SUKAATO's Hypomnema

20240908161622-Contents_of_Copy-Editor_Preliminary_Brief

5 min read

Contents of Copy-Editor Preliminary Brief

From “Preliminary Copy-Editing, Design and Specimen Pages¨ in Butcher’s Copy-Editing

Draw the designer’s attention to folios that show unusual or special features, listing items that should be included on the specimen pages, and giving samples of the running heads. If you are not marking up the complete typescript at this stage choose a few typical folios and mark up spelling, capitalization, punctuation, abbreviations, etc., in the editorial style you propose to follow in the book. Tell the designer which folios you have marked up.

Here’s a few more things to do on a preliminary brief together with the aforementioned (Butcher, et al 2006, 21-):

  • Make note of folios with unusual or special features (i.e., of typescript sheets that stand out from other typescript sheets in the full typescript)
  • List items that should be included in the designer’s specimen page
  • Provide samples of running heads (i.e., samples of headings that appear or are to appear at the top of every page or folio)
  • Mark up some folios in a proposed editorial style and indicate which folios you marked up for the designer
  • List typeface affecting factors
  • Mention occasional complications in the text, particularly ones that may affect the flow of the text
  • List material in or for the text that is to be provided later, with an estimated length in printed pages
    • Example way to do so: “Not yet available: foreword 2 pp., index 8 pp.¨
  • Warn of differences that may not be accounted for by an extant used style for similar text, especially if that style is to be used
  • Figure out how typically the present text is to be treated
  • Make note of special sorts, i.e. “character[s] that a typesetter may not use very often, and that may need to be clarified (or supplied as fonts with electronic files) by the author,¨ and inquire whether unusual authorial conventions may present a problem for the designer
  • Inform as to the quantity of heading grades there are in text and endmatter as well as how they headings are coded
    • Example way to do so: “three grades in the text, labelled A, B, C; one grade in the bibliography, labelled X.¨
    • Try to limit subheadings in a text to three grades
  • Code headings to be set in small type differently from the ones in the type of the text (refer to 20240908165937-What_is_Small_Type)
  • Mention whether heading titles are long or short
  • Point out extant notes or headings in the margins of a folio or prospective page
    • Dictate whether marginal notes are to be footnotes or endnotes
      • Make sure to consult with commissioning editor, if extant, about whether very long or numerous marginal notes should be endnotes prior to such dictation
    • Dictate whether any footnote is to be keyed by symbol or number
      • Dictate whether such symbolically or numerically keyed footnotes are to have their sequence continual across pages/folios or instead to have their sequence restarted with each page/folio
  • Enforce postponement of any cross-references to folios/pages until typesetting and paging are complete
  • Inform about the degree or quantity of cross-referencing in the text
  • Dictate whether it is necessary to distinguish long quotations, exercises, and other blocks of text typographically from the main text
  • Dictate whether very large tables should “be split or turned to read up the page to avoid having a fold-out¨
  • Mention author’s artwork and labelling
  • Mention any provided photographs for the halftones
  • Confirm (with the extant commissioning editor) whether captions, typed lists of names for maps, etc. are required and will be provided
  • Indicate (after author consultation) which pictorial/figural reproductions or sets of pictorial/figural reproductions should be same-size or at a particular size reduction
  • Indicate (after author consultation) which pictures or figures have been borrowed (and thereby must not be lettered)
  • Indicate (with the author) whether any colored original pictures/figures are to be reproduced in color or in black & white
  • Identify each original picture or figure by ISBN, author’s name, shortened book title, figure number and, if possible, folio/page number
    • Identify unoriginal and thereby unnumbered pictures/figures by folio number and page/folio placement/position (e.g., top, bottom, left, right, etc.)
    • Mark approximate position of each picture/figure on the margins of the typescript or otherwise indicate which chapter each picture/figure belongs to
  • Pictures/figures may be placed into the following categories, with different design implications–make note of what category the picture/figure fits in:
    • Halftones (i.e., photographs)
    • Line drawings (corresponds with graphs, diagrams, etc.)
    • Possible fold-outs (i.e., pictures or figures that may take up more than one page)
    • Artwork
  • Provide estimations of the page-length such figures or pictures may take up in the text, and of what the size of the captioning of these may be (the latter in line units)
    • Example size estimation for pictures/figures: “Estimate 1 complex whole-page map, 5 simple half-page diagrams¨
    • Example length estimation for the captions of pictures/figures: “Estimate captions as 1 line each¨

Question

What would be a better way to (re-)organize the preceding list of pointers as to what to include in the preliminary brief on the typescript?

abbreviation copy-editor copy-editing editing proofreading proofreader graphic_design specimen_pages code coding special_sorts margin commissioning_editor commissioning_editing fold-out key

bibliography

  • “Preliminary Copy-Editing, Design and Specimen Pages.” In Butcher’s Copy-Editing: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-Editors and Proofreaders, 4th ed., 17–27. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Graph View