Registration Information | Registration Form | Seminar Locations | Seminar for Editors

Substantive editing, also known as structural editing, focuses on the content, organization, and presentation of an entire text, from the title through to the ending. Substantive editors help writers define their goals, identify their readers, and shape the manuscript in the best possible way. They clarify the argument, fix the pacing, suggest improvements, and draw missing pieces from the author. These essential skills apply to fiction and non-fiction alike, to books, magazines, reports, legal decisions, and corporate and government writing of all kinds. They are equally useful for writers, too, as they revise their final drafts to submit to literary agents or publishers, or to self-publish through Amazon, Google, or some other platform on the web.

Substantive editing is the first step in the editing or revising process, and there is no point in copy editing a text that needs substantive work. Little has been written about this type of editing. This seminar outlines the basic steps in substantive editing, offers tips on ways to win writers' and clients' confidence, and provides realistic in-class exercises. Enjoy a stimulating discussion and return home with a fine handout.

Meg Taylor has been an editor in trade and specialty publishing for thirty years. Since 1989 she has worked in Toronto, most recently as Senior Editor at Doubleday Canada and at Key Porter Books (until 2005). She is currently a freelance editor for publishers in Canada, the United States, and Asia. In addition to being the Academic Coordinator for the Publishing program at Ryerson University, she teaches Structural and Stylistic Editing at Ryerson and courses in the English department at York University. She is the former director of the Book Editing Immersion Workshop at Simon Fraser University (until 2010). She has served on the Trillium Book Award jury five times (most recently, in 2011). A member of EAC since 1990, she is also a founding member of the Society of Writers, Editors and Translators, Tokyo.

Saturday, March 17
9:30 am to 4:30 pm (Lunch will be provided)
Registration - $210 members, $240 non-members (HST extra)
Early Registration (to March 10) - $170 members, $190 non-members (HST extra) 
Northrop Frye Hall Room 007
73 Queen's Park Crescent East, Victoria College, University of Toronto