Throughout my career, I’ve been influenced by many mentors. When I was first hired right out of graduate school, Meredith, the experienced editor I was replacing, spent six weeks working alongside me introducing me to the principles, techniques and subtleties of editing both a scholarly journal and my first book …
Forty-six years ago, when I embarked on my editing career, my first assignment was to edit a 500-page novel, which the publisher plunked onto my desk along with a copy of The Chicago Manual of Style and a dictionary. “Here, edit this,” he said. That was my instruction in its …
Years ago, we all became editors through a kind of apprentice system. Once you had the ticket — a university degree — you were hired by a publisher or a communications department. There, a senior person on staff whipped you into shape as you did your work, followed a manual …