Hello, all! I'm in need of some editing advice. I apologize if this has been asked before--
I recently took up an editorial internship with an independent publisher, and I've found that I'm not really being taught but rather tossed into the deep end and expected to edit a 200+ page manuscript...
Not exactly what I was expectng, but I'm grateful and excited for the opportunity. The company was started by someone very young and the literature being published isn't exactly high quality, but it's something to put on my resume and only for the summer, which makes it feel worth it.
As a baby editor, I have some questions:
The more I type, the more it seems like this is all hopeless and my supervisor is giving me too much. Oh well, I've never been a quitter.
Any and all advice would be hugely appreciated!
I recently took up an editorial internship with an independent publisher, and I've found that I'm not really being taught but rather tossed into the deep end and expected to edit a 200+ page manuscript...
Not exactly what I was expectng, but I'm grateful and excited for the opportunity. The company was started by someone very young and the literature being published isn't exactly high quality, but it's something to put on my resume and only for the summer, which makes it feel worth it.
As a baby editor, I have some questions:
- How should I word my comments? I've never edited a full fiction manuscript before; I'm very recently out of college and am more versed in editing academic papers for pals. My comments always veer towards too wordy and too nice. Are there "guidelines" for editing? Is this something specific to different companies/individual editors?
- My supervisor instructed me to "leave comments and look for grammatical errors", which is all well and good, but I don't really know how in-depth to look. What I'm really doing is looking for grammatical errors, general continuity, and readability.
- I ordered the Chicago Manual of Style but does anyone know of any other places to look for fiction editing?
- Additional question: How do I know if I'm going overboard with edits? At what point do I cross the threshold of grammatical errors to "quality of writing"? This manuscript is... bad. Am I even qualified to say something is bad? Help, I'm a fraud.
The more I type, the more it seems like this is all hopeless and my supervisor is giving me too much. Oh well, I've never been a quitter.
Any and all advice would be hugely appreciated!
Last edited: