How to Transition to Copyediting From Another Career

I'm always being asked how to get into copyediting by people who are in related fields such as teaching. Please note that having been an English teacher does not necessarily prepare you well to be an editor. There is no One True Way, but this is a path that I often recommend:

• First, read "So, You Want to Be an Editor."

• Then read the blog posts "Becoming an Editor" and "What We Do" [Note: This item was updated August 20, 2011.]

• If you're still seriously interested, buy and work through The Copyeditor's Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications and Business Planning for Editorial Freelancers: A Guide for New Starters. [Note: This item was updated August 20, 2011; April 10, 2013; and October 8, 2019.]

• I used to advise would-be editors to subscribe to Copyediting newsletter. But the newsletter's materials were sold at the start of 2019 to ACES: the Society for Editing. You can find some of its articles in the News section of the ACES website. [Note: This item was updated October 8, 2019.]

• Next, take the certificate program that the UC San Diego Extension offers. [Note: This item was updated October 9, 2019.]

• Meanwhile, follow the links found in the Copyeditors' Knowledge Base on my web site. Take action on those that will help you fill gaps in your knowledge.

• Then buy and read my onscreen booklet, Getting Started as a Freelance Copyeditor.

• After all of that, take any additional courses that you need. There are plenty available, many that can be completed online.

• Then begin contacting publishers and other organizations, offering your editing services. You will most often be required to take a copyediting test, time for which you will not be paid.

• If you have gotten this far in the process, join a profession-related organization for networking and continuing-education purposes and to have colleagues who can answer your questions and teach you client-relations skills. I highly recommend the Editorial Freelancers Association, of which I have been a member since 1995. There are many more such organizations that you may find helpful. [Note: This item was updated April 10, 2013.]

• Take courses periodically for the rest of your life. Above all, being a copyeditor requires being willing to constantly learn: Both language and grammar practices change over time, as does the technology used to edit. You may also want or need to learn related skills, such as indexing or page layout, to stay in demand in the industry.

• Educate yourself about the financial and tax implications of being a self-employed freelancer and about how to market your editorial services. You will be a businessperson, so you will need to know how to act like one.

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My Germ-Away Tea

Because it's the season for upper respiratory infections, at least in the northern hemisphere, I thought you might want my recipe for Germ-Away Tea:

Steep 2 teaspoons of dried, crumbled spearmint leaves and a dash each of ground turmeric, fennel seed, ground sage, and ground ginger in 12 ounces of steaming-hot water for 2 minutes. (You can substitute a small bit of grated fresh ginger for the ground ginger.) Fills two 6-ounce teacups.

Here are the health benefits commonly ascribed to the spices in the tea:

• Spearmint: digestive aid, nausea fighter, indigestion fighter


• Turmeric: antioxidant, antibacterial, digestive aid.


• Fennel: digestive aid, diuretic, expectorant, sore-throat soother


• Sage: antibiotic, cold fighter, anticongestive, digestive aid, disinfectant, flu fighter, immune-system booster, sore-throat soother


• Ginger: anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, bronchitis fighter, circulation booster, cold fighter, anticongestive, flu fighter

It's a little spicy and tastes best hot.

Feel better.

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Get to Know the Council of Science Editors

If you're a medical editor or copyeditor employed by or freelancing for science journals, publishers, authors, or medical associations, you can enrich your career by getting to know the Council of Science Editors (CSE). One way to do that is to follow the association on Twitter.

CSE, originally called the Council of Biology Editors, was established in 1957 by the National Science Foundation and the American Institute of Biological Sciences. Today it has more than 1,200 members from around the world. It provides career development, provides educational opportunities, and develops resources for identifying and implementing high-quality editorial practices. It offers plenty of resources on its web site, including a member forum, access to publications on editing and the publishing process, and periodic white papers on issues in science publishing. Its journal, Science Editor, addresses all aspects of editing, from the technical to the interpersonal, from science education to ethics in science publishing.

CSE also puts together an annual meeting that offers educational courses, networking opportunities, and presentations of research posters and papers. This year's meeting will be May 14–18, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Check us out. Yes, I'm pleased to be a CSE member.


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What 26 Years in Publishing—15 as a Freelance Copyeditor—Have Taught Me

The publishing industry, which includes both books and peer-reviewed journals, has undergone tremendous changes since I first began working in it in 1984. Back then, manuscripts were all still edited on paper, not on computer screens; authors saw both galley proofs and page proofs of their typeset manuscripts; and the only methods for contacting authors were phone calls, faxes, and letters delivered by postal services or express air couriers. But some things haven’t changed over the years:

• If an editor treats authors respectfully, authors will return the favor.



• Authors accept edits more willingly from an editor who explains the reasoning behind changes than from one who doesn’t.



• Clients and authors always appreciate clear, straightforward, timely communication with an editor.



• Misunderstandings can occur when there are language barriers, so both author and editor must assume good intentions on the part of the other as they work at communicating.



• It’s important to respect boundaries. Authors are the subject-matter experts; the editor is the expert on grammar, syntax, overall flow, and the need for additional details.



• No matter how experienced, an editor can always learn new things. I learn something new from each manuscript I edit and each client and author I work with.

Books and journals may eventually stop appearing in paper form and be available only onscreen, but success in publishing will always require attention to the human beings involved.


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The Journals in Which My ESL Authors Get Published

I like lists; I keep them for many different subjects. They're good for organizing how we work and how we think. In looking at lists I made in 2009, I came across this one, a list of the medical journals in which my ESL (English as a second language) authors went on to have their research articles published after getting some language help from me:

• Anesthesia and Analgesia



• Anesthesia and Analgesia



• Archives of Medical Research



• Archives of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery



• Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications



• Biophysical Journal



• Biotechnology Letters



• Chinese Medical Journal



• Cleft Palate–Craniofacial Journal



• Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research



• Injury



• Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science



• Journal of Arthroplasty



• Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery



• Journal of Bone and Mineral Research



• Journal of Clinical Anesthesia



• Journal of Comparative Human Biology



• Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics



• Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery



• Journal of Trauma: Injury, Infection, and Critical Care



• Molecular Vision



• Oncology Reports



• Orthopedics



• The Permanente Journal



• Protein Expression and Purification



• Radiology



• Spine

I am grateful to all of the authors who trust me to handle their writing with care while helping them to describe their research as clearly and succinctly as possible.


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How to Find Clients Who Need ESL Editing

I work with a lot of ESL (English as a second language) authors, physicians from outside the United States who have written articles that they want to submit to U.S. medical journals for publication. This is a rewarding, mentally stimulating niche to work in. How can editors find ESL authors? There's no straightforward way to find them individually in order to offer editorial services.

But there are roundabout ways:

Make it known that you specialize in ESL editing. Do this on your business web site, in your resume, in your entries in online directories of professional editors, in your LinkedIn profile, and everywhere else online where you have a presence, and explain what ESL editing is and what your work process is. You might even consider adding a line about ESL editing to your signature for posts to profession-related e-mail lists. Listmates have been known to refer potential clients to one another.

Do a version of hanging out where these authors are likely to be. For example, if you like working with university students who need ESL editing, contact various university department heads and let them know that your services are available and that you will abide by university regulations about students hiring editors. Contact various universities' international student organizations and ask if they'd post your contact info and a description of your services on their web site or their page of the university web site. If you want to work with researchers who need ESL editing to get their journal articles published, contact professional organizations that deal with subject matters you like to edit (engineering, psychology, physical therapy, economics, linguistics, education, business management, etc.) and ask to make your contact info and services description available to their members.

One of my versions of hanging out where these authors are involves contacting the editors-in-chief of journals whose subject matter I feel comfortable working with and letting them know that I know that there is great research being done by ESL authors but that because of budget and schedule limitations, the journals' staff members likely can't spend the necessary time to heavily edit these authors' manuscripts. I add that I can solve that problem for them by working directly with authors (i.e., the authors—not the journals—pay for my services, as an investment in their careers) and that I would be pleased if they (the editors) would consider referring promising ESL authors to me. I don't ask for exclusivity for such referrals; if the journals already have a list of freelance ESL copyeditors to whom they refer authors, I'm happy to be added to the list.

Seek referrals and cultivate continuing relationships with current ESL clients. As you gain ESL clients, those who are pleased with your work will be happy to tell others about your services. Make it clear in your communications, especially written ones, that you'll gladly accept referrals. You can even put a note to that effect at the bottom of your invoices or your payment receipts, if you provide these for individual authors, as I do. When you finish a project for an ESL client, be sure to mention that you'll be available for editing additional materials that the person writes in the future. E-mail these clients periodically to say hello and remind them that you enjoyed working with them and would like to work with them again.

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Internship for a Budding Copyeditor?

I know an English major looking for a spring 2010 internship with a freelance copyeditor. She hopes to eventually go freelance full time. If you're willing to work with her for about 200 hours, e-mail me at editor at kokedit dot com and I'll put you in touch with her. Her name is Luann, and here's what she has to say about herself and what she can do for you:

I am in college right now working on an English degree. My goal is to work as a freelance copyeditor when I graduate. Before I returned to school in January 2008, I studied a lot about copyediting. Since I returned to school, my professors have been very pleased with the quality of my work, and this last semester I worked as a tutor in my school's writing center.

I am going to take the spring semester off school with a new baby, and I would like to use this time to complete a copyediting internship with an experienced freelance copyeditor. This will count as a class toward my degree. I will need to work at least 200 hours between now and mid-April.

Through this internship, I hope to gain more editing skills and confidence in my editing abilities. I also want to network more with other copyeditors and publishing companies and gain experience to add to my résumé.

The person I intern with will need to ensure that I have learning opportunities, supervise my work, and provide an evaluation at the end. My work should save my supervisor a lot of time, though certainly not 200 hours. I do not expect to work as quickly as a more experienced copyeditor, and my supervisor will need to review at least some of my work and answer questions.

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Is It Copyeditor Appreciation Week?

This must be unofficial Copyeditor Appreciation Week.

Check out "Ode to a Copy Editor." You'll also like "Hail to the Copy Editor."

I could so easily get used to hearing praise for my profession.


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Being Thanked in Print

I have the nicest clients!

One of my ESL (English as a second language) clients from China just sent me a PDF of his article, which I edited and which has just been published in the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. He and his coauthors thanked me in the note at the end of the article. I'm in JBJS, at the top of page 2885 of volume 91, issue 12 (the issue for December 1, 2009)!


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Editorial Potpourri

For your editorial pleasure, here is a potpourri of goodies:

This one is a handy tool for both editors and writers: "The Ultimate Resource Guides for MLA, APA, Chicago, and CSE." It's a compendium of links to web sites explaining the various styles and showing examples of materials that follow them.

Information on the Boycott the APA Manual Facebook page indicates that the American Psychological Association is now willing to provided corrected replacement copies of the sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, the first printing of which is rife with errors and odd style changes.

Spice up your office or home décor with the Periodic Table of Typefaces, Popular, Influential, & Notorious.

Finally, no editorial office is complete without tea, so I direct you to the delightful "AnTEAoxidant Rap."


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Excellent Employment News

I interrupt the usual topic here—editing—to bring you this good news: Despite this horrid economy, my 26-year-old daughter, Rebecca (aka Becky), who earned her master's degree in social work 2 years ago, was just this morning hired for her first professional job as a mental-health counselor.

I told her that in calling me to inform me, she'd just performed her first act as a professional: She'd provided information that helped lift someone's gloom (mine). What's supremely ironic is that news stories are reporting that the U.S. unemployment rate has risen to 10.2%, the highest it has been since Becky was born in 1983.

She got this job despite having had to slow her job search because she has a small child (my delightful 2-year-old granddaughter, who was born right about the time Becky finished the requirements for her master's degree) and despite the fact that she and her husband haven't been able to afford to have Internet access at home. That has meant that potential employers couldn't reach her in a timely fashion by e-mail, which many prefer to use rather than the phone, and that she could only occasionally get to the public library to complete online job applications, which is how most potential employers now prefer to deal with job applicants.

I am so proud of her persistence. That kid—er ... um ... mental-health professional—has guts and a good heart. She'll be working for an organization that "provides housing and support services to some of Long Island's neediest people: families and individuals who are homeless, working their way out of crisis, or faced with debilitating medical conditions or mental illness." This is exactly the kind of work she wanted. She did an internship with a social worker employed by a public school and didn't find the work there stimulating enough.

You rock, Becky!

Love,
Mom


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A Dose of Beauty from My Husband the Master Cabinetmaker

Here's a stunning screen door with Asian-influenced design that My Husband the Master Cabinetmaker^tm restored and refinished for a client in the Hamptons. (The trim around the door and window will be refinished by house painters; the slate top step is covered with a temporary plywood box to protect it while carpenters, cabinetmakers, interior painters, electricians, and other craftspeople go in and out with heavy equipment.)


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A Few Too Many Oopsies in the New APA Style Manual

The first printing of the new sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, which I have yet to purchase, apparently has a good many errors, and those who peruse the APA web site won't easily find links to list of corrections. This article in the online magazine Inside Higher Ed contains links to pages on the APA site detailing the corrections, including corrections to four error-laden sample research papers.

You might also find the APA's blog APA Style helpful in figuring out what's changed and what's an error in the new edition of the style manual.


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Where to Find Professional Editors

I'd love it if all authors who need an editor wanted to contract with me. But because I can't possibly edit every manuscript out there, I'm providing this nonexhaustive list of directories where you, dear authors, can search for professional editors. Your choice of which directories to search depends on the type of manuscript you've written: fiction, general nonfiction, academic, medical or scientific; book; white paper; journal research article; brochure copy; web-site copy.

• Bay Area Editors' Forum



• Board of Editors in the Life Sciences



• Bookbuilders of Boston



• Cambridge Academic Editors Network



• Council of Science Editors



• Directory of CE-L Freelancers (choose the "Freelancers" tab on that page; these are copyeditors from around the world who subscribe to the Copyediting-L e-mail discussion list)



• Editorial Freelancers Association



• Editors' Association of Canada



• Northwest Independent Editors Guild



• San Diego Professional Editors Network



• Society for Editors and Proofreaders (UK)



• Society of Editors (NSW) Inc. (Australia)

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Redesigned PubMed Interface

Medical copyeditors and writers, have you seen the preview of the streamlined new PubMed interface? The details about the redesign are here.



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The Copyeditors' Knowledge Base

I'm so pleased! The Copyeditors' Knowledge Base (accessed through the bulleted list of 8 links on this page of my web site) got a nice little write-up on the MediaJobsDaily blog:

Have a knack for grammar and know AP, CMS, and/or MLA style inside and out? Maybe you want to try copyediting. We mention this because not only does mediabistro have a bazillion copyediting courses coming up, but we just discovered a fantastically thorough and free resource for copyeditors and copyeditor wannabes at Katharine O'Moore-Klopf's web site. The Copyeditors' Knowledge Base is chock-full of reading material and examples, and it is free, free, free. Learn where to get formal training and/or certification, see sample letters to clients (a project estimate, a sample contract), learn about reference books to buy, and so on. ...

Please do spend some time perusing the information accessed through the Copyeditors' Knowledge Base. Whether you want to get into editing or are already an experienced editor, there's plenty of information you can use on industry basics, education and certification, business tools, editing tools, networking, finding work, and profession-related reading. It's my theory that there really is enough work out there for all freelance editorial professionals, if only we know where to look for it. And doesn't it make work life just that much easier and more pleasant if we help one another? copyeditor copyediting editor editing publishing Copyeditors' Knowledge Base EditorMom

New MTA Tax for Freelancers in NYC Metro Area

I just found out about an obscure new tax that applies to self-employed individuals living in and businesses located in New York City and several surrounding counties: the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Mobility Tax (MCTMT).

The first estimated payment for it is due on November 2. I've seen no publicity about this tax, so it does seem to have been sneaked into place; it was enacted May 9, 2009. Here is what a colleague posted about it to one of the editing-related e-mail lists that I subscribe to:

[Here] is the Web site [with] information for the self-employed: [The MCTMT] applies to the five counties of the City of New York plus Rockland, Nassau, Suffolk, Orange, Putnam, Dutchess, and Westchester counties, for net earnings with $10,000 as the threshold point. (Below that figure, you don't have to worry about this.) The tax rate is .34% (.0034) of total net earnings within the geographic area listed above. That's $34 on $10,000. We are supposed to calculate this and make estimated tax payments starting on November 2, 2009. See the Web site above for all the details.

Please check with your accountant.


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National Punctuation Day 2009

Today, September 24, is National Punctuation Day, a celebration dear to this copyeditor.

There are plenty of ways to celebrate, including participating in the National Punctuation Day Baking Contest. Just think: You could prepare and enjoy the Official Meat Loaf of National Punctuation Day. I can imagine people in households everywhere eating colon cakes, comma con carne, and semicolon sweetmeats. Can't you?

Another way to celebrate is to play Grammar Ninja, to which I am now seriously addicted, thanks to an editor colleague. Play it if you dare!


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Like Father, Like Son

It seems that my 14-year-old son, Neil, has inherited his father's skilled hands.

I am so impressed with Neil these days. In addition to being fairly emotionally mature for a 14-year-old (he'll be 15 in December), he is becoming quite a skilled handyperson. The photos above show what he did today for my husband, Ed: repairing our wooden utility trailer.

Ed uses this trailer to transport equipment from his cabinetmaking shop and cabinetry when it won't fit into our van even with the back seats removed. Periodically, Ed has to replace sections of the trailer even though by this point in its life, most sections are made from less-likely-to-rot pressure-treated plywood—because sometimes it sits outdoors, holding tree and bush cutoffs from our yard until it's full enough to be emptied at the town dump, exposing it to rot-inducing dampness.

Right now, Ed has absolutely no time to fix the trailer because he has a small cabinetmaking project going on in addition to his usual two days a week driving a truck for a company that delivers groceries to individual customers. But he'll need the trailer soon to transport a refinished cabinet to a customer in the Hamptons. So after Ed provided instructions this morning, it was Neil to the rescue. Neil has just now finished, doing it all without supervision because Ed was off delivering groceries. I'm so proud of both the work Neil has done and his attitude about it. We're not able to pay him anything for this, yet he happily worked away, probably because our pride in him fueled him.

It's so great to have two very handy guys in the house!


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The Delicacy of Cross-Cultural Communications

In cross-cultural communication with clients, it's very important that both freelancer and client assume that the other is operating from a position of goodwill, even when there are occasional misunderstandings.

Being aware of the Asian tendency to what one of my editor colleagues has called a "much more rigorous and formal structure of politeness in negotiations" (in comparison with that used by, say, Americans), I am always careful to compose my first few e-mail communications with new Asian clients very formally and letting them know that I am "very happy" or "pleased" or even "delighted" to work with them, and I always thank them for their trust in my editing skills. I also keep track of national holidays in Japan, China, and Korea and e-mail clients in those nations the appropriate holiday wishes at the appropriate times, and I include a "thank you for your continued trust in my editing" sentence. When there have been natural disasters or warnings of them in countries where I have clients, I have always e-mailed them to check on their welfare.

After I've worked with clients a few times, I ask them to call me Katharine, rather than Ms. O'Moore-Klopf (or Editor or Editor O'Moore-Klopf, as some have addressed me), if they wish. They in turn become less formal and will often tell me about their vacations or departmental events when they get back in touch with me to ask that I edit their newest manuscript. Some even ask me to address them by their nicknames.

Generally, what I'm editing for my ESL (English as a second language) authors are medical journal manuscripts. They may want me to edit the manuscripts immediately, but I may have to ask them to wait a few days because I already have a journal manuscript or two, plus a book manuscript, in process. Occasionally, a project scheduled ahead of theirs may run longer than planned or an emergency editing project may come in, pushing theirs back a couple of days.

That happened a few weeks ago with a PhD from Korea, one of my repeat clients. I do keep my authors informed about the status of their manuscripts in my schedule. But not having heard from me as soon as she would have preferred, this client wrote:

Hi, Katharine.

I cannot receive the editted manuscript. What's the problem with you? Please check up the process of my paper. Thank you.

Now, if a U.S. author were to write me and ask, "What's the problem with you?" I would be offended, thinking that the author was being rude by implying that I am incompetent. Knowing, however, that with this author there is more of a language barrier than with some of my other ESL authors, I wrote back:

Hello, C.

I started work on your manuscript today and should be able to finish the first round of editing tomorrow. I have had some emergency editing projects in the last few days, which required that I do triage on all of my projects. I apologize for the delay; it was unavoidable.

I understand that you may be unhappy about the delay. I am hoping that you are not angry with me.

Fortunately, she replied:

Hello, Katharine.

I'm not angry with you. I apologize for the my poor expression. I will wait your reply.

And then I replied:

I am very pleased. I like to keep my authors happy.

She has since asked me to edit two more manuscripts for her, and you can bet that I'm now updating her about my schedule much more often than I do with other clients. I'm glad that I addressed the issue of her satisfaction and didn't just assume that she was fuming and that I'd not be asked to work with her again.

Being forthright, honest, and unfailingly polite serves a freelancer well when working with any client, but it works especially well with clients from different cultures.


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