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>BG:<<Lesson 2: Make the minimum number of author queries... Even if you think
>that "deciduously" could have been meant
>to be "decidedly" or "assiduously", choose the most likely intent of the
>author and go with that. >>
>
GH:>It's always good to minimize the author's workload, but don't let the word
>"minimum" lead you to neglect queries simply because you feel you're asking
>too many questions.
DM: Truth, Justice, and the American Way don't always cut it in the real world. I worked for five years at a composition house where our customers were respected publishers of academic journals, engineering journals, scholarly works, and textbooks. One would _think_ that the authors would want their works to be error-free. However we got slapped more than once for "too many queries," even though all the queries were carefully considered and correct by any objective standard.
There were two reasons given:
1. Many of the articles were publish-or-perish tenure-track necessities contributed by junior faculty. On their limited budgets, they were not willing to pay for more than a minimal number of author's alterations. If there were errors, so be it. Who would know? The articles had made it through peer review without anyone catching these little problems.
2. You're just the damn printer. What do you know? This tended to be the reaction from underskilled copyeditors (at the publisher) who did not understand the nature of the query and were afraid to pass it through to the author. But sometimes it was the reaction from the authors themselves, whose view of the world did not permit of the idea that a mere proofreader at a comp house could actually know anything.
So what I'm saying is, there is such a thing as too many queries, and it has to do with egos and budgets, not with improving the text.
Dick
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