East Vs West
I have been involved in the editing and creative layout for a coffee table book. The author is a socialite, who studied and worked in London (you will understand the relevance of this seemingly impertinent statement later).
As the book approached its final stage, she called me and shrieked hysterically that the text still contained grammatical errors. I went to see her and she pointed them out. The errors were not full-fledged mistakes. It was one of those things where the inclusion of a particular word depends on individual preferance and not the rules of English. When I told her this, she barked, "But it's WRONG! I sent the text to an Englishman in London and he included that word! Maybe you don't know London's English since you studied in Australia."
I didn't know whether to feel insulted or incredulous. She didn't realise the implications of what she had said or done. An editor friend remarked, "I would have thrown the manuscript in her face and told her to let her precious Englishman do the job!"
Yesterday she told the colour separators, "I don't think you know what you're doing. Maybe you're are not used to handling Western-style books." This morning she told me, "I don't think your designer is experienced enough to be handling a coffee table book. This font can only be used for local books not Western-style books."
Needless to say, this left me wondering how many aspiring authors feel this way about our publishing industry. We have talked a lot about the quality of writing. Perhaps it's time to talk about the quality of presentation. Is our quality of editing, layout and cover design good enough for the quality we demand of our writing?
How do we measure up against our Western counterparts? If we fall short, then in which aspect and how do we pull up our socks? Better yet, name me one locally published book that you think is of 'international quality'. And how many of you agree that when it comes to publishing, West is still best?
As the book approached its final stage, she called me and shrieked hysterically that the text still contained grammatical errors. I went to see her and she pointed them out. The errors were not full-fledged mistakes. It was one of those things where the inclusion of a particular word depends on individual preferance and not the rules of English. When I told her this, she barked, "But it's WRONG! I sent the text to an Englishman in London and he included that word! Maybe you don't know London's English since you studied in Australia."
I didn't know whether to feel insulted or incredulous. She didn't realise the implications of what she had said or done. An editor friend remarked, "I would have thrown the manuscript in her face and told her to let her precious Englishman do the job!"
Yesterday she told the colour separators, "I don't think you know what you're doing. Maybe you're are not used to handling Western-style books." This morning she told me, "I don't think your designer is experienced enough to be handling a coffee table book. This font can only be used for local books not Western-style books."
Needless to say, this left me wondering how many aspiring authors feel this way about our publishing industry. We have talked a lot about the quality of writing. Perhaps it's time to talk about the quality of presentation. Is our quality of editing, layout and cover design good enough for the quality we demand of our writing?
How do we measure up against our Western counterparts? If we fall short, then in which aspect and how do we pull up our socks? Better yet, name me one locally published book that you think is of 'international quality'. And how many of you agree that when it comes to publishing, West is still best?
posted by starlight at 5:25 AM
1 Comments:
Still trying to figure out what a "Western-style" coffee table book is. I thought such books just need to be heavy, have nice paper and look pretty! :)
On a serious note, about the colour thing...I do notice that most local cookbooks just don't hold a candle to the foreign ones in terms of visual presentation, particularly in terms of colour.
I'd have chucked the book back at the Englishwoman wannabe too.
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