Dana--

In your recent a-clue, you wrote:

>Now I have a soft spot in my heart for editors. Good editors are hard to find.

You're right on target. I probably read more on the web and less in books than I should, but I've noticed glaring editing errors in two major-publisher books I've read lately: one by James Sterne about customer service over the Internet and the other, Tony Hillerman's latest mystery. In the first, there was a reference to one web site and a different web site (a competitor's) was shown as the example and in the other the two protagonists (Leaphorn and Chee) were mixed up in one reference. These are easy mistakes for an author to make (I know, I had a book published by Dow Jones some years ago) but SHOULD have been quickly caught by an editor. The lack of competent editing is shameful.

Regards, Brooks Hilliard --

Brooks,

The problem is real. The only solution is to find money in the book publishing model that will pay for competent editors.

The irony here, of course, is the problem with falling prices. Books may seem expensive, but they've risen in price much more slowly than inflation for decades, while the costs to produce them (and find a market for them) keeps going up. What has to give? Writers and editors.

My point (and it's one that should be tested in the market) is that the Web offers the opportunity to re-make these economics. If readers are collected by editors, rather than sold by mass marketing, there is going to be a basic change in the economic models....

Thanks for writing.
Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn