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Here at TEC, we receive calls from potential clients who are new to the writing process. The usual questions are about our services and rates, and about the work we do. In explaining what we do, we naturally ask the caller about their projects. Since we only work on nonfiction content, this is important for us to know. We have noted with some curiosity a rather...
Read MoreThe original drafts of a novel create its structure and determine how the story will unfold. The years and years of editing that follow infuse the book with character, crafting it into the best possible version of itself. And the final edit, when you know in your gut that you are finally done, gives the writing its shine. At least that's how it appears to me, having...
Read MoreI recently had the pleasure of chatting with Ruth Hood, who looks back on a long life of editing and library science. I asked her to tell me about some of the highlights of her dual careers. As with many lovers of language, her attraction to books began at an early age and was nurtured at home. “I was always attracted to books,” Ruth told me. “My...
Read MoreNo Canadian poets were mentioned in any of my high school English classes, and I’m certain that most of my hometown friends would be hard-pressed to rattle off the names of even two or three. They are not, however, entirely to blame: Their interests lie elsewhere, perhaps as a result of our shared high school experience, which did little to foster the consumption of Canadian literature, let alone Canadian...
Read MoreInside the Big Bookseller In preparation for the upcoming (and costly!) holiday season, I recently picked up a part-time gig at Indigo. After all, I figured, if I'm going to venture back into retail, where I'd spent most of my summers as a teen, I may as well surround myself with what I love most—books! I've learned a few interesting things about big booksellers during my time at Indigo. One...
Read MoreAh, reference books! What would we do without them? Whether lined up in neat rows on library shelves or haphazardly stacked on, under, or somewhere near a cluttered desk, they hold glorious promise: more knowledge than we could ever hope to absorb, systematically arranged, and clearly explained. There are encyclopaedias, thesauruses, almanacs, yearbooks, atlases, chronologies, concordances, and digests. And let's not forget repair manuals, phone directories, and...
Read MoreThe hype generated around the release of Harper Lee’s Go Set A Watchman (HarperCollins, 2015) made many of us want to read this book. After all, it was Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, a classic in our own time. We, at TEC, were enthusiastic. We bought two copies: one for us to read in-office and one for the first of our Twitter Giveaways. ...
Read MoreWe loved this blog when Nina first created it back in 2011. We had been discussing the challenges of texting for editors. The writing of the message on smartphone technology was fast. The keyboard was much smaller. The focus was on hitting the keys in an effort to get things right. But what if you made a mistake and only caught it after the entire...
Read MoreIt's safe to say that e-books are here to stay, and it's becoming clear that, contrary to warnings we all heard a few years ago, they aren't bringing on the "death of print books. " Quite the contrary, actually. The New York Times recently published an article about how e-book sales are actually declining—seems like the "digital apocalypse" won't be arriving after all. As well, e-book technology has been...
Read MoreOffice Happenings / Social Media & Community
Fall has definitely arrived on this post-Thanksgiving Monday … wind, rain, and turning leaves … at least here in Toronto. And lots has happened since our last update. This August/September marked the start of Year 8 for The Editing Company. Congratulations to our dynamic editing team for reaching this milestone! We celebrated our anniversary over a delicious dinner at Pizzeria Via Mercanti in early September. TEC is...
Read MoreOn September 28, musician, academic, and activist Wab Kinew addressed a full house at the Toronto Reference Library’s Bluma Appel Salon. The event was part of the salon’s (free!) ongoing program in which “writers, thinkers, artists and innovators from around the world gather for conversation and debate. ” The CBC’s Carol Off interviewed Kinew about his new memoir, The Reason You Walk. He describes the book as...
Read MoreOn Sunday September 27 at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, the 26th edition of The Word On The Street once again brought together the people who create books and the people who love to read them. AN ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF THE WRITTEN WORD More than just a book fair, WOTS is a countrywide celebration of the written word in all its forms: reading, writing, publishing, editing, and even book-binding. Parallel...
Read MoreMany people don't realize that when they decide to have their manuscript turned into an eBook, they have to choose one of two layout options: fixed or standard layout. This decision can depend on a number of factors, including: the type or genre of book, the level of control the author wants over the design experience, and the level of accessibility desired for the book. In this blog,...
Read MoreThe concept of eBooks has been around for a long time now, and it seems the debate over "print vs. screen" has, for the most part, eased. With new developments in eReader technology, reading on a screen can be just as comfortable as reading printed text. However, I still find that, every once in a while, I come across people who are still just as vehemently opposed...
Read MoreAs one of our Academic Editors here at TEC, I've recently been working on a lot of graduate theses and dissertations, helping students to shape what they've written into something they're proud to defend. Having just defended by own PhD dissertation earlier this year, I have a good idea of what graduate supervisors and committees are looking for in a finished dissertation (in the humanities and social sciences, at...
Read MoreSeptember 2015 We are reposting this blog from 2010 because the issue of copyright is still relevant, and the research challenges we faced with our project that year is one that we have encountered several times since. At that time, we were clearing photo permissions for Blood, Sweat and Tears by David Cleighton-Thomas (Penguin 2011). Searching for the Photographers TEC permissions editors just spent several weeks trying to identify photographers of several 40-year-old...
Read MoreA large manuscript has always presented stylistic challenges to editors, as we are charged with maintaining consistency through the entire work. If the author used a hyphen in “co-operation" on page 20, did he then spell it without one on page 236? Does a "well-known movie actor" become "the well known movie actor" later in the article? We can mandate that a serial comma is to be used, but...
Read MoreSince the term political correctness entered mainstream usage in the 1990s, it's been richly scorned and lampooned. Maybe this is because to some, the word correctness smacks of rules, rigid and arbitrary ones enforced by language police. Of course, there is no official body governing the use of the English language. Dictionaries and style guides merely document and codify how the language is used. So it's up...
Read MoreHello, TEC readers! Editors, like anyone else, occasionally like to take some time off and go on vacation, which is where I am this week. While I'm gone, please enjoy this "blog from the archives," written by Melissa MacAulay. The digital advances we've made in the past 20 years have affected more than just editors—writers are affected too, especially when it comes to using sources found online. ...
Read MoreA good question to ask, especially when reading the University Press Issue, which was released on July 9. I happened to be at Book City on the Danforth and couldn't resist picking up a copy. The New York Review of Books is, of course, an undisputed source of information for all books literary, poetic, academic, geographic, historical, and the list goes on, which makes for incredibly engaging reading....
Read MoreOffice Happenings / Social Media & Community
What's Up @ TEC! August/September 2015 Edition Here we are in August, enjoying the summer and all that it has to offer. Toronto has been abuzz with the Pan Am and Para Pan Am Games. Our TEC editor Chris Cameron volunteered as a field-of-play marshal at the men's and women's triathlons on the course of the road cycling events. "It's a great thrill to watch the elite athletes from...
Read MoreRecently, we created a worksheet for self-publishing authors to calculate a rough estimate of what their costs for editing services might be. Budgeting your money in order to self-publish is a smart move---there are so many different services you might need for your book, anything from developmental or copy editing to cover design, formatting, or printing. There are lots of resources on the web that can assist you...
Read MoreEditor Barbara: She's Been There! So you've been in Canada for a while now, and you've gone from understanding very little English to understanding almost everything. From there, you've taken the leap to speaking fairly fluently. And yet . and yet . writing is a lot harder than you thought it would be. Learning the Language I hear you. ...
Read MoreAs someone who likes to see writers get into print, I am particularly interested in the growth of the self-publishing community and the opportunities it offers for both authors and editors. Arlene Prunkl, an editor with many years of experience, works almost exclusively with authors who self-publish. At EAC's Editing Goes Global conference this year, Prunkl presented an inspiring workshop on the agonies, ecstasies, and pitfalls of working with...
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