Literary works change over time, in part because of our interaction with the texts that represent them. Awareness of the history and evolution of the texts that represent literary works is a key factor in understanding them. This article is based on a Master’s thesis (Salminen 2008) which concentrates on how editions intended for general audiences portray the editorial processes that have shaped those editions. In particular, five Anglo-American editions of Catullus were scrutinized with regard to the different aspects of editorial information present in them. This article focuses on the one hand on these aspects of editorial information, which are here presented in the form of a framework of four key issues that should be taken into account in all editions. This framework is intended to provide a point of reference for evaluating edited texts in terms of how they portray editorial processes and other textual issues. On the other hand, this article focuses on the practical problems of implementing and portraying that framework in editions specifically intended for general audiences, as such editions seem to have less interest in editorial information and fewer resources for presenting it than specialist editions intended for scholarly use. I argue that, in our present culture of attributing information to its ‘rightful’ authors, including editorial information is also necessary in nonspecialist editions in order to increase our understanding of the nature of literary works as evolving and non- static cultural artefacts. Finally, on the basis of the editions of Catullus discussed in my Master’s thesis, I point towards some possible solutions to the practical problem of presenting editorial information in editions for more general audiences.