How to Edit Blurbs

如何编辑推介

2020-05-30 05:10 Lingua Greca

本文共1278个字,阅读需13分钟

阅读模式 切换至中文

Blurbs are quotations of praise that appear on book covers and jackets, in press releases, on author websites, posters, and ads, in social media, and in the unnumbered pages at the beginning of a novel or creative nonfiction book. They may be solicited or excerpted from published reviews. Any writer or publisher who finds it hard to get attention in the traditional review press may be especially motivated to solicit blurbs from influential writers or celebrities. It’s debatable whether blurbs really do influence book buyers, since many readers assume that blurbers are friends and mentors of the writer or publisher, but readers of some genres expect to see a long list of enthusiastic recommendations, and it’s hard to see how a good blurb could hurt. Attributing Blurbs Blurbs may be styled in various ways, but typically the blurber’s name or review source is tacked on to the end of the quote, sometimes with an em dash, sometimes on a separate line, sometimes with a dialogue tag. The actual quote may be distinguished by quotation marks or italics or other design treatment. “Best ever!”—PinkInk Review I couldn’t stop reading!—Maud Mincy, author of An Exclamatory Life “I couldn’t stop reading!” says Maud Mincy, author of An Exclamatory Life I couldn’t stop reading! —Maud Mincy, author of An Exclamatory Life Editing and Styling Publicity Blurbs Blurbs are often edited for style, and they may be shortened whether space is an issue or not. Although CMOS lists permissible changes to quotations (paragraphs 13.7–8), the conventions for editing quotations in scholarly works are strict and may be overkill for publicity materials. No one wants to see a spray of ellipses and square brackets on a book jacket. Let’s take a look at the kinds of editing that are appropriate for various uses of a quotation from a review. Let’s take Calliope Raston’s book, The Gentleman Called. (I just made it up.) Original review, unedited Here’s a reader review, typos and all. (I made this up too.) The author has done something magnificent in the Gentleman Caller. In spite of having dozens of subplots—over the course of some 1,200 pages—she manages to keep everything staight, and rarely was I able to stop reading at the end of a chapter. Over and over the twists and turns surprised me. The characters are the most unique you’ll ever find, and the suspense is killing. The librarian Lavender is hilarious. My favorite part in Gentleman Caller was where she yells “I threw a wrench into things? Here’s me throwing a wrench!” and then throws an actual wrench at Boyd. This will be perfect for my book club! Editing for quotation in a scholarly book or journal Why would a scholarly book or journal quote a review? Perhaps as part of an analysis of the effect of reader reviews on sales, or to show the critical reception of a famous writer’s early works. There are many reasons. CMOS guidelines for this kind of quoting are strict. Researchers and scholars expect quoted text to reflect the original in all essential details, and so do their readers. To ensure this level of transparency, Chicago allows silent changes only to certain kinds of punctuation and for insignificant typos. Ellipses (. . .) must mark where words were left out, and square brackets must enclose any words that were inserted or changed. A minor typo (like “staight”) may be corrected silently, but errors that are relevant to the argument, such as the misquotation of the book title in the example above, are marked with “[sic].” And of course, in scholarly writing all quotations must be fully sourced with citations. As you can imagine, that kind of mess would never do on the jacket of Raston’s novel. Editing for a book jacket In editing a quotation for a book jacket, the goal is still to be careful and honest, but reasonable changes may be made. “Calliope Raston has done something magnificent in The Gentleman Called. . . . Over and over, the twists and turns surprised me. . . . This will be perfect for my book club!”—Gennifer Garland, Seattle Notice in the example: the author’s name has been inserted silently in place of “she” in the original review; the book title has been corrected and put in italics, per Chicago style (note that “The” is part of the title); a comma has been added after “Over and over”; and instead of a full citation (which might include the name of the website where the review was posted, along with a date and URL), the reviewer’s name and city have been judged to suffice. Although ellipses carefully mark every omission, it’s a good idea to keep these to a minimum. Editing for a poster or social media ad or trailer Anyone editing pull quotes for a poster or ad walks the ethical edge. Grab the best phrases and tweak them silently but honestly. The addition of exclamation marks is common but controversial, so don’t skip the “Ethics” section below. Sources may be styled in various ways. “Magnificent!”—Gennifer Garland, Seattle “Killing suspense.”—Gennifer Garland, Seattle News “Perfect for book clubs!”—Gennifer Garland, author of The Class Menagerie Ethics of Blurb Editing Of course, there’s an ethical imperative to retain a reviewer’s original intent when editing a blurb. We’ve all read examples of outrageous clippings that change a review like “A monumental bore” to “Monumental!” If a writer or editor has doubts about tweaking a review, it’s important that they run the changes by the reviewer for approval. (That’s a good idea in any case.) And second, a source should always be given, even if minimally identified. There’s probably a limit to the gullibility of readers. Blurbing Etiquette Request a blurb in a personal message, without expectations. Famous potential blurbers have little time and motivation to read or blurb work by obscure writers, and they probably receive many requests. On the other hand, blurbers too get publicity when their names appear in connection with someone else’s successful book. If your work is promising, even a big name might want to grab a bit of the spotlight. When you ask for a blurb, mention that it may be edited to house style and/or shortened in some contexts, and be sure to give a date by which you need the blurb. If the answer is no, replying with warm thanks for the consideration will leave you in a position to ask again when you’re more famous yourself. If you’re the one being asked for a blurb and you’re unable to comply, lessen the pain by responding promptly. Cite overwork or deadlines and invite future requests unless you’re sure you couldn’t bear it. It’s just polite. And if you yourself write a blurb in response to a request, it’s fine to ask the author or editor for approval over changes beyond shortening or styling. * Michael Hann, “Warning: Review Quotes Can Be Very Misleading,” Guardian (UK), May 8, 2012. Fiction+ posts at Shop Talk reflect the opinions of its authors and not necessarily those of The Chicago Manual of Style or the University of Chicago Press. ~ ~ ~ Carol Saller’s books include The Subversive Copy Editor and the young adult novel Eddie’s War. You can find Carol online at Twitter (@SubvCopyEd) and at www.carolsaller.com. NEW! The Subversive Copy Editor is now an audiobook, available from Audible, Apple iBooks, and other e-book retailers. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
推介介是指出现在书的封面和护封、新闻稿、作者网站、海报、广告、社交媒体,以及小说或创造性非小说类书籍开头的未编号页上的赞美之词。 这些推介可能是请求他人新写的,也可能是从已发表的评论中摘录的。 任何作家或出版商一旦发现作品很难在传统的评论报刊上引起注意,都可能会特别主动地请求有影响力的作家或名人为其作品写推介。 推介是否真的会影响购书者还有待商榷,因为许多读者都认为推介是作家或出版商的朋友和导师写的。但某些类型书籍的读者希望看到一长串热情的推荐,也很难说一篇好的推介会有什么坏处。 标明来源型推介 推介的样式可能有多种,但通常情况下,写推介的人的名字或评论来源会附在推介后面,有时直接用破折号连接名字和推介,有时名字单独另起一行,有时标上对话标签。 实际引用部分可以通过标引号或利用斜体或其他设计处理来区分。 “史上最棒!”-品克(PinkInk)评论道 一旦开始读这本书根本停不下来!--莫德·明西(Maud Mincy),《感叹的一生》作者 《感叹的一生》作者莫德·明西(Maud Mincy)评论:“一旦开始读这本书根本停不下来!” 一旦开始读这本书根本停不下来! --莫德·明西,《感叹的一生》作者 编辑和设计宣传推介 通常要根据风格编辑推介,不管空间是否足够,它们的篇幅都可能被缩短。 虽然首席营销官们规定了可以对引文进行哪些修改(第13.7-8段),但学术著作中引文的要求十分严格,对于宣传材料来说可能是过分严格。 没有人愿意看到学术著作书皮上出现椭圆和方括号。 让我们来看看适合各种用途的评论中引用的编辑类型。 不如就以卡利奥普·拉斯顿(Calliope Raston)的书为例,他打电话来要求我用这本书举例。 (这是我编的) 未经编辑的原始评论 这里有一个读者评论,里面有错别字和所有不规范用法。 (这也是我编的。) 作者在《绅士来电》中的表现很了不起。 尽管在大约1200页的书中有许多次要情节,但她能一直保持水平稳定,我每读完一章都意犹未尽。书中一次又一次的曲折让我吃惊。 书中的角色是有史以来最独特的,而且悬念让人心急如焚。 图书管理员拉文德(Lavender)很滑稽。 《绅士来电》中我最喜欢的部分是她大喊:“我把扳手扔进什么东西里了? 是我在扔扳手!“然后她把一个真正的扳手扔向博伊德。 我们读书俱乐部成员都认为这一段很完美! 编辑学术书籍或期刊中的引文 为什么一本学术书籍或期刊会引用一篇评论? 也许是作为读者评论对销售影响分析的一部分,或者是为了展示对一位著名作家早期作品的批判性接受。有各种各样的原因。 首席营销官对这类引用的规则很严格。 研究者和学者希望引用的文本在所有必要的细节上都能如实反映原文,其读者也如此希望。 为了确保这种透明度,芝加哥只允许编辑稍微改动某些标点符号和无关紧要的错别字。 删除的单词必须用省略号标出,增加或改动的词必须用方括号括起来。 不严重的错别字(如“staight”)可以自行更正,但与论点相关的错误,如上面例子中书名引用错误,则需要用“[原文如此]”标记。当然,在学术写作中,所有的引文都必须有完整的出处和引文。 正如你所想的那样,拉斯顿小说的护封上绝不会出现那些乱七八糟的编辑。 编辑护封 在编辑护封的引文时,仍然应该以谨慎和忠于原文为目标,但可以做出合理的修改。 “卡利奥普·拉斯顿(Calliope Raston)在《所谓绅士》一书中的描写十分宏大....... 接连不断的曲折,让我十分惊讶...... 这对我的读书俱乐部来说是再好不过了!“--詹妮弗.加兰德,西雅图 举例中值得注意的是: 编辑默默地将原评论中指作者的人称代词“她”改成了作者的名字 按芝加哥体例更正了书名,并改成斜体(注意“the”是书名的一部分); 在“接连不断的曲折”一句后面加了逗号; 也没有引用完整的评论(比如发布评论的网站名称、日期和URL),附上评论人的名字和城市就已足够。 尽管省略号会仔细标记每一处遗漏,但最好将这些遗漏减到最少。 编辑海报、社交媒体广告或预告片 任何为海报或广告收集引语的人都在道德边缘游走。他们需要找出评价最好的句子,并不着痕迹地美化它们。添加感叹号是很常见的做法,但也存在争议,所以不要跳过下面的“道德规范”部分。可以用不同的方式设计原评论。 “太棒了!”--詹妮弗.加兰德(Gennifer Garland),西雅图 “悬念引人入胜”--詹妮弗.加兰德(Gennifer Garland),《西雅图新闻》 “非常适合读书俱乐部!”--《班级动物园》作者詹妮弗.加兰德(Gennifer Garland) 广告宣传编辑的伦理问题 当然,在编辑一篇推介时,保持评论者的原意在道德上是必要的。 我们都看过这样的例子:原评论是“无聊至极”,编辑却改成了“有趣至极!”如果一个作家或编辑想要修改评论,征得评论人的同意很重要。 (无论如何,这是个好主意。) 其次,即使几乎不确定评论来源,也应尽可能给出。读者的信任可能是有限度的。 推介礼节 可以在私人信件中请求他人写评论,但不要抱太大希望。 著名的评论家几乎没有时间和动机去阅读不出名的作者的作品,而且他们也可能会收到很多请求。 但另一方面,假如某人的作品大获成功,评论者也会因此受到关注。 所以假如你的作品很有前途,哪怕是名人可能也想沾光。 当你请求使用别人的推介时,需要告知他们评论可能会被编辑成打印格式或在某些情况下被缩短,且一定要给出需要这个推介的具体日期。 如果对方拒绝为你写推介,也请热情感谢对方,这样也为你在更出名的时候邀请对方写推介留有余地。 假如是你被请求写推介,但又无法胜任,请尽快回复他人。可以以工作过度或截止日期为由拒绝,并邀请对方在未来请你写推介,除非你确定自己无法忍受。 但这只是客套。 如果你写了一篇推介来回应别人的请求,你也可以要求作者或编辑在做出删减或设计等改动的时候需要获得你的同意。 *迈克尔.汉(Michael Hann),“警告:评论引用可以造成误导”,《卫报》(英国),2012年5月8号 Shop Talk上的小说+帖子反映的是作者的观点,而不一定是芝加哥写作手册或芝加哥大学出版社的观点。 ~~~ 卡罗尔·萨勒(Carol Saller)的作品包括《颠覆性编辑》和青年小说《埃迪的战争》。你可以在Twitter (@SubvCopyEd)和www.carolsaller.com网站上找到她。 新上架! 《The Subversive Copy Editor》现在已出版成有声读物,可在Audible,Apple iBooks和其他电子书零售商处购买。 点击该链接将文章分享到Twitter(在新窗口中打开) 点击该链接将文章分享到Facebook(在新窗口中打开)

以上中文文本为机器翻译,存在不同程度偏差和错误,请理解并参考英文原文阅读。

阅读原文