Your editor is your client. Your customer. And it's a good idea to know what an editor does before you go taking up too much of your editor's time with your requests or questions.

Editors in other fields such as fiction or American comics have some say as to the content of the work assigned to them. In manga, obviously, the content is already decided, so what an editor does is to see the manga from the earliest stages of planning all the way through production, even down to quality checking after the book's been printed.

A manga editor, in cooperation with the managing editor, will assign a series to the freelancers (usually literal translation, adaptation, and lettering -- although some of those jobs may be done in house or combined). After it is assigned, the editor works with the licensing division to get materials in from Japan in time to make the publishing date, and turns those materials around to send out to the freelance help. Then the editor monitors deadlines to make sure that production is running smoothly.

The editor monitors the literal translator to make sure that he/she gets the translation in to the adaptor on deadline.

When a script comes in from the adaptor, the editor must go over it line-by-line to be sure that it meets with the publisher's standards, has no typos or other mistakes, includes all of the sound effects and dialog on the page (some of those sound effects are easy to miss), and makes sure that any foreseeable problems are handled before they become a crisis. Then the editor turns the script around and sends it and materials (the manga page images) on to the letterer, and monitors to make sure that the letterer meets his/her deadline.

When the pages come back from the letterer, the editor goes over it again with a proverbial fine-tooth comb to make sure that all dialog is correct and in the correct balloons, all sound effects are touched up as per the publisher's requirements, page numbers match and are on the correct side of the page (a common mistake since each page is handled separately), correct fonts are used, words don't go too close to the edge of the page and are in danger of being cut off, and a few dozen other details.

While the editor was waiting for the lettered pages, he/she was also writing the extra text that goes into every book such as credits, introductions, back-cover text, etc., and sending it to the designer for cover and interior page design. (Sometimes the designer can be a freelancer as well, although it isn't as common since the designer is called on to solve crises, and it's best to have crisis management handled in house.)

Then the editor is responsible for making sure the entire book is sent to the printer on time. Before the mass printing occurs, a test copy is printed and sent to the editor who, once again, checks the pages just as closely as before for errors and places where there may be a misprint. This is the final stage where corrections can be made, so it is essential all mistakes are ironed out at this point. If the editor finds no problems, the "OK" is given to print the copies in the print run.

Finally, a box of printed books comes in, and the editor does a final check to see if anything went wrong between the test print and the actual print.

The editor is in charge of the content of the book, and if there is anything the Japanese licensors don't like about the book, the editor is usually at the center of the controversy. (Right or wrong, one can expect a lot of bowing and apologizing to be involved -- at all levels.)

The editor is also the crisis manager, so a good half of an editor's day is usually trying to work out one problem or another. Since an editor has quite a few books running at once, there is a lot of crisis management to do. Missed deadlines, coordination with video releases or magazine installments, answering marketing's questions and requests, assuring upper management that things are proceeding smoothly, apologizing when they aren't, and just trying to juggle fifteen or so different jobs during the same moment.

Editors are chronically overworked, but they usually aren't the type to feel sorry for themselves since they're working on good material. Most are great fun to work with.

The trick to dealing with editors is to realize just how busy they are, and to make your communication with them short, succinct, and friendly. Although having a company executive on your side is the best job insurance, having an editor who likes you is almost as good.