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Succeeding as a Freelancer

Tuesday March 14, 2017

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 suggestions. Develop a strong client […]

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Marion Soubliere

Winning Contracts With the Government of Canada

Tuesday February 14, 2017

The federal government spends between $15 billion and $20 billion annually on goods and services, including editing and writing. Communication skills are in high demand. The government’s massive web renewal project faces much work ahead in streamlining 1,500 websites into one overarching website, Canada.ca. Small businesses across Canada, including solopreneurs, can contract directly to this […]

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business of editing federal contracts freelance editors government editing Government of Canada Marion Soubliere solopreneur web content web editing websites

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Anita Jenkins

Quick and Dirty

Tuesday February 7, 2017

When I was following the editors’ chat group, I often found myself silently screaming, “Who cares?” Or perhaps not so silently. The conversation frequently dealt with moving the words around in a sentence to make it “perfect” or correcting a fine point of grammar or checking what Chicago says about the em dash. Most of […]

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Anita Jenkins deadlines editing speed editors at work government reports quick and dirty editing time management

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Anna Williams General EAC

Year in Review: The Best of 2016

Tuesday January 10, 2017

With another year behind us, we’d like to know what you liked best on the blog in 2016 and what you’d most like to see in the new year. Let us know in the comments! Here are some of our top picks: Should You Only “Edit What You Know?” by Sue Archer. Should we only […]

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Anna Williams Year in Review

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Wilf Popoff

Wasted Words: Channelling Orwell

Tuesday November 1, 2016

“Insincerity,” says George Orwell in his classic commentary of 70 years ago, is the “great enemy of clear language.” Political discourse is “designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable…” For Orwell, insincerity was more a result of lazy writing than a deliberate attempt to conceal the truth: “…if thought corrupts language, language can […]

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corporate editing editor's role government editing Orwell political discourse Wasted Words Wilf Popoff

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Melva McLean

What’s in a Name?

Tuesday October 18, 2016

Last month’s book club choice was from a bunch of bestseller and book club lists. It was one of those “family” stories with a sizeable cast of characters. You know the kind — three or four sisters with partners and/or lovers and children and a couple of pets. I was a hundred pages into the […]

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character names characters editor's role fiction Melva McLean novels

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Paul Buckingham

Ours Is Not to Reason Why — Or Is It?

Tuesday October 4, 2016

You’re editing a biography of Lester Pearson, and you see a line that says, “It is a fitting coincidence that Pearson was born the same year another great Liberal leader, Wilfrid Laurier, took the Canadian helm.” You’re drawn to the interesting coincidence of dates and decide to look up the facts. You discover that Pearson […]

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author-editor relationship editor's role fact checking logic Paul Buckingham

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Sue Archer

Oh, My Aching Eyeballs!

Tuesday August 16, 2016

Lately, I find myself wishing I’d picked a profession where I didn’t need to look at computer screens. Or read a lot. Or use my eyes at all, really. (Being a taste tester at a chocolate factory sounds like an attractive career change right about now.) My distance vision has always been terrible, but now […]

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editors at work ergonomics eyesight health occupational health and safety Sue Archer

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Paul Cipywnyk

Know Your Subject, Watch That Continuity

Tuesday August 9, 2016

Blam! Blam! Black Sombrero fired his Colt .45 at the shadow in the barn, then spun and snapped three shots at the posse approaching across the coral. Zing! A shot from behind creased his shoulder, and he wheeled back, fanning four quick shots at the figure in the gaping doorway. Snick. Damn, he was empty! […]

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book editors continuity editor's role fiction Paul Cipywnyk

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Susan Glickman

Time to Put the “Free” Back in “Freelance”

Tuesday July 26, 2016

I make my living as a freelancer, which means I work pretty much every single day, all year long. My only breaks are brief visits to out-of-town family. Real holidays are rare — perhaps once every five years. Sound familiar? I suspect many of you are like me. We never know when the next job […]

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editing editor editors at work freelancing sabbatical Susan Glickman taking a break