by Leo Wiles
14 February 2018
Let me start by saying I’ve never subbed, I wouldn’t be good at it because niggly little details drive me menal – but I’m not a bad writer. I’m quick, I never miss a deadline and I’m not short of work, which tells you something, I suppose. However, I recently worked for a new editor who gave me some rather brutal feedback about my ‘sloppy copy’ and the mistakes in my ‘formatting’ and lack of subbing details. Not sure what to do as I didn’t even realise they needed it formatted in a certain way. If it’s about typos or two I confess I don’t think that’s the end of the world, but maybe that’s just me. In desperate need of a pep talk / tips. Amanda
Personal perspective is a funny thing. It made me an A student for English Literature until my lecturer changed and I plummeted down to earth with a D. That was my first lesson that while some may be able to overlook the odd ‘typo’, there are pedants out there who live to edit.
That said, if you’re still relying on subs to ‘fix your copy’ at the other end, you are going to run into more and more editors like the one who gave you this feedback. Basically because the subs desk on most magazines and papers is increasingly being run on a shoestring and it’s expected that freelancers will submit clean copy every single time. Rach wrote about this topic in an older AUW here, which includes a really helpful accuracy checklist for journos.
But in short, my tips for you would be to check the contract when you’re commissioned. These days, many editors send a contract telling you what’s expected when you file copy. And it might specify certain things, such as font they expect copy to be in on the Word document and whether you’re supposed to include a headline and a sell (if they don’t tell you to do this, do it anyway – you’ll get brownie points for saving them time and given it’s your story, you’re the best person to add this final polish anyway). They might also specify how you include interviewee’s details, how to submit pix (email or Dropbox link?) and any other key things which help them do their job. Heck, when we commission posts for the Rachel’s List blog, we send through an entire template with sections the writer has to fill out so we’re not chasing for that info later. It saves us a HEAP of time.
My other tips, however they make your eyes roll back into your head, are these:
What’s your checking process like before filing copy? Do you use Grammarly or any other editing tools?
