What It Is (posts below left; rate sheet, client list, other stuff below right)

My name is Bob Land. I am a full-time freelance editor and proofreader, and occasional indexer. This blog is my website.

You'll find my rate sheet and client list here, as well as musings on the life of a freelancer; editing, proofreading, and indexing concerns and issues; my ongoing battles with books and production; and the occasional personal revelation.

Feel free to contact me directly with additional questions: landondemand@gmail.com.

Thanks for visiting. Leave me a comment. Come back often.

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Pity the Author Didn't Learn to Spell While There

"I taught—and learned to teach effectively—at Such-and-So Middle School in Tuscon, Arizona."

Sunday, October 25, 2015

For All You Self-Publishers Out There: CreateSpace

Bob, I just sent book out last night and it's due to arrive on Tuesday (I couldn't bring myself to spend $45 for Monday!)  As a product of CreateSpace, it is all you said it would likely be; in short, stunningly disappointing and defective in just about every way. (In my own defense, I tried hard to get our team to go to another publisher; the numbers were just too good for CS.) If you would like to point out any defects, feel free, and we will try to fix the ones we can.

Their margin of error is a whopping 1/8 inch, so bindings almost all off center, the books are all wavy, the cover stays open after a single perusal and bends skyward, the bold of one author’s story bleeds too much (we are going to use a different typeface; if you have any recommendations of other ways, typefaces to set his story off, they are most welcome), and our designer said the back print job is worse than the local Kinko's would do. Other than that, pretty good inside, except the color is stark white, so we are going to try to change to a cream or beige.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Hometown Gets No Respect

Myrna and Harvey Frommer argue that the general practice in New York City politics was to run, for the slots of mayor, comptroller, and president of the city council, one man from the Bronx, one from Manhattan, and one from Brooklyn, one Irish, one Jewish, and one Italian. Residents of Staten Island and Queens, women, and people from other ethnic or racial groups were decidedly and deliberately left out. [emphasis added]

Some Things Never Change

From the Jim Crow era, but just as true today:

As the Washington Evening Star put it, “It must be viewed as one of the ironies of history that the Confederacy, which was never able to capture Washington during the course of that war, now holds it as a helpless pawn."

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Well, You Know I'm Not Watching College Football

Today’s project:

"From 1962 to 1964, he was in the U.S. Army and served as an aide to the commanding general of the Military District of Washington. A social aide to President John F. Kennedy, [Richard] Lipsey was the only nonmedical attendee to oversee the president’s autopsy."

I wonder, How is he still alive?

+++

Ripped from the headlines:

"E! and other celebrity news media said on Friday that Odom had opened his eyes, saw Kardashian at his bedside and uttered a few words before falling back to sleep."

Headline, LandonDemand News Service:
"Oh, Christ, I’m Not Dead Yet?”


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[I believe I have overcome the white Gmail background. Must be a mistake.]

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Sounding It Out

I don't often copyedit with an ear toward a book being read aloud, but I just couldn't let slide an all-encompassing reference to the Judeo-Christian deity as "s/he/it."