Copy Editor

Dell Publishing is now Bantam Dell and part of Random House. You can search for Dell books at Amazon.com.

Summary

This job gave me experience with just about every aspect of hardcover and paperback book publishing (fiction, non-fiction, juvenile, trade). I became acquainted with production schedules and marketing plans, cover design, acquisitions, and contracts, as well as all stages of editing.

Staffing

Dell had a copy chief, a deputy copy chief, and five full-time, in-house copy editors, of whom I was one. The production editors were in a separate department that reported to the managing editor, as did our department.

Many publishing houses had already jettisoned their in-house copy editors and proofreaders in favor of using freelancers for everything. Dell used freelance copy editors, proofreaders, and indexers for most full-length books.

Production

Trafficking was handled by the production department. Editors handled acquisitions and line-editing, after which mss. came to copy editing and in most cases were sent out to freelancers by the copy chief. The chief or her deputy spot-checked most copy edited mss., which then were usually set directly into page proofs. Some heavily illustrated books were set in galleys. After page proofs and galleys came back from freelancers, the staff copy editors checked them and transferred author's alterations. All corrected proofs were checked in-house.

Copy Editor's Responsibilities

Dell's in-house copy editors handled all flap copy, cover copy, front and back matter, promotional copy, and catalogues. We also took care of all author's alterations in-house, transferring the AA's to the proofreader's set of marked proofs. We spot-checked the work of all freelancers, including indexers, for accuracy and consistency and handled their queries.

Dell had a large list of children's and juvenile titles, and most of those were proofread in-house (by copy editors). For juvenile hardcovers with the Delacorte imprint, we also read bluelines. We read bluelines and even checked proofs against mechanicals for some heavily illustrated Delacorte nonfiction titles (coffee-table books). Some mss. were set first in galleys (a practice that has all but disappeared), and in those cases the in-house copy editors checked page proofs against galleys.

Hours

This was a regular Monday-to-Friday, 9-to-5 job with virtually no overtime hours required.

Dell, Dial, and Delacorte authors at that time included Kurt Vonnegut, Richard Yates, J. P. Donleavy, Robert B. Parker, and Danielle Steele.