Toward Clarity in Editing and Publishing: The Present and Future of Style

Sponsored by The University of Chicago Press

Recorded on 11/19/2019
Posted in The Authority File

Episode 64

For this four-part series, Bill speaks with Becky Brasington Clark, the head of the Library of Congress’ publishing office and Carol Saller, chief copyeditor of the Sixteenth Edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. Their conversation weaves together the mission of publishing at the Library of Congress and the ethical and moral considerations that emerge from editorial, style, and publishing norms. In this episode, Becky provides a deep dive on the publishing office’s criteria and procedures for producing books, while Carol addresses a few items in the Seventeenth edition of the Manual that made it in just under the wire. She also previews a few items the staff at the University of Chicago Press are keeping an eye on for the Eighteenth edition.

For 25% off the 17th Edition’s cover price, go to chicagomanualofstyle.org and use the promo code CHOICEPOD25.

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About the guests:

Carol Saller
Carol Saller served as chief copyeditor for the 16th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style and consultant for the 17th edition. She is editor of both the Chicago Manual of Style’s online Q&A and of the CMOS Shop Talk blog.

Her books include The Subversive Copy Editor as well as several books for children, most recently the young adult novel Eddie’s War. In addition to her own blog, Carol has written about language and writing in academe for Lingua Franca at the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Becky Brasington Clark
Becky Brasington Clark directs the strategy and operation of the Library of Congress general publishing program. Her team develops books, calendars, puzzles, and other products that showcase the Library’s collections.

She served as the director of Marketing and Institutional Outreach for Johns Hopkins University Press. In that role she oversaw publicity and promotion, directed sales and marketing for the Books Division, directed strategy for digital publications and served as member of the executive group to direct operational, growth and communications strategies for its four press divisions. There, she championed digital publication strategies that drove significant sales growth in e-book revenue and e-commerce.

Clark also directed marketing for the Brookings Institutional Press, with responsibility for 50 new titles, six journals and a quarterly magazine. Previously, she also worked in marketing leadership positions with The New Republic, Counterpoint Press and Moon Travel Handbooks. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Humanities from Converse College and did graduate study in clinical counseling, business and marketing at Johns Hopkins.

About the Music:
The intro and outro music in Authority File is “Grapes,” mixed by I dunno. The transition music is “Peace ( There’s A better Way ),” mixed by Loveshadow. The music is available on ccMixter, and is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (cc-by 4.0).

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