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Rosemary Shipton

Illustration of an open laptop with a sheet of paper coming from it (like an old typewriter). Laptop surrounded by a smartphone, notebook, crumpled up paper, a cup of coffee on a saucer, and a couple of pens.

The Editor’s Letter

July 14, 2020 | Filed under: Rosemary Shipton

The editor’s letter — the first substantive communication you have with a client — is the most important task in any editorial project. It provides the opportunity to give your assessment, raise questions and establish a relationship. If this exchange is successful, the myriad other tasks should follow seamlessly. In …

Retirement Opportunities

To Retire — or Not?

January 7, 2020 | Filed under: Rosemary Shipton

Ever since compulsory staff retirement at 65 ended in Canada, the decision of whether to leave their profession voluntarily has become a conundrum for many people. Some continue working because they need the money, but for others it’s optional. The only people I know who retire “early” are teachers, civil …

Senior editor mentors a junior

Mentors

October 8, 2019 | Filed under: Rosemary Shipton

Throughout my career, I’ve been influenced by many mentors. When I was first hired right out of graduate school, Meredith, the experienced editor I was replacing, spent six weeks working alongside me introducing me to the principles, techniques and subtleties of editing both a scholarly journal and my first book …

Working With Authors

November 6, 2018 | Filed under: Rosemary Shipton

Editors make decisions all the time as they edit, but the most important judgment call of all is how to work best with each individual author. No one-size-fits-all solution will do. Most commonly, editors make their corrections with track changes, write questions and comments for the author in the margins, …

An Academic Rock Star’s Advice for Editors

April 17, 2018 | Filed under: Rosemary Shipton

Recently I was asked to speak at the memorial service for Francess Halpenny — a true powerhouse in Canadian publishing. In the course of her long life, she was head of the Editorial Department at University of Toronto Press (UTP) during its “golden years,” general editor of the Dictionary of …

There’s No Clarity With Editors or Authors

September 5, 2017 | Filed under: Rosemary Shipton

Editors say they love words, with finding just the right phrase for the context, but, ironically, they can only fail with two terms critical to the world of publishing: “editor” and “author.” When someone says she’s an editor, you have no idea what she does. Is she the editor of …

Editing Is Lifelong Learning

June 20, 2017 | Filed under: Rosemary Shipton

Editors enjoy their careers for various reasons — the opportunity to work in the exciting literary world or the more lucrative realms of government or business, or to specialize in particular areas of expertise. For me the major attraction is the simple fact that every project is different — I …

Succeeding as a Freelancer

March 14, 2017 | Filed under: Rosemary Shipton

The key to a successful freelance business is a steady supply of projects. First, decide how many hours a week you’d like to work — 20, 40 billable hours? — and then set out to achieve your goal. Your professional life and income will become almost predictable. Here are some …

Those Unpublishable Manuscripts

October 11, 2016 | Filed under: Rosemary Shipton

We’ve all had them – those manuscripts that arrive on our desks that should not be published. They have little merit in either content or expression, and our initial impulse is to return them immediately. How do we deal with them? If the project comes from a trade publisher, the contract …

Shorten It!

August 23, 2016 | Filed under: Rosemary Shipton

“Every word is gold,” my author said, “but I suppose you’ll have to shorten it.” Indeed I will: this book manuscript totals 180,000 words, and the trade publisher wants a 40 percent cut. That will be tough. Editors often need to reduce text. Newspapers, magazines, brochures, textbooks and reference materials …

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