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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

Out of 9 or so articles, I've been asked to re-write one, and it was because my article read too much like a list. The editor was absolutely right. In fact, I changed the original article at the last second because I thought the topic would better fit a more list-like format. So, after getting the editor's re-write request, I put it back into its original format. My bone of contention is the enormous number of mis-categorized suggested titles. It is almost a complete waste of time to look through the categories for the one or two that actually pertain to the category title. For example, there are car engine articles and circuit board articles everywhere, including food/bev, entertaining and parenting.

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Hi Lisa, I understand the frustration you have with finding mis-categorized titles. Please refer to this post about them: http://www.demandstudios.com/blog/2008/08/24/mis-categorized-titles/ -Liana

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What should we do if we notice that one of our articles has been edited is such a way that is inaccurate? Or when an article is on a professional topic, and it is edited so that it sounds unprofessional to the point of lacking credibility?

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Would anyone like to clarify as to how much longer it is going to be before our articles that are in the queue will get published on a more timely basis? It can be frustrating to write several articles and then they do not get approved for two weeks and then no pay comes in for the week. I was wondering if a solution has been made about that yet. Thanks.

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You know what? It might save DS a lot of time and money if you fired all of the editors and just have us writers do it! They're not doing anything we can't do ourselves.

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Hi Ysabel, If there are certain issues that have come up with your article, the best thing for you to do is email us and include the specific titles in your initial email. That way, we can investigate the article. Julie, although I can't give you a specific time, if you have articles that have been stuck in the queue for such a long time, please make sure to alert us. Letting us know about these articles is the first step in making this entire process timely. Rena, quite the opposite actually. The editors that work for DS all have extensive editing experience and act as gatekeepers in making sure that quality is up to par. In every area of the publishing industry, you will find that editors are always present. There is a reason that editors exist. They manage the quality of articles coming from hundreds of writers, so to say that they're not doing anything couldn't be further from the truth. If there is a specific issue you have with a particular article, please email us. -Liana

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I've never had any problem with rude or unreasonable editors. They have always been professional and polite. However, the editing delays that have been occurring lately are definitely an issue. Editors should be responsible for clearing articles assigned to them in a timely fashion. Writers have bills to pay and families to support...we have lives too. Writing is not a hobby or a diversion for me, it is how I feed my children. Editors cleared ONE out of EIGHT articles I should have been paid for this week. This seems to be a rather recent issue, as they have been very regular in the past, which is the reason I continue to write for them despite having clients who pay higher rates. Where some pay on publication or on a monthly basis, I could count on Demand Studios for a regular weekly paycheck to fill in. It seems that has changed. Certainly this is an issue that needs to be addressed if you hope to keep quality writers on your team.

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I have had a number of very off-base requests for rewrites, all on articles that were much longer than most articles I wrote. Is there a connection here? Are these editors just not reading the longer articles and therefore rejecting them? Also, I had two very strange (stupid really) rewrite requests, I met the demands of these requests and within ten minutes the article was rejected. I had to bring this up because another article I spent a lot of time on was rejected because (and this is a direct quote)... "Not enough information on how to do things" ! The article was very detailed and could really not be any longer. Can this be addressed? As a rule now I will not rewrite. Simply because I already invested too much time to spend another half hour rewriting (which takes longer than the actual writing most times) just to have the article rejected!!! Currently I am having an article reviewed because the editor wanted to know if permits, licensing and inspections were required for home coal forges. Here's a suggestion for an editor with an itching, burning question like that... do some legwork yourself and look that up online!

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There are some editors that need to be re-checked. I understand making reasonable adjustments, but I have had an editor who has been giving problems. The first article that was checked was sent back, basically because the information was not read and the editor acted like I was sending information that was too difficult, even though it was all explained. I just had an article that was sent back for a re-write, but I can't re-write it, because instead of telling me what to re-write, the article was DELETED. Yes, deleted. There is a step that has been put in there according to what the editor wants, but all the information that I put in... GONE! I'm sorry...but I worked hard to put that information in there. I don't think editing means erasing!

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I would like to know what it's meant when an article is flagged. I cannot find an answer to this question anywhere.

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Understanding the Copy Editing Process

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