What Editors Do

The Art, Craft, and Business of Book Editing

By: Peter Ginna

Narrated by: Charles Constant, Susan Hanfield

Editing is an invisible art where the very best work goes undetected. Editors strive to create books that are enlightening, seamless, and pleasurable to read, all while giving credit to the author. This makes it all the more difficult to truly understand the range of roles they inhabit while shepherding a project from concept to publication.

In What Editors Do, Peter Ginna gathers essays from 27 leading figures in book publishing about their work. Representing both large houses and small, and encompassing trade, textbook, academic, and children's publishing, the contributors make the case for why editing remains a vital function to writers - and readers - everywhere.

Ironically for an industry built on words, there has been a scarcity of written guidance on how to actually approach the work of editing. This book will serve as a compendium of professional advice and will be a resource both for those entering the profession (or already in it) and for those outside publishing who seek an understanding of it. It sheds light on how editors acquire books, what constitutes a strong author-editor relationship, and the editor's vital role at each stage of the publishing process - a role that extends far beyond marking up the author's text.

This collection treats editing as both art and craft, and also as a career. It explores how editors balance passion against the economic realities of publishing. What Editors Do shows why, in the face of a rapidly changing publishing landscape, editors are more important than ever.

©2017 The University of Chicago (P)2018 Tantor

Good to Know for Editors and Authors

This book provided a lot of information about editors, genres, freelance editors, and self-publishing. I enjoyed the stories about the minutiae of the publishing business, like how manuscripts might get rejected because they didn't fit the brand of the publisher (despite being good manuscripts) and editors commissioning authors to write books to fill gaps they see in the book market.

Deep Dive into The World of Editing

When I first downloaded this book, I thought, how can a book on editing be over 12 hours long? Having made it to the end, I totally understand. Peter Ginna's What Editors Do: The Art, Craft, and Business of Book Editing provides an in-depth look into the world of editing and a review of the publishing world as a whole. From acquisitions to the editing process, from bringing the book to the reader to genre studies, and from pursuing a publishing career to the discussion on the past and future of editing, What Editor's Do will leave you feeling more knowledgeable about editing and publishing.

Charles Constant's and Susan Hanfield 's performances as narrators for this audio version of What Editors Do were flawless. They made it easy to keep reading/listening along. I look forward to discovering more books narrated by them.

If you are considering a job in the editing and publishing world or if you simply want to know more about the different types of editors, what they do, and how a book is brought to market, What Editors Do would be a perfect choice.

Excellent Book and Resource

For anyone interested in editing or writing your own book, this book is imperative. While I wouldn't say it's as good as Stephen King's On Writing (the finest book about writing, in my opinion), it makes for an excellent companion piece as so many essays in this book detail the inner workings of books that work and books that don't. Many times, it's more fascinating to learn why a book is boring or dull than it is to learn why it goes on to become a bestseller.

My only suggestion is that when the female narrator speaks, speed the audio up to 1.25. I'm not sure if her speech was slowed down for this audio book or if she was just talking comically slow.

Great (Outdated) Information Even for a Non-Editor

I read this thinking it was explaining to writers what an editor does, but is actually telling people who might want to be editors what editors do. I continued listening, thinking, "I've thought about being an editor!" but half-way through revised that to, "No way in heck would I be an editor!!"

I did continue reading to the end because I found hearing what editors do fascinating. I had no idea so much was involved... and the minute details were explained. I loved that aspect. The nuances amazed me.

It is outdated, having been published in 2018, but was great to hear the history of editing. Kindle and Amazon were barely mentioned, Audible, not even a whisper. An update would be welcome.