Professional Mothering

I was chatting by e-mail with a friend and colleague today, and I mentioned the audio conference on getting started as a freelance editor for which I was one of two speakers this morning. She knows how much I enjoy doing these occasional audio conferences and also mentoring new copyeditors and new freelancers.

"You really are an EditorMom: a mom who's an editor, and a "mom" to all us editors!" she wrote to me.

She's right. In most things I do, I mother. I mother the manuscripts that I edit—and their authors—helping them to be the best that they can be. I mother people new to my profession or new to practicing it freelance, giving them tips for success, serving as a sounding board, and cheering them on. And of course, I mother my children. There's just something so satisfying—viscerally so—about being there for another human who wants to learn and grow. And in doing that, I grow too.

Want to grow even more as an editor? I'll be a copresenter at another audio conference on Tuesday, March 27, 11:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m. Eastern time. (That's 10:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m. Central, 9:30 a.m.–11:00 p.m. Mountain, and 8:30 a.m.–10:00 p.m. Pacific.) Wendalyn Nichols, editor of Copy Editor newsletter, will host and be a presenter with me. The topic will be client management and self-marketing for freelancers. Go here to get details and sign up (use the "Register Now!" link at the bottom of the information page for the conference).

After you register, you'll be given a toll-free phone number, which you'll call at conference time, and a password, which you'll give to the conference coordinator who answers the phone. You'll be listening to the presentation part of the time and asking questions when the coordinator says it's Q&A time. The audio conference will be about 90 minutes long.

I'll talk to you then!



freelancer self-employed copyeditor copyediting editor editing publishing conference EditorMom