Why do people ask for a an editor then .....

I do like to tease you, to get a reaction.

However, Pilot, you do tend to go on and on about proper punctuation and grammar. The thing is, Lit is a free erotica site. There are writers and editors here who care about punctuation and grammar, and there are writers and editors who don't give a damn. I don't think that's really a Lit thing. It's pretty common for traditional and self-pubbed writers these days. Times are a changing.

I haven't been feeling well lately, or I would have responded sooner.

I'm listening to this now, by Annie Lennox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG7I4oniOyA

Editor searchers

I found this thread interesting, in such that I had considered looking for an editor for the next few submissions. Some of the ones who offer seem to be composition nazi's and other just want to read first. Others have descriptions that are off-putting. Then there are ones that I've seen who have been credited with proofing stories that I enjoy, and I would consider asking them. I've actually gone looking to the editor's list for their names and what their preferences are.

Regardless, I don't think it's a personal thing. It's possible that the writer jumped the gun in asking and doesn't have enough to send right now or simply asked more than one for help and found another person to edit.

There is an important issue in editing with the numerous differences between AmE and BrE. Yes, this site is based in USA and obviously the emphasis will be on AmE. But, if I continually spell labour, favour, harbour, colour (etc) with a "u", it doesn't mean my spelling is incorrect, it means that my acculturation differs from the bulk of Lit authors (and editors).

It might help if editors identified their cultural background to minimise (here I use an "s" and not a "z" - and that's "zed", please, not "zee".) Similarly, I accept that in AmE the custom is to have punctuation inside quotation marks. In BrE, punctuation goes outside.

Bernard Shaw once said that England and America are two countries divided by a single language. Add Australia into that mix.

Your difference in spelling will be fine, but the punctuation for quotes must be inside, or it will get rejected. It's pet peeve here.

bumblegrum said:

There is an important issue in editing with the numerous differences between AmE and BrE. Yes, this site is based in USA and obviously the emphasis will be on AmE. But, if I continually spell labour, favour, harbour, colour (etc) with a "u", it doesn't mean my spelling is incorrect, it means that my acculturation differs from the bulk of Lit authors (and editors).

It might help if editors identified their cultural background to minimise (here I use an "s" and not a "z" - and that's "zed", please, not "zee".) Similarly, I accept that in AmE the custom is to have punctuation inside quotation marks. In BrE, punctuation goes outside.

Bernard Shaw once said that England and America are two countries divided by a single language. Add Australia into that mix.

Click to expand...

The fact is that this is a U.S.-based site (and Americans being more provincial than Brits, in general, there are more of them who don't realize that there are spellings and renderings other than the American ones). The site itself uses U.S. style. Which, practically, means that it's the Brits who need to be more careful about declaring up front that they are using the British style conventions. A British author seeking editing and wanting to retain the British styling should be noting that up front more than an American editor using U.S. style should--just in terms of recognizing and accepting reality.

You're right, of course, pilot, and obviously most writers will use the AmE conventions. I just hope that anyone who holds themselves out as editors do realise that there are different conventions and take account of this in the editing process.

There are plenty of errors that sneak through edits, regardless of the convention used - there, their, they're or your, you're, and even yore, to say nothing of my personal anti-favourite, "different to" rather than "different from", which it should be. And don't get me started on "different than".

I've even been castigated in feedback for using "Mum" rather than "Mom". Not by an editor (I assume) but by that prolific commentator, Anonymous. I read a very telling comment just recently - "Ignorance can be remedied; stupidity has no cure."

The bottom line then is that a British-style editor needs to make that clear up front as does an author wanting to be edited in the British style (with the exception of that relationship between terminal punctuation and the end quotation mark--the Web site indeed is pretty insistent on American style on that).