On the clock

Six-frame cartoon. The first two frames are labelled "Billable time" and feature one frame showing Bespectacled Editor working at her computer at her desk, and the second frame showing Bespectacled Editor at her kitchen table with a laptop, proofs, and reference books. The bottom four frames are labelled "Non-billable time." One frame shows Bespectacled Editor cooking and thinking "If the author agrees to move some content from the first chapter to a preface, we could cut a lot of the metadiscourse." The second frame shows Bespectacled Editor doing crunches and thinking, "Ohhhh… Did the author mean “commendation” instead of “condemnation”? That would make a lot more sense." The third frame shows the editor showering and thinking, "Maybe we could find a way to expand the marine metaphor throughout the text to give it more coherence." And the fourth frame shows the editor in bed, thinking, "I should confirm which of the images are in the public domain and which ones the author will need to get permission to reprint."

Creative Commons License

(An Editorial Cartoon—a print book of the first ten years of these comics about editing and publishing—is available from online book retailers everywhere. One dollar from each copy sold goes to the Indigenous Editors Association. Massive thanks to everyone who’s bought a copy so far!)

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