Styling English

David Marsh writes in today's Guardian about the latest edition of the newspaper's style book, which has been updated and published anew.

I remember when the Guardian's style guide was first published on its website - as a writer and editor, as well as loyal Graun reader (and these days occasional freelance for it too), I found it fascinating reading. Many of the paper's styling decisions back then made perfect sense, while some seemed rather unusual. I used to regularly consult the online version when working abroad as it kept me up to speed with current usage back home and was thus an invaluable reference work.

These days, I seem rarely to look at it as much of the stuff I copy-edit either comes with a style guide attached or I use NODWE and Hart for guidance. I've also written a fair number of style guides myself over the last decade.

The Guardian's new style book modernises common usage yet again. It's good to see they are finally ditching honorifics after first mention, for example, a practice I have pursued for several years already. Another for one my bookshelf, I think, as it's always handy to have several to consult (and funnily enough, despite the hours I spend on the net, these days I'm more likely to consult a print edition than hunt around on the web when I need styling answers fast).

Still no end in sight

I am SICK of hedge funds! I've worked eight hours solid today and I still have masses to do. The commissioning editor finally e-mailed me today with the missing style guide for the references section. I have successfully contracted this out to a trainee editor (which will save me several hours). I explained to the commissioning editor that the work was going to take even longer than expected - she'll be lucky to receive it by Tuesday lunchtime, at this rate. I have still have 30-odd pages of MS to edit, plus all the outstanding graphs, tables and illustrations. And, of course, I'll need to check over the edited references when they come back to me, and go through all my flagged-up queries and prepare an author query sheet.

I think I'll be cracking open a bottle of Moet when I finally sign off this project.

I had masses of interruptions today - my e-mail inbox was overflowing, for starters. Like many people, when that little symbol flashes in my system tray, I have to go look at what's coming in. If I don't, the symbol distracts me and disturbs my concentration. And besides, I don't want to miss anything really important, like the arrival of a missing style guide.

E-mail arrived from my graphic designer - the first "final" draft of the ad is ready for our client. I had a look at the PDF, approved it and rang him back so he could send it to the client. We had a quick chat about this and that, then rang off so we could both get on with work.

A chavvy guy rang me to ask about my services. It turned out he was writing his autobiography and wanted me to edit it. I gently explained that he needed to find an agent in order to secure a publisher - it would be unethical of me to take up to £2,000 off him to edit his book when he has no publishing deal. And besides, the publisher normally bears the cost of editing and proofreading. I told him how to find an agent and hung up.

Someone else offered me a free book on feature writing, which I accepted. The proviso is I have to write a review of it for some publication or other. Unpaid, no doubt. No problem, I'm happy to do that. I just hope the book is good.

Now I'm sitting here nattering with my beloved P, sipping a chilled sherry and trying to unwind for the weekend.

I'm going to try very hard not to think about work over the weekend, as the onslaught will resume at 8am on Monday morning...

Hedging my bets

The book on hedge funds arrived late last Friday. I planned to start editing it on Monday but when Monday arrived, I found 101 other things to do that seemed infinitely more interesting. I think I got as far as editing about half the contents pages.

A flick through the 155 pages showed it needs a huge amount of work. In addition, there are 60-odd excel graphics to edit, another 10 or so graphics in Word and 22 pages of references. Far bigger than I had been led to expect.

I am way behind. I had hoped to finish it by the end of today, but I'll be lucky to finish it by the end of tomorrow. And I've decided to sub-contract the editing of the reference pages. Unfortunately, my style guide for the publisher contains no guidance on references and my e-mail requesting it has gone unanswered so far.

Sigh... that means a chaser phone call.

Hedge funds are not exactly riveting, either. And the whole book is badly written and badly structured. I'm finding this job very tedious and only getting through it by thinking about the big, fat cheque at the end.

Meanwhile, I seem to be flavour of the month with people who need my help. A removal specialist in London plucked my name off a freelance database and rang to ask for a quote to revamp his website, write a flyer and create an e-mail advertising shot. I know he's calling around (as indeed he should), but if he offers me this job I plan to sub-contract it to a colleague who is just starting out in copywriting and needs experience.

Someone else I know vaguely through a business networking forum asked for a quote to redo his website. I gave him a rough quote but have heard nothing back yet. This means he's unlikely to use me, but I don't see how I am going to squeeze it in anyway. Another person also contacted me through the same forum asking for a website revamp quote; he's still thinking about it.

I've learned that people often seem quite shocked when they discover how much it will cost for quality copywriting. They will happily spend a couple of grand paying someone to design a decent website then baulk at paying out a few hundred for serviceable, attractive copy to put on it.

I also pitched for a job turning conference speech transcripts into book form - the client likes my quote but I gather needs authorisation from higher up. To sweeten the deal, I offered to negotiate a discount for editing all 15 speeches, having given a fixed quote per speech. I'd like to do this job - having seen a sample speech, it will be an interesting challenge. Again, it's financial work, one of my specialisms.

And last night, a colleague I know in my local business community e-mailed me and my graphic designer as he has referred us both to one of his own clients. This person needs a website and copy and our mutual colleague thought of us first.

Quite a few potential jobs lined up, but I need them to translate into solid bookings. Some of them, anyway. I won't have the time to do all of them, unless some of them are prepared to wait a few weeks.

Right, time to crack on with hedge funds...