Carving Out Your Place in Editing

I think we have all heard the adage that every writer’s path to publishing is unique. But the more I work as an editor, and the more I meet fellow editors, the more I realize that we are similarly singular in how we all found our way into the world of words. There are those who took the more “traditional” path — doing a degree in English literature, or something adjacent, and then followed that with editing courses. And then there are those who lived a thousand different lives before somehow stumbling into this career that allows them to combine all of that varied experience. 

As far as my own journey in editing is concerned, I definitely followed the second path. I learned from my previous careers the importance of community and collaboration. So, one of the first things I did when I started as a freelance editor was to join Editors Canada. Soon after that, I joined the board of Editors Toronto, where I had the opportunity to meet two fellow budding editors, Raya P. Morrison and Shannon Parr. Over the last eight years, we have been lucky enough to be there to support each other as we have all navigated that hectic newcomer stage.

When the three of us walked into that first board meeting, it felt like we were all in relatively the same place. We had recently finished our respective training courses and were starting to look for work. Now, we have each found quite different careers within the industry. Shannon went through internships and positions at publishing houses to eventually become a managing editor. Raya and I have taken the freelancer route, each working in fiction story editing and supplementing with other work. And while we all started in Toronto, I am now the only one left in the city! Raya went east and settled in Halifax, and Shannon went west to Regina and then on to Calgary. 

When we all decided to attend the conference this year, I started to think about our individual paths and how much I love hearing other editors’ stories. Sometimes this is a career where it feels like finding success and stability is always “against all odds.” All three of us have certainly had crisis periods when it seemed like it wasn’t going to work out. I am sure more of those will come, but we keep choosing to continue to trudge through the waters. 

We conceived our conference panel, Carving Out Your Place in Editing, as a conversation that we would love to have with every editor. We are going to explore the decisions that we made along the way that have led us to our niches and current positions. We are also going to talk about those moments when things weren’t working, and we had to decide to quit or find a way to pivot. 

We want this to feel a bit like a community meeting where we are all having a drink of choice together and sharing our stories. Not only do we want to look at how we each started to find work, how we have made major career decisions, and how we are looking to expand or grow as editors in the next phase, but we also want to hear from attendees about how they have navigated their career. Essentially, we want it to feel like an afternoon talk show all about editing! 

If you are going to be in Halifax this May, we hope you will stop by our session and contribute to the conversation. One of the greatest comforts in a career that can feel very solitary at times is in sharing those stories and moments that solidify that even though all of our paths — and the stories we help to tell — might each be unique, they are also all deeply connected. 

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