----- From: Colin Sent: Sunday, April 21, 2002 6:14 AM
Is copy editing a dying art? Not working in the trade I wouldn't know, but as you (more knowledgeable) people say that it is I see no reason to doubt it.
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