Benjamin Dreyer
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bcdreyer.social
Benjamin Dreyer
@bcdreyer.social
America's Copy Editor®

author of the New York Times/IndieBound bestseller Dreyer's English and Stet! (the game!) • Random House copy chief/managing editor (ret.) • he/him/his

benjamindreyer.com
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Greetings, new people here at House of Copyediting. Besides first-rate, IISSM, prose advice, you'll get:

• a random theater photo of the day, sometimes more than one
• birthday alerts for dead actresses, and occasionally live ones
• Sallie updates

And it's all free!
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
you can just not fund this shit under any circumstances

you don’t have to pretend they need better training, or are doing an important job incorrectly

they’re just racist thugs doing ethnic cleansing and the whole gang should be in jail
More than 400 people, including hundreds of citizens, were “sorted” at gun point into racial and ethnic groups by 200 ICE agents who fired flash-bang grenades into cars with people inside, pointed guns at children & demanded their zip tied parents not comfort them. apple.news/Ausdx6kWtT0e...
Idaho families sue over immigration raid that swept up hundreds, including U.S. citizens — NBC News
About 400 people, including children and U.S. citizens, were detained for four hours while they were denied food and water in the raid, according to the lawsuit.
apple.news
February 12, 2026 at 2:37 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
I don’t think we should allow the secret police to round people up and sort them by race
More than 400 people, including hundreds of citizens, were “sorted” at gun point into racial and ethnic groups by 200 ICE agents who fired flash-bang grenades into cars with people inside, pointed guns at children & demanded their zip tied parents not comfort them. apple.news/Ausdx6kWtT0e...
Idaho families sue over immigration raid that swept up hundreds, including U.S. citizens — NBC News
About 400 people, including children and U.S. citizens, were detained for four hours while they were denied food and water in the raid, according to the lawsuit.
apple.news
February 12, 2026 at 2:32 AM
OH MY GOSH AN INTERNET CLASSIC
February 12, 2026 at 2:37 AM
How thrilling that must've been!

Was it building word of mouth? Did a prize take you over the top?

(In all my years at RH, I can think of only two books that took a year to bestsell, and they'd both got big prizes.)
February 12, 2026 at 2:02 AM
I’m always (well, let’s just say often) delighted to see books hitting the bestseller lists, but I’ll always giggle over the breathless “instant bestseller!” thing.

I mean, they’re almost always instant.

“Schlepped along for months and finally hit the list!” would be a novelty.
February 12, 2026 at 1:27 AM
I mean, WHAT WAS SHE THINKING?
February 12, 2026 at 1:23 AM
It’s one of her best qualities!
February 12, 2026 at 1:22 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
Just take a look at this and remember, Pam Bondi's concern here was not with any of the victims of these crimes but with the nosy Democrats who actually gave a shit about them.
February 12, 2026 at 12:38 AM
One of the things I appreciated watching the Bondi debacle is how gleefully all the Democrats displayed their utter loathing of her.

Really, it was spirit-lifting.
February 12, 2026 at 1:03 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
I better not see this bitch on Dancing With the Stars
February 11, 2026 at 11:48 PM
I have not ever seen a single clip of her in action that is anything less than riveting.
February 11, 2026 at 11:40 PM
Lev Parnas is what Elves eat, right?
February 11, 2026 at 11:39 PM
A little wandering scrolling just now led me to the notorious Fanny Cradock–vs.–Gwen Troake clip, and JESUSGOD.

(I've seen it innumerable times, but it never ceases to be viscerally horrific.)
February 11, 2026 at 11:31 PM
This is the BEST. THING. EVER.
February 11, 2026 at 11:26 PM
🫢
Over on threads someone just use ai;dr and we all need to adopt that right quick
February 11, 2026 at 11:26 PM
And played by Sammy Smith in the eventual musicalization, Wish You Were Here.
February 11, 2026 at 11:21 PM
OK, I'm pretty pleased with myself right now.
February 11, 2026 at 11:12 PM
Putting the retch in ink-stained wretch.
February 11, 2026 at 11:12 PM
Once and only once did I submit a piece for publication that was in part about my struggles to write said piece (truly, I couldn't figure out another way to do it), and my editor gave me the virtual hairy eyeball but accepted the piece, and I *never* did that again.
February 11, 2026 at 11:10 PM
It's all yours.
February 11, 2026 at 11:09 PM
(This skeet brought to you by an inadvertent encounter with paragraphs and paragraphs of soggy geschreiing.)
February 11, 2026 at 11:02 PM
I think that some (not all!) writers wildly overestimate how interested other people might be in their F E E L I N G S about the P R O C E S S of writing and the S T R U G G L E S, oh, the S T R U G G L E S.

Like, get on with it.
February 11, 2026 at 11:02 PM
I can't *i m a g i n e* why the person who posted that ended up deleting their account.
February 11, 2026 at 9:17 PM
Oh hey, just stumbled upon "'talent' is a gatekeeping mechanism," and (a) well, duh, and (b) I can't stop laughing.
February 11, 2026 at 9:15 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Dreyer
A government of the assholes, by the assholes, for the assholes.
Per @pabloreports.bsky.social: Bondi has a “burn book” organized by the names of Democratic lawmakers so she can attack them when they ask her questions.
February 11, 2026 at 6:13 PM