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It’s not an easy world for new editors out there. The publishing industry is changing while job markets everywhere are suffering. And yet, if you’re the right kind of person, editing can be a fantastic career. There is plenty of wisdom to be found out there from editors who are much more experienced than I am, but since my entry into the field was relatively recent, I can...
Read MoreHere at TEC we are celebrating our 4th Anniversary. The year introduced us to many wonderful new clients and opportunities, and gave us the chance to learn new skills as we strengthened our overall editing expertise. We have completed several projects this summer and, as the fall begins, we are undertaking several new ones. We are pleased to outline some of these for you here. Academic Editing We are working...
Read MoreIn her last blog, “The Texture of Technology,” Beth touched on the subject of e-books. Talk about e-books always prompts me to think about copyright. Well, most things prompt me to think about permissions and copyright these days. I’ve been inspired to begin a series of blogs, From The Desk of the Permissions Editor, where I’ll shed some light and offer some guidance on the complex world of...
Read MoreJust before the August 31 deadline for switching from analogue to digital, I phoned Bell and ordered FibeTV. Up until now I have had no cable at all, and I never thought I would want cable. In fact, if I hadn’t had to make this move, I probably wouldn’t have ordered it. But here I was facing a choice: TV or no TV. Of course, no TV...
Read MoreSlipping singly from my fingers, lettuce seeds drop like punctuation marks, organic ellipses marking the start of a new season of cultivation. Onion sets, diminutive bulbs the shape of Russian domes, stand to attention before being buried alive, later to emerge as vibrant, blue-green blades. On a neighbouring farm, in a hot-house fired by a wood-burning stove, under the watchful eyes of the farmers' children, cheddar and purple...
Read MoreVisitors and our fellow fourth-floor dwellers often comment on how little noise we make in our office. It seems to surprise them that three editors sitting in close quarters can be so silent. It’s no mystery to us: the nature of our work here at The Editing Company requires quiet concentration. For most of the day we sit at our desks, focused intently on our work—which is...
Read MoreA few weeks ago an author approached The Editing Company for some help with rewriting the synopsis of her manuscript. I was lucky enough to be put to the task. Writing a synopsis is quite the creative challenge. It requires you to sculpt the manuscript down to its best and most vital parts and make them flow as tightly as possible. As I worked through our...
Read MoreI just came back from a short vacation to Jacksonville, Florida. Or JAX, for short. I was visiting family and touring the Floridian countryside, seeing firsthand how hot and dry it is. Draught is a serious problem for the southern U. S. right now. My sister told me that in June and July there were over 300 fires burning in Florida, including a fire in...
Read MoreIn early June, Michael Redhill announced his departure from Brick. After over 10 years of editorial involvement with the literary magazine, #87—which is already on newsstands—is Michael’s last issue as the proprietor and publisher. This news left me feeling a bit sad but also hopeful. The sadness comes from the sentiment that Michael’s exit marks the end of an era. Under his direction, Brick has built up a...
Read MoreHappy Canada Day and Happy Pride Day! It’s July and summer has arrived. We’ve been keeping busy through May and June with new and ongoing projects. We thought we’d provide you with an overview of a few of them here. Substantive Editing Beth is collaborating with Allyson Mitchell, a professor of women’s studies at York University, on the substantive edit of her book manuscript. Beth met Allyson ten...
Read MoreEvery editor’s nightmare is this: finding a spelling error in the printed publication of the manuscript you just edited after the fact. It is devastating. Finding an error at this point in the process can undermine your self-worth to the nth degree. I know this is an occupational hazard: missing things. I know we need to "step away from the book” at some point and accept the inevitable...
Read MoreNothing has ever shaken my editorial self as much as this comment did. It came from an influential editor from a successful publishing company who was telling me about what to look at when considering a book. The advice had little to do with the uniqueness of the work, the style, the quality; instead it was all trends, what was in season. And then I was told to...
Read MorePlagiarism has become rampant in this age of instantly accessible information. There have been countless cases of stolen words, images and art, from student essays to photographs to musical compositions and lyrics. Just a few days ago, one of our clients found a website had included a large chunk of writing from one of her monthly newsletters on its homepage without her knowledge or consent. She asked...
Read MoreFor a while I thought I was hearing things. The sounds came and went so fast, it was impossible to confirm them with the naked ear. But yes, with closer attention, I proved myself right. A new form of “is, is” has arisen in everyday speech, and it is clearly here to stay. The new “is, is” is far different from, for example, the grammatical use of...
Read MoreEditors and writers: some see them as bitter enemies, some describe a beautiful partnership—and some say that editors are just writers who’ve given up. It’s common to hear that you can be an editor or a writer—but never both! I’d like to protest that. You can certainly be both … and you might be already. As many famous writer-types have said, “Good writing is rewriting. ” Editing is inherent...
Read MoreWhen I was in elementary school, from book reports to geography projects, the tried-and-true resource for all assignments was the local Toronto Public Library branch. It wasn’t all about school, though. My weekly trips to the library allowed me to indulge my love of reading. One particular weekend, when I was seven years old, I approached the checkout desk with five children’s novels in hand. My mom held up...
Read MoreWe thought we’d give you a quick overview of some of the projects we’ve been working on here at The Editing Company. We’re keeping busy, and there’s nothing better than sharing an office with a team of editors who are focused on their work. It’s what makes this editor hum. Editors at Work Nina Hoeschele, our academic/non-fiction editor and proofreader, has taken on an indexing project. Yes, Nina...
Read MoreOkay, maybe I should’ve stayed out of it. But he caught my attention, and I wanted to see what he’d do. This morning, at 9:22 to be precise, I was coming up from the College St. subway stop and there, at the turnstiles, was a tall young guy. He made an attempt to jump over, with one eye on the TTC collectors’ booth. He hesitated and...
Read MoreIt’s official: “LOL” has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. So has “OMG,” for that matter. In my last blog post I expressed affection for linguistic mutants. Now I’m starting to feel a little afraid. Of course, these familiar acronyms aren’t the limit of what happens to language when you cram it into a text message or a tweet. Letters, sentence structure, and general coherency...
Read MoreWriting / Writers Support Group
In the spring of 2010, two authors agreed to become our inaugural writers for The Editing Company’s Writers Support Package. Ann Eyerman and Barbara Fish came on board and were just as enthusiastic to participate in the package as we were to offer it. We all agreed on the mission: Within a time period of 18 months, Ann and Barbara were to each write a full-length manuscript. As...
Read MoreOne of The Editing Company’s missions is being fulfilled: We are building relationships with new businesses and associations. Over the past few months, our editors have been hired to proofread and edit corporate newsletters and brochures, website copy, and professional training materials. Plus we’ve even done a bit of photo research for historic images. Among our newest clients are Canadian First Financial Centres, the Purchasing Management Association of Canada, CARE Centre for Internationally Educated Nurses, and The Royal Ontario Museum...
Read MoreAs a recent addition to the TEC team, with responsibility for marketing and communications, one of my first tasks has been to update and “tweak” TEC’s own website. Needless to say, for an editing company, the textual quality of our website is a particularly important demonstration of what we offer to do for others. In other words, we have to show off our editorial and communications skills. If...
Read MoreWhen I was a kid, my parents’ bookshelves held an incredible 27-volume set of Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedias. I would frequently rush to Funk & Wagnalls with my many questions, carefully selecting the correct volume and flipping anxiously through its pages, hoping desperately that the answer could be found there. And if it couldn’t, well, then, tough. Go to the library, why don’t you? Those bookshelves still display...
Read MoreSheila Heti was TEC’s second adopt-an-author at last September’s Word On The Street Festival. I enjoyed reading Sheila’s earlier works — a short story collection, The Middle Stories, and her first work of fiction, Ticknor — and I was eager to read her third book, a (mostly) fiction tale in which the character “Sheila” explores the title question, How Should A Person Be? This was a difficult read for me....
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