We start 2025 with a regular series, providing excerpts from my book Editors Talk about Editing. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the book’s publication. This collection of interviews provides rare insight into the practice of editors considered top of their game. The 2025 blogpost series begins with freelance book editor Constance Hale:
‘I used to own a restaurant with the chef, and our definition of a good waiter was: “Your glass is always full; the waiter is never there.” This kind of elegant attention [is] analogous to my definition of a good editor. Somehow the writer feels his or her piece came out exactly right, it is what he or she intended to write, and the editor’s fingerprints aren’t there. The writer feels that the piece is entirely true … The editor may have been there quite actively, but doesn’t manhandle the copy or leave traces. It takes an incredibly good ear, and that’s what you can’t teach about editing.
My editor at W. W. Norton didn’t touch the manuscript – she’s not a line editor – but she engaged with it. She pointed out sentences she especially liked, and we had long discussions. She also gave me tough love, and I went back and rewrote the manuscript. And then she fought like hell for a good cover design, page design, and a very careful copy edit.’
More details of Hales’ process can be found in this PDF extract.
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