Author: Brendan O'Brien

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Brendan O’Brien

Editors’ Association of Earth has 10,000 members!

October 29, 2019 by Brendan O'Brien | 1 Comment on Editors’ Association of Earth has 10,000 members!

Editors’ Association of Earth (EAE) is a Facebook group set up in February 2013 by Greg Ioannou and others, with the aim of fostering links between editors internationally. On Oct. 17, its membership reached 10,000. It’s a testament to editors around the world that EAE has become so successful. EAE has evolved in an organic […]

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The Aging Editor

August 20, 2019 by Brendan O'Brien | 19 Comments on The Aging Editor

A few months ago, some editors shared articles on Facebook about editing and aging. I didn’t read them properly, but I saw some of the comments. I recently turned 59 and have been a professional editor for more than three decades. I’m getting quite close to an age at which many people retire. What has […]

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Valparaiso

May 14, 2019 by Brendan O'Brien | 12 Comments on Valparaiso

When I was at school, I learned a poem in Irish called ‘Tháinig Long ó Valparaiso’ by Pádraig de Brún (it’s actually a translation of one called ‘The Ship’ by Oliver St John Gogarty, but I didn’t know that then). A ship from Valparaiso came And in the Bay her sails were furled; She brought […]

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My Network

February 12, 2019 by Brendan O'Brien | Leave a Comment

I went freelance at the start of 1993, working from my house in Dublin. I didn’t have a computer till midway through that year — work arrived at first by courier or in the mail, on paper. I had some reference books and, if I was lucky, a publisher’s style guide to consult. For many […]

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Winning in the Freelance Game

November 13, 2018 by Brendan O'Brien | 6 Comments on Winning in the Freelance Game

Being a freelancer is hard. When clients don’t have work for you, you cease to exist for them even though your livelihood depends on them or on people like them. You need to be a team player, but often you will be dropped from the team abruptly when a project ends. This demands resilience. Here […]

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Is It All About the Author?

August 21, 2018 by Brendan O'Brien | 23 Comments on Is It All About the Author?

The prevailing orthodoxy in online editors’ groups, I have noticed, is one of huge respect for, and empathy with, the author. The author is king/queen. We, as editors, primarily serve the author’s vision, the author’s voice. However, in my own work (both in-house and freelance, primarily as a copyeditor of non-fiction), the emphasis has generally […]

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Beginnings

June 19, 2018 by Brendan O'Brien | 8 Comments on Beginnings

In 1988 I found myself at a career crossroads. I put a small ad in the Irish Times seeking editorial work, hoping to learn on the job. One of the (very few) responses was from a man I’ll call John, who was running a free newspaper in South Central Dublin (Ireland). He suggested that I […]

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The Perils of Blabbing

April 3, 2018 by Brendan O'Brien | 6 Comments on The Perils of Blabbing

As a freelance editor, I’m lucky to work on some interesting books and journal material as well as dull and tedious stuff. I sometimes come across something that I would like to share, but resist the temptation, as publishers and authors naturally don’t like the contents of books, etc. to be disclosed before publication. I […]

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The Perils of Not Knowing

January 16, 2018 by Brendan O'Brien | 10 Comments on The Perils of Not Knowing

One of the downsides of freelance editing is that you’re not there (wherever “there” may be) to explain your thinking on occasions when it might be appropriate to do so. Furthermore, you’re probably unaware that such occasions have even arisen. When I had in-house jobs, I learned a lot from bosses and colleagues. In my […]

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The Reluctant Editor

November 7, 2017 by Brendan O'Brien | 15 Comments on The Reluctant Editor

I started editing in 1988, when I was 28, with a free Dublin newspaper that never got off the ground. A stint in London followed, working first on metallurgy journals and then on civil engineering books and journals. In these two jobs I learned a great deal about editorial and production work, often under pressure. […]

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