Friday 9 January 2015

Workshop on Publishing & Copy Editing: A Report

A Workshop on Copy Editing and Publishing, was organised by Chevalier T. Thomas Elizabeth College for Women, on 09 January 2015. The workshop threw light on the various facets of publishing and copyediting, with interesting inputs by distinguished veterans in the field, Mrs.Nalini Olivannan, Director, Emerald Publications, and Mrs.Nandhini Iyengar, Senior Copy Editor with Oxford University Press. 

Dr. Nalini Olivannan
The various aspects of Publishing starting from Commissioning, where the publisher decides on the need for a particular book and approaches a writer for the same, to the process of Editing, Production, Marketing, Distribution and Sales were touched upon with illustrations from each domain. 

Mrs. Nalini also elaborated on the book-editing process, and stressed upon the need for the writer-editor sync' which is instrumental for the book to see the light of day in the shortest possible time. 

After the publisher sends it to their Editorial team (who are a list of subject experts), to see if the content of the book fits into their publishing programme, it is then sent to the Developmental Edit section, where the content is developed and sifted for errors. From here, it goes on to the Illustrations department, followed by the line-edit, and then the final manuscript is drawn up. 

Outlining the four stages in the production process, namely, Copy Editing, Proof-reading, Design & Layout, she said that each category of books requires a separate approach to all these four stages. For example, a book for toddlers cannot have more than three to five lines in a page, etc, while a book on self-motivation normally has a font that is 12 in size, with other similar criteria.

The Contracts & Legal Department takes care of the Royalties, Copyrights, etc, she said, and she also highlighted the various terms involved in publishing trade (it is not an industry, but a trade, said Ms. Nalini).
Dr. Nandhini Iyengar

Dr. Nandhini spoke on the process of copy editing, and the various prospects that are available for copy editors. "Editing, is the cleaning up of a manuscript", she quipped, and added to say that, "the manuscript must be properly clothed, before it sees the light of day!" 

Highlighting the various errors that happen in the realm of Language, like Sentence construction, Grammar, Vocabulary, etc, she said that although copy editing can help you read a lot on a variety of topics, it is important for the editor to cultivate a right attitude towards his manuscript, as, the whole process is obviously a lonely job.!

Dr. Nandhini also dwelt at length on the various nuances of copy-editing, with illustrations given out through work-sheets. "There should be a visible improvement in the manuscript in terms of grammar, structure, tone and clarity, and there should be no missing elements such as Tables and Figures. Moreover, the chapter should be homogeneous in style and tone, with no jerky transitions between sentences or paragraphs" she observed, and gave a few pointers on making changes to the work. "Changes should be made only to correct mistakes, and not because you think you can improve the text. Also, remember that the text is the author's and it is her/his privilege to write in a particular style. In addition, one should also alert/query the author about major changes," she said. Dr. Nandhini ended on a positive note by saying that, "In addition to the language skills, the editor must cultivate the right attitude and learn to enjoy doing something that is often frustrating and appears boring. At the same time, an editor gets to read many interesting and informative books that others may not have had a chance to read. This is ample compensation for a long, arduous and largely anonymous contribution to the world of publishing", she signed off. 

In short, the workshop was highly commendable and immensely useful to the hundred odd students (that includes five of our own students from the I MA class), and staff who had come from various city colleges for the programme which was organised in collaboration with the Chennai Literary Festival. 

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