Discover the Editor in You
Find answers to a number of critical questions related to copyediting as a career
About The Book
This book helped me immensely with my editing projects. It provides an in-depth understanding of what editing is about and its nuances. The best thing about the book: be it a beginner or a seasoned professional in the field, it has something for everyone.
Discover the Editor in You answers a number of critical questions related to copyediting as a career:
- What makes for a great copyeditor?
- What does the work entail and how does one start?
- What keeps copyeditors motivated?
- What kind of professional and personal qualities does one need to succeed at
copyediting? - What are the future possibilities in this line of work?
The book consists of first-hand accounts by individuals with decades of experience in the field. It will help you understand how copyediting could be a fulfilling career for you if you are:
- on the verge of taking up copyediting as a career and need information from authentic sources,
- an individual interested in making a career switch to copyediting and need to know what it really involves today, or
- a budding writer and want to figure out whether you need an editor.
What’s inside
Part I
Becoming a copyeditor
Part III
Technique and craft
Part II
Editorial niches
Part IV
Allied services
Preface
I have always been motivated by a snippet I once read in a newspaper: “taking India’s best to the world and bringing the world’s best to India”. So, how did I translate this philosophy into reality? “Very few people know about copyediting. It would be great to have a book on copyediting,” I thought to myself. The year was 2009. LinkedIn groups used to be very active at the time, and I floated the idea in several LinkedIn groups and received an overwhelming response from all over the world. Even a few chapters were written, but my full-time job (and a 5-hour commute), lack of experience with the publishing process, and lack of team members for the project left little time for me to pursue the authors and look for a publisher.
In 2016, I tried again to get the book going but the time was not ripe yet. In 2021, I floated the idea one more time and the end is now in sight – third time lucky! We set up a four-member editorial committee with Abha Thapalyal Gandhi as the chair and Anupam Choudhury, Murugaraj Shanmugam, and Preeta Priyamvada as members. The committee reviewed and approved proposals (sometimes reviewed even revised proposals), peer-reviewed each chapter twice (at times even three times), helped authors with surveys and questionnaires, sent regular progress bulletins, and remained in contact through WhatsApp chats, phone calls, and video calls.
Most of the authors are also from ICF (Indian Copyeditors Forum) and are specialists in their respective fields. For some sections in the book (e.g. credentials in copyediting and allied services), I wrote to editing associations in the United Kingdom and Canada and they responded graciously and agreed to contribute chapters. I see endless possibilities of collaboration (cross-training), growth, and compounding because of the multi-person effort that this project grew into. These possibilities do not arise when working alone.
Chapters
Pages
Who is a copyeditor?
Necessary skills and mindset
- Does the author make mistakes?
- Who corrects them?
- What is the ultimate goal of the copyeditor?
- Who becomes a great copyeditor?
- Who is an L3 editor?
My chapter answers these pertinent questions every aspiring copyeditor usually has and encourages you to take up copyediting as your profession.
The curator and the Indian Copyeditors Forum
Vivek Kumar (hivivek72@gmail.com), the curator of this book, has a bachelor’s degree in science and has more than 25 years of experience as a copyediting professional. He has been working as a freelance medical copyeditor since 2011. He is also the founder of ICF, the Indian Copyeditors Forum: The Forum for Editors.
An informal Facebook group for Indian editors, ICF aims is to share knowledge, ideas, thoughts, and resources. Formed in June 2015, the group is managed by Vivek Kumar and has 2957 members as of December 2, 2023. ICF encourages freelance and full-time editors to engage in active networking and hopes to create a culture of meaningful and sustained interaction. The Forum invites editors to share successes and pitfalls of freelancing, provide leads, give warnings (always discreetly), ask questions, and discuss oddly written sentences, other editorial bugbears, and any other professional concerns. In addition to editors, abstractors, designers, indexers, manuscript evaluators, project managers, proofreaders, translators, typesetters, and writers are welcome to join. You can find all About ICF in a single link on Link Tree
The editorial committee
Abha Thapalyal Gandhi
Chair
Abha (abhatgandhi@yahoo.co.in) began her career as a law professional and then was fortunate enough to be introduced to publishing. Currently she is a publishing consultant and freelance editor in the social sciences and humanities. She has also worked as Director, Legal & Regulatory, LexisNexis India; Publisher, South Asia Press; Sr Commissioning Editor, Oxford University Press India; and Sr Legal Editor, Supreme Court Cases, EBC India.
Anupam Choudhury
Member
Anupam Choudhury is an independent editor and writer. He is a senior publishing professional with over 15 years of experience in academic publishing. He has previously headed editorial teams at Sage Publications India and Oxford University Press India.
His website is www.anupamchoudhury.com.
Murugaraj Shanmugam
Member
Murugaraj Shanmugam is the founder-director of Tholga Publishing Services, which he established after working with major typesetting companies in India, setting up and managing their copyediting teams. He specializes in academic editing; teaches copyediting through Editor’s Essentials, the training arm of Tholga Publishing Services; and mentors copyeditors. As an active member of the ICF, he has delivered many webinars on language and Microsoft Word for editors.
Preeta Priyamvada
Member
Preeta Priyamvada (preeta.edit@gmail.com) is an independent editor. She has 20 years of experience in the publishing industry. She has worked on textbooks, coffee-table books, trade books, and also magazines, journals, and encyclopaedias. Her last assignment was with Pearson as Managing Editor – Development, for academic and trade and higher education social sciences textbooks.
Discover the Editor in You
Find answers to a number of critical questions related to copyediting as a career
Beyond Discovery
The Copyeditor’s Handbook
Addressing everyday issues
Coming soon