The Copy Editor's (Life)Style Guide: Maintaining Your Joy (and Sanity) in a Rapidly Changing Profession by Jamaal Pittman

I heard about this book through Editors Canada’s academic book club last February. Part memoir and part how-to guide, this short, readable book tells the story of how the author came to copy editing, and more importantly, how he found his niche. On the how-to side, he gives valuable guidance on navigating the job of an in-house editor: communicating with your co-workers to manage expectations on projects, saying the right things in your emails (and sending those emails to the right people), and writing clear markup and comments.

An important topic in this book is protecting your personal life and maintaining your enjoyment of the work. Copy editing is a job that tends to get focused on avoiding mistakes, and Pittman offers some valuable perspective on keeping your eye on the positive aspect of the job: having an opportunity to improve the document. And speaking of focusing on the positive, the author takes a generous and forgiving attitude when he writes about a work relationship that didn’t go well, and I appreciate his compassion for himself and others.

As copy editors, we should feel a sense of privilege, not pressure.

As a freelance editor, I found that some parts of the book weren’t that relevant to my work situation, such as getting jobs through a recruiter and dealing with an in-house manager. But overall, I found plenty to keep me interested.

Contents

1. Foreword
2. Why This Book
3. (You’re Probably Wondering) How I Got Here
4. Welcome to the Hotel . . . Arizona?
5. Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road (Hello, Golden State)
6. The Comeback
7. The Incredible, Indelible . . . Deadline
8. Marking Up Copy the Right Way
9. Weird Science: The Art of the Handoff
10. Editors Just Wanna Have Fun
11. Self-Care and the Elusive Work-Life Balance
12. Finding Your Joy Right at “Home”
13. The Job Hunt: Tools to Get You Ready
14. AI: Fear and Loathing in Cyberspace
15. I Believe in You (and Me)
16. Acknowledgments

Related reading: The Subversive Copy Editor by Carol Fisher Saller, The Editor’s Companion by Janet Mackenzie (review).

Published April 2024. Buy at lulu.com.