University of Virginia Library

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.