This is the third and final segment of our three-part series about getting a textbook project off the ground. In the first entry (Jacobs et al., 2024), we wrote about how to channel a concept from your heart and onto the first blank page of your notebook. We then covered essential points on collaboratively writing a book with coauthors (Lim et al., 2024). This final installment focuses on the final step of your textbook project: dealing with the massive amounts of editing required. Achieving a successful edit without overdoing the process is paramount. This article is therefore focused on supplying you, the editor, with four editing techniques to expedite your editorial adventures: finding joy in the editing process, developing and using a style guide, streamlining your digital workflow, and determining when your work is finished.
Joy to the Edit
I want to start in a joyful place: the land of Christmas movies. A Claymation Christmas Celebration (Vinton, 1987) is one of the greatest, most joyful Christmas movies of all time. As the two protagonists—dinosaurs named Rex and Herb—discuss the meaning of classic Christmas carols, it becomes clear that Rex and Herb find Christmas joy in different festive nooks. Similarly to Rex and Herb, you, I, and all of the other editors scattered across the globe need to locate our editorial joy if we ever hope to, dare I say it, enjoy editing. Zull (2011), a neuroscientist, noted the importance of helping students find joy in classrooms. However, how can joyless teachers help their students locate joyful learning experiences? Taken a step further, how can editors provide a cohesive edit that will produce a joyful reading experience if they do not themselves experience joy while editing?
Fortunately, there are various ways to find joy in your editorial work, as the process itself can contain relevant intrinsic rewards. First is the development of your writing ability. For example, while editing, your punctuation and grammar skills get a hefty workout. Any editor can attest to being able to write more clearly after finishing a project. The second is professional development. After completing a project, you can add new work experience to your academic CV. In addition, you also have the opportunity to collaborate with other colleagues. A positive and effective teamwork experience may not only lead to other writing opportunities, but create enduring friendships as well. Finally, the old cliché applies: The journey is better than the end. Everyone involved in a project will receive different intrinsic rewards that may not become apparent until after it has concluded. Keeping these points in mind will help you locate your editorial joy and avoid a cold and mechanical editing experience that lacks the warmth and spirit of the holiday season.
Develop and Utilize a Style Guide
A style guide is a comprehensive—but not exhaustive—compilation of the rules governing the editorial stylistics that will be utilized by the editorial team. In our textbook (Lim et al., 2023), we created a four-page style guide that covered general points (e.g., how to apply bold and italics), formatting, key terms, lists, steps (e.g., of an activity), headings, referencing other books, numbering, tables, and quotation marks. Rather than painstakingly going through our guide, I will provide reflections on what worked well and some challenges we encountered.
One of the principal authors of our textbook volunteered to write the style guide after the main content of our textbook had been written. However, had this guide been made earlier, it would have shaved off much time in the overall editing process. Writing a style guide earlier rather than later is not always possible, as many stylistic points emerge while writing. However, establishing a shared document online that authors can refer to and add new stylistic points while writing is an excellent way to avoid having to backtrack and make corrections later.
Critical to an effective edit is appointing a competent editor whose stylistic decisions are trusted by the project members. Bestowing a single editor with total editorial decision-making allowances can be a blessing and a curse. On one hand, the editor can make decisions without having to check in with the other project members. On the other hand, if the editor performs an undesirable edit, it may lead to a difference of opinions. An example of this occurred when I had combed through every sentence of our textbook to remove all of the contractions. I felt that the subject matter did not partner well with them, so I scrubbed out every last instance outside of quotations. However, the authors had purposely used these contractions (e.g., “it’s” instead of “it is”) to give the prose a more casual feel. While this decision was within my purview as lead editor, I was worried that I had overstepped my editorial privilege. Fortunately, my coauthors accepted my perspective, and we avoided any disagreements. The takeaway lesson is that an editor not having enough editorial freedom may impede progress, whereas having too much leeway may cause coauthors to feel that their writing has been fundamentally altered. Talking about such nuances in advance with your team and including them in a style guide may save a considerable amount of time later on.
When creating your style guide, do your best at the start to make it as detailed as possible, but leave room for it to grow over the course of your project. My colleague, who designed our book’s style guide, was wise enough to know that new points would pop up while the editing was underway. By not trying to include everything in the initial version, I could add to it gradually. This flexibility allowed us to make changes as needed. The takeaway is that overbearing and rigid style guides can limit your editorial freedom and lead to overly mechanistic results. A flexible approach, on the other hand, builds trust amongst your team, as colleagues feel they have input in making stylistic decisions. This fosters a creative and invigorating editorial experience, one where you can enjoy your duties.
Systemize and Back Up Progress
Digitally organizing your editing project boils down to two fundamental tasks: systematizing and backing up (i.e., regularly saving) your progress. Especially when undertaking a large project involving multiple chapters or sections, it is critical to have an organized and optimized workflow. The earlier you can design your system, the more time will be saved as files and documents pile up. In our project, we spent time at the beginning discussing how we could best organize our system. For example, we created file folders that corresponded to each main section of the book. We also agreed to a file naming convention of: section of the book + title of the chapter (e.g., Cooperative Learning Techniques - Under Water). When we were ready to begin the editing, all of the files were already organized and were incredibly easy to access. After working on a chapter, the completion date was added to the end of the chapter’s file name (e.g., Cooperative Learning Techniques - Under Water - 3.13) to indicate when it was last edited. This came in very handy as we updated the style guide, as it allowed us to know at a glance which files needed to be updated.
Also, back up your progress! No, really, back up your progress after every single edit session! If you store your files online in a shared folder, download the file library to your PC after every edit session. If you are working solely off of one PC’s hard drive, have a USB device that you back your files up on after every edit. Without going into detail about how easy it is to mix up files even after developing a systematized workflow, I can say without hesitation that establishing a golden rule of constantly and consistently backing up your editorial work is one that must never, ever be violated. Losing a massive amount of work due to file mix-ups or a hard drive crash is maddening and can severely set back your project.
Getting Stuck Off-World on Planet Edit
Imagine that you had the perfect amount of round-trip fuel to reach a distant planet. Do you risk the chance of depleting your spacecraft’s fuel for the sake of a spacewalk on “Planet Edit,” or do you check your fuel gauge and resist the off-world jaunt? Getting stuck on Planet Edit is a risk of becoming over-embroiled in a lengthy editorial process by chasing perfection. When editing our textbook, we flirted unproductively with obtaining a perfect edit. Upon reflection, it became abundantly clear that such editorial perfection does not exist. We ended up wasting hours, painstakingly going over each and every paragraph multiple times, reading, and re-reading the text after each coauthor had made any changes. This bogged down our progress, as we had become incredibly stuck off world on Planet Edit. Upon returning to Earth, we resolved not to go overboard on future editorial projects. Every editor has their own definition of finished, but it is critical not to go past the point of diminishing returns. Perhaps a sweet spot somewhere between acceptable and perfect is the perfect off-world editing destination.
In Sum
This trilogy of articles was written to help those of you who are considering your own book-length project ideas. While not a comprehensive guide, we were able to draw upon our experiences to cover some of the main highlights, such as channeling concepts from your heart, assembling a rock-solid team that works well together, and developing an organized workflow. From my experience as someone new to this type of project, I feel that the most important lesson is provided within the cooperative learning literature—you and your team will either sink or swim together (Jacobs & Renandya, 2019). Hopefully, you can form a group with different skill sets and perspectives that will lead to a collaborative and satisfying project experience. We are confident that with a basic understanding of what it takes to produce a book, you will start your own project soon. Best of luck in your future endeavours!
References
Jacobs, G. M., Lim, S., & Reidak, J. (2024). How to get a textbook project off the ground: Part 1. The Language Teacher, 48(2). 28–30. https://doi.org/10.37546/JALTTLT48.2
Jacobs, G. M., & Renandya, W. A. (2019). Student centered cooperative learning: Linking concepts in education to promote student learning. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7213-1
Lim, S., Jacobs, G. M., & Reidak, J. (2024). How to get a textbook project off the ground: Part 2. The Language Teacher, 48(3). 48–50. https://doi.org/10.37546/JALTTLT48.3
Lim, S., Reidak, J., Chau, M. H., Zhu, C., Guo, Q., Brooks, T. A., Roe, J., & Jacobs, G. M. (2023). Cooperative learning and the SDGs. PeacheyPublications. https://payhip.com/b/obOwr
Vinton, W. (1987). A Claymation Christmas Celebration [Film]. CBS.
Zull, J. E. (2011). From brain to mind: Using neuroscience to guide change in education. Stylus Publishing.
