In Part 3 we discussed how editors determine costs. And before you scoff at or otherwise leap to judgment of the rates, it’s probably pertinent to mention another facet of this — it’s a generally accepted rule that whatever hourly rate a freelancer settles on, you can estimate their annual …
Now we arrive at the crucial topic of cost, and the seemingly arbitrary variations in same. Some editors are so brilliant that they really can and do charge top dollar. I know someone who can quote $5,000 for editing an 80,000-word manuscript. Before you gag on that, bear in mind …
As an independent writer myself and a passionate believer in the indie ethic, I have to acknowledge one of its major downsides: a real or perceived shoddiness in the final product of self-published authors. Which is where I now switch hats and replace the bohemian beret of the writer with …
I teach Creative Writing in the continuing education programs at both Ryerson and the University of Toronto. My students know that I also work as a freelance editor, so they often ask me whether they ought to hire one. Sometimes they even want to hire me, but generally I refuse. …
Some rules are rules. Not meant to be broken. Others are more like etiquette or Sunday best. When was the last time you wore Sunday best? That’s because society has changed in the half-century (or however long) you’ve been alive. When was the last time you split an infinitive, misspoke …
We’ve all had that moment of pride when the book or the brochure arrives, still smelling of ink. And the next moment, when we open the book to discover the glaring error that has somehow managed to survive our eagle-eyed hunt, to live forever as testament to our failure. That …
And so begins a mini-series, a sub-set of The Inner Editor by Virginia Durksen. Each “mythbuster” explores an assumption commonly made about editors or editing and offers a new perspective on that assumption. Consistency matters when you’re adding a column of numbers. Consistency also matters when you’re training your dog …
Always, ALWAYS, be prepared to talk about what you’re reading. Despite the auspicious title of this article, I can’t actually tell you how to get a job in publishing. Fewer and fewer jobs are opening up in this industry every day, and young people are having to get pretty …
For all the good that comes out of an internship, sometimes being an intern can be tough. Interns are dropped into a completely new environment where everyone has more experience than they do. It’s important that they make a good impression, but, at the same time, interns’ skills are only …
One often hears complaints about how some people litter their sentences with the word like—not as a noun, verb, preposition or conjunction, but as, like, an interjection. Like that. Now I know that Canadians like to blame Americans for all the world’s ills, but we can’t really lay this verbal …