The University of Sydney
MECO 6916: Editing and Manuscript Preparation
"Key figure" or "endangered species"?
The changing role of the editor in book publishing
from Beatrice Davis's day through to 2008
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During the last century, the publishing industry has experienced a fundamental change
in its business. Due to the technological revolution also the role of the editor in book
publishing has been affected by frequent innovations.
In this essay I am going to provide an overview of the changing role of the editor in
book publishing from Beatrice Davis's day through to 2008, a phase marked by
incisive and far-reaching alterations. At first I will expose the role of the editor and his
challenges in the age of Beatrice Davis, who was a pioneer in her business as one of
the first literary editors in Australia. Then I will point out important changes, the
publishing industry went through, and in which amount these also had an impact on
the role of the editor. Not only market changes and commercial pressures, but first and
foremost the digital revolution plays a determining role in this development. Finally, I
will outline the role of the editor today and glance at the future prospects of the editing
business, according to Morrison (2005) who is concerned with the question: "Has
editing had its day?"
The role of the editor in general isn't an easy one to describe or even understand: the
term `editor' was established in the book industry (Mackenzie 2004:3) but you will
find editors in many other fields of work with various different responsibilities. Those
responsibilities are often much more than just proofreading and copyediting: the editor
might be the one who manages the project "book", which means commissioning a new
project, working with the author on first drafts, organizing the copyedit, design and
launch to get the book into the bookshops. According to Davies (1994:19) the editor
"takes the most proactive role in the genesis of the book". Authors, on the other hand,
don't always have the best attitude towards their editors: the editor's business was
referred to as "the butcher's trade", "emasculation" or cutting your "own nose into
shape with scissors". (Morrison 2005) However, that's not the general and ideal -
relationship between an editor and his authors.
Although it should seem to be obvious today, the role of the editor in book publishing
wasn't always a distinguished and recognised one. The Oxford English Dictionary
(1712) is the first to refer to the profession of the editor with the definition "one who
prepares the literary work of another," (Manguel 2000:131f); it took around 200 years
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until the editing history can chronicle a more present-day definition
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as well as "a full-
fledged editor in the contemporary sense" (Manguel 2000:132), Maxwell Perkins.
Perkins (1884-1947) worked with literary figures like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Earnest
Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe and it is due to him that the profession of the editor
slowly started to become a more recognized and accredited one (Manguel 2000:132).
Consequently, over the next decades there were a few more editors, who should
become legends: in the Australian book publishing business Beatrice Davis (1902-
1992) was one of them. According to Mackenzie (2004:4) "book publishing is
women's business"; Beatrice Davis is a prime example for that. Often considered a
pioneer (Mackenzie 2004:12) in professional literary publishing and working almost
forty years of her career as a general editor at Angus & Robertson, until 1973, she
contributed a lot to the development of editing as a profession over those fifty years in
the business. (Kent 2001) During this period she already experienced the early stages
of the change from a culture-determined business to a publishing industry with a
market-oriented focus. Davis acted against the inevitable change to a commercially
motivated business, though, and advocated culture-led publishing.
Beatrice Davis got to know the beginning of the change of tendency in publishing
business: market changes and commercial pressures were already noticeable, the
digital revolution yet to come. In Davis's days writing was done by hand or typewriter,
on paper not digital; editing was done by pencil on paper, communication took place
on paper, via post. No personal computer, email, World Wide Web, no word
progressing programs or home printers - something that is hard to imagine these days.
In The Editor's Companion Mackenzie (2004:12) describes vividly the editor's tough
past, as she experienced the "transformation of the profession" herself: as editing
wasn't at all a well-known and wide-spread profession in the 1960s, there was no
general pathway how to become an editor, "no training for editors, no pay scale, no
career structure, no security" (Mackenzie 2004:12). The working space of an editor
just forty years ago demonstrates best some of the crucial changes: instead of modern
technological innovations, like photocopier, laptop, Internet, fax and printer, there is
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"One who works with the author in the fashioning of a work of fiction" (Manguel 2000:132)
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just a manual typewriter; there is no possibility to duplicate pages, save new versions
or even simply correct typos. To cut and paste you actually needed scissors, to count
the words you actually needed to count. (Mackenzie 2004:13)
The role of the editor indeed made an impressive change over the last 50 years. The
electronic revolution has changed everything and editors have adjusted their function
to the latest working conditions. Today there is electronic publishing and a large
amount of editing is done on-screen; word processing, electronic file management and
graphic design programs (Mackenzie 2004:13) are as normal as electronic networks
and communication via email. Editors now have to be able to handle computers and to
edit on-screen. Due to the possibility of telecommuting, a lot of editors now work as
freelancers rather than in-house. (Mackenzie 2004:14) Although, there still isn't a
standardized pathway into the editing business, there are a number of training
programs, like postgraduate qualifications and "the profession has acquired more
profile" (Mackenzie 2004:14). In contribution to this, in 1998 the Council of
Australian Societies of Editors (CASE) was founded, consisting of independent
societies of editors of each state. CASE supports editing and editors with certain
projects like the innovation of the Australian Standards for Editing Practice, which
distinguish not only the certain fields of editing but clarify also their tasks.
However, technological advance wasn't the only cause for the editor's function and
duties to alter: commercial pressures and market changes played an important role in
the upheaval of the publishing industry, as well. As Mackenzie (2004:3) puts it:
"...the commercialisation of mass culture, the rat race of galloping technology,
increasing domination of multinational conglomerates- are merely the latest
chapters in a long-running thriller."
Today, the sales and marketing department of a publishing house is much more
involved in the development of a book. The publishing business is more competitive
than ever before and editors are constantly under the pressure to factor the market into
their decisions. It's not about whether the book is a great one or not anymore; it's more
about how to maximise the sales potential of a new book project. A few decades ago
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