THE EDITORS' WEEKLY
Official blog of Canada’s national editorial association
The Subtle Side of Conscious Language
You’re flying above a work for a structural edit or wading through the waters of a stylistic edit, when you come across a scene or a phrase that makes you pause. Is this potentially harmful? Should I encourage the author to use conscious language here? Karen Yin, in The Conscious Style Guide, suggests that “conscious […]
Krystina Mierins on Editing Artists
Welcome back to our series about arts and art history editing. In this post we’ll meet Krystina Mierins and learn about her experiences in this field. How did you enter the field of arts/art history editing? When I worked as a curatorial assistant at the Carnegie Museum of Art, I helped develop exhibitions and catalogues. […]
Show Your Pride
As Pride month draws to a close, I find myself reflecting on what it means to me as an editor. I feel most fulfilled when the various aspects of myself are integrated: my queerness informs my editing, certainly, but how does my editing interact with my queerness? The answer, for me, is that editing has […]
Making Social Media Work for You
Social media marketing is hard. You’re not visible, fighting algorithms made for big corporations and influencers. It’s a pay-to-win system that can leave you frustrated and dejected. However, there are some ways to make your social media experience tolerable — even enjoyable! Focus on community building Many editors are introverts, but social media is just […]
Describing “The Horrors”
Even though it’s not spooky season yet, many editors may find themselves with a horror manuscript in their hands. If you are editing or writing a story with a monster, describing the monster can be a bit of a problem sometimes. How do you describe the indescribable? Let’s explore how to portray a monster as […]
Relational Editing
While there are many different ways to be a writer, writing tends to be understood and represented as a solitary practice. Many writers and non-writers alike have cultivated mental images of the archetypal writer typing away late into the night or in the early morning in an isolated cabin in the middle of the woods. […]
The Editor’s Visibility
I’m touched to be the recipient of this year’s Karen Virag Award. I didn’t know Karen personally, but she published often on this blog, and if her 2012 post Grammar Class Wars gives a glimpse of her personality, then I think I would’ve really liked her. It’s a privilege for me to now have my […]
Breaking into a new market sector as an editor
If you thought that only newbie editors find it difficult to move into a new-to-them market sector, take it from me: it is not true! Even seasoned editors feel that familiar dread when it comes to putting themselves out there in a market they’re not well established in. And it’s got nothing to do with […]
Templates as Generative for Creativity: Reading They Say / I Say
Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein’s They Say / I Say aims “to demystify academic writing by isolating its basic moves, explaining them clearly and representing them in the form of templates.” Overview Working from the assumption that “academic writing…calls on writers not simply to express their own ideas but to do so as a response […]
The SME and Me: Navigating an Edit with a Subject Matter Expert
The first publishing company I worked for had an in-house newsletter that included photos from sales meetings, recipes, updates on the company baseball team (the Weasels) and random pieces on diverse topics. One of my contributions was titled something like, “How to impress at cocktail parties.” (Unfortunately, I can’t find the original; I hope the […]
Review: How to Clean Up a Messy Word Document
Techniques and Tips for Copyeditors Preparing a Text for Publication (2025) from Margaret Hunter Raise your hand if you’ve ever been at your wits’ end trying to figure out how to clean up a messy Word document. Help is at hand in this slim publication chock-full of practical clean-up tips and procedures. Aptly titled How […]