Why are we such terrible writers and how can we fix this? Benjamin Dreyer will be here

to discuss his best-selling guide to writing, Dreyer's English. What makes for a great

Washington novel? Thomas Mowlin will be here to talk about his latest book, Land of Fall.

Alexander Alter will give us an update from the literary world. Plus, we'll talk about

what we and the wider world are reading. This is the Book Review Podcast from the New

York Times. I'm Pamela Paul.

Benjamin Dreyer joins us now. He is the copy chief of Random House and the author of a new

book, Already a Best Seller, Dreyer's English, and utterly correct to guide to clarity and

style. Benjamin, thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. Let's start with something

very basic, which is what is a copy editor? How is it different from an editor editor and

a proofreader? What is it? Well, the editor editor, and that's what I call those people to,

the editor editor. That's the person who acquires the book for the house and squires it through,

however, many drafts it takes until it's generally happily decided that the book is ostensibly

finished. That's big work of arcs and pace and characterization and all the things that go into

turning a very good idea for a book and to a great idea for a book. But when it is finished,

that's when it needs to be copy edited. Copy editors do a host of things. There's the

rudimentary checking to make sure that everything is spelled correctly, making sure that the

homophones are untangled. If it's a novel, you're keeping an eye on continuity issues,

basic things like ensuring that if somebody is speeding up eighth avenue, they are in fact

speeding north on eighth avenue instead of speeding south on eighth avenue. And you're also doing,

I'd say more artful things like keeping an eye on an author's penchant for certain words.

All authors have pet words. They all have different pet words. But if you like that word,

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