Editing Author (section)

==Relationship with editor==
The relationship between the author and the [[Book editor|editor]], often the author's only liaison to the publishing company, is typically characterized as the site of tension. For the author to reach their audience, often through publication, the work usually must attract the attention of the editor. The idea of the author as the sole meaning-maker of necessity changes to include the influences of the editor and the publisher to engage the audience in writing as a social act.

There are three principal kinds of editing: 
* Proofing (checking the grammar and spelling, looking for typographical errors), 
* Story (potentially an area of deep angst for both author and publisher), and 
* Layout (the [[typesetting]] needed to ready a work for publishing often requires minor text changes, so a layout editor is employed to ensure that these do not alter the sense of the text).

[[Pierre Bourdieu]]'s essay "The Field of Cultural Production" depicts the publishing industry as a "space of literary or artistic position-takings," also called the "field of struggles," which is defined by the tension and movement inherent among the various positions in the field.<ref>Bourdieu, Pierre. "The Field of Cultural Production, or: The Economic World Reversed." The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993, 30.</ref> Bourdieu claims that the "field of position-takings [...] is not the product of coherence-seeking intention or objective consensus," meaning that an industry characterized by position-takings is not one of harmony and neutrality.<ref>Bourdieu, Pierre. "The Field of Cultural Production, or: The Economic World Reversed." The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993, 34</ref> In particular for the writer, their authorship in their work makes their work part of their identity, and there is much at stake personally over the negotiation of authority over that identity. However, it is the editor who has "the power to impose the dominant definition of the writer and therefore to delimit the population of those entitled to take part in the struggle to define the writer".<ref>Bourdieu, Pierre. "The Field of Cultural Production, or: The Economic World Reversed." The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993, 42</ref> As "cultural investors," publishers rely on the editor position to identify a good investment in "cultural capital" which may grow to yield economic capital across all positions.<ref>Bourdieu, Pierre. "The Field of Cultural Production, or: The Economic World Reversed." The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993, 68</ref>

According to the studies of James Curran, the system of shared values among editors in Britain has generated a pressure among authors to write to fit the editors' expectations, removing the focus from the reader-audience and putting a strain on the relationship between authors and editors and on writing as a social act. Even the book review by the editors has more significance than the readership's reception.<ref>Curran, James. "Literary Editors, Social Networks and Cultural Tradition." Media Organizations in Society. James Curran, ed. London: Arnold, 2000, 230</ref>