Book Reviews

In Emily Schultz’s The Blondes, women’s preoccupation with hair (especially blonde hair) plays a major role. But there is, of course, something deeper going on here. And it is through the protagonist Hazel Hayes that these deeper meanings are explored.   Hazel is a somewhat innocent yet resourceful young woman working on her dissertation in aesthetology, or the study of looking, at New York University when a viral pandemic...

Guest Blogger

In her blog of August 12, Beth referred to my publication Marguerite Nakhla: Legacy to Modern Egyptian Art. I first learned about Ms. Nakhla (1908–1977) when I became the Volunteer Curator at St. Mark’s Coptic Museum in Scarborough, Ontario.  While we had six of her biblical scenes we did not have much information about her except a few letters indicating that she was a highly respected artist...

Office Happenings

The gusty winds of October are trimming the trees of their leaves here in Toronto. Hard to believe it is autumn and we are heading into winter. When we last wrote an update, it was still summer. The change of seasons is always inspiring and energizing, as is the array of projects we are working on here in the TEC office.   Academic Manuscripts Our academic projects over the...

Technology

Ladies and gentlemen, today The Editing Company is launching their brand new eBook Conversion Services. This means that TEC will now not only edit your book, but we’ll convert it into ePub format for you, too!   In recognition of this event, I have one simple statement to make: Print books are awesome.   Now, don’t get me wrong. I support technological advances as much as every other non-Ludite....

TEC Clients

Robert D. Oke looked us up in the Yellow Pages. It was the summer of 2010. He had recently finished writing a manuscript and was wondering if we at The Editing Company might provide a typing service. He had written the manuscript in longhand and needed a typed copy. My immediate response was that we didn’t really offer typing services, but since we were in...

Event

Recently, a couple of us from The Editing Co. Team descended on the Communications building at Ryerson University for a one-day conference on all things bookish, entitled BookCampTO. This year’s iteration featured a distinct choose-your-own-adventure format in which attendees were expected to be both presenters and participants. No topics were pre-selected, and none scheduled in advance. The result: a pleasantly unconstrained learning and networking environment that,...

Book Design

This summer, I rounded out my Ryerson Publishing credentials with my final course in the certificate program: Book Design. A daunting challenge for someone who works mostly with words, but one I was hoping to master. Art-making is familiar to me, but design is quite a separate beast; art can be chaotic and spontaneous, but in design, functionality and effectiveness are paramount.   There are far too many topics...

Editing

One of the first booklets I read as an editor starting out was Author & Editor: A Working Guide, written by Rick Archbold, Doug Gibson, Dennis Lee, John Pearce, and Jan Walter. These names you may recognize as belonging to Canadian writers and editors. The booklet was published by The Book and Periodical Development Council (1983), and a few years later I purchased a copy through the Editors’...

Office Happenings

It's August 1st and the summer is moving along at a steamy pace here in Toronto. Torontonians have experienced some hot weather and amazing thunderstorms, as well as blissfully beautiful summer days. Here at TEC, we've been keeping up the pace with an amazing array of projects, which we are pleased to highlight for you here.   Academic Manuscripts In the ever-changing world of TEC projects, academic manuscripts are...

Proofreading

Even in the few short weeks I’ve been here at The Editing Company, I’ve gotten to wear a lot of different hats on the job. One of my favourite tasks so far has been helping to proofread a manuscript for UTP Higher Education. I’ve always had a fondness for editing, and I was excited for the opportunity to get to help out with such an interesting project. ...

Social Media

On April 14, 2010, Twitter Incorporated entered into a new partnership with the U. S. Library of Congress, one that would allow the LoC access to the entire archive of public tweets — beginning with Twitter’s inception in 2006 to the present and beyond.    “Over the years, tweets have become part of significant global events around the world — from historical elections to devastating disasters,” emphasized Twitter Inc. ...

Office Happenings

Staff Changes It’s always hard to see someone go, but it's equally exciting to welcome new faces to our team. At the end of May we bade a fond farewell to Nadine, our former Permissions Editor, who is heading west to pursue her MFA. Taking up Nadine's mantle is our new Permissions Editor, Jessica Mifsud, who also comes to us with a host of knowledge in the field of...

Office Happenings

Today is my last day at The Editing Company.   I feel sad as I write this because this marks the end of an era for me. However, I am also filled with a sense of excitement as I prepare to embark on a new journey as a master’s student and a soon-to-be resident of the West Coast. In the fall, I will begin my MFA studies in Creative...

Indexing

This is not something I ever wondered before working in publishing. In the past, I saw indexes as a minor annoyance, things that ordered me through a series of bothersome page-flips and never seemed to have what I wanted when I needed it. But I never stopped to think how one might be made.   Indexing does not seem like a human process. The end result comes in...

Editing

Editing isn’t for everyone. It can be quite strenuous and demanding, as well as rewarding and satisfying. Those of us who are editors know that being good at what we do means developing a wide range of skills and attributes. I was recently asked what I look for in an editor, and after giving this some thought, I’ve come up with a list of seven things, each...

Office Happenings

Spring is finally coming to Toronto, and budding along with the leaves are a number of exciting new projects for TEC’s editors. We might add that to welcome spring we all read Maggie Helwig’s Girls Fall Down, Toronto Library’s One Book Selection for this year’s Keep Toronto Reading Festival. (See Nadine’s review in her recent blog post. )   Aside from our in-office book club, here's a look at what we've been up to....

Book Reviews

In support of the Toronto Public Library’s city-wide reading event, One Book Toronto, we at TEC obtained copies of Maggie Helwig’s Girls Fall Down (published by Coach House Press) and started our own office book club.   While our opinions of the story of Alex and Susie-Sue varied, we all agreed that this poetic novel — filled with local colloquialisms and endless references to the streets and neighbourhoods of our fair...

This past weekend, Beth and I attended a workshop put on by the Editors' Association of Canada entitled “E-publishing Essentials for Editors. ” We were hoping to brush up on our ebook knowledge and get ready for what’s on the horizon. Sure enough, the seminar gave us a great run-down of the e-publishing basics. And, while much of what we learned seemed to fit with our existing knowledge...

Editing

With the rise of self-publishing, more and more authors are able to bypass traditional avenues and get their books directly to their readers. Instead of finding an agent, who finds a publisher, who either takes care of the editing in-house or contracts it out to companies like TEC, self-published authors can oversee the entire process themselves.   Numerous success stories — Amanda Hocking, for example, who made millions from her...

Social Media / Editing & Marketing

Social Media Marketing is one of those projects for which there is no ultimate end point, no finished product. Similarly to other kinds of marketing initiatives, those of the social media variety are done best when carried on as an organic process: one that necessarily requires growth of your brand “personality” as well as your relationships with clients and community partners. Of course, doing the legwork of giving...

Office Happenings

  We’re already a whole month into 2012 and so far it’s shaping up to be an interesting year. January brought a wide variety of projects into the TEC office, all of which are keeping our editors busy. Here’s a look at what we’ve been up to lately…     Academic Editing TEC’s editors have been working on a number of projects for University of Toronto Press, from copyediting to checking proofs....

Editing

I fell in love with the footnote when I was an undergraduate in Montreal. I was learning to write academic essays: first in English literature and then in history. On my first attempt at composing a footnote, I sat down with my portable typewriter and a copy of Kate Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. It was November 7, 1972. I...

Publishing

Print is dead. We've been warned about this for years. I can trace back my anxiety over the impending death of paper books to at least 2007, when I drafted this master plan to my friend Vincenzo (sent via email, ironically enough):   There must be some way to ensure preservation of the printed word . As far as I can tell, sense of smell is one of the...

Book Reviews

In one of my first classes in Ryerson University’s publishing certificate program, my teacher alluded to some of the goings-on at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s largest trade publishing book fair, and the most important when it comes to international deals, publishing rights, and licensing fees. He joked that the Frankfurt cabbies were well used to ferrying about publishing types for their various illicit liaisons.   I was therefore...