Tuesday, May 15, 2007

It's official: I'm a Dummy.



I tech edited this book, and one or two editions before this also. I got my free copy today. I'll probably sell it on ebay, oops. They put references to my site in the book, which really pleases me. The editor was charming and friendly, which made it more fun.

In a tech editing job like this, I get sent the manuscript in Word, (a horrible program), and am allowed to beta test the new software. The job is to find errors or things that don't make sense or seem obsolete, and also to test all the examples. It's a job where I get paid to be critical, thus rewarding an irritating personality trait of mine.

About five years ago I tech edited a whole string of beautifully designed books on Flash for the Brit publisher "friends of ed." There was no ed, and they stiffed me and everyone else mightily in a surprise bankruptcy. Tech editing pays very little, and even less when they go Chapter 11.

I love Flash and feel it's underused by experimental animators. Adobe owns it now, and this new version has a code language that is so complex, it's sure to shut out most newcomer designers and animators, unless they have a back up coding team, which is too bad. (This book barely touches code-- it's truly for dummies.)

I still think interactive animation is the future for 2-D animation, but waiting for the rest of the world to agree with me.

2 comments:

Sally said...

I love this post. That's so great you edit Flash books! I'm way behind on the latest upgrades and just barely had a grip on earlier versions, but it was fun when I took a class in it before.

Sally said...

Another Sally in the world, hooray. T.C. Boyle wrote a short story where the main character talks about what a stupid name Sally is, but I've always liked it. And I like his short stories too.