Join us at the National Library as David Whitbread discusses his recent book, The Design Manual, and its editorial content. David was also one of the leaders of the project team for the new Style Manual, and was partly responsible for the design of that book. David has been designing publications for 15 years and runs his own design business. Formerly, he was design director for AGPS before it closed, and he was the head of Graphic Design at the University of Canberra until 1999.
As usual, the evening will start at 6 pm with fine finger foods and chatter, before the meeting begins at 6.30 pm.
Next meeting: Wednesday 31 July
The president's column
Insurance for editors
The new style manual in outline
Improving English
More nautical niceties
News and notes
Two APA courses
ACT Writers Centre events
The Beatrice Davis Editorial Fellowship
Residential Editorial Program 2002
Copyright and deadlines
Last general meeting, thanks to Mr Frank Craddock our guest speaker, many of us learnt a lot more about office insurance, including what's required for the home office, an important matter for many freelances. A full report on Mr Craddock's presentation appears elsewhere in the newsletter, but I just want to make a couple of extra points.
Among those at the meeting, the type of insurance of greatest interest was clearly professional indemnity insurance. Editors are obviously anxious about being sued for negligence. Is this anxiety justified? I've never heard of a book or publications editor of our type being taken to court, and I couldn't find any cases on a quick search of the Internet. Sure, there were plenty of records of newspaper and magazine editors being sued, mostly for defamation, but then Mr Craddock told us that the insurance companies offering editors (of any type) professional indemnity insurance tend to baulk at covering defamation risk. So is such insurance worth while? Individual editors need to weigh up the pros and cons and decide for themselves. The premiums are high ($1000 per year seems to be the absolute minimum) and rising, and once you start, you can't stop, because you can be sued years after the event apparently, and if you're not still covered, you're gone.
Looking at the whole business in another way, it's interesting that editors detect that there are risks in their job, and see themselves as fallible. This is probably a factor that keeps them on the right side of sanity. For my own part, I subscribe to the Muslim tenet that only Allah is perfect. That aside, there is a certain irony that a profession that devotes itself to making things right is increasingly being asked to take responsibility for all errors, irrespective of their source and the context in which they arise. Clients have responsibilities too, it seems to me.
Members will by now have received a reminder note from our treasurer that it is time to renew annual subscriptions. That means too that September and the annual general meeting are drawing closer. Several committee positions fall vacant this year and we hope to fill them at the AGM. We are looking for a new secretary, a new editor of our newsletter and a new catering officer. The current incumbents in all these positions will be hard acts to follow I know, but I'm sure that the commitment and talent to do the jobs is out there among our members. So, how about getting someone to put you up. To paraphrase sometime US president John F. Kennedy, 'Ask not what your society can do for you, but what you can do for your society'.
The society's next training activity will, as usual, be useful and interesting: a full-day course, on Monday 5 August, providing an introduction to book indexing. I imagine that indexing would be a useful ancillary skill for many editors, and while one is not going to learn all there is to know in a day, our course will provide a solid foundation for continuing education. But if you haven't signed up, you're too late now: all places have been filled.
In my column last month I said that Richard Flanagan might win both the Commonwealth Writers Award and the Miles Franklin award for his, I think, poorly edited Gould's Book of Fish. Well, he missed out on the latter as you probably already know. It went to Tim Winton for Dirt Music. I wonder if the judges did consider standards of editing.
Ed Highley
Money and how best to spend it are topics that are expected to draw large audiences, whether readers or listeners. So it was a surprise that relatively few members attended the June meeting to hear Mr Frank Craddock speak about insurance matters relevant to editors. Perhaps, as Frank said in his opening remarks, insurance is not a popular subject.
However, insurance has been put in the spotlight now thanks to the collapse of HIH (still in the news because of the current court case about it), the events of 11 September last year, the anxiety over public liability, and the difficulties faced by medical indemnity companies. Insurance companies' costs have risen as a result, and so have some of the minimum premiums their customers now pay.
Editors are like any other group of workers who require insurance. Some work in companies, some work as individuals, many work from home, but we all have an office of some sort. Frank, who is an agent for several insurance companies, handed around policy information to illustrate the situations covered for office contents. For the average office, small or large, such a policy covers most components, from furniture to computers, for fire and burglary and accidental damage. You simply decide the total value of the contents and insure for that figure.
When your office is in a shared building, it is sensible to have cover against business interruption. If circumstances in the building change, you could have to move somewhere else and there are costs in doing that which can be insured against.
Glass, money, public liability, employee dishonesty, breakdowns in machinery such as air-conditioning, heating and electronic equipment, general property (including portable items such as laptops) and even taxation investigation (the cost of employing someone to sort out all the documents requested) can be covered by suitable insurance policies. If you have employees, even if they work at a different site, you must display the fact that you have workers compensation cover. These days, inspectors can knock on your door and fine you if you do not have the appropriate notices on show. Consultants are not regarded as employees, so do not need workers compensation cover.
Then there are professional indemnity insurance, and directors or officers insurance if you are a company, and disability or income protection insurance. It is wise to purchase these, or you leave your company open to disasters.
The home office is basically the same as any other office. From the point of view of the home business, the building and contents are covered to some extent by your home insurance policies. But the cover is only partial. For example, CGU pays up to $7500 in total on office equipment specifically used for earning income, or up to $1250 on an individual unlisted item. The message is that there are limitations to how much a home policy will pay in response to a claim for damage or loss in the home office (check your own home contents policy's limit for, say, computers). Therefore, you may need separate insurance for your office contents.
The average house insurance policy gives the residents public liability cover for accidents. However, when using the home as a home office, be aware that such a policy does not cover injury claims associated with any business, profession, trade or occupation carried on by you at your home. The exceptions are the house insurance policies of committee members of sporting clubs, whose public liability cover for work at home is more comprehensive so long as the committee member is paid less than about $1000 per year by the club, Frank said. Public liability insurance is your protection against the costs of injury or damage caused to people or property by your negligence or your belongings, wherever you are, even overseas. You can be sued for millions of dollars if someone is injured because of you or your property - and there is no way of guessing the amount - so it's as well to be insured.
Professional indemnity cover protects you if you are sued by someone to whom you have given professional advice, or for whom you have performed professional services. While it might seem that editors should not be at high risk here, it is a fact that many clients' contracts now demand that contractors, even editors, carry professional indemnity cover. Many or all public service departments' contracts have a clause about it. In some cases you can talk your way out of it and get the job anyway, but Frank warned us to be careful that in doing so we do not expose ourselves to risk. To find out more, you can check CGU's (search on CGU) or other insurance companies' web sites, and even download the proposal forms.
Some groups try to organise professional indemnity cover at special group rates, as our society has done in the past. Insurance companies will not do a general deal like that, because they have to look at the risks each individual, and therefore the insurance company, is exposed to. Some companies would consider a deal in appropriate circumstances, and if there are enough people in the group who definitely want professional indemnity insurance then something could probably be arranged.
The minimum premium for professional indemnity insurance, around $1000, will buy only $1 million cover. (As a rule of thumb, minimum cover for public liability these days is $5 million.) Government contracts generally insist on professional indemnity cover of $5 million or $10 million, costing around $2000 and upwards depending on the sort of work you do and your exposure to risk. Minimum premiums set by insurers limit the minimum cost, so even editors who are very low-risk customers or who do very few jobs per year can be paying as much as others who are much busier or who work on higher risk contracts. Professional indemnity has the added problem that there is a diminishing market with fewer and fewer insurers in that field: Zurich, QBE and CGU are the main three. And is there a trend in cost increases? Well yes, the whole cost of professional indemnity cover for editors and others has gone up at least 100 per cent in the last five years.
A snag with professional indemnity insurance is that if you are sued after you have entirely stopped paying for it, even for something that happened while you were covered, the insurance company will not help you. Thus you can feel bound to continue paying it for ever though the costs can reduce if you buy 'run-off' insurance, which gradually winds down the premium year by year after you leave the profession.
When asked why Australian insurance has been affected by the events of 'September 11', Frank explained that Australian insurers, even the NRMA, buy reinsurance overseas, so the market is now international and many companies all over the world are interlinked. Some Australian companies do reinsurance in their own right.
Finally, remember to read the fine print in insurance policies, not only to admire the wording which these days is written in modern English (Frank hesitated to say 'plain' English)! And if you don't understand anything, ASK.
Ann Milligan and colleagues
In the last issue of this newsletter, we published notes prepared by Loma Snooks for her speech at the dinner celebration of the 6th edition of the Style manual for authors, editors and printers at the National Press Club. Here is the remainder of Loma's speech, in which she simply outlines a few points about each chapter.
Chapter 1 is all new. It deals with planning, such as the need to balance time, cost and quality. When I went to an agency once to do a brochure, they presented me with three cards. One had 'TIME' written on it, the next 'COST', and the third 'QUALITY'. They told me to pick only two, as you can't do something in a very short time for the lowest cost and at the highest quality. This had a powerful effect on me at the time. So there's something in here about the need to balance all three, to get the most acceptable and realistic outcome.
In Chapter 2, we attempt to explain what each member of a publication team does, and how the end result will be so much better if you don't bring them in at the last minute and don't keep them in separate boxes. You'll see that we've highlighted how designers, editors, electronic publishing people and indexers can all contribute to a project at different stages. And how important the interaction amongst the team is.
These chapters are principally aimed at your clients. But you can also use these chapters to help educate those clients who may not be very familiar with publishing about what's involved in producing publications and what are realistic deadlines and realistic expectations. It really can be a valuable planning tool for everyone.
Chapter 3 is entirely new. It talks about how readers absorb information, and how to structure a document to suit those patterns. For example, there's a list here about the differences between reading from a printed document and on screen, and how to structure something that will be easy to scan (p. 39).
Chapter 4 talks about Plain English and being aware of readers' sensitivities when you are choosing language. For example, Pam gives some options for avoiding gender-specific pronouns. Does anyone have any comments they'd like to make on this? (you'll all have noticed that I used 'they' in that last sentence with the singular 'anyone'.)
Chapter 5 is another completely new chapter. Lots of people commenting on the 5th edition asked for 'more on grammar'. Pam said 'where do I start?' … 'and for that matter where do I stop?' So she talks about the different registers and gives answers to frequently asked questions. A relatively controversial part of her discussion might be the use of nouns as verbs - such as 'access' and 'impact'.
Chapter 6 on spelling and word punctuation is another one of Pam's.
Chapter 7 is Chris's first chapter. It's on sentence punctuation. We particularly like the margin illustrations here, which should help people find their way around.
Chapter 8 recommends using fewer capitals, where you can get away with it.
Chapter 9 is another new chapter. A particularly interesting thing Chris has done here has been to recommend a minimum approach to punctuating bullet points, relying on the space and bullet for differentiation.
Chapter 10 is another of Pam's chapters. We think the 'About' page will be particularly helpful in separating the different conventions for different types of shortened forms.
Chapter 11 is all about numbers. Pam's usage research was very helpful here in allowing her to state that the use of commas in numbers instead of spaces is still a widely accepted form within Australia, but not with scientific text or for an international audience.
Chris won the guernsey for Chapter 12, 'Methods of citation' - a very long chapter. We've tried to make it more user-friendly by showing the main differences in the 'About' page. It certainly helped me come to grips with the differences between the author-date, documentary note and Vancouver systems. Among the many bits of advice in Chapter 13, 'Components of a Publication', is what should be on a government web site home page.
Chapter 14, 'Editing and Proofreading', is another one of my chapters. It's mostly new. I think this diagram should be helpful in trying to explain that editing can't be done in less time than it takes to read a document. I think it's always very dangerous when an editor is asked to 'just cast your eye over this'. You'll also see that variations on the editing tasks in the Canberra Society's very own Commissioning checklist get a wider exposure here - with suitable acknowledgments.
The final chapter in Part 2 is Michael's on indexing. I'll leave David to describe the design chapters that follow it.
In Chapter 22, Michael talks about copyright and privacy, and the new moral rights. Chapter 23 is about access: bar codes and metadata, as well as ISBNs and ISSNs.
In Part 5, Vickie's Chapter 24 is one of the most interesting chapters of all in our new manual. She gives lots of advice on the different types of electronic publications, all of which require quite different approaches. There are:
· those that are produced for print and merely distributed electronically
· those that are to be converted from print for viewing on screen
· and those that are designed to be read primarily on screen.
Chapter 25 is another Whitbread magnum opus. It explains the new print production technology, and I imagine will be very welcome.
And, finally, to Chapter 26. Please don't give up before you get to this chapter, which was drafted by Graham with input from David. Monitoring, testing and evaluating are hardly ever done, and when they are, the results are often neglected. They shouldn't be. Read Graham's advice. It includes a neat little table about how a document might be assessed by weighting different factors.
Loma Snooks
Jenny Cook reports that in Nottingham, UK, a local council which has 14,000 employees is fining its workers one pound for every misuse of an apostrophe. The money the council collects will be sent to charity. The founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society (in UK) apparently said he was overwhelmed at the council's move.
And during February, a Swiss newspaper fined its journalists every time they made a mistake. They had to pay 3.4 Euros for each spelling or punctuation mistake or factual error. The editor-in-chief wanted the editors to realise that even minor faults are a nuisance to readers.
A second list of words and phrases that apparently originated as nautical terms. For the first batch of these, see our newsletter number 2, February 2002.
The poop is the stern section of a ship. To be pooped is to be swamped by a high following sea.
The 'petard' was a small cask of black powder used to prime cannon fuses. During a battle a petard was stored alongside each gun. Occasionally, a careless crewman would set one off while lighting a fuse, thereby 'hoisting' himself in the air. The expression was used by English sailors describing the inept French gunners.
In the Royal Navy the punishment prescribed for the most serious crimes was flogging. This was administered by the boson's mate using a whip called a cat o' nine tails. The 'cat' was kept in a leather or baize bag. It was considered bad news indeed when the cat was let out of the bag. Other sources attribute the expression to the old English market scam of selling someone a pig in a poke (bag) when the pig turned out to be a cat instead.
The devil seam was the curved seam in the deck planking closest to the side of the ship and next to the scupper gutters. If a sailor slipped on the deck, he could find himself between the devil and the deep blue sea.
The end of an anchor cable is fastened to the bitts at the ship's bow. If all of the anchor cable has been payed out you have come to the bitter end.
When in port, and with the crew restricted to the ship for any extended period of time, wives and ladies of easy virtue often were allowed to live aboard along with the crew. Infrequently, but not uncommonly, children were born aboard, and a convenient place for this was between guns on the gun deck. If the child's father was unknown, it was entered in the ship's log as 'son of a gun'.
A dangerous situation where the wind is on the wrong side of the sails pressing them back against the mast and forcing the ship astern. Most often this was caused by an inattentive helmsman who had allowed the ship to head up into the wind.
This article by Shauna Ellis is reprinted, with permission, from Catchword, newsletter of the Society of Editors (Tasmania) Inc., June-July 2002, and with thanks to Mike Stevens of Tasmanian Fishing News.
At a reception on 19 June the French Ambassador, H.E. M. Pierre Viaux, conferred on Peter Judge the insignia of Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite, 'for services rendered to France in developing scientific exchanges between France and Australia, and for promoting French science and technology'. Peter has been working in the French embassy for nearly a decade, producing the magazine French Science and Technology, and acting as secretary of the Australian-French Science Association, AFAS.
Our president, Ed Highley, is absent from Canberra until 28 July. Please contact Vice-president Kerry MacDermott about any presidential matters while Ed is away. And in case anyone is looking for Ed's office, it has now moved from Braddon to Yarralumla shops, 4/25 Bentham St, above the post office and changed its name from Arawang to Clarus (see the contact panel on page 2 for other details).
'Managing People and Performance', presented by Amanda Phillips of JMA Training and Development. Melbourne, Thursday 1 & Friday 2 August 9.00-4.30 at Novotel Bayside, St Kilda; Sydney, Tuesday 13 & Wednesday 14 August, 9.00-4.30 at Grace Hotel, York St. Suitable for production managers, senior editors, publishers and any other managers of people. Cost (GST incl.) $595 (2 days) for members of APA, Galley Club and societies of editors; $650 for non-members; 20% discount when 5 or more attend from one company.
'Promotional Writing Workshop: Making Words Work Harder', presented by Jo Bramble who runs Bramble Marketing and Communications. Melbourne, Wednesday 21 August, 9.00-4.30 at the Novotel Bayside, St Kilda; Sydney, Friday 23 August 9.00-4.30 at Grace Hotel, York St. The workshop deals with copywriting, blurb writing, media releases, and is intended for editors, publishers, and anyone who wants to improve their copywriting skills. Cost (GST incl.) $335 for members of APA, Galley Club and societies of editors; $380 for non-members; 20% discount when 5 or more attend from one company.
For more details, or registration forms, email or phone Libby O'Donnell at the Australian Publishers Association, <Training@publishers.asn.au>, phone 02 9281 9788, fax 02 9281 1073.
24 July, Literary Lunch with Canberra poet Mark O'Connor, author of 14 books of verse and one of Australia's handful of professional poets. Mark believes that more poets fail for lack of revision skills than for lack of creativity. His topic is 'Secrets of writing and revising poetry'. Venue: ACT Writers Centre Meeting Room/Fireplace Room. The cost, $10 members or $6 concession, includes gourmet sandwiches and tea or coffee plus the talk. Bookings on 6262 9191.
24 July, Poetry & Music at Red Gecko Cafe and Bar in City Walk from 8 p.m. to 10.30 p.m., with Jack McCracken (poetry) and Hothead Bontes and Friends (music). This is the first of a series to be held on the fourth Wednesday of each month. The series will include featured poets and musicians as well as open sections for both poetry readings and musicians (not suitable for bands). Entry is $5 and anything additional anyone wishes to donate. Book for meals at the Cafe on 6248 5808. For more information, phone Maureen Burdett 0428 961 990.
The Beatrice Davis Editorial Fellowship, sponsored by the Literature Board of the Australia Council, the Australian Publishers Association and the Australian publishing industry, is awarded biennally. It allows the recipient a 12-week attachment to the editorial department of a US publishing house or houses. The Fellowship will be awarded in 2002 for travel in 2003. For success, applicants must work in Australia and have at least five years or equivalent editorial work experience at a senior level in matters such as structural and development work on manuscripts with authors, or commission, substantive or copy editing of manuscripts. Application forms and fuller details are available from Janet McGaw, APA, phone 02 9281 9788, <janet.mcgaw@publishers.asn.au>. Applications close on Friday 6 September.
The Residential Editorial Program 2002, presented by the Literature Board of the Australia Council and sponsored by the Australian publishing industry, was held from 17 to 22 March at Varuna, the writers' house, in Katoomba, New South Wales. The REP is a training program for mid-career editors who would like to enhance their literary editing skills through intensive workshops with highly experienced and respected industry practitioners. According to the blurb, the program 'recognises editors' need for mentorships and advanced in-service training with senior members of the publishing industry'. I was fortunate that my application to this course was successful and, in March this year, found myself on my way to the Blue Mountains.
It was a week devoted to thinking about editing and being editors and about authors, writing and publishing. It was also a chance for me to meet editors from the 'real' (i.e. big) publishers. It was a daunting prospect, but my fears were unfounded. A friendlier and more chatty bunch of people I have never met.
The group of twelve editors and our three mentors spent our days at the Varuna Writers' Centre, a fabulous old house. In the morning we split into our small mentor groups and talked about the manuscript (due to be published in August) that we had been given to read and think about. The afternoons and evenings were spent in workshops dealing with everything from the author-editor relationship to issues surrounding the editing and publishing of books by Indigenous authors.
The twelve editors attending the program were from large and small publishers (plus two freelancers), and it became clear that we experience very similar pressures and pleasures. At fi rst I was surprised to fi nd that we spoke the same language of editing wherever we came from. It is easy to romanticise the other side of the fence. For me, an editor in a small publishing house (small compared to the big ones, big compared to the small ones), it was a week of intense perspective-broadening. Here in Adelaide we're so distant from the big players that it's easy to think that theirs must be a completely different world. In fact, in editorial ways, it's completely the same.
I was pushed constantly in different directions by my small-group mentor, Bruce Sims, and by the workshops presented to the bigger group. Jacqui Kent inspired me in her key note address: What makes a good editor? Being a good reader makes a good editor, and being a good doubter makes a good editor. General knowledge and memory help - if you're lucky enough to possess either!
Half-way through the week I started a list of Things To Do When I Get Back To Work. It turned out to be things I was worried wouldn't seem as important after slotting back into my habitual thinking on Monday morning. That sparkling new perspective is the most valuable thing you can take away from such a unique experience.
Something I knew innately - that editors are diplomats and advocates, walking between publishers (whatever their form) and authors - became more obvious. The idea that we see ourselves as developers, not demolishers, has helped me since, when negotiating with authors.
The REP is due to run again in 2004, so look out for it. It's a wonderful opportunity for editors, and one I hope will run time and again.
Gina Inverarity
This is an edited extract from an article appearing in the May issue of Australian Bookseller & Publisher. It is reprinted from the May-June issue of … the word, newsletter of the Society of Editors (SA), with permission.
The Canberra Editor is published by Canberra Society of Editors, PO Box 3222, Manuka ACT 2603. © Canberra Society of Editors 2001. ISSN 1039-3358
The deadline for the next regular issue is
1 August.
Mail contributions on a 3.5 inch disk, using Word for Windows
(essential) or email (preferable) to:
Ann Milligan
Science Text Processors Canberra
PO Box 3161, Belconnen MDC, ACT 2617
phone/fax: (02) 6259 3080
email: scientex@actonline.com.au
If mailing, always provide a printout as well.
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