What is Copying the Craft?
Copying the Craft presents conversations with editorial professionals across the field, focusing on the education that shaped them. I feel that editorial knowledge, the skills that define our field, are often transmitted informally. Whether in the halls of publishing houses or desks of classrooms, I believe that editorial education deserves to be documented.
How is Copying the Craft Edited?
This publication seeks to learn how editors at the top of the field learn and teach the craft. As editorial director, J. Maxwell Barid interviews these editors, asking about who taught them, how they were taught, and what they think is essential for the next generation of editors to know.
These comprehensive interviews are edited into narrative portraits depicting these editors across the years, detailing how they were trained and developed into the professionals that they are. By documenting how today’s editors at the top of the craft learned, I hope to make the path towards editorial excellence more accessible for the top editors of tomorrow.
About the Editor
J. Maxwell Barid is an editor and editorial instructor based in Savannah, Georgia. Having completed his formal training through the University of Chicago’s Graham School’s Professional Development Certificate in Editing, he hopes to help make excellent editorial training more accessible.
He serves as an editorial instructor for the George-Anne Media Group, a student media organization based out of Georgia Southern University, teaching introductory craft-based manuscript editing to undergraduate students. In this position, he loves getting to know editors-in-training where they are, focusing on how best to teach the editors of tomorrow.
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