I'm chagrined to report that on the first page of a lengthy cultural memoir that I edited, I missed the error in this passage: "The man was lying facedown in the vestibule of the [temple]. ... Devotees looked at him with curiosity and went [around] his prostate body. ..." Sigh. I will try to console myself by thinking about how much came out right in this 600-plus-page book.

A little book by macro creator and user extraordinaire Jack Lyon is very helpful if you want to learn to create even complex macros that will let you multitask without having to learn a programming language: Macro Cookbook For Microsoft Word. See this link: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/macro-cookbook-for-microsoft-word-jack-m-lyon/1107868228

Sending the author a copy of the style sheet is excellent advice that I always follow when working directly with an author. Surprisingly, though, when the client is a publishing house and not the author, the publisher's staff members often neglect to send a copy of the style sheet along to the author. That omission always complicates things.

Carol, I'm very much looking forward to reading what you and Ben Yagoda have to say on Lingua Franca, because I've long admired the work that each of you does.

I'm liking your word "googobs," Carol. I'm off to go use it in a sentence somewhere.

Valerie can find links to many more editors' associations (both in the United States and in other nations) and their directories here: http://www.kokedit.com/library_CE6.shtml Susana can also find good places, through the links on that page, to the web sites of editorial associations that will post job listings.

Oh--and editors who misspell another editor's name. If it's your job to read text closely, you can darn well copy and paste your correspondent's name into your e-mail reply to avoid misspelling it.

Ha! Thanks for this, Carol. It reminds me of my pet peeve: editors who don't take the time to fully comprehend the e-mails that other colleagues send them. I'm an editor, and I foolishly continue to be shocked each time another editor doesn't read one of my e-mails carefully enough to properly answer the questions I've asked. Grrr.

I forgot to share these tips for building a trust-filled relationship with authors: http://editor-mom.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-to-start-off-right-with-authors.html

Carol, you have an important point: We can't bully authors into accepting our edits. Having a good manuscript-side manner goes a long way to establishing an effective author-editor collaboration. I did an audio conference for _Copyediting_ newsletter on this very topic: "Handling Difficult Authors." Here's the link to the audio CD: http://tinyurl.com/4e99lnw

Ah, but Larry K., "whinge" is so much more evocative--to me, at least--than "whine" is. Besides, it should never be an editor's function to dumb down good writing.

Love the transcript of the editorial brain in action! And thanks ever so much for pointing your readers to the "Editing Tools" page of the Copyeditors' Knowledge Base.