Looking for technical editing for anime studio book

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marksl
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Joined: Wed Jul 25, 2007 7:07 pm

Looking for technical editing for anime studio book

Post by marksl »

A publisher is looking for some help to do technical editing for an upcoming Anime Studio book, if you are interested I will pass along the contact for you to hook up, thanks!

Mark
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J. Baker
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Post by J. Baker »

Is the publisher writing a book about AnimeStudio and doesn't know how to use it or something?
human
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Post by human »

Software books have been around for decades now, and hiring a technical editor is standard practice.

It would be foolish for a publisher to simply accept a manuscript from an author--even one who knows the subject well--without having it checked out by a technical editor. After all, the publisher can't expect to know the software, and a single author is never sufficient to get the book to the level of reliability a professional book requires.

Rather than than fault these publishers for not knowing your application, why not give them credit for knowing how to do their job correctly?

The technical editor is responsible for checking that the coverage is comprehensive, accurate, and succinct. He or she particularly checks the instructions to see that every detail of every step in a procedure is documented, and that the instructions deliver the desired result without any surprises.

If a professional technical editor were to review the much-praised tutorials for Anime Studio Pro, for example, he would point out that a tutorial is a necessary but not sufficient part of a real user's manual.

More importantly, he would point out that it's not enough to be clear, succinct, and accurate--which the Anime Studio tutorials are.

A professional editor, looking at these tutorials, would object that you simply can't mix background info, facts, and description willy-nilly into instruction.

All of these need to be fenced off from one another in an orderly way.

As for the instructions, we long ago established that training requires strictly numbered steps, written with a fanatical attention to consistent style and terminology.

At each step, the user's action must immediately by followed by a description of the software response.

All instructions should be thoughtfully crossed-referenced to place them in context of the software features and the user goals.

Does that help?
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JimmyC
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Post by JimmyC »

Great explanation. I still agree with J Baker. I wouldn't have much faith in a publisher who has to resort to forums to look for help.

The book must surely stand or fall on the merit of the author, not the publishers, who know very little about anything (except publishing).

I wish I knew which publisher you were describing, because the several ones that I have bought text books from over several decades did not do any such thing. They are full of mistakes, mis-translations, omissions and wrongly numbered illustrations. I think it is probably impossible to produce a book which doesn't contain mistakes.

Just my 2 cents worth as an avid reader, and purchaser of countless dozens of books on all subjects over the years.
marksl
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Post by marksl »

This wasn't posted by the book publisher, but by myself at e frontier. I run the sales here. I'm completely swamped, otherwise I would do it myself.

The writer is very accomplished and has more than 2 dozen books on using digital technology for creating art to his credit. The book publisher asked if I could recommend anyone since we talk with so many great 2D artists using Anime Studio, actually it was Fahim that suggested to me yesterday to post on the forum since there's so many enthusiastic Anime Studio users here.

Thanks for your complete understanding, again, if there's anyone that wants to participate and work with one of the best great technology writers in the business, drop me a note.

Mark
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J. Baker
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Post by J. Baker »

AHHH! Didn't know you were from efrontier. I thought this was just someone from out of the blue looking to make money off there book when they know nothing about the program. I've seen this happen a few times.

But since it's for efrontier, I would be glad to help in any way I can. Just let me know. ;)
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dlangdev
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Post by dlangdev »

cool, i've be interested to participate (not related to work) with my limited knowledge.
marksl
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Post by marksl »

Thanks, it looks like we have someone thats connecting on it, if it doesn't work out then I'll make another request.

Mark
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