Re. Editor vs. manager

[Geoff Hart <geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

 Patty Ewy asked about the differences between managers and
 editors in the context of producing a publication (as
 opposed to supervisory, budgetary etc. roles). The big
 differences lie in responsibility, authority and our
 relationships with the author.

 As an editor, I'm the writer's ally in our ongoing struggle
 against the research director (our mutual manager), who is
 also a pretty good editor. The struggle occurs because
 Ernie has a high standard for quality, and it's darn near
 impossible to get a manuscript approved without some
 changes. Mostly minor, but often he has some important
 substantive revisions to suggest. That's a general rule, by
 the way: the more pairs of expert eyes you have to look at
 something, the more errors you'll catch or improvements
 you'll find. In our shop, it makes for a friendly,
 functional synergy.

 I _don't_ have the authority to approve manuscripts for
 publication, I just edit them to that point, but I do have
 authority to make the final decision on issues of language
 and format. Ernie _does_ have approval authority, but
 doesn't have the time to hold the author's hand and coach
 authors on exactly how to revise manuscripts until he's
 willing to approve them. I do have the time to coach, and
 the responsibility to do so.

 --Geoff Hart    @8^{)}
 geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

 Disclaimer: If I didn't commit it in print in one of our
 reports, it don't represent FERIC's opinion.