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Understanding the Copy Editing Process

Demand Studios employs a staff of more than 50 trained and experienced copy editors who look over every article before it can be published. Copy editors are fluent in Demand Studios style, and also audit all content for grammar, spelling and factual accuracy. Our copy editor staff, above all, attempts to ensure that every piece of content that passes through meets our high quality standards and offers value to a potential reader. This editorial staff is tasked with processing every submitted article within 3 days. However, our editors, like our writers, are people with busy lives and other interests. They often make subjective decisions on content quality, and they sometimes need more time to meet goals.

Because of this, content occasionally takes up to a week to be fully processed. We are currently working on several solutions to shorten this interval, and we ask for your patience and understanding as we try to speed things up.

21 Comments

Thank you for giving writers a forum and also additional information. I just want to say that writers understand that editors have lives. However, if deadlines are put to writers for submission of articles and if they don't meet them they lose the article or suffer other consequences, shouldn't editors be held to the same standard? Writers live in the real world and it includes money. So if you have several weeks where your pay is cut by a third or half due to slow reviews, it hurts. It seems to me that if an editor knows he is falling behind that he should let his supervisor know and get the excess work spread around. I am sure that not every editor is behind at the same time. Also, the editors who take up the slack should be able to get extra incentives to make it worth their while. To me, this is a solution that can work well for both editors and writers. It will also attract the best writers to Demand Studios because they will have a strong reputation of taking care of their people.

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Thanks to all of the Demand Studios editors! I have never had an article take more than one week to be processed. This strikes me as more than reasonable, given the demand that I am certain Demand Studios editors face! Yes, the pun is intended. :)

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I agree with Stephanie. If writers have to meet a deadline, so do editors. I've also noticed that many of the editor's comments I receive are loaded with mispellings, punctuation errors and a complete lack of knowledge on the topic. It's disturbing. What training do these editors receive?

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I too agree with Rena and Stephanie. The editors not only miss deadlines each and every week, but they ask for rewrites that are unreasonable, adding more time before the article gets published. The few rewrite requests are something that a first grader would ask us to do, not an educated copy editor. The rewrite requests have terrible spelling errors and sentences do not start with capital letters. These are educated? When a title says "How to Find a Dog Shelter in New York" and the editor asks for a rewrite because "Your article is not wide enough for an audience. You only name New York shelters for dogs" is a little obsurd. Can you please rewire the editors and ask them to drink coffee before work, or get some exercise or something?

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Jody, I thank you for writing. I'm having problems with (I think) the same editor for the same ridiculous rewrite requests.

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I agree. I have had some very nice and well written rewrite requests but many more, especially lately, have been different. Many editors are rude, and unclear. Some ask writers for info that is beyond the scope of the article. What Jody experienced is a fairly common occurence. Lately, editors have made erroneous assertions about the style guide and factual information about the article topic as well. I try to do what is asked, even if I disagree with the editor's opinion. But, it is hard to have respect for the process when an editor seems incompetent. Comments riddled with spelling and grammatical errors really don't help the editor's case. I once had a comment that I couldn't even decipher because it was so poorly written. These people are experienced and well trained? The fact that they take so long to approve articles makes the situation even worse. I know that DS is trying hard to make improvements so I don't want to come off as rude. This is a great gig. I suspect that the higher ups may not be aware of many of the issues happenning. That's why this blog is such a positive move in the right direction. Thank you for the increased communication.

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I agree. There have been both clear and beneficial comments where I was asked to re-write articles in a less technical manner. I've been told that I've written too much detail when I did a how to article. Then there have been vague comments that didn't relate anything. Timing for editing is slow at times. There has been a variation of what is expected and that has been confusing. I have also experienced the rude comments. Since I'm still fairly new I've been trying to figure out what it is I'm suppose to do and at times it has been 'confusing'... I appreciate the information about titles not always being in the correct category. Thank you for working on making improvements.

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Can anyone fill me in on the dispute process for when a nonsensical editorial rewrite is ordered? If I spend the time and effort researching and writing according to the information provided, it would be comforting to know that an editor doesn't have the right to order a rewrite because he or she doesn't understand the intention of the order. Thanks, Kevin

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I don't mind rewrites, at least so far. Most are simple clarity issues and the comments have been nice. Actually every comment in my rewrites have been positive. Even the rewrite comment that ripped apart a lengthy intro included a positive comment. But I pull my hair out just like everybody else over these review times; though they have gotten better, I think. Thanks DS for the blog, I love it. Now if you guys would only bump the poor college kid's claimed assignment limit up a little; kegs are expensive! Quinten

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I may be in the minority, but I haven't had to do many rewrites. The one I had to rewrite was very positive, informative and clear. I've also had questions that were answered by e-mail in a timely manner with helpful tones. I don't know if we are each issued a certain editor or if it's just a rotation thing. Having an assigned editor would make for a better working relationship, familiararity might allow for more accecpted suggestions since the editor would know our work and where we might take an article. It would also make it easier to get completed work reviewed faster, I'd hope.

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Understanding the Copy Editing Process

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