Hi, all! I just wanted to make a quick announcement: I’m giving a presentation titled Becoming a Freelance Editor for the Houston Public Library this Thurs., March 17, online (free). You can register here. Some items on the agenda include recommended editor qualifications, editing organizations, best practices, finding clients / marketing yourself, freelance taxes, tips from other editors, and more. Please feel free to pass this along to those who might be interested. Thanks!
Editor Amy
It’s been a long time since I wrote a blog post. (Sorry!) This is a special occasion, so I thought I should write again. I just completed my master’s degree in publishing from George Washington University! It’s been a very interesting two-year adventure, and I really loved the program. I took classes such as The Professional Editor, Book Design, Marketing Strategies, Global Publishing, Ethics in Publishing, and Book Publicity and Promotion. It was certainly a challenge juggling grad school along with my full-time corporate editing job and my Editor Amy freelance work, but I did it! I feel even more prepared now to help my clients with their goals. So, if you have a project ready for editing, let me know!
Editor Amy
When I learn new things that I consider interesting about the editing or publishing field, I can’t expect much of a reaction from most of my friends and family. They just don’t get it. But you, readers, might!
Did you know that the Chicago Manual of Style, the style guide of all style guides, is coming out with a 17th edition this September? New editions are several years apart, and as language evolves, more changes will occur in our style guides. So, I’m excited to see what’s new and what’s changed.
One example of a change is the acceptance of the word “themself.” If you even try to type that in a program that has spell check, you’ll see an angry red squiggle under it, or else spell check will automatically replace it with “themselves.” Since the singular “they” is becoming more and more accepted, we need a reflexive pronoun for it that’ll fit. For example, if you’re using “they” in a sentence to represent a singular person, usually with an unknown gender, you wouldn’t later say “himself” (what if the person is not a male?); “themself” is what would fit now.
Is any of that interesting to y’all? I hope so. As always, I’m here if you have questions.
Editor Amy
A fellow editor I know is going to host a webinar in a couple days called Publish a High-Quality Book That Sells. It’s effectively a crash course in self-publishing success. I figured some of you might be interested, so feel free to click the link in the course name and check it out. (It’s not free, but it’s not expensive for a webinar, either.)
If you plan to self-publish, then trust me–you’ll need all the help and tips you can get. And, as always, I’m here to help too. Good luck!
Editor Amy
The Houston Writers Guild Annual Spring Conference is coming up! It’s a great resource for readers, writers, and anyone else who aspires to become part of the publishing world. There will be speakers, agent pitches, books for sale, tables from local vendors, and more. As you might have seen from my earlier blog posts, I’ve attended the last two years.
Yours truly will have a table there Sat., April 29. I love going and always end up meeting a lot of interesting people. Come see what the HWG conference is all about!
Editor Amy
Well, the Houston Writers Guild annual conference went really well, according to everyone. I was one of the breakout speakers and did a presentation called “Preparing to Work with and Later Working with an Editor.” I was super nervous and felt I messed up a good amount, but I got great feedback about it afterward. The audience was perfect: they took notes, laughed in the right spots, and asked questions. Below is the title page of my PowerPoint presentation.
I also had a little table set up that I stayed at for most of the rest of the conference, and people came by to ask advice about their books and get information about the editing process. I tell you, it’s such a rewarding feeling doing what you love, being able to help others reach their goals, and having people look to you for guidance.
Later in the day I participated on a panel with a few literary agents and one other editor. That was definitely helpful to a lot of writers. Those agents were available during the day to hear book pitches, and I got to hear all about several people’s encouraging sessions with the agents. Such excitement all day.
So, though I was a nervous wreck for a good part of the day, it was totally worth it. I’m looking forward to next year’s conference already.
Editor Amy
Editor Amy 