Editorial tasks
Publishers generally have a critical input into the shaping of drafts
before and after they agree to publish a manuscript. A reader or an
editor will often, in consultation with an author, suggest and guide
the recasting of a work and seek to find a mutually acceptable
solution. The title 'editor' covers a range of activities, and a
book will often have several editors. At the top of the pecking
order is the commissioning editor, often designated Publisher, the
one with the power to accept or decline. An important part of the
role of this editor is to represent the publisher's interests to the
author, and the author's interests to the publisher. There is an
inevitable tension here, especially with small firms where the
editor is in fact the publisher (though publishers may go to great
lengths to nurture their stable of authors, in the small world of
New Zealand publishing occasional allegations of unprofessionalism
and broken, formerly warm friendships attest to the difficulties).
In larger companies, the editor is often cast in the role of
author's champion. The commissioning editor may 'structurally' edit
the work, a time-consuming process which should ideally be carried
out in close collaboration with the author; or may entrust the task
to a more junior in-house, or increasingly a freelance, editor.
('Face to face—Ray Richards on Barry Crump' (1996) spills
the beans on one of New Zealand's popular publishing successes.)
Finally, every book requires the attention of a copy-editor.
At the very least,
the editor is responsible for ensuring that the manuscript which
goes to typesetting is as correct in terms of factual detail (if
that is appropriate), spelling and grammar as it is possible to make
it within the constraints of time and budget allocated to the
project; and ensuring consistency, or adapting the author's
conventions to follow the publisher's house style, where the
publisher considers this to be necessary or appropriate. A.H.
& A.W. Reed's house style takes up three pages of the Reed Deskbook for Writers (1973), compiled
by Reed's editor Group Captain Arnold Wall (not to be confused with
his father, Professor Arnold Wall), specifying styles for
punctuation, abbreviations, dates, numbers, capitalisation,
quotations, and so on. Many publishers consider that internal
consistency of a manuscript is usually sufficient, but may invoke
the conventions of a particular style manual for certain features or
elements of a work, such as bibliographies or proper names. In the
case of multi-author works (such as the present one), a style manual
becomes a more central issue.
Apart from
in-house style sheets—often unpublished or semi-published,
such as Auckland University Press's The
Preparation and Style of Manuscripts (4th ed.
1985)—publishers make use of a variety of more or less
well-known manuals to ensure consistency within or between
publications. Most of these derive from large overseas publishing
firms, for example Hart's Rules (Oxford
University Press), Judith Butcher's Copy-editing (Cambridge University Press), or the Chicago Manual of Style (University of
Chicago Press). G.R. Hutcheson gives 'Some hints on copy and layout'
in H.B. & J.'s Handbook (1938),
although as a printer he is most concerned with clarity of
instructions and design considerations. The only substantial New
Zealand-published style manual was until recently The New Zealand Government Printing Office Style Book ,
first issued in 1958 and revised several times. A third edition
appeared in 1981. It resurfaced in 1991 as The New
Zealand Style Book and in its most recent incarnation is
simply The Style Book (revised and expanded
by D. Wallace and J. Hughes, 1995). Earlier issues carried an
'Official Section' devoted to the details of legislative publishing,
and particular attention was given to the correct names of statutory
bodies. A study of the various editions of this manual would also
reveal interesting trends in the treatment of things
characteristically New Zealand. Its current contents include
guidance on punctuation, spelling, capitals, italics, abbreviations
and symbols, measurement, nonsexist language and common confusions.
Write, Edit, Print (1997), the most
substantial style manual to be issued in New Zealand, is based on
the conventions of the Australian Government Publishing Service Style Manual (5th ed. 1994), with
substantial New Zealand input. Non-discriminatory language is one of
its features, and it includes considerable practical detail on the
making of books, from copy preparation to typesetting and printing.
