For those currently involved in freelance editorial work, and for those contemplating such a venture, Trumbull Rogers' Editorial Freelancing: A Practical Guide is an indispensable resource. The last books of this sort were Carol L. O'Neill and Avima Ruder's The Complete Guide to Editorial Freelancing, published in 1974, and Karen Judd's Copyediting: A Practical Guide, published in 1982. The former was, like Rogers, heavy on the business and practical side; the latter concentrated on the nuts and bolts of the craft. This new book is about the freelancing life. Rogers writes about setting yourself up as a freelancer, networking, getting and keeping clients, keeping financial records, finding an accountant, and other vital concerns. He does not cover grammar, usage, or style; you can go to many other books (including the earlier two) for that.

A good deal has happened in the last 20 years to warrant a new guide, something that goes beyond O'Neill and Ruder's book. The markets have changed considerably. Where there were many independent publishing houses, there are now giant corporations that count publishers among their many unrelated holdings. Computers were not even a curiosity in 1976; today, they are as common a freelancer's tool as a red pencil or an appointment book. The earlier book quotes editing fees in its appendix as low as $2.50 an hour; less than $15.00 an hour would be insulting nowadays. And because of computerization, modems, faxes, and data networks, the publishing process is more compressed and the turnaround quicker.

Rogers covers details that might appear insignificant, or even trivial. But in the midst of the battle, they can become very important. The minutiae of marketing yourself or laying out your home office can become very large in the day-to-day reality of freelancing. For example, he examines all the equipment -- from computers to pencil trays to reference books -- that you will need and discusses the most efficient way to lay it all out in an office. (Unfortunately, Rogers never considers the easy-to-use, versatile Macintosh computer as a viable platform.)

Speaking of computers, that area is the only one in which Trumbull Rogers' book falls short. There are surprisingly few mentions of the Internet in a book published so recently. I find the World Wide Web and E-mail important to my editing. The Web has become one of my primary research tools: I can, for instance, look up a full corporate name or the correct spelling of a product by going to a company's Web site. There are a growing number of reference tools on the Web. I also commune electronically with other editors throughout the English-speaking world via the copyediting mailing list hosted by Cornell University (copyediting-l@cornell.edu), as well as with a small group of editors here in the Boston area. When I farm out work to a freelancer, I find it a real advantage if that person has an Internet address; I can easily communicate and exchange files. If it is practical for Aletheia Publications, I think that Rogers should bone up on the Internet and data communications, and rush a new edition into print.

It would have been good, also, if Rogers had included an appendix on the freelance job market, as O'Neill and Ruder did in their book, but I'm sure space was a consideration. The 1974 book devoted more than 60 pages to listing publishers in every part of the country -- their rates, the kinds of work they sent out, who to contact, whether they gave a test, and other important information.