Marketing for Editors: Takeaways from a Guild Discussion
Effective marketing includes deciding where you want to focus your efforts (perhaps independent authors), as well as how (such as presenting at conferences). All the panelists felt a professional website is important. It should describe your editorial experience, the kinds of editing you specialize in, and how you work with clients—anything and everything to show that you are the person someone wants to work with.
Networking, which can strike fear in the hearts of introverted editors, entails meeting and connecting with others and communicating who you are and how you can fulfill their needs, whether it’s being published, attracting more clients, increasing sales, or improving writing skills.
Learning From Mistakes
Has this ever happened to you? You accept a new manuscript project for copyediting. You think you’ve correctly assessed the level of editing needed and bid accordingly. Indeed, the writer claims to have already paid for an editor, though she is a bit vague as to what she paid for.
You get to work, thinking you know how many days and hours it will take to finish the project. But wait—something is very wrong. That’s an odd expression for a novel set in medieval times. Ah well, must be a fluke. She did have another editor work on this manuscript, after all . . .
Meet Your New 2017 Edsguild Board
On January 7 the EdsGuild board had our annual retreat in West Seattle at a coworking space generously provided by Kerrie Schurr. Membership on the board changes every year, with some members stepping down after their two years of service and new volunteers stepping in, and many continuing members changing positions, and we’ve found over the last several years that a day-long retreat is a great way to get to know each other a little if we weren’t acquainted before, get onto the same page with logistics and regulations, and plan for the year ahead.
This year is an especially exciting one, coming up on the Guild’s 20th anniversary as well as our 6th conference in the fall, and we’ll be taking some time over the next month or so on this blog to introduce you all to our board members, the committees and positions they serve in, what those committees have planned in the coming year, and how you can get involved. For now, we’d like to give you a chance to get to know a little bit about your new board members.
Thinking Hard for Ourselves: A Short History of Editors
Chapter five of Susan Bell’s The Artful Edit, a book on the craft of self-editing*, is dedicated to the (mainly western and Eurocentric, it must be said) history of editing. She traces the editor’s genealogy through the following positions.
She originates editing with scribes, who, in ancient Mesopotamia, “had to downplay their reading skills lest they antagonize their employer” with their powers to understand and shape the written word. Later, in medieval Europe, “the sleepy scribe would accidentally skip or alter words; the arrogant yet lucid would rewrite an obtuse passage; the zealous would interpolate” (and sometimes a feline coworker would contribute their own take on a manuscript).
How to Table: A Guide for Introverts
You’ve signed up for a shift at the NWIEG table at an event or conference. Maybe you’re excited for free or discounted entrance into the event. Maybe you’re making an effort to get out and network more often. Maybe you want to share the wide variety of talents held by Guild members. These are all good reasons to volunteer to represent the Guild.
But wait! Aren’t you an introvert? How the heck are you supposed to make small talk with a bunch of strangers for several hours? What are you supposed to do during the downtimes? Can you just sit there with a pile of flyers and hope they magically drift into the hands of attendees?
Don’t panic. We’ve got a strategy for you and a list of ways to ensure that you, your tablemates, and the people you meet all leave happy and with a positive impression of the Guild.
2016 State of the Guild
I don’t know where the urge to shoot myself in the foot comes from, but I’m going to tell on myself now: the Guild met in this same fabulous Sky Lounge for a potluck two years ago, and I brought my standard potluck dish, which is a Greek potato salad. Everyone was asked to create a label, naming their food item, and place the label next to their dish. I’ll never forget the horror of standing in this room, looking at my Magic-markered word “Potatoe” and thinking maybe I should take the e off the end. But not being so sure about that. All the while, fifty hungry editors were lining up to make the rounds on the buffet table. I left the e on there. Please forgive me–this happened at the end of a long, hard week and you all made me nervous.
I discovered that I come unglued in the presence of genius.