Fuller Fabulous

Don't expect any secrets to be revealed in this New York Times story about celebrity-genre editor Bonnie Fuller.

The article: Gossip glossy wonder editor earns multi-millions for pub. execs, pisses off various staffs, expects success on Web. New York still hates her.

But, "My ability to connect with women has allowed me to break through," Fuller says in Sunday's Business cover article. How exactly does she connect with women? With what women does she connect? Is she really getting away with cashing in on geek chic?

Why do we care? Oh yeah, because according to Fuller in 2006, Britney Spears' crotch cradles the future for young women journalists.

Head to blog Gawker to share Fuller-fueled vitriol.

Punctuation Polemics

Here's a fun report on the semicolon from Slate.
I'd attribute the ire that mark generates to it's middle-of-the-road nature.

Either you punctuation do yes or you punctuation do no. Wax on, Wax off, man.

Safe advice from Mr. Miyagi.

LP Applies, Associate Editor

A recent cover letter:

I’m applying through Mediabistro.com for the Modern Materials Handling Associate Editor position. I enjoyed Ms. Kator’s “Protective Packaging Basics” article in a recent issue online; I’m sorry she is leaving, but excited by the open opportunity at Modern Materials Handling.

Like Ms. Kator, I’ve a history with the University of Washington. In 2006, I earned an editing certificate from the university’s extension program. I then interned at a local design magazine in Seattle. After the internship, I continued freelancing as a writer for the magazine, as an editor for Earshot Jazz magazine, and as a retail catalog proofreader for REI. I’ve had steady proofreading business since moving to Somerville in January. You can learn more about my editorial history at my LinkedIn profile.

Links to my editorial resume and my blog about freelancing are at my Mediabistro portfolio. In addition to service pieces for homeowners and custom advertisements there, a recent proofreading sample titled “Custom Trifold Proofread” will interest you. This U.S. EPA compliance document has much the same goal as MMH: to improve the supply chain, in this case, by providing informative content to consumers of drinking water. I enjoyed editing those documents.

Some of my qualifications don’t come from editorial experience. I worked as a Pizza Delivery
Driver (that’s materials handling) and as a Retail Warehouse Shipping Manager. Some of my Shipping Manager successes are listed on my attached resume, but let me share with you one management story that illustrates why I’m fit to bring content to the MMH audience to help them understand and improve their link in the chain:

I once rounded up our small shipping staff on a slow day for an impromptu field trip to Seattle’s new Terminal 5, where some of our imported goods were. A tour organizer accepted, on short notice, my request to tour. Some memorable moments from the tour were seeing Eastern Washington onions for export in containers with doors removed to prevent rot; being dwarfed by facility equipment while driving the grounds in the director’s minivan; and being x-rayed when crossing secure pier boundaries.

Thanks for taking the time to review my application.

I know, it's not a freelance project. Maybe one day I'd like to get paid for Independence Day, okay?

The best part of that cover letter, zero bullshit. Albeit maudlin fascination, I enjoy infrastructure. I share with the Deco artists of yore an awe before the human machine.

As always, your thoughts in comments.

Punctuation Aesthetics

Latent Print presents Styleguide Wednesday, a post each Wednesday featuring an editorial convention from the world of styleguides. View previous Latent Print moments of stylebook study and reflection here. This week features fonts and punctuation.

Chicago’s lead entry in its section on the treatment of punctuation aesthetics, verse 6.3, warns of a “departure from Chicago’s former usage.” It’s a hint that some editors or clients might prefer what the stylebook calls a “more traditional system.”

Chicago presents the traditional system as an alternative system, verse 6.5. The alternative system asks us to give punctuation, with exceptions for question marks and exclamation marks, the same font as the previous word. The calendar that I formerly edited here tends toward that alternative system.

The convention for boldface, for example (look, bold comma follows): The Earshot Jazz Festival, now in its 20th year, features local, national, and international musicians in various Seattle venues October 17–November 2.

The Gregg states the convention for italics: “When you use italics to give special emphasis to words or phrases in a series, it is customary—for reasons of appearance—to italicize any accompanying marks of punctuation” (¶290b).

Chicago’s departure is evidently slow to catch on. Amy Einsohn tucks it in a note in her The Copyeditor’s Handbook: “A newer convention calls for all punctuation to be set in the style of the running text” (p. 316n). Her treatment of the convention, p. 114, tends to that older system, as we might also expect from our editors and clients.

Latent Print departs, per Chicago, for that newer convention. This means that the Earshot comma above doesn’t share the bold of the previous word. It also means punctuation won’t carry italics or hyperlinks.

The newer and older conventions require the copy editor or proofreader to scan changes of font—don’t forget hyperlinks—to ensure that punctuation is consistent with house preference.

For Stringers

Here is a new freelancer’s bulletin board. Sign me up.

I found the networking site, and their blog, through a forum post at Jazz Journalist’s Association online.

The Berkeley product developers take an exciting stance. Could it end up just being another crowded networking site? Business plan a la Mediabistro, acquired ten years in?

Anyway, here’s to bloggers and decentralizing the news. Here’s to the enterprising folks on the San Francisco Bay. As I said, sign me up.

Styleguide Wednesday, on Thursday this week.

Targeting Email Introductions

Tired of searching around the same employment bulletin board? Leads drying up? It’s not the economy. Expand that network. If one of your target companies isn’t advertising the position you want, don’t shy from introducing yourself.

All the Web positioning—blog, online portfolio, online profile—doesn’t replace meeting people and sharing your know how over a cup of coffee. Though email is the primary method of introduction, what one needs, really, is to get out there.

Today I used a target company’s copywriter advertisement to draw attention to my specialties. By email, I initiate thus: “Though I’m not totally qualified to fill the copywriter post, I want to point your attention to my editing and proofreading services.” Then I list relevant qualifications, such as proofreading projects at Jack Morton and the Boathouse Group. The timing of this introductory email and the client history should encourage the HR Director to follow links in the email to my Web presences. Maybe HR’s not looking for me, but here I am.

Freelancers, contact your target businesses, even if you don’t see the job advertised that you want. They might have something for you.

Shelter and Lifestyle Blogger Available

Below is a sample post I pitched to a design pub. seeking Boston bloggers.

Don’t let rental-home decor disturb your holiday. Here’s five temporary design fixes for that vacation rental.

1. Throws with character make you feel at home, elsewhere.
2. These table settings protect the homeowner’s dining table and make summer BBQ cleanup a breeze.
3. Soothing vacation bedding eases rest and relaxation.
4. This summery voile shower curtain reminds you to lighten up.
5. A touch of local, natural material helps you stay in the moment. Vacationing in Maine? Try aromatic balsam fir. Cape Cod? Beach grass.

Latent Print likes vacation and design. The AMC hut Mizpah Spring, where I stayed Saturday, uses propane-augmented solar power to pump mountain well-water to the tap and run the Clivus fans and CFLs, and the staff composts food scraps. Their fusion of lifestyle and design at 3,800 feet reminds me of my past Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum visit for exhibit Design for the Other 90%. Hey, 10-percenters on holiday benefit from design, too.

Maybe the complementary design communities in this post urge us to consume conscientiously. Maybe they cause a kind of throw-pillow disdain—malcontent with our culture’s apparent decadence. Whichever, we’ll remember that environments are deliberate.

Your reaction, in comments.

I'm No Lawyer

Sometimes I worry about breaking some agency nondisclosure clause on this blog. My take on it: If there's nothing to disclose, I won't disclose it. Sure, it's competitive out there. But when we focus on doing good work, the facts strengthen the play of the game, right? 

I often post about agency work. I believe in a right to produce expression, especially when inspiration for such expression comes from experience. It's as if the nondisclosure clause copyrights against reproduction of my experience (intangible) through means of this blog (tangible). You can't copyright the intangible, and facts are unprotected. They can't possibly bar me from expression of my experiences, can they?

This post is making me feel naive. Please, someone tell me, why the nondisclosure forms to begin with? What do these companies have to be so paranoid about? Latent Print makes for good press.

Can any John Nash types offer sense of this?

Inspiration for this post from fellow blogger Lori's Words on the Page post here about intellectual property

Speaking Semicolons

Latent Print presents Styleguide Wednesday, a post each Wednesday featuring an editorial convention from the world of styleguides. View previous Latent Print moments of stylebook study and reflection here. This week features the semicolon, outside the closing quotation mark.

No one wants to be misquoted a semicolon. The punctuation mark’s nature—weaker than a period, stronger than a comma—allows it to convey a writer’s meaning or cadence. (Okay, maybe you speak in semicolons.) So, conventionally it appears outside the closing mark as not to disturb the quoted matter.

To me the distinction seems arbitrary. The period and comma can appear inside closing marks, why not the semicolon?

As always, your comments.

In your styleguides

The AP Stylebook page 336: “Place semicolons outside the quotation marks” and “within the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted matter only.”

Chicago verse 6.9: Semicolons “follow closing quotation marks.”

Gregg paragraph 248a: “Semicolons and colons always go outside the closing quotation mark.

Exposition

I first heard about Web usability wonk Jakob Nielsen during editing certificate courses at the University of Washington Extension. Michael Agger writes recently about some of Nielsen’s notions at Slate magazine here.

If you don’t think you’ll make it through the whole article, at least scroll about half way to bold heading No Blogs, Though. Agger links there to Nielsen on blogging. That article by Nielsen spells out the aim Latent Print: “Create content that’s so valuable that business users are willing to pay for it.”

In addition to providing service-oriented content for early-career freelancers, Latent Print shows my business readers why they need what I offer—editorial services, satisfied customers.

Blog effective? Leave a comment, or hire me, that’d be best.

This Talent’s for Hire, Boss

I find online searches for work ineffective at producing new clients. I prefer getting out there and meeting the people who’re going to help me get work, agencies, or the people who’re going to hire me, clients. This post at blog Words on the Page confirms my inclination.
I announced here when I first learned about sites Guru and Elance. I’m still grateful to know about the sites. But I think skillful navigation of bidding sites speaks less about my expertise than the results of that expertise on assignment. I’m more comfortable producing work with people than working against them, say, in a bidding war. What I’m selling is my talent, my teamwork, my problem solving, my focus on bringing a document to production, not my patience with navigating online bidding sites.
My early-career marketing plan: local word-of-mouth. Companies of Greater Boston, this talent’s for hire.

Spokes-Ursa

Before Smoky Bear's now familiar slogan reached a copy editor, the spokes-ursa was quoted, "You can only prevent forest fires," which led the public to believe that they couldn't start forest fires.
Pass your weekend in thought over the following sentence:
People should seek advice about drinking water from their health care provider.
Need a hint? Misplaced modifier.
Leave your own in comments.

Position Proofreader

This morning I left the creative staffing agency feeling that I'll be represented personally. Nothing speaks better than doing good work. I look forward to getting out there with one of their clients.
A few things came up this morning that proofreaders should know:
1) Build a portfolio. Show it to agents and clients. Maybe you didn't write or design the material, but you've likely left your mark. Include those samples. The markups demonstrate your skills.
2) Strategically position your service online. I have some of my written clips on the Mediabistro Freelance Marketplace. I've listed my proofreading specialties on Linked In. And my weekly post about editorial conventions, Styleguide Wednesday, serves not only Latent Print readers, as an online style reference, but also my business, as a record that I'm proficient with the major styleguides and that I continue to study them.
3) A Polish surname ending in a denotes feminine gender.
Latent Print readers, know anything about my name, Schraepfer?

Numerals or No?

Latent Print presents Styleguide Wednesday, a post each Wednesday featuring an editorial convention from the world of styleguides. View previous Latent Print moments of stylebook study and reflection here. This week features numbers in a range, numerals or no?

AP conventionalists tend to spell out single-digit numerals. But the convention becomes wonky in the following example: Run the water from 30 seconds to two minutes.
Consulting Chicago, immediately following their coverage of the AP convention, we find verse 9.7: “Where many numbers occur within a paragraph or a series of paragraphs, maintain consistency in the immediate context. If according to rule you must use numerals for one of the numbers in a given category, use them for all in that category.”
Further, Chicago’s treatment of numerals in ranges, 9.63, shows figures consistently or spellings consistently in the examples.
Paragraph 436a in Greggs reads, “Use figures (even from 1 through 10) to express periods of time.”
The sentence becomes Run the water from 30 seconds to 2 minutes.

Numbers style demands flexibility from the copy editor. Where consistency is key, apply it. But, "Consistency must sometimes give way to readability," Chicago 9.1 warns.
In today's example consistent numerals is a likely improvement. Near deadline you’d succeed leaving the expression as is. The subject might not enthuse the boss; come to Latent Print to discuss nuances of number consistency.

Must Communicate

The hands-off proofreading approach serves me today. When the work of a satellite editor reaches my desk, I take it easy.
Clear communication is the aim of our documents, so it is that we should be on the same page. Styleguides or project stylesheets would help us communicate. A simple meeting could suffice. Anyway, I let many elements stand as typeset that I tend to leave as is or change at an earlier stage of editing.
Satellite ed. tends to hyphenate, as We deliver the best-quality drinking water to you or high-quality drinking water; to convert numerals less than ten (even in a range) to words, run the water from 30 seconds to two minutes; and to preserve the colon on an incomplete sentence introducing a vertical list, Substances in water include:
Nothing heinous; Surely, sat. ed. could critique where I place red.
Who's gonna argue simple cases of hyphenation with a client?
Best-quality drinking water? Latent Print readers, care to discuss?

Latent Print Service

I was elated to speak with fellow freelancer Susan from blog The Urban Muse for her upcoming piece about freelancing. Stay tuned for publishing details. Thanks, Susan. I hope readers find your story, and my comments, of service.
Readers of Latent Print, any questions about proofreading? copyediting? writing? leave a trace, leave your comments.

Symbiotic!!

An agent here emails, "Thank you for all your hard work over at Gemini Group - they have been raving about your work and how great of a fit it has been for them. PSG appreciates it because not only are you making a name for yourself but it also is making PSG look good, so thank you for that!!"
I love my job.

The Blues

Latent Print presents Styleguide Wednesday, a post each Wednesday featuring an editorial convention from the world of styleguides. View previous Latent Print moments of stylebook study and reflection here. This week features bluelines.

What are bluelines? Bluelines is the unbound, printed document. It should be treated as the final-final, not the stage to add commas between independent clauses or to correct misspellings. Chicago 3.40: "Any correction that would involve typesetting should be avoided at this stage for reasons of schedule and expense."
My PM, not happy to create new work orders for the printer, agrees.
I've seen editors use bluelines for final line edits. With desktop software, a few last-minute changes before upload aren't a problem; however, the changes can try the patience of designers and staff as deadline hovers.
During bluelines a proofreader should search for printer error or mistakes in file transfer. Make sure the bluelines match the revised proof. Check for flashes, check borders, tables, formatting changes introduced in file transfer, check colors.
Proofreaders, as always, your comments welcome. Did I forget any bluelines procedures?

Wrap Up

Today nearly wraps up about a month of proofreading EPA mandated docs. The majority of remaining bluelines come from the printer on Monday. My PM told me to hit the road until then. I’ll return next week to scan the blues and proofread a few projects still working through the system.
While on assignment, I haven’t marketed much for new work. Tomorrow I follow up on a previous conversation with this Charlestown creative agency. Later this month I work a one-day agency assignment at a Waltham marketing firm (look forward to it, thank you). And, due in June is a jazz profile piece for the monthly Earshot publication. I’ll close this week by building more leads and scoring work to carry me through June and July, lest I depend on the dose of borrowed, free cash the IRS promises to return to me.
For my economic part, I spent this afternoon at my neighborhood farmer’s market (goat cheese; frozen, local strip steak; three essential oils soaps) and in my neighborhood theater sipping a pint, eating popcorn, and watching improbable Indiana survive a blast at the Nevada Test Site and elbow, kick, and punch Russian spies led by Mayan-interdimensional-alien-deity obsessed villainess (they live in the spaces between spaces). She's ultimately vaporized by her all-consuming desire to know everything at once. Harrison Ford’s punches sound the same as in the previous three movies. Lucas' sound effects haven't changed.

Latent Print Referred

Thanks to colleague Sonja for the Linked In recommendation.