Worth Noting: The Business of Editing in Print

Over the several years that I have been writing the An American Editor blog, some readers have urged me to write a book on the business of editing. I admit that writing a book has not been one of my driving life passions, but eventually I caved.

The result is the just-published The Business of Editing: Effective and Efficient Ways to Think, Work, and Prosper (ISBN 978-1-4341-0369-7). The book is a compilation of many of the essays I have written for An American Editor (and some guest essays, too). Aside from the essays being in one easily accessible place, the book organizes them by topic and has a comprehensive index, making it easy to locate the information you seek.

The Business of Editing

The Business of Editing is for new editors, persons thinking about becoming editors, and experienced editors. The book focuses on the business aspects of editing; not on how to edit, but on how to run an editing business.

The book is available directly from the publisher, Waking Lion Press and Amazon. For some reason I don’t understand, Barnes & Noble lists the book but says it is not available through B&N. Hopefully, for people who prefer B&N, that status will change in the near future. The book may be available through other outlets as well.

If you order directly from Waking Lion Press before December 1, 2013, there is a publisher’s discount. For details, go to the Waking Lion Press website. A sample of the book is available from the Waking Lion Press website or from this link.

No book should stand on its own in the sense of the author doing it all, some of it competently, some of it not. I’ve written numerous times in An American Editor that every author needs a professional “pit crew.” And so it was true with The Business of Editing.

The Business of Editing was professionally edited and organized by Ruth E. Thaler-Carter and Jack Lyon. Jack also did the layout, and Ruth and Jack also wrote introductions to the material. The book was professionally indexed by Sue Nedrow. This “pit crew” took what would have been just another book and made it into a wonderfully useful tool for professional editors.