If your book is being published by Xlibris (or any of the Author Solutions companies) and you’ve chosen to use their editing services, there is a high probability that your editor is based in Cebu City, Philippines.
Xlibris is hiring editors! But, not US-based editors with real book editing experience. Here’s the ad: http://www.mynimo.com/jobs/view/45833.
I’m not saying there aren’t legitimate book editors in the Philippines. I’m sure there are. But Xlibris isn’t looking to hire them. Below are Xlibris’s requirements to be a book editor:
Requirements:
• Must have a strong background in English grammar and English literature
• Above-average reading comprehension skills
• Prior experience in editing or writing for print media, in campus journalism (as staffer in school paper), or in teaching English/Literature subjects in secondary or tertiary level students
• Computer literate (Word for Windows, Excel, Internet savvy)
• Self-disciplined and has good work ethics
Problem #1: The grammar in the posting is incorrect (not a great sign). For example, “Self-disciplined and has good work ethics” should actually read “Self-disciplined and has a good work ethic.”
Problem #2: There is no requirement stating that the prospective book editor must have previous experience editing books.
Problem #3: Xlibris’s editing fees, at $.012 per word, seem like a great deal (http://www2.xlibris.com/editorial_copyediting.html). But, I can’t seem to find the part where they mention that the editors may have never edited an actual book before yours.
There are some things that can be outsourced. Book editing is simply not one of them.
I have to say that’s quite a superficial evidence for an accusation with such strong implications. 1) The posting author’s grammatical and writing skills may not be reflective AT ALL of the editorial work Xlibris or its staff does. Just because the posting is for editorial work does not mean the managing editor him/herself wrote it. Some unwise decisions may have been made in writing this posting but that does not automatically reflect the workers who will be hired. 2) They still require experience in editing published works. It may not be book editing particularly, but perhaps the mentality is that editorial skills are transferable skills. What’s more–it might sound far-fetched but–what if they do train the people they hire? Or, simply put it this way: people have to start somewhere. I was editing essays and creative non-fiction short stories before I edited books.
In all, you’re judging an entire company, its values and its values on a job posting. I agree job postings reveal something about companies, but basically you sound like a pompous know-it-all. And on the off-chance that you’re correct–let’s hypothesize–then, what the hey, you get what you pay for.
Jodelle, thanks for taking the time to comment. My post had nothing to do with whether or not there are competent book editors in the Phillipines. I’m sure there are. I take it from your response that you aren’t familiar with Xlibris, its business practices, or what it has done to many of the authors who’ve used the company. For example, yesterday I spoke to a doctor in Tampa, Florida, who had the misfortune of being sold a $5,500 book publishing package by Xlibris a few weeks ago. Why a misfortune? Well, he has a six page book. It’s not possible to make a six page book for print-on-demand. So, guess what he got? A 24 page book (as that is the minimum number of pages for perfectly bound children’s book) with a few words on each page. Instead of telling the author that what he wanted couldn’t be done, they just took his money and gave him something unusable.
Do you know that Xlibris is part of Author Solutions?. Just in the past three years, Author Solutions has had 343 complaints filed against it with the Better Business Bureau. And, 259 of those have been with regard to the products and services provided.
So, now let’s get back to your comment in light of the actual facts. In my opinion, book editing should only be done by editors who have extensive book editing experience. I agree with you that people can start editing in one discipline and move to another, like you did. But, when a publishing company is selling book editing services, the people providing that service need to book editing experience. I respect that you don’t agree with that. I guarantee you that you would if you paid a company thousands of dollars assuming a trained book editor was editing your book.
No, I’m not pompous, or a know-it-all. I’m just a guy who works in this business. I’ve personally spoken to scores of authors who’ve been financially devastated by Xlibris and its sister companies.
Yes, you get what you pay for. And, if Xlibris told its authors that the editing services they were paying for, may be performed by someone with little to no book editing skills, then my post wouldn’t have ever been written. That wasn’t the case.
“But, when a publishing company is selling book editing services, the people providing that service need … book editing experience. I respect that you don’t agree with that.”
First of all, it isn’t that I don’t agree with it. My point was this: are there no juniors and seniors in a company? When one starts as a book editor, does he/she start as an editor with extensive book editing experience? No. Also, though there are guidelines specific to book editing, copy-editing follows more ‘universal’, hard-and-fast rules. Maybe I’m wrong; maybe you’re right. Let’s move on.
“I’ve personally spoken to scores of authors who’ve been financially devastated by Xlibris and its sister companies.”
If you have an issue with Xlibris based on solid facts and on testimonies you yourself have heard, why pick a job posting of all things to write about? If your goal was to warn people of Xlibris and its sister companies, does it not make more sense to choose those facts that you’ve presented to me and write about those on an article? If it’s a matter of not wanting to directly say that Xlibris is a hack because it would violate business etiquette, you could have easily written an informational piece on basics of self-publishing — perhaps that a six-page book cannot be made for print-on-demand, or simply what is print-on-demand, and so on and so forth. You could have taken your knowledge of Xlibris and you could’ve written something substantial or something logical, at least.
Your conclusion does not even point to Xlibris, but to outsourcing. Not even to the lack of editorial experience. You end with a line on outsourcing despite hardly mentioning outsourcing in the rest of your article, which presents a leap in logic. When I read it, I had to do a double-take to make sure I hadn’t missed a passage in which you connected your problems with the job posting to outsourcing. No passage. Just psychic space. Just a lingering implication from the title, the job posting’s analysis, and the concluding line that outsourcing is bad in book editing because your editor is likely based in Cebu City, because they are “not US-based editors with real book editing experience”. I read that now and it still sounds as if only US-based editors can have ‘real’ book editing experience. You’re an editor, I assume? You must know that the placement of words is just as strong in connoting something as the words themselves.
But, okay, I’ll drop it with the Filipino editors. Except that even if you replace it with another country, say, Jamaica or France or Germany, it’s still not US-based, right?
Okay, sorry, I’ll drop the whole race thing. You wanted to warn people about Xlibris and book editing services with editors who do not have extensive book editing experiences — not outsourcing, not non-US editors. So why didn’t you do that? Instead of communicating distrust of Xlibris and its sister companies or of the importance of editing experience in book editors, you have conveyed instead distrust of a country and a whole business process.
Jodelle, you sadly missed the point of the entire post. Because you have never read any others posts on this blog or my book (which is a quite extensive read about working with self-publishing companies), you’ve not read the numerous times I’ve discussed the ethics of Xlibris and its sister companies. This post about Xlibris was just another example of how it sells one thing, but delivers another. It is clear from the job posting, that Xlibris is not seeking qualified editors for books written in English. It is seeking anyone who might know some English. If you knew anything about Xlibris and its method-of-operation, you wouldn’t be taking this post as some attack against Filipino editors. My opinion would be the same whether the editors where in Cebu City, Karachi, Mexico City, or any other city, where an American publishing company is paying barely passable editors to deliver a product that a customer assumes was done by a professional with some level of book editing experience. They charge $.01 per word. So, what do you think they pay an editor? Maybe $.0025 per word? Find a trained, qualified book editor in the U.S., Canada, Great Britain or any other country where English is the official language, who would edit a book for that amount.
To read my post to suggest that only U.S. based book editors are qualified, is simply ridiculous. To read my post and suggest that it’s a dig on doing business in the Philippines, is not even in the realm of reality.
If you are writing a book in English, geared toward a U.S.-based audience, then yes, in my opinion the most qualified editor is one with book editing experience with a deep understanding of editing for an American-centric audience. Similarly, if you are writing a book in French, geared toward a French based audience, the best editor would be a person who specializes in editing French books for a French-speaking audience.
And, for the record, I’m fine with outsourcing any job you want. What I’m not fine with is letting unsuspecting customers think they are getting one level of service, and charging for that level, but then delivering something else.
I did not click on the link to this post with a pre-conceived notion of what I would read. I read it once, got an impression, read it again, and the impression only hardened.
If your reader, who is not an idiot, misses the point, where does the problem lie?
All the things that you have said to me in your responses — I am telling you as a reader — are not reflected in the original post. For example, when you mentioned that the editor might be sitting in Cebu City, did you elaborate why you think that might pose a problem for the authors (i.e. that simply a U.S. based editor can offer better help in crafting a U.S. targeted book)? No, which left too much room for ambiguities and misinterpretations that were only supported by the rest of the post (in my humble opinion).
And I’m sorry; I didn’t know I had to read your whole blog and your book to understand one of your posts. Perhaps you could’ve hyperlinked relevant articles to keywords here? But then again, I did click on this while on a quick work break and would not have had the time or patience to read through all your writing just to understand this one. It’s a bit ridiculous to suspect anyone would.
You can explain your post as much as you feel necessary. I still maintain that none of your intentions were effectively communicated in this post, but I appreciate your taking the time to respond and explain your points.
I once applied as copy editor for Xlibris Cebu. My jaw dropped reading some test questions that were racist and sexist. Questions like ‘What does “wet back” mean?’ Most Cebuanos aren’t aware how offensive that word is.