When editors collide.

Writers usually don't appreciate copy editors. They send in perfect manuscripts, only to have the copy editors tell them they've misspelled things, their grammar sucks, their facts are weird, their plots have contradictions, and they're stoopid stoopidheads. Mind you, when copyediting that is not what I'm trying to do; but writers are often a bit fragile about their work, especially in the raw, still-bleeding form, and it seems awfully harsh to get those terse corrections.

As I have said here before, I'm not trying to make writers feel as though they are stupid; I'm trying to make writers look as though they are intelligent.

You think they'd appreciate that.

Usually the editor gets in the middle between the writer and copy editor to keep everyone happy. But I worked for a while for an academic publisher that allowed the editor to step out of the way; my comments would be sent as is to the writer (even those that were Eyes-Only for the editor) and the writer's remarks would come directly back to me. And let me tell you one thing about that -- the copy editor can lose his job if he's mean to a writer, but the writer is under contract and can say any goddamn thing he wants to the copy department. Some of them do. I would flinch every time one of my jobs came back from the writer, because there was about a 40% chance I was about to see myself being called an idiot or worse.

Maybe it's not so bad at other book publishing houses; as we know (or do we?), academic politics are vicious because the stakes are so small. Still, when the company dropped a quarter of its staff, I really didn't mind getting laid off.

Recently, though, I had to deal with some copy-on-copy violence. I had copyedited a kids' book -- a kids' book! -- and then was asked to look at it again, a couple of passes down the line, after it had been copyedited again by someone I don't know. Well, of COURSE she couldn't have spotted any errors, since I had already caught them all, right?

Wrong! This kid marked a number of things -- and now it is ON.

Who is this impertinent stripling? I shall show her! I had this right in the first place, according to the house style guide and the Chicago Manual of Style! I'll look it up to get chapter and verse. When I get through with her...

Oh... the new style guide doesn't mention this.

And... Chicago sides with her.

Traitor.

Well, what about... Oh, well THAT error must have been added after I saw the book. And THAT. And, er, THAT. I could check the draft I saw...

But now I'm thinking I'd better not.

Nothing like the taste of humble pie in one's mouth as a reminder to be humble. And polite.

Is there a bakery that makes humble pies? Because I'd like to send some to some university writers.