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Editing Globally: The first year

It might be Valentine’s Day, but here at Editing Globally there’s another milestone to celebrate! Today marks the first anniversary of Editing Globally. It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since we launched, but in some respects, it feels like much longer too as we’ve all done so much, both separately and as part of a team, in that time.

When we launched one year ago today, we did so with the mission statement of providing seamless and thorough editorial services by pooling our knowledge and resources. Our aim was to offer clients full support from manuscript evaluations right the way through to the finished product and to be able to take on large or very time-sensitive projects that just wouldn’t be possible for one editor to handle.

Happily, we can report back that during the last year, we have done exactly that. We’ve worked on some great projects together, sometimes with just a couple of members taking part and other times with all five of us getting involved. The range of work we’ve taken on has been varied and interesting, too; we’ve been able to help clients with memoirs, novels, legal documents, marketing materials, blog posts, business reports, and plenty more. We’ve also learned a lot from each other. Being able to collaborate over pieces of work and see how each of us handles certain things has made all of us better editors.

As we begin our second year of Editing Globally, we have lots of plans in the pipeline. Janet and Katherine can now provide training to other editors in a variety of subjects, including working with students, general copy-editing, fiction editing, working with independent authors, and working with publishers. There’s also a six-part blog series on working on dissertations and theses coming soon. At least three of us (Janet, Katherine, and Kelly) will be presenting at the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SFEP) conference in Lancaster in September too, after Janet and Katherine, along with friend and colleague Erin Brenner, led a very successful panel on rates at last year’s conference. And we recently started work for a large international firm, handling the proofreading of all external communications – a task that would be impossible for one editor to handle alone, not least because of the numerous time zones in which the client has offices.

We are all looking forward to the opportunities and challenges ahead and to a year filled with interesting work, professional development, and most of all, friendship!

Editing Globally: A-conferencing we go

This time last week, three of the Editing Globally team had just left the annual conference of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP), this time in St Neots, England. Katherine Trail, Kelly Lamb and I (Janet MacMillan) wended our way there – some of us travelling a very long way and one of us spending as long on three trains as the other two did on planes – to learn (and teach) why context is key.

Our editing careers differ in length and subject fields and genres. It was Katherine’s third SfEP conference, and Kelly and Janet’s first (although Kelly and Janet have both been to other editing conferences). But we were all unanimous in our verdict: it was superb!

Everyone was so friendly and open, it was so inclusive, everyone was clearly there to share their skills and learn new ones, or even just confirm they were on the right track, and, oh my, was the food ever good.

We three arrived early evening before the conference officially started the next afternoon. What a great decision! We enjoyed a casual evening in the venue pub with a dozen or so other attendees, which we all found a delightful way to settle in and talk to people.

The next morning, the three of us headed off for some pampering in the venue complex’s spa, which, given the intensity of the following 48+ hours, was a wise move.

After the annual general meeting, which was so non-contentious that it was over in no time, there was an impromptu and very noisy tea party, though perhaps the noise level was related to the number of folks who packed into one rather small room. Even with the door and windows open one could tell it was a happy gathering. Kelly immortalized it for posterity.

The dinner and pub-type quiz that evening were great fun. I’ll spare the blushes of the team I was on and not identify them. One might say that we weren’t exactly stars! Mind you, we did a bit better on the acronym and abbreviations round than the other rounds. I think that the preponderance of academic editors at the table is the explanation. Even though I don’t think any of the Editing Globally team closed the bar that night, we certainly enjoyed some great conviviality before retiring to our respective beds.

Watch this space over the next week or so for blogs about the actual conference sessions, sessions that we all found so valuable.

Editing Globally: A rewarding week

Virginia Durksen, left, and Janet MacMillan with their well-deserved awards. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Glossop.

At the Editors’ Association of Canada annual conference held last weekend, our own Janet MacMillan was awarded the President’s Award for Volunteer Service. The award recognizes outstanding service to the organization by member volunteers. Anyone who knows Janet knows that she is a born volunteer; she is selfless with her time and is involved with so many groups and initiatives, not just in Canada, but also across the water in the UK and in various online groups. We are all delighted for her here at Editing Globally (and we are some of the luckiest beneficiaries of Janet’s time and effort!). Janet had also been nominated for the Karen Virag Award, which was won by Virginia Durksen.

A full list of winners can be found here. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees!

Editing Globally: Recognizing dedication

Here at Editing Globally, we are all about teamwork, networking, and supporting each other. So it was with great pleasure (but very little surprise) we recently learned that one of our own and a close colleague in the wider editing world have both been nominated for the Editors’ Association of Canada’s Karen Virag Award for their dedication and unfailing commitment to the editing community.

Editing Globally’s Janet MacMillan is a familiar face and name to many in editing communities across the world, especially the Editors’ Association Canada and the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP). Janet dedicates a large portion of her life to helping others, whether it through formal mentoring, running the SfEP’s Skype club for far-flung members of the editing community, giving workshops and seminars at conferences, or just being a sounding board for editors with problems. And we’re very fond of her here at Editing Globally too!

As if Janet’s nomination wasn’t enough, the indefatigable Louise Harnby, a friend to all of us here at Editing Globally, has joined Janet on the shortlist. Many of you will probably have seen her fantastic books and guides on editing and proofreading. Her advice on starting a business and marketing one’s editorial services has been invaluable for many new editors and proofreaders (and for established ones too). She is unfailingly generous with dispensing her wisdom and lending her time.

The award ceremony takes place this weekend and typically both Janet and Louise each want the other to win! The rest of the Editing Globally team are just delighted that the hard work of two valued editorial professionals is being recognized.

Well done, Janet and Louise.

You can find out more about the Karen Virag award here.