When we have plenty of work to do, why would we freelance editorial professionals take an hour or so off to chat? Because it's vital to our success, that's why!
For a good while now, I've been participating in the monthly Twitter chats ("Twitter Freelance Fridays"), under the hashtag #EFAChat, that are hosted by the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA), a wonderful organization I've been a member of since 1995. For one of those chats, I served as a guest expert on ergonomics. And having very recently joined the well-respected American Copy Editors Society (ACES), I took part yesterday in one of its twice-monthly chats, under the hashtag #ACESchat. For that chat, I was a guest expert, along with my colleague Ruth Thaler-Carter, on freelancing.
Because we sit (or stand) alone in our offices, we need to stay connected with our colleagues, wherever they are, so that we don't get lonely and so that we keep up with current thought in our profession. Plus, not a single one of us—newbie, mid-career professional, or veteran—knows everything there is to know about either editing or running a business, so Twitter chats offer us chances to ask questions and share advice. Chats can also make it possible to hit it off professionally with new-to-us colleagues. Those connections can become invaluable relationships that provide us with camaraderie, a shoulder to cry on, and referrals to potential clients. And finally, lurkers who follow the chats get a chance to see us talk about what we know, which just might eventually result in a referral.
If you love all things editing-related, come lurk during the next #EFAChat and the next #ACESchat. You don't have to be a member of either the EFA or ACES to participate. You just might connect with members of your tribe. You can find other Twitter chats here and here.
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Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Friday, January 11, 2013
The 1.5-Hour Daily Social Media Schedule
First, let me say there's no universally accepted schedule for engaging properly in social media. This is my own, and by following this schedule, I spend approximately 1.5 hours on any given weekday on marketing activities, excluding e-mail. That time is spread out in bits and pieces.
Back in the olden days, I'd have spent about that much time going to the library and researching potential clients, and then coming home to type up inquiries on my typewriter to snail-mail. These days I rarely see the need to send snail mail, write prospecting e-mails, or make cold calls.
E-mail
As they arrive: Answer messages that require reply (e.g., from clients). Keep your e-mail program open during the workday but use tools to control how much time you spend on e-mail. (For example, I have set up an e-mail rule to play a certain sound when a message from any of my clients arrives, and another rule to play a different sound when my husband sends me a text message. Messages from colleagues, friends, and other people arrive unheralded by sounds so that I can ignore them until I take a work break.)
Your business web site
Each day: check that your web site loads properly and hasn’t been hacked.
Once a month: check that all outgoing links work; consider using an automated link-checking service if your site is large.
Once a month: read all site text for needed updates. (If you maintain a page or section of resources on your site, as I do, check it once a week for needed updates.)
Your blog
Post at regular intervals.
Once a day: check to make sure that it hasn't been hacked.
Your LinkedIn profile
At least once a week: update your LinkedIn status, read the digest-style e-mail about updates to your LinkedIn network, comment on some people’s status updates, and answer questions in your areas of expertise or in your LinkedIn groups.
Your Facebook profile (if you use one to market your business as I do)
Once a day or once every two days: update your status.
At least twice a week: post an interesting link to your wall with a little commentary.
At least twice a week: check your Facebook friends' or fans' statuses by clicking Home on the toolbar atop your profile. Post to their walls.
Twitter
At least twice a weekday: Tweet something.
How do I remember all this? I live and die by calendar reminders. Without them, I’d never remember to do the more infrequent tasks. The rest becomes habit after a few days or weeks of calendar reminders.
Note: I originally wrote this piece as a guest post in 2011 on another blog, one that is apparently no longer functional. I transferred it here in January 2013.
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Back in the olden days, I'd have spent about that much time going to the library and researching potential clients, and then coming home to type up inquiries on my typewriter to snail-mail. These days I rarely see the need to send snail mail, write prospecting e-mails, or make cold calls.
As they arrive: Answer messages that require reply (e.g., from clients). Keep your e-mail program open during the workday but use tools to control how much time you spend on e-mail. (For example, I have set up an e-mail rule to play a certain sound when a message from any of my clients arrives, and another rule to play a different sound when my husband sends me a text message. Messages from colleagues, friends, and other people arrive unheralded by sounds so that I can ignore them until I take a work break.)
Your business web site
Each day: check that your web site loads properly and hasn’t been hacked.
Once a month: check that all outgoing links work; consider using an automated link-checking service if your site is large.
Once a month: read all site text for needed updates. (If you maintain a page or section of resources on your site, as I do, check it once a week for needed updates.)
Your blog
Post at regular intervals.
Once a day: check to make sure that it hasn't been hacked.
Your LinkedIn profile
At least once a week: update your LinkedIn status, read the digest-style e-mail about updates to your LinkedIn network, comment on some people’s status updates, and answer questions in your areas of expertise or in your LinkedIn groups.
Your Facebook profile (if you use one to market your business as I do)
Once a day or once every two days: update your status.
At least twice a week: post an interesting link to your wall with a little commentary.
At least twice a week: check your Facebook friends' or fans' statuses by clicking Home on the toolbar atop your profile. Post to their walls.
At least twice a weekday: Tweet something.
How do I remember all this? I live and die by calendar reminders. Without them, I’d never remember to do the more infrequent tasks. The rest becomes habit after a few days or weeks of calendar reminders.
Note: I originally wrote this piece as a guest post in 2011 on another blog, one that is apparently no longer functional. I transferred it here in January 2013.
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Thursday, January 10, 2013
Book Review—Copyright and Permissions: What Every Writer and Editor Should Know
We editorial pros have all encountered manuscripts with quotations in them that led us to wonder about the limits of fair use. But where do we go for more information on this issue? Copyright and Permissions: What Every Writer and Editor Should Know, a new booklet just out from the Editorial Freelancers Association, is just what we've all been looking for.
Before I go further in this review, I must disclose this information: I have been friends with Elsa Peterson, the book's author, for years. And when she was employed by McGraw-Hill Higher Education as a developmental editor, I edited some manuscripts for her in my role as a freelancer.
But though Elsa is my friend, I can also tell you that she knows permissions quite well. She has more than 20 years' experience as a permissions editor, time spent hunting down the true owners of copyright and helping her clients negotiate the wording of credit lines and fees for the right to reproduce previously published illustrations and tables and such. She knows where to look, whom to ask, and—most important—how to ask for permission to reprint. So I have no trouble believing that Elsa knows what she's talking about when it comes to permissions.
This booklet is quite handy for freelancers who don't have a publishing house's legal department to back them up, and the writing is friendly, straightforward, and accessible. Will using the book replace getting advice from a lawyer? No, but it will point readers in the right direction. It covers
I've been working in publishing for 29 years now, so the need to obtain permission for reusing material isn't new to me, but there are details I sometimes forget. Elsa's book makes it easy to find what I need to remember. I especially like these features of the book:
Copyright and Permissions (ISBN: 978-1-880407-23-3) is available as a download (US$8.25) and in traditional printed form (US$12.25; 48 pages). I don't think any editorial professional can afford to be without it.
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Before I go further in this review, I must disclose this information: I have been friends with Elsa Peterson, the book's author, for years. And when she was employed by McGraw-Hill Higher Education as a developmental editor, I edited some manuscripts for her in my role as a freelancer.
But though Elsa is my friend, I can also tell you that she knows permissions quite well. She has more than 20 years' experience as a permissions editor, time spent hunting down the true owners of copyright and helping her clients negotiate the wording of credit lines and fees for the right to reproduce previously published illustrations and tables and such. She knows where to look, whom to ask, and—most important—how to ask for permission to reprint. So I have no trouble believing that Elsa knows what she's talking about when it comes to permissions.
This booklet is quite handy for freelancers who don't have a publishing house's legal department to back them up, and the writing is friendly, straightforward, and accessible. Will using the book replace getting advice from a lawyer? No, but it will point readers in the right direction. It covers
- Whether it's necessary to obtain permission to use the material
- Where and how to request permission
- What to do if the copyright holder doesn't grant permission for reuse or requests a high fee for granting it
- The basics of copyright, public domain, and fair use
- Current issues concerning copyright
- How permissions editing is done, step by step
I've been working in publishing for 29 years now, so the need to obtain permission for reusing material isn't new to me, but there are details I sometimes forget. Elsa's book makes it easy to find what I need to remember. I especially like these features of the book:
- "Copyright Facts and Fallacies," where common misperceptions are debunked
- Step-by-step lists of procedures that should be followed to get the best results
- The table outlining duration of copyright protection (This is definitely one I'll bookmark.)
- Discussion of where copyright issues are heading
- The table of information fields for a permissions database
- The sample permissions request letter
Copyright and Permissions (ISBN: 978-1-880407-23-3) is available as a download (US$8.25) and in traditional printed form (US$12.25; 48 pages). I don't think any editorial professional can afford to be without it.
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Monday, January 07, 2013
Book: A Dream of Daring
 |
| Cover for A Dream of Daring |
Because I edited the book, I can't give an unbiased review here. But because I love the book, I want to tell you all about it. Here is the apt description of the book from its back cover:
Tom Edmunton, the science-minded son of a cotton planter, has designed the precursor of the tractor in antebellum Louisiana. He foresees a new age of mechanized farming that will empty the fields of men and supplant the South’s peculiar institution. But the planters of his town don’t like his big ideas about changing their world or the intensity with which he’s pursuing them. Tensions peak when the tractor is stolen, and in the process, someone dear to the inventor is murdered.
Set at a crossroads of history when an old era is about to tumble and a new one ready to gain ground, the story centers on the clash between the men vying to take hold of the future—the men who seek to employ the power of science and industry to transform the world—and those who seek to maintain their grip on another kind of power upon which they built their lives and fortunes.
As Tom hears the call of the new age, he also feels the pull of two women—one at the top of society’s ladder and the other at the bottom. Rachel, a senator’s daughter, is the beautiful Southern belle who loves him, but will she break with her family to stand by his side when the town shuns him? Solo is the unbridled grassland filly, the feisty mulatto slave who despises Tom, along with every other man from the race that binds her. Rachel is free, but is her spirit chained? Solo is chained, but is her spirit free?
This is a haunting tale of the Old South, with its sweeping fields of white-gold cotton, its majestic plantations, its elegant gentry, and its embattled slaves. But the story also poses urgent questions for our own imperiled world as it delves into the souls of those who want to harness nature and those who want to harness other men. Which camp is on the rise today? Will it save us or destroy us?
Set at a crossroads of history when an old era is about to tumble and a new one ready to gain ground, the story centers on the clash between the men vying to take hold of the future—the men who seek to employ the power of science and industry to transform the world—and those who seek to maintain their grip on another kind of power upon which they built their lives and fortunes.
As Tom hears the call of the new age, he also feels the pull of two women—one at the top of society’s ladder and the other at the bottom. Rachel, a senator’s daughter, is the beautiful Southern belle who loves him, but will she break with her family to stand by his side when the town shuns him? Solo is the unbridled grassland filly, the feisty mulatto slave who despises Tom, along with every other man from the race that binds her. Rachel is free, but is her spirit chained? Solo is chained, but is her spirit free?
This is a haunting tale of the Old South, with its sweeping fields of white-gold cotton, its majestic plantations, its elegant gentry, and its embattled slaves. But the story also poses urgent questions for our own imperiled world as it delves into the souls of those who want to harness nature and those who want to harness other men. Which camp is on the rise today? Will it save us or destroy us?
Gen did impressively detailed research for the book. I couldn't find anything that was off kilter in the story. But beyond that, the book is an engrossing read. I edited late many nights simply because I didn't want to stop reading. I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next.
The book's official publication date is February 12. It will be available in paperback (283 pages; 6″ × 9″) and as a Kindle e-book from Amazon. The ISBN for the paperback is 978-097445796-3; the ASIN for the Kindle version is B00B1HPMZY. Gen tells me that her novel made the cut for a Booklist review and recommendation in its January issue.
If you participate in Goodreads or LibraryThing (or want to register at no charge), you'll want to know that Gen is giving away 25 paperback copies at each site. The contest to win them is open until January 12, so don't wait to enter.
And if you end up buying and reading A Dream of Daring, please tell Gen that I sent you, and check out her first novel, which I also edited and loved: Noble Vision, a medical thriller.
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Saturday, January 05, 2013
How to Be Memorable to Clients and Colleagues
In 2011, I wrote about how well it works for me to send "Happy New Year" greeting cards each year to my clients. The cards remind my clients that they've enjoyed working with me in the past and often make them think about sending more assignments my way.
It's all the better if the cards that you send to your clients and colleagues are memorable. I recently received a great New Year's postcard from Paula Gordon, a translator and editor who is a colleague of mine from the Editorial Freelancers Association and who subscribes to some of the same profession-related e-mail lists that I do. It's a gorgeous collage created by Paula's sister Zelda Leah Gatuskin, and it carries the caption "Wishing You Continued Strength and Wisdom." Zelda created the collage in 1994 for her book Ancestral Notes.
I like the postcard so much for several reasons:
The card is memorable enough that I have propped it up on my desk, beside my computer monitor, to cheer me up on those occasional days when I need extra strength and wisdom. I told Paula that, and she replied:
If we solopreneurs follow Paula's example in choosing and/or creating greeting cards and postcards, our clients will remember us when they need our services and our colleagues will think of us when they need to refer clients to fellow professionals.
See this page, this page, this page, and this page for more of Zelda's fascinating collages, along with the stories they illustrate.
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It's all the better if the cards that you send to your clients and colleagues are memorable. I recently received a great New Year's postcard from Paula Gordon, a translator and editor who is a colleague of mine from the Editorial Freelancers Association and who subscribes to some of the same profession-related e-mail lists that I do. It's a gorgeous collage created by Paula's sister Zelda Leah Gatuskin, and it carries the caption "Wishing You Continued Strength and Wisdom." Zelda created the collage in 1994 for her book Ancestral Notes.
I like the postcard so much for several reasons:
- It's a lot more fun than the bland cards that office-supply stores sell to business owners.
- It doesn't focus on any religious holiday themes and so won't be offensive to anyone.
- Who wouldn't want continued strength and wisdom?
I used an already published collage, and worked with Zelda to turn it into a postcard with a captioned image. She prepared the file for printing and consulted on the text and layout of the reverse side. (I wanted less space so I wouldn't feel like I had to write a lot—that's my obstacle to sending cards—but she convinced me to leave a little more room.) I also like that I had it printed locally by an independent print shop. All in all, it was a fun and satisfying project.
The card is memorable enough that I have propped it up on my desk, beside my computer monitor, to cheer me up on those occasional days when I need extra strength and wisdom. I told Paula that, and she replied:
I was shooting for something that people would be happy to pin on their bulletin boards and not toss away at the end of the season. I find the image inspiring, and apt for my circle of editor, translator, and writer friends and colleagues.
If we solopreneurs follow Paula's example in choosing and/or creating greeting cards and postcards, our clients will remember us when they need our services and our colleagues will think of us when they need to refer clients to fellow professionals.
See this page, this page, this page, and this page for more of Zelda's fascinating collages, along with the stories they illustrate.
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Tuesday, January 01, 2013
Start the New Year Out Right: Update Your Online Information
If you're self-employed, it's time to double-check that online information about you is up to date:
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- Check copyright years for all of the online venues you control. For example, the bottom of every page of my business website carries this line:
© 1984–2013 KOK Edit | All rights reserved. | 631-997-8191
The code is set to update the final year of that range on January 1 of each new year, so I no longer have to worry about it. Before that automation was in place, I had to go behind the scenes and update the year manually. The "About Me" sidebar on this blog also carries a copyright line; I must update it manually every year.
The code is set to update the final year of that range on January 1 of each new year, so I no longer have to worry about it. Before that automation was in place, I had to go behind the scenes and update the year manually. The "About Me" sidebar on this blog also carries a copyright line; I must update it manually every year.
- Review your résumé or curriculum vitae and ensure that it is up to date. If you update it, make sure that you upload the updated version to all online directories where you are listed.
- Check all online directories and "About" pages where information about you is listed and make sure that all details are current. Be sure to include your Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter profiles. For example, the first line in the "About Me" sidebar on this blog at one point read: "I've been in publishing 29 years, the last 18 self-employed." Until I revamped that paragraph, I had to update those two numbers every year.
- Check that all online photographs of you—ones that you uploaded yourself—are current.
- Back up all of your social media profiles and your blog.
- Check that your snail-mail address, phone and fax numbers, email address, and website address are current wherever you have posted them online.
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Monday, November 26, 2012
Fixing the "Editing Tools" Page of the Copyeditors' Knowledge Base
Argh and double argh!
It seems that 12 days ago, I unknowingly mangled the "Editing Tools" page of the Copyeditors' Knowledge Base (CKB). I've now restored the page the best that I could, but some entries that were once on that page may not be there now. If those of you who love and use the CKB gleaned some links from the "Editing Tools" page that you don't see there now, I would be fawningly grateful if you would e-mail those links to me at editor@kokedit.com.
Here's the technical explanation of how this mess occurred:
Whenever I add links to any page in the CKB, I do so within the page's PHP file online, via the file-editing interface of my web host. Then I always immediately close out the web-host interface and FTP into my web site's files via CuteFTP to back up any changed files onto my computer.
I've figured out what I must have done to mess things up with the "Editing Tools" page: While editing the file online, I went to a spot about halfway down the page, selected what I intended to be only a few lines, and deleted them. But apparently, I did not realize at the time that I selected the entire final half (!) of the code and text—not just a few lines—from the file before I saved it. So of course when I backed up the newly saved file onto my computer, what I backed up was the page that was now missing its bottom half.
Because I'm very strict with myself about backing up my web-site files onto my computer immediately after editing them, I did not have the earlier version on my computer to upload online. (In other words, the backup file that was on my computer was missing its bottom half, just like the "Editing Tools" page on my web site). I did, however, have a version of the page from 2011 when my web site was in HTML instead of PHP. So I copied the bottom half of the code and text from the old SHTML file and pasted it into the current PHP file, and then made adjustments where needed.
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It seems that 12 days ago, I unknowingly mangled the "Editing Tools" page of the Copyeditors' Knowledge Base (CKB). I've now restored the page the best that I could, but some entries that were once on that page may not be there now. If those of you who love and use the CKB gleaned some links from the "Editing Tools" page that you don't see there now, I would be fawningly grateful if you would e-mail those links to me at editor@kokedit.com.
Here's the technical explanation of how this mess occurred:
Whenever I add links to any page in the CKB, I do so within the page's PHP file online, via the file-editing interface of my web host. Then I always immediately close out the web-host interface and FTP into my web site's files via CuteFTP to back up any changed files onto my computer.
I've figured out what I must have done to mess things up with the "Editing Tools" page: While editing the file online, I went to a spot about halfway down the page, selected what I intended to be only a few lines, and deleted them. But apparently, I did not realize at the time that I selected the entire final half (!) of the code and text—not just a few lines—from the file before I saved it. So of course when I backed up the newly saved file onto my computer, what I backed up was the page that was now missing its bottom half.
Because I'm very strict with myself about backing up my web-site files onto my computer immediately after editing them, I did not have the earlier version on my computer to upload online. (In other words, the backup file that was on my computer was missing its bottom half, just like the "Editing Tools" page on my web site). I did, however, have a version of the page from 2011 when my web site was in HTML instead of PHP. So I copied the bottom half of the code and text from the old SHTML file and pasted it into the current PHP file, and then made adjustments where needed.
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Wednesday, November 07, 2012
Aerobic Editing
I've written about the benefits of working at a sit–stand or standing desk. Now here's evidence that I dance while I'm standing at work, and that editing can indeed be aerobic. Silly you—you thought editing was a sedentary task. If you like disco, crank up your speakers while you watch the video clip. Why, yes, I am a middle-aged geezer.
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Monday, October 22, 2012
When Opportunity Knocks
As an editor, you don't always know exactly what your authors think of you. On the few occasions that they make quite clear their view of you and your work, take such revelations as the gifts that they are and relish them.
I work with a lot of physician–researchers from around the world for whom remaining competitive in their profession means that they must always be working to get their research published in English-language medical journals. In addition to doing ESL (English as a second language) or EFL (English as a foreign language) editing for them, I always take special care with these authors to treat them with great respect, because not only do they have to be proficient in medicine and research but they also must deal with the sometimes frustrating US peer review and publication system. In addition, they must do all of that in English, which is their second or third language. I can't help but admire their perseverance a great deal.
One of my longtime authors is Yixin Zhou, MD, PhD, whose journal articles on orthopedic surgery I've been editing since 2005. He is the chairman of the Department of Adult Joint Reconstructive Surgery of Beijing Jishuitan Hospital, where the number of joint-replacement procedures performed increases annually by 20% to 30%. I will soon start editing number 15 in the steady march of articles I have polished for him. He tells me that my name is well known at his hospital; it is common knowledge, he says, that when I edit a manuscript for any surgeon, it usually gets published.
Being told that, after having corresponded with him by e-mail for years, was wonderful enough. But recently, Yixin e-mailed me to say that he was traveling to New York City for a medical conference and would like to meet with me. So on Saturday, October 20, I took a 1.5-hour ride on the Long Island Rail Road to Penn Station and then walked just over 1 mile to the Sheraton Hotel at 52nd Street and 7th Avenue, where Yixin and his colleagues were staying.
I was prepared to show Yixin and his colleagues my great respect for them by saying a few phrases in Mandarin. My colleague Jim Jones, a technical editor and Chinese-to-English translator, created an mp3 file for me so that I could listen to him saying the phrases and could then practice them. But once Yixin and I were talking, I remembered only to say, "Ni hao" ("hello"). He told me that my Chinese was good. But I know he was just being kind.
Yixin and I had drinks at the hotel's restaurant and chatted about the paths each of us had taken to get where we are in our respective professions. He had planned for us to have dinner with several of the younger surgeons in his department whom he is training, but they got stuck in Manhattan traffic. So Yixin and I went on to a nearby seafood restaurant, where we dined with several others who were in town for the same medical conference. One of them is a surgeon at another hospital (not Yixin's hospital), and three are sales representatives for Zimmer, a major supplier of orthopedic prosthetics (for the hip, shoulder, and knee) for surgeons around the world. They were all quite interested to hear that I am Yixin's editor, and he told me that he was telling them all about what good care I take of him and his manuscripts.
Yixin knows how much I love Chinese and Japanese whole-leaf teas, so during our meeting he presented me with a magnificently packaged gift of Chinese pi lo chun green tea, sometimes called biluochun. According to the one English sentence that appears amidst the Chinese characters on each wrapper, the tea will "pick you up, help you lose weight, break down cholesterin, as well as benefit those with blood pressure and heart problems." This is in line with what Yixin said to me when we were making our farewells later, at the end of the evening: "Please take good care of yourself, because you are important to us. Smile often, eat good food, and take care of your health."
But the highlight of the evening was this: Because the Chinese government is throwing money at its researchers, there is a big push for every specialist physician to do research and get it published in English-language journals. Yixin is training his younger colleagues in scientific writing, but he wants to pay my way to Beijing sometime within the next year so that I can teach them, working with the aid of an interpreter. Many of my international authors live in Asia, so it has long been my dream to meet them in person and talk with them.
But even in my most creative dreams, I never pictured myself traveling to Asia to teach physician–researchers! So even though I am an introvert and a homebody, I will take this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity if it does indeed finally present itself. Why? Because, as it says on the "About" page of my business web site,
The most obvious benefit of Yixin's plan is that will I get to teach young researchers how to write for an English-language audience, which means that they will be able to communicate to a much wider group of readers the scientific advances they make, thus potentially helping many more patients around the world. But the best benefit, one that is quite humbling, is that I will have the chance to learn by immersion about another culture, one that I greatly admire. I hope that how I work with those researchers will, at least in a very small way, enhance Chinese–American communication, to make the world a friendlier place.
As events take place to make the possibility of my teaching in Beijing a reality, I will keep everyone posted through this blog.
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I work with a lot of physician–researchers from around the world for whom remaining competitive in their profession means that they must always be working to get their research published in English-language medical journals. In addition to doing ESL (English as a second language) or EFL (English as a foreign language) editing for them, I always take special care with these authors to treat them with great respect, because not only do they have to be proficient in medicine and research but they also must deal with the sometimes frustrating US peer review and publication system. In addition, they must do all of that in English, which is their second or third language. I can't help but admire their perseverance a great deal.
 |
| Yixin Zhou, MD, PhD |
Being told that, after having corresponded with him by e-mail for years, was wonderful enough. But recently, Yixin e-mailed me to say that he was traveling to New York City for a medical conference and would like to meet with me. So on Saturday, October 20, I took a 1.5-hour ride on the Long Island Rail Road to Penn Station and then walked just over 1 mile to the Sheraton Hotel at 52nd Street and 7th Avenue, where Yixin and his colleagues were staying.
I was prepared to show Yixin and his colleagues my great respect for them by saying a few phrases in Mandarin. My colleague Jim Jones, a technical editor and Chinese-to-English translator, created an mp3 file for me so that I could listen to him saying the phrases and could then practice them. But once Yixin and I were talking, I remembered only to say, "Ni hao" ("hello"). He told me that my Chinese was good. But I know he was just being kind.
 |
| A gift of tea |
Yixin knows how much I love Chinese and Japanese whole-leaf teas, so during our meeting he presented me with a magnificently packaged gift of Chinese pi lo chun green tea, sometimes called biluochun. According to the one English sentence that appears amidst the Chinese characters on each wrapper, the tea will "pick you up, help you lose weight, break down cholesterin, as well as benefit those with blood pressure and heart problems." This is in line with what Yixin said to me when we were making our farewells later, at the end of the evening: "Please take good care of yourself, because you are important to us. Smile often, eat good food, and take care of your health."
But the highlight of the evening was this: Because the Chinese government is throwing money at its researchers, there is a big push for every specialist physician to do research and get it published in English-language journals. Yixin is training his younger colleagues in scientific writing, but he wants to pay my way to Beijing sometime within the next year so that I can teach them, working with the aid of an interpreter. Many of my international authors live in Asia, so it has long been my dream to meet them in person and talk with them.
But even in my most creative dreams, I never pictured myself traveling to Asia to teach physician–researchers! So even though I am an introvert and a homebody, I will take this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity if it does indeed finally present itself. Why? Because, as it says on the "About" page of my business web site,
It is enormously satisfying to help authors who are non-native English speakers communicate their research to their peers worldwide. I like to believe that what I do makes at least a small difference in the world in two ways:
It is a privilege to be entrusted with polishing an author's work, one for which I am always deeply grateful. I can often be found drinking a cup of tea brewed using fresh tea leaves from China, Japan, Taiwan, or India in honor of my authors' publishing successes.
- Helping physicians communicate research that will enable other physicians to treat their patients more effectively
- Increasing cross-cultural cooperation and communication one pair of people (an author and me) at a time
It is a privilege to be entrusted with polishing an author's work, one for which I am always deeply grateful. I can often be found drinking a cup of tea brewed using fresh tea leaves from China, Japan, Taiwan, or India in honor of my authors' publishing successes.
The most obvious benefit of Yixin's plan is that will I get to teach young researchers how to write for an English-language audience, which means that they will be able to communicate to a much wider group of readers the scientific advances they make, thus potentially helping many more patients around the world. But the best benefit, one that is quite humbling, is that I will have the chance to learn by immersion about another culture, one that I greatly admire. I hope that how I work with those researchers will, at least in a very small way, enhance Chinese–American communication, to make the world a friendlier place.
As events take place to make the possibility of my teaching in Beijing a reality, I will keep everyone posted through this blog.
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Friday, September 14, 2012
Updated Resources for Writing and Editing Grant Proposals
Thanks to information from Paula Gordon, fellow member of the Editorial Freelancers Association, I've updated this 2011 blog post of mine: "Resources for Writing and Editing Grant Proposals."
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Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Tools for Finding and Attracting Clients
In this economic recession and electronically connected world, self-employed editorial pros can't depend on just the old ways—making cold calls and sending prospecting packets out by snail mail—to get clients. It's wiser, for your bottom line, to use a variety of methods. These are the tools that I find to be good for discovering and attracting clients, listed in descending order by my sense of how many client inquiries come through each one:
I've been self-employed nearly 18 years now and am quite good at hunting for and attracting new clients in a variety of ways. I haven't had a day without a work project in years. If you're a self-employed editorial pro and would like to learn more about how to use the social media Big 3—Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook—to find prospective clients and to attract them, sign up for my 90-minute November 1 webinar.
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- Word of mouth (which means publishing contacts recommending my editing services to others in publishing, and authors recommending my services to their colleagues)
- Participation in profession-related e-mail lists (check out some of the ones listed here)
- My business web site
- My listing in the freelance directory of the American Medical Writers Association (tie with item 5)
- My ad on the web site of the Council of Science Editors (tie with item 4)
- My presence on Twitter
- My listing in the member directory of the Editorial Freelancers Association
- My presence on LinkedIn
- My presence on Facebook
- My listing in the directory of the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences
- My listing in the Directory of CE-L Freelancers of the Copyediting-L e-mail list (see the "Freelancers" tab)
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Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Doesn't All Editing Cost the Same?
Doesn't all editing cost the same? Spoiler: No.
This is why an editor's total fee differs among projects. In a corner of my office, on the wall, I have these editing speeds (number of 250-word manuscript pages per hour) posted from years ago when I worked on a lot of fiction manuscripts for mass-market paperbacks*:
The bulk of the editing I do today is of manuscripts for biomedical journals, written by non-native speakers of English. My general editing speed for those:
And of course each editor's speed is different, and a lot depends on how much work the manuscript needs, whatever the genre.
___________________
*Printed dimensions: usually 6.75" × 4.25".
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This is why an editor's total fee differs among projects. In a corner of my office, on the wall, I have these editing speeds (number of 250-word manuscript pages per hour) posted from years ago when I worked on a lot of fiction manuscripts for mass-market paperbacks*:
Really messy mss.: 9 pp./h
Average mss.: 12–17 pp./h
Easy juvenile mss.: 19 pp./h
Average mss.: 12–17 pp./h
Easy juvenile mss.: 19 pp./h
The bulk of the editing I do today is of manuscripts for biomedical journals, written by non-native speakers of English. My general editing speed for those:
2 pp./h
And of course each editor's speed is different, and a lot depends on how much work the manuscript needs, whatever the genre.
___________________
*Printed dimensions: usually 6.75" × 4.25".
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Friday, August 17, 2012
At the End of a Project
Today I sent my final invoice for the cultural memoir that I've spent a long time editing. The author, a highly intelligent man whom I respect a great deal, sent me this wonderful e-mail just now:
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Thank you very much for your skillful and excellent editing of [book title]. Because of all the hard work put in by you, [it] is a much better book with smooth-flowing text that tells its story well. It has been a pleasure working with you, and thanks again for your collaboration. Please keep in touch, and I am looking forward to presenting you a copy of [the book] in person soon.
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Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Video "What Is Substantive Editing?"
Sometimes you'll hear me talk about doing substantive editing, which is the type of editing I do all the time, both for native and non-native speakers of English. But what is it? In this video, the editor-in-chief of the journal Academic Medicine discusses substantive editing with the journal's director of staff editing. If you're an author, the video will help you understand more about what substantive editing is. If you're an editor, you might want to share the link to the video with your authors.
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Wednesday, August 08, 2012
What "Thank You" Means to Freelancers and Mentors
Two little words can make a huge difference in my outlook—and in yours too, I'm sure: Thank you.
Those two words can motivate me to work harder, share more with colleagues, and be kinder to everyone around me. Do they affect you the same way?
Today I received the following e-mail from a colleague, and it inspired me:
Thank-yous are especially important for the self-employed. We usually work alone, not in offices where we can hear such motivating words in person. Yes, we get paid to do what we do, but appreciation is rewarding too.
Thank-yous are also important to mentors. We help others because we enjoy doing so. But when we are thanked, we feel honored and moved to give even more.
Have you thanked a freelancer or a mentor today?
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Those two words can motivate me to work harder, share more with colleagues, and be kinder to everyone around me. Do they affect you the same way?
Today I received the following e-mail from a colleague, and it inspired me:
Katharine,
I am a lurker on the X and Y [e-mail] lists and I just wanted to let you know that I am always appreciative of your interesting/informative posts to both forums! I have also learned a lot from browsing around your website and reading many of the excellent things you've posted there.
I have been doing part-time freelance work (copyediting and proofreading) since [year redacted]. . . . My day job . . . has been drastically cut back for the coming year and I'm looking at this as an opportunity to grow my freelance business. I really do believe I can be successful in this new endeavor, and a large part of my optimism is fueled by the sense of purpose and professionalism that I've passively cyber-gleaned . . . from more seasoned folks like you!
I'm sure you get feedback and kudos from your clients as well as from colleagues whom you've helped on specific matters. But I just wanted to let you know that there is at least one member of your "silent fan club" who is no less appreciative of your openness and sharing!
I am a lurker on the X and Y [e-mail] lists and I just wanted to let you know that I am always appreciative of your interesting/informative posts to both forums! I have also learned a lot from browsing around your website and reading many of the excellent things you've posted there.
I have been doing part-time freelance work (copyediting and proofreading) since [year redacted]. . . . My day job . . . has been drastically cut back for the coming year and I'm looking at this as an opportunity to grow my freelance business. I really do believe I can be successful in this new endeavor, and a large part of my optimism is fueled by the sense of purpose and professionalism that I've passively cyber-gleaned . . . from more seasoned folks like you!
I'm sure you get feedback and kudos from your clients as well as from colleagues whom you've helped on specific matters. But I just wanted to let you know that there is at least one member of your "silent fan club" who is no less appreciative of your openness and sharing!
Thank-yous are especially important for the self-employed. We usually work alone, not in offices where we can hear such motivating words in person. Yes, we get paid to do what we do, but appreciation is rewarding too.
Thank-yous are also important to mentors. We help others because we enjoy doing so. But when we are thanked, we feel honored and moved to give even more.
Have you thanked a freelancer or a mentor today?
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Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Software: Niche Spelling Checkers
This week, I've come across recommendations from colleagues for several spelling checkers other than those sold under the big-name brands. I haven't used any of them and so can't rate them, but you might want to investigate them.
If you have favorites that aren't listed here, please share details and links in the comments.
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- Personal Best Spelling offers medical word lists that you can purchase and import into Microsoft Word to create custom dictionaries.
- OpenMedSpel is an open-source medical spelling checker.
- Inductel produces spelling checkers for medical, scientific and technical, and legal terminology.
If you have favorites that aren't listed here, please share details and links in the comments.
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Tuesday, July 17, 2012
How Does an Editor Switch Mental Gears Between Projects?
A colleague asked me today, "What techniques do you use to transition from one project to the next within the same day?" She asked because yesterday I had posted to my Facebook wall that I was switching mental gears to move from editing Japanese medical English to editing a historical novel.
I replied that these are the steps I take:
If you're an editorial professional, how to you switch mental gears? Please share your techniques in the comments. Maybe some of your tips will be helpful to a colleague.
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I replied that these are the steps I take:
- I move away from my desk for a few minutes and do some physical task or go outdoors for a while.
- If I had been sitting when I finished the first project, I stand up to start working on the next one. And if I had been standing, I sit down.
- When family members are home, I try to get them to give me total silence for a few minutes while I start the new project. With my husband and two sons having attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, I don't always get that silence, so sometimes I use my cabinetmaker husband's hearing protection (which looks something like this) for a little while.
If you're an editorial professional, how to you switch mental gears? Please share your techniques in the comments. Maybe some of your tips will be helpful to a colleague.
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Tuesday, July 03, 2012
A Kind Word
 |
| What an unexpected pleasure to get a public shout-out from a fellow editor on Twitter! |
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Thursday, June 28, 2012
Why I Love Twitter
I'm reposting this, with a wide grin, from the e-mail list of the Editorial Freelancers Association, with permission of the original poster:
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Hi, Katharine,
I took your [April 3 EFA] teleconference on "Using Twitter to Build Your Freelancing Business." I've put about 20 tweets on my Twitter account. Must try to do it three times a day as you suggested.
I was so happily surprised today to get a job editing a doctoral dissertation for a computer science student at USC. I asked him where he got my name, and he said he found it on Google, and then read my tweets! So I typed "Editing USC doctoral dissertations" in Google, and lo and behold my name appeared at the bottom of the first page, with a link to my Twitter account! I am definitely going to keep posting to Twitter.
Thank you for the course, Katharine. Do I owe you a finder's fee?
Mary-Anne Pops
@PopsEdit
http://www.drpopsedits.com
I took your [April 3 EFA] teleconference on "Using Twitter to Build Your Freelancing Business." I've put about 20 tweets on my Twitter account. Must try to do it three times a day as you suggested.
I was so happily surprised today to get a job editing a doctoral dissertation for a computer science student at USC. I asked him where he got my name, and he said he found it on Google, and then read my tweets! So I typed "Editing USC doctoral dissertations" in Google, and lo and behold my name appeared at the bottom of the first page, with a link to my Twitter account! I am definitely going to keep posting to Twitter.
Thank you for the course, Katharine. Do I owe you a finder's fee?
Mary-Anne Pops
@PopsEdit
http://www.drpopsedits.com
marketing social media Twitter freelance copyeditor copyediting publishing EditorMom
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Gratitude from and for Authors
I just got promoted again.
One of the newest of my authors who are non-native English speakers, this one from China, wrote me to thank me for my editing. He addressed me as "Professor Katharine." :-) His thank-you is wonderful:
Dear author, you have made my day.
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One of the newest of my authors who are non-native English speakers, this one from China, wrote me to thank me for my editing. He addressed me as "Professor Katharine." :-) His thank-you is wonderful:
I am very impressed by your work and your precious effort and efficiency in editing this article. I have reviewed it and made revisions and answered the questions. Hopefully you can afford us further precious refinement of this paper.
Dear author, you have made my day.
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Monday, June 25, 2012
Communicating in Images
A picture is indeed worth a thousand words.While I was editing a journal manuscript for one of my authors from Japan who is a non-native English speaker, I was having trouble understanding what he meant to say in one particular sentence. The topic was imaging in spine surgery. He had written:
In spinal deformities, image quality is inferior because radiation does not incident parallel to the vertebrae endplates.
I e-mailed him and asked him to explain it to me, so he drew and then e-mailed a helpful diagram to me (shown here at left). I immediately understood that this was what he wanted to say:
In spinal deformities, the image quality is inferior because some of the vertebral endplates are oriented obliquely to the radiation source rather than parallel to it.
I wrote back right away to thank him and tell him that he is an excellent teacher. I was delighted that he had realized that the best way around the language barrier between us was visual. Close collaboration like that is one of the many reasons I find it so satisfying to work with researchers who are non-native English speakers.
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Friday, June 22, 2012
"And Thus the Voyage Ended"
This makes me so sad. TSTC Publishing is closing down because of budget cuts.
TSTC Publishing was both an editing client of mine and the publisher of the first textbook I ever coauthored. Everyone who worked there is talented, and I loved working with them. Mark Long has been a visionary publisher, leading this nimble little publishing house through lots of innovations that the behemoths are only thinking about doing. Any publisher who snaps him up will benefit hugely. And Ana Wraight, you know I'll be here to mentor you as you decide whether to work for another publisher in-house or go freelance.
TSTC Publishing recession publishing clients EditorMom
TSTC Publishing was both an editing client of mine and the publisher of the first textbook I ever coauthored. Everyone who worked there is talented, and I loved working with them. Mark Long has been a visionary publisher, leading this nimble little publishing house through lots of innovations that the behemoths are only thinking about doing. Any publisher who snaps him up will benefit hugely. And Ana Wraight, you know I'll be here to mentor you as you decide whether to work for another publisher in-house or go freelance.TSTC Publishing recession publishing clients EditorMom
Monday, June 18, 2012
Is Editing Just Checking Spelling and Grammar?
Sometimes authors who are non-native English speakers come to me after reviewers for a biomedical journal have told them that their manuscript needs attention by an editor who is a native English speaker—even though the manuscript has been already "edited" by an English-language editing service. When I see that issues such as the following have slipped by supposedly professional editing services, I'm dumbfounded.
An article I recently edited concerns hip arthroplasty. Before I edited it, one particular sentence read like this:
This was my reaction, which of course I did not record in the manuscript: The incision was left open, with the skin retracted, for 3 weeks?! Or did surgery happen in extremely slow motion, with it taking the surgeon 3 weeks to retract the skin?!
This is how that sentence should have read:
Here is an explanation of skin traction, which is definitely not the same thing as skin retraction.
Spelling checkers and editing macros can help catch spelling errors and decrease time spent on rote editorial tasks, respectively, but they can't replace human editors. Good editing requires the use of a brain.
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An article I recently edited concerns hip arthroplasty. Before I edited it, one particular sentence read like this:
Skin retraction was performed for 3 weeks, and there was no recurrence of dislocation.
This was my reaction, which of course I did not record in the manuscript: The incision was left open, with the skin retracted, for 3 weeks?! Or did surgery happen in extremely slow motion, with it taking the surgeon 3 weeks to retract the skin?!
This is how that sentence should have read:
The patient was placed in skin traction for 3 weeks, and dislocation did not recur.
Here is an explanation of skin traction, which is definitely not the same thing as skin retraction.
Spelling checkers and editing macros can help catch spelling errors and decrease time spent on rote editorial tasks, respectively, but they can't replace human editors. Good editing requires the use of a brain.
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Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Copyediting Drug Names
Medical editors aren't the only ones who have to deal with drug names in the manuscripts they edit. In this guest post, my colleague Laura Poole, who is such a talented editor that she teaches newcomers to the trade, shares her strategies for handling drug names in nonmedical manuscripts.
My first job after college was with a company that developed training for pharmaceutical sales reps, and it taught me a lot about trademarked drug names. In the materials we created, we had to make sure the drug name was handled correctly every time it appeared—that is, with any unique registered marks and trademarks, capitalization, hyphenation, or other symbols. I remember my boss specifically saying, "Make sure the drug name isn't hyphenated at the end of a line, because that constitutes trademark violation, and they could sue us!"
Thankfully, I no longer have to worry so much about that kind of accuracy. However, that knowledge of and sensitivity to these terms has come in handy over the years as I branched out to work in scholarly nonfiction. I come across materials that are nonscientific or nonmedical in nature that reference particular drugs. Major style guides have some rules for how to handle trademarked terms, but I feel that drug names are a bit of a special case. (Maybe I'm still paranoid from that first job.) So I've developed a variety of alternatives when I encounter brand-name drugs in materials I edit.
My two preferred style guides, Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition [CMS]) and the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition [APA]), have the following to say.
APA 4.16, similar to CMS, states that trade and brand names of drugs should be capitalized (generics should be lowercase).
An issue is that many brand names have become common language. Just as Kleenex and Xerox have entered our lexicon and are used in a loose way these days, we throw around common or well-known drug names such as Viagra, Prozac, and Claritin. Sometimes it serves the text to be able to further identify these substances; alternatively, it might improve the text to do away with the trade names where possible. So beyond the CMS and APA guidelines, I find a few other options to be useful choices, and I outline them here.
First, when encountering a drug name in text, look it up online to confirm correct spelling, any hyphenation that needs to be retained, and the generic name of the drug. You can almost always find more information by typing www.[drugname].com into your browser.
If the drug is mentioned in passing only once or twice, you might be able to substitute the broad type or class of drug for a brand name or a generic name. For instance, if the brand name or generic name isn't key to the narrative, "John takes Prozac" might easily be changed to "John takes an antidepressant" or "John takes a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor" (a bit of a mouthful!). Other examples:
______________
Laura Poole is the owner of Archer Editorial Services, providing professional copyediting to scholarly publishers. She is also the cofounder of Editorial Bootcamp, which provides online and in-person training for copyeditors and publishers.
Where to find Laura: editorial training • editorial services • business coaching
medical editing medical editor drug names generic trademark style copyeditor copyediting editor editing publishing EditorMom
My first job after college was with a company that developed training for pharmaceutical sales reps, and it taught me a lot about trademarked drug names. In the materials we created, we had to make sure the drug name was handled correctly every time it appeared—that is, with any unique registered marks and trademarks, capitalization, hyphenation, or other symbols. I remember my boss specifically saying, "Make sure the drug name isn't hyphenated at the end of a line, because that constitutes trademark violation, and they could sue us!"
Thankfully, I no longer have to worry so much about that kind of accuracy. However, that knowledge of and sensitivity to these terms has come in handy over the years as I branched out to work in scholarly nonfiction. I come across materials that are nonscientific or nonmedical in nature that reference particular drugs. Major style guides have some rules for how to handle trademarked terms, but I feel that drug names are a bit of a special case. (Maybe I'm still paranoid from that first job.) So I've developed a variety of alternatives when I encounter brand-name drugs in materials I edit.
My two preferred style guides, Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition [CMS]) and the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition [APA]), have the following to say.
CMS 8.145: Generic names of drugs, which should be used wherever possible in preference to brand names, are lowercased. Brand names must be capitalized; they are often enclosed in parentheses after the first use of the generic name.
The patient takes weekly injections of interferon beta-1a (Avonex) to control his multiple sclerosis.
CMS 8.152: Although the symbols ® and ™ . . . often accompany trademark names on product packaging and in promotional material, there is no legal requirement to use these symbols, and they should be omitted wherever possible.
APA 4.16, similar to CMS, states that trade and brand names of drugs should be capitalized (generics should be lowercase).
An issue is that many brand names have become common language. Just as Kleenex and Xerox have entered our lexicon and are used in a loose way these days, we throw around common or well-known drug names such as Viagra, Prozac, and Claritin. Sometimes it serves the text to be able to further identify these substances; alternatively, it might improve the text to do away with the trade names where possible. So beyond the CMS and APA guidelines, I find a few other options to be useful choices, and I outline them here.
First, when encountering a drug name in text, look it up online to confirm correct spelling, any hyphenation that needs to be retained, and the generic name of the drug. You can almost always find more information by typing www.[drugname].com into your browser.
If the drug is mentioned in passing only once or twice, you might be able to substitute the broad type or class of drug for a brand name or a generic name. For instance, if the brand name or generic name isn't key to the narrative, "John takes Prozac" might easily be changed to "John takes an antidepressant" or "John takes a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor" (a bit of a mouthful!). Other examples:
- Sally takes ACE inhibitors to treat her high blood pressure.
- The pharmacist filled a prescription for a calcium channel blocker.
- The doctor prescribed antipsychotics to decrease hallucinations.
- Antibiotics are used to treat most ear infections.
- Antiretrovirals are effective at treating HIV.
- Anne takes propranolol (Inderal) to treat her panic disorder.
- Joe took methadone (Dolophine) as part of his rehab program.
- The doctor prescribed a maintenance dose of levothyroxine (Synthroid).
- The doctor usually prescribed Haldol (haloperidol) for her patients with schizophrenia.
- The gold standard of treatment for edema is Lasix (furosemide). [Note: These first two are examples are cases in which the brand name has entered the lexicon and is very well known.]
- Viagra (sildenafil) is the most well-known of the so-called lifestyle drugs. [Note: In this case you definitely need the brand name because the text discusses a specific product.]
- Phil Mickelson endorses Enbrel (etanercept). [Note: This one must retain the trade name because Mickelson is endorsing a specific brand-name product.]
- Cialis is a competitor drug to Viagra.
- BiDil (isosorbide dinitrate and hydralazine) is considered a commercial failure. [Note: The brand name is under discussion; also, the generic name is very long, so the trade name would be shorter and handier to use.]
- Sildenafil (sold by Pfizer under the trade name Viagra) is a blockbuster drug.
- Viagra (sildenafil; Pfizer) is a lifestyle drug.
- When its patent protection ran out, zidovudine (originally marketed as Retrovir by Burroughs-Wellcome) was soon available in a generic version.
______________
Laura Poole is the owner of Archer Editorial Services, providing professional copyediting to scholarly publishers. She is also the cofounder of Editorial Bootcamp, which provides online and in-person training for copyeditors and publishers.
Where to find Laura: editorial training • editorial services • business coaching
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