Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
Non existent proofreading is a major problem for paper books as well. An old friend used to be a VP at an editorial production house that did copy editing, proofreading, that typesetting for publishers. She lamented the lack of it on a mailing list we were on. Another member of that list was an editor at a major publisher, who said "But copy editing, proofreading, and such are part of the budget for the book, and are always done!" "Maybe they still are in your house", replied my friend, "but I'm the one who gets to deal with the ones who used to pay us to do it, and don't do so any more." They were trying to cut costs, and decided proofreading was an unnecessary expense...
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Your friend is absolutely correct. What the publishers who believe they are paying for copyediting and proofreading are really paying for is for the editor to style the document for the typesetter.
When I started my business (editorial services for book publishers) 25 years ago, the rule was that we were paid first to edit and secondarily to code (style). The coding we did was broad coding, for example, marking something as a first-level head. And this work was done over the full panoply of the publisher's list.
Subsequently, as publishing companies were bought by conglomerates and the focus turned more to the quarterly dividend for shareholders, things began to change. A publisher's C-list books (an A-list book is a top seller that gets the most attention and it goes downhill from A to C) were no longer being edited or proofed, except cursorily and that work was done either inhouse or sent to a "mill" that would do the work for one-half to one-third the price previously paid.
A few years later, in order to cut costs, the B-list books were farmed out only to the mills.
Today, even many of the A-list books are being farmed out to the mills -- and the emphasis has changed. It is more important to do extensive coding/styling than to pay attention to grammar and spelling. Now, to save money, editors are expected to code/style every element and are expected to do so at the same rate of pay that they received in 1995. An unwillingness to do that level of microcoding at the offered level of pay means the book gets shipped to a mill that will do it for even less.
Something has to give and what gives is quality editing and proofing. And the bastions of quality editing and proofing -- the university presses -- are under financial siege and having to cut corners or go out of business.
The future is clear -- editing and proofing will become forgotten skills; only spell check will prevail.