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mearcatsreturns · 3 months

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I have a bookstagram, and I recently followed someone because they posted about the overconsumption issue that most bookish social media seems to have. Today, though, they posted another controversial "opinion": that listening to audiobooks isn't reading, and people who claim to have read a bunch of books that they listened to as audiobooks are lying and/or deluded. Listening to audiobooks, she said, is just consuming books.

I disagreed in a fairly politely worded reply, and I intend to unfollow/block, because I find it unlikely this person will change their mind, especially since I'm far from the only person to point out that this is exclusionary and ableist. But this is tumblr/my house, and now I'm going to be as blunt as I want to be.

I'm a librarian and archivist. So much of the work I and others in my field do focuses on making books and reading more accessible and less exclusionary. It is, in fact, incredibly ableist to negate how important audiobooks are for people who have certain disabilities or challenges, and I would in no universe say they aren’t reading. For that matter, a busy person who only has time for audiobooks and for people who just prefer them--it still counts, as far as I'm concerned.

See, there's a difference between an audiobook and a podcast or long song or radio program. An audiobook is still a book--it was written with a particular narrative structure, and the author plays a defined but limited role (once the book is written, it's written; the author isn't tuning in next episode with comments and corrections based on what listeners said). An audiobook is a book, ergo, listening to one is reading. Using braille is reading, and listening to audiobooks is reading.

The part that has me in full Captain Raymond Holt "apparently that is a trigger for me" mode is that this bookstagrammer called listening to audiobooks consumption. In the context of her other posts about overconsumption as an issue in the bookish community (again, agree, but also...mind your own business), this seems particularly insidious to me. Conflating influencer-driven (and capitalist hellscape) consumption with listening to an audiobook (again, a massive boon for the visually impaired and those with disabilities like ADHD, dyslexia, etc.) is rude at best and dangerously exclusionary at worst. Stop letting comparison be the thief of joy; mind your own business and stop looking at the pages that bother you. Focus on the kindness of leaning towards inclusion, meeting people where they are, and leaving judgment behind.*

*This person also said "feel free to comment if you disagree but please don't be mean or judgmental," as if they hadn't just posted the most ableist and judgmental sludge I've seen today.

tl;dr: don’t be a gatekeeping shithead, mind your own business, and

(gif by matalyn on tenor, couldn't find on tumblr)

#books #bookstagram #reading #bookish culture #audiobooks #inclusivity #i am honestly so brave for not arguing with more people #I didn't become a lawyer because I didn't want to monetize my number one hobby (arguing)#this person says they're getting a PhD and writing a dissertation on publishing #so I worry that people will lend their posts a certain weight they don't deserve #so here I am: I've literally taken graduate courses in the history of books and the text as a concept.#i specialized in that. it's what I intend to get a PhD in if I decide I'm insane enough to go back to grad school #anyway trust me bro (gender neutral)#(i won't die on ANY hill but i sure will on a whole lot)

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headless-horsepossum · 1 year

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this may be a silly question but. what does an editor Do. I ask b/c I might need that service but don't even know I need that service.... hope this doesn't come across rude I'm just genuinely curious

Not silly or rude!! it's a fair question cause there are a bunch of different kinds of editors.

Basically, if you're working on something, (written work in my case but there are like video editors and audio editors and all that too,) you can send it to an editor and they'll help you get it ready for Whatever You Want To Use It For.

.....this got long lmao so i'm putting the rest under a cut ig

I'm very freelance (bc i'm disabled and don't have a degree 🥴) so i take whatever projects come my way, which atm means a lot of Masters and PhD level dissertations/theses, because my mom works for a university that has a lot of international and first-higher-education-degree students but DOESN'T HAVE A WRITING CENTER for some reason, so I'm usually like half editor half writing coach. Which is to say, an editor for a publishing house probably does much different work than I do and tbh I don't know Anything about what they do lol.

but how *my* job works is:

you send me a draft of your project.

I learn as much as i can about the end destination and audience of your project.

(this is a lot easier if you're writing, like, a Memoir or a Pamphlet For An Art Show, and a lot harder if I have to Read The Chicago Style Manual) (Chicago Style is probably fine but their style manual is fucking wack and i stand by that)

I read your project and i mark anything that is either a.) unclear or b.) Against The Rules Of Your Intended Destination

So like, if you're writing a masters thesis, I'm strict with grammar and with formatting. The style your institution is using probably has rules about whether you can use first person, and when you use italics, and whether your citations go in a bibliography or in footnotes or w/e.

If you're writing a Novel, I can be a lot looser with the rules and just look for: is this effective? what is this line Doing? is it doing it well? Does What It's Doing Actually Need To Be Done Right Now?

(editing fiction/creative nonfiction is WAY more fun but i don't get to do it very often. sigh)

I put my suggestions in the document you've sent me, with Track Changes on so you can see everything I've changed. I add comments to the doc wherever I think they're necessary/helpful.

I send the doc with my edits back to you

You (hopefully) read through and decide whether each edit makes sense to you. (this is the most important step, honestly)

If they make sense and you're happy with the resulting draft, my job is done and we shake hands and depart as friends.

If you have questions, or the edits require extensive rewrites, we ideally meet over zoom or w/e and I explain my suggestions to you, and we figure out how to Make The Words Do What You Want Them To Do. You send the doc to me again and I do as much of a second pass as you want/Will Pay Me For.

It's worth noting that there are different *levels* of editing, too. I've done jobs where I'm just checking grammar, or where I'm just checking formatting; I've also done jobs where I meet with the author and we basically write the piece together (which is really fun, actually, I like sitting down and asking, like, "okay, what are you trying to say," and figuring out how to help YOU figure out how YOU want to say it. it's like detective work :3 or therapy possibly). Those all take different levels of time and energy, so for student papers I end up with a lot of, like, "this could really use a thorough content edit/rewrite but it's Due In A Week so we're gonna make sure everything's spelled write and the footnotes are formatted correctly." (which i HATE doing btw, it's a perfectly reasonable thing to do but it Hurts My Brain bc it feels like I'm not Doing My Best which is Hell.)

anyway, the tl;dr is: editors take writing and suggest changes that will make it Perform Its Intended Function Better. the actual act of editing takes a lot of work, and often a degree of background research, too. tip your editors, is what i'm saying.

#editing #writing community #I Guess idk #again: my disabled non-degree-holding ass is just doing my best and learning on the job for a lot of this lmao #this was fun writing though :3 and a good break from my current editing job lmao #so thanks for the ask!!!! mwah #also disclaimer i have Not Edited This Post lmao. thats my job i aint gonna do it for free

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