Sub-editors: how can I avoid killing them?

I admit it, I start every piece with it.

I keep getting into fights by responding to innocuous comments with it.

I dunno if Pipecock's comments are innocuous.

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Only 2 results for "them's fighting words" + "Hot Press" and both of those are from the same blog.

erm...are you saying I made this up? you can't search for hot press online because you need to have subscribed.

I bet that's a real moneyspinner.

yeah it's a proven business model

erm...are you saying I made this up? you can't search for hot press online because you need to have subscribed.

-- Ronan, Monday, 28 July 2008 10:54 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

Yeah, wtf?
Fake marcello?

Someone's being overly paranoid here.

"Overly paranoid" is redundant.

No, you're mixing up overly paranoid with the British economy.

q - i have to do a 'subbing test' for a job im applying for. but on the actual document (called subbing test incidentally) with the text it says 'write two listings', not SUB two listings. so im guessing id be wrong to rewrite the entire thing right?

Not sure I understand: do you mean there's some copy to sub, then there's an instruction telling you to write some copy in the style of the stuff you've been subbing?

If so, maybe stating the obvious, but don't just rewrite the stuff you're meant to be subbing. Sub test documents are often there to trip you on fact-checking, house style, consistency & the little things: double spaces, en dashes, date styles etc. It's really an attn to detail test; only rewrite where necessary, and lightly.

Other subs may disagree.

well the document is called 'subbing test' but in the instructions it says to 'write an appetising listing' for two programmes, for which there are 2 bits of blurb, one from a production office, one from a publicity office. the one from the prod office is about the right word count theyre asking me to write a listing for, so not sure whether to really write my own one, or to just try and reword the existing one slightly. if thats the case, theres not much there to change really.

maybe it is there to trip me up, not sure.

Ah, ok. So it does sound a sort of writing test. Ignoring me might be best.

who knows. thanks tho.

i mean, one listing has the title in all caps, the other is sentence case. doesnt even seem to be a house style to stick to!

Sometimes it only takes one.

Having begun working as a sub the last couple of years, I'm astonished, ASTONISHED at the state of some of the copy I have to work on. As a writer, the thought of sending in a piece of copy that hadn't been rewritten and reread enough times to be immaculate is akin to walking around with my balls hanging out of my fly. It appears a lot of writers, however, do not feel this way.

I can see why y'all start blogs. To avoid killing editors.

if any london ilxors know of any part-time sub editor jobs currently available this would be fun and useful (i'm one of the good ones that no one wants to kill) (probably)

based on what a friend told me who worked here, the spec always needs temp sub-editors, and they're informal enough that they could probably be cold-called

(disclaimer: i may be totally misinformed)

ooh that sounds interesting (lol also er challenging), thank you!

I'm not sure how to link to it, mark, but the subs_uk yahoogroup is a good source of work offers

cheers stevie, i will hunt that down on monday :)

i got my gig at heat via the group and now work there pretty much every month!

mark s, Dominic Wells - former Time Out editor - was looking for a London-based sub recently on Facebook. Caveat: I think the work would be on advertorials for The Times and Sunday Times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp7RDqY1S1o

cheers WF :)

Caveat: I think the work would be on advertorials for The Times and Sunday Times.

doubtless £££s tho

the closest i've ever been to working on a title i was ideologically unsympathetic to was a fill-in week on r3d p3pper when it first started -- and it wasn't the politics, which i was broadly aboard with (otherwise wouldn't have bothered replying to the ad), but the in-office banter abt pop culture: no one present had a clue

also i did a few days at WOUND CARE magazine once, despite myself being WOUND? DON'T CARE

should apply at The Wire for maximum pathos

https://i.imgur.com/mPgfVXT.jpg

:D <3

Just before I moved from London to Glasgow I did a few fill-in shifts subbing The Sun's TV mag. This was at the News International compound in Wapping - have never worked anywhere else with such tight, oppressive security arrangements. It was of course interesting in all sorts of ways, and yeah, the rates were pretty good - the Murdoch shilling basically paid my relocation expenses.

So you're saying when the revolution comes it will be difficult to storm in there and smash up all their computers, which was my revolution plan

I'm sure the security guards will recognise their common revolutionary cause with you and assist with the smashing of the presses.

ok i have applied to join the uk subs and sent an email to dominic wells via his website, which is probably bad etiquette but i couldn't find the relevant facebook post

i will phone up the spectator later in the week perhaps

lol fabled foe of the subs' desk giles coren showing his worthless ass again

stevie i got no joy from the subs_uk yahoogroup -- can you tell if it's currently active from the inside?

(i applied for membership and the application failed 14 days later, i'm assuming bcz the person who makes the decisions didn't spot it -- i will re-apply anyway)

hey! am on hols this week but will reply properly when i get back home x

the blessed return of #theabsolutegrudge :D

(ps and v unrelated: nudging stevie? i never no response from them second time of enquiring either?)

Apologies, Mark - just fired off a message to the list to find out who the admin is

cheers :)

The UK company I work for may have some freelance subbing work going in October, working on a number of different contract-client magazines. It would be short notice when pages are available to work on, and a quick turnaround would be required. You would be subbing for facts, grammar and internal consistency, rather than wholesale rewriting etc (unless the text is particularly disastrous). There might also be client changes/amends to action.

You would need to have InDesign 2020 and might be required to make minor design tweaks to layouts; there could also be subbing work on e-newsletters too, so familiarity with MailChimp and Umbraco would be a plus. The company has offices in London and Glasgow; this would all be for the Glasgow office, although obviously you can be based anywhere in the UK.

The long-term goal is to increase our pool of subbing freelancers, who at present all get fairly frequent work from us. I don't know what daily rates will be on offer - I would guess around £150 a day would be the absolute max.

If anyone is interested, please send me an email, with a very brief resume of your previous subbing work, to Axx✧✧✧.littlefi✧✧✧@thinkpublish✧✧✧.c✧.u✧ (that's 'Andrew' at the start of my email address obv).

Thanks!

LOL ILX seems to automatically censor email addresses (very wise!)

so that's

Andrew.littlefield

at 'think publishing.co.uk'