Editing JKR (Was: Umbridge, detention, scars, and plotlines, oh my!)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 126136


lupinlore wrote:
> 
> > I wonder how much of the problems with OOTP could have been
avoided if the editors had had the freedom to treat her manuscript
with the same rigor they would have shown an unknown author's. 
> 
eggplant responded:
> I don't see the problems with OOTP that you do, nor do most people I
> think it's safe to say considering it's popularity. However you do
> have a point, it must be a bit intimidating to be JKR's editor <snip>
> 
> If I were her editor I would timidly suggest only two changes to OOTP: 
> 1)  In the final exam Harry is looking at Venus and Orion, but Venus
> can only be seen near sunrise or sunset and this was about midnight,
> and Orion is a winter constellation and it was June. Change it to
> Saturn and Polaris.
> 
> 2) Cut out unnecessary adverbs, the book would be 10 pages shorter. 

Carol notes:
But of course, the OoP we're seeing *is* the edited version, and *two*
kinds of editing (developmental editing and copyediting) have already
been done to the book before it's set in print. To be sure, an author
can accept or reject a copyeditor's changes (even JKR probably has to
abide by the developmental editor's suggestions). At any rate, it
would be interesting (to me) to see the copyeditor's suggestions
(which may be limited to mechanical corrections and tightened
sentences). The problem is complicated by simultaneous American and
British editions copyedited by two different people. In theory, JKR
should approve the corrections in both, and if the American copyeditor
catches something that the British editor misses (or vice versa), she
should suggest (insist?) that the correction be made in the British
edition, too. A careful comparison of the British and American
editions would give *some* idea of the changes a copyeditor makes.
Chances are they both automatically corrected some of the same errors,
with differences in spelling, grammar, punctuation, and even
vocabulary corresponding to the differences in American and British
English.

The point I'm making, though, is that even in the British editions,
we're *not* seeing JKR's unedited writing. If we were, we'd be
slogging through stuff like Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday song and
we'd have read about the dog-loving woman (Mopsy?) who was cut out of
GoF. The Edits section of JKR's website gives some idea of what the
developmental editor has done to improve the books. (The copyeditor,
working at the level of words and sentences, never gets any credit for
his or her hard work.)

BTW, I disagree with Lupinlore about the clumsiness of OoP (Ron's
becoming Prefect made perfect sense to me; I never worried about
whether Ron's Mirror of Erised dreams might come true; they were
always more mundane and realistic than Harry's. If *Harry's* came
true, I would call it a clumsy plot device.) I do agree that the book
is too long. If I were the developmental editor, I'd have insisted
that JKR cut out half the SPEW thread. But as a reader, I'm more
concerned about what was *not* said--all the things that haven't been
adequately explained and which, in consequence, we constantly debate.
If it all fits together after I've read Book 7 twice, I'll consider it
good writing. If not, well, there's always the revised edition, which
JKR can put together with the help of her fans and an outstanding,
HP-loving editor.

Carol, who copyedits for a living in case you haven't guessed