Megan Gendell

Production editor working on S&S kids' books. Still sometimes freelance copyeditor. She/her.

[Megan Gendell @MCopyedits]

Shortest dialogue-tag error in the English language:
“Yes,” I nod.

[Megan Gendell @MCopyedits]

"I think that's an error, it's supposed to be ALL GLITTER." --things you hear in production meetings for children's books

[Megan Gendell @MCopyedits]

Notes you get to make working in children's books: Make sure this character matches prev page. In earlier illo, entire body appeared furry, but here the face doesn't seem to be furry.

[Megan Gendell @MCopyedits]

@littlestcabbage I skipped tunicates when I edited a kids' book on marine invertebrates because I couldn't even understand them myself!

[Megan Gendell @MCopyedits]

My girlfriend: Do you have any little Post-its?
Me, a proofreader who raided the Japanese stationery store shortly before all proofreading switched to digital: omg I'm made of little Post-its

[Megan Gendell @MCopyedits]

Typo of the day: The wind came from across the Brazilian boarder.

[Megan Gendell @MCopyedits]

@JaneDelury @GrammarParty Wait please tell us what's next after mom jeans then!

[Megan Gendell @MCopyedits]

#edibuddies, do you capitalize the N in Post-it Notes when they're mentioned in fiction? https://t.co/2qWAycMzEe does, but it looks like only the Post-it part is TM and the rest is branding...

[Megan Gendell @MCopyedits]

@DGendell I'm kind of a big deal 😜

[Megan Gendell @MCopyedits]

Got a voice mail two days in a row from unknown number: "Hi Megan, I have great news for you about [work-for-hire kids' NF book I wrote a decade ago]." Is this some kind of scam? Scared to return the call...

[Megan Gendell @MCopyedits]

@angelamisaacs @Miranda_Paul Alas I don't think I should share it yet, but I'm delighted to know that your list is already long!

[Megan Gendell @MCopyedits]

@Miranda_Paul @angelamisaacs I have the booby in a board book I'm fact-checking for a trad publisher right now too!

[Megan Gendell @MCopyedits]

@ExcellentEdits I love sycamores!

[Megan Gendell @MCopyedits]

@FowlerPaigeL I just learned this in the past year and still confused. Deck??

[Megan Gendell @MCopyedits]

If you're not already doing a lil stretch every time your cat or dog does one, let me highly recommend it.

[Megan Gendell @MCopyedits]

@EasyReaderEdit1 Makes sense! I like this tool so much better for the speed (I work on projects up to 300,000 words), but if that's not a big sell for other people then I can see how the price would need to be lower. Thanks!

[Megan Gendell @MCopyedits]

#edibuddies: I'm developing a proper noun analysis tool that spots possible typos. It's FAST, customizable, and so helpful. Thinking about pricing... Would you pay $25 for it? How about $25/y? What feels reasonable to you?

[Megan Gendell @MCopyedits]

@BergerSchuler You'll be able to export the results into an editable file (text and csv as options) you could use to compile your style sheet, but I'd love to hear how you'd like it to work with a stylesheet/wordlist/dictionary!

[Megan Gendell @MCopyedits]

@BergerSchuler It will catch false positives like those you mention, but you can easily add them to an ignore list so it catches fewer and fewer each time. It is not integrated into Word like perfectit, definitely not that fancy!

[Megan Gendell @MCopyedits]

@cindybryanedit Yup! Some are customizable but don't look for possible proper noun errors at all. Others don't allow customizations or learn from your preferences as you go like this would.

[Megan Gendell @MCopyedits]

@cindybryanedit Every time it catches proper noun errors that aren't actually errors, or aren't proper nouns, you can add them to the Ignore list (California/Californian; Darling/Darting) so it'll never flag them again. You can always edit/customize that list.