Tricky Edits Column for June 2025

Tricky Edits

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

When We Try to Make Edits Too Tricky

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the newly released
Third Edition of The Frugal Editor

When you’re busy at a task that requires self-editing—and we both know those moments come along frequently—you might hear yourself making excuses. Your publisher will be providing a great editor, so why spend the money, right? Or the piece you’re working on isn’t a treatise for the world to see, anyway, so you’ll save your money for the big jobs. Or your English teacher doesn’t mind looking over something one more time. Besides, it’s a good way to stay in contact with the dear lady.

I’m going to give you one instance that will let you feel more powerful. No excuses. No weak knees over making the wrong choice. Either you know it or you don’t. And it’s so new the greatest editors don’t either. 

It’s Wi-Fi. It is here to solve this dilemma forevermore. It’s a word that came along after you fourth grade teacher retired so she wouldn’t know either. 

It isn’t an acronym so guessing the logical words parsing it won’t help. The Fi doesn’t stand for fidelity, for instance. 

Nope, don’t try to convince me with the idea that Wi obviously stands for wireless.

Don’t settle on the obvious argument that it always seems to be capitalized so it must be an acronym.

So here’s the story. Once upon a time, Wi-Fi had a different name. Along about 1990, a group of developers realized that lots of unintelligible numbers wasn’t a moniker that was going to cut it. It needed a marketable name. Something memorable. So the powers-that-be at Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA) led by Phil Belanger Some came up with Wi-Fi and if you know that, you can impress even a room full of techies.

You don’t fidget with it, lose sleep over the dash or the capital letters. It’s like Kleenex. It is what it is. It is because they say so, and they made it official! 

MORE ABOUT CAROLYN:

Once a month Carolyn Howard-Johnson shares something writer-related she hopes might save some author from embarrassment (or make the task of writing more fun or creative.) The third edition of The Frugal Editor from Modern History Press includes a chapter on some of the words most misused by the very people whose business it is to know them. It is the second multi award-winning book in her multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers. The Frugal Editor, now in its third edition,  has been fully updated including a chapter on how back matter can be extended to help readers and nudge book sales.

Carolyn blogs sporadically on editing at http://www.thefrugaleditor.blogspot.com and at her SharingwithWriters blog on other aspects of the publishing world and welcomes guest posts with ample author credit lines and links and welcomes guest posts complete with credit lines and ample links for her guests. She also tweets writers' resources and tips at www.twitter.com/frugalbookpromo using #FrugalBookPromoterTips hashtag.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson brings her experience as a publicist, journalist, marketer, and retailer to the advice she gives in her HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers and the many classes she taught for nearly a decade as instructor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program where has found a little humor can decidedly make a lot of learning easier on one’s disposition. 

The books in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers have won multiple awards. That series includes both the third editions of The Frugal Book Promoter and my The Frugal Editor. Published by Modern History Press, they have won awards from USA Book News, Readers’ Views Literary Award, Dan Poynter’s Global Ebook Award, the marketing award from Next Generation Indie Books and others including the coveted Irwin award. How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically is still in its first (very frugal!) edition but please wait for the second edition from Modern History Press. 

Howard-Johnson is the recipient of the California Legislature’s Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, and her community’s Character and Ethics award for her work promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly’s list of “Fourteen San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen” and was given her community’s Diamond Award for Achievement in the Arts.