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Comment by ChrisMarshallNY | Hacker News Reader

That’s a good list!

My fave:

> An average writer makes the reader think the author is smart. A good writer makes the reader think the reader is smart.

I am quite surprised to see no mention of the importance of an editor. I have to assume that they are no longer as important, these days, as they once were.

My mother was a scientific editor, and she was brutal. I once wrote a 400-page book (that was never published). She edited it for me, and it may be the most perfect prose I’ve ever produced (but it was out of date and technically irrelevant, by the time it was ready).

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I second that. The editor (and translators, if your book is translated later) are the first - and sometimes the only - people who will read your book carefully from the beginning until the end trying to understand each sentence precisely. A reader may be forgiving, thinking that maybe it's their fault they don't understand; the editor will not. I can't imagine publishing a book without an editor - and having it thoroughly reviewed by at least two specialist in the field, even if you self-publish. But since it's expensive, I believe many people dispense with that.

The example that I use for the importance of an editor, is Stephen King. He is well-known for disliking editors, and, as his fame grew, he didn't need to use them.

Back in the 1970s ('75 or '76, I believe), a friend told me about this awesome book, called 'Salem's Lot. I got it, and read it. It wasn't too long, and was fine for an addlebrained teenager.

It was the first book that I ever read, that made me look under the bed before I went to sleep. After that, I couldn't get enough of Stephen King.

Nowadays, his books are these monster tomes that make excellent doorstops, but I can't bear to read them, anymore. I think the last book that I read, cover-to-cover, of his, was It. While reading that book, I accidentally put my bookmark in the wrong place, and skipped over 100 pages.

I didn't realize that I had done that, until, near the end, something was referenced from those pages.

It was then, that I decided that maybe I finally had had enough of Stephen King.

King's books started sounding the same to me, so I stopped reading them.

> I have to assume that they are no longer as important, these days, as they once were.

They are, but just that folks (in tech?) are losing sight of what good editors would bring to the table: https://apenwarr.ca/log/20060721 (grand old unified relational documentation) | https://apenwarr.ca/log/20090506 (the value of professional copy-editing)

I don't really have a scientific editor at Manning. I have: 1. a TDE (Technical development editor) what behaves more like a project manager and I mentioned them in lesson #47 2. A technical reviewer that makes sure the content is clear for a MQR and I mentioned them in lesson #45 3. A tech proof reader that reviews each and every code snippet when the manuscript is complete A few more...

Manning is very different from other publishers - combination of all these roles allow to produce a high quality content… that’s make it different from other publishers - O’Reilly, APress, etc.

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