Category: Editing

  • Editors talk about editing: Constance Hale

    We start 2025 with a series of posts from ‘Editors Talk about Editing’, on the 10th anniversary of publication. The book brought together, for the first time, interviews with top editing practitioners. The first extract is from freelance book editor Constance Hale.

  • The PhD supervisor as editor

    When it comes to PhDs in Creative Writing, it may seem obvious to think about the supervisor as a kind of editor. But this role also has relevance for other research subjects.

  • Editors talk about editing: the back story

    Newly published: a book of interviews which juxtaposes people in different kinds of publishing. The aim is to go beyond familiar ideas about how they differ and understand patterns in their practices and concerns.

  • Dreaming with my feet on the ground

    There is a lot of mystique about doing a PhD. Often, that is not helpful; it is support, persistence and planning that matters. But there can be something magical about the doctoral journey.

  • Publishing and the university

    Every year, at the London Book Fair, there are dozens of fascinating talks. But in 2013 there didn’t seem to be any talks about the university’s place in publishing. So I proposed one.

  • Why Kenneth Burke is worth reading

    A colleague asked for help in understanding Kenneth Burke. I know how he feels; I had to clear a whole week to read The Rhetoric of Motives. But it turned me into a massive fan.

  • The raw and the cooked

    A book chapter that maps the publishing platforms and relationships that determine how nonfiction storytelling reaches an audience, and puts forward an argument about what makes a piece of writing ‘authentic’.

  • Personal experience, turned outwards

    Reporting – finding out about the external world – can be understand as a form of personal experience, which is deliberately turned outward and tested by verification. Authenticity exists not only in marginal practices, but also mainstream ones.

  • Write a book and get a degree

    For people working on a book, an MA in Creative Writing is something to consider. It provides a structure, deadlines, support and feedback; the kind of sustained professional help that is hard to find.

  • Guardian calls for more editing of books

    There is so much misunderstanding of what editing is. Many complaints are really just about typos. And bad editing is taken to stand for the rest. But don’t get me started.