Pre-conference Seminars

In addition to our regular conference program, Editors British Columbia invites you to take advantage of further professional development opportunities with this year’s pre-conference seminars.

These seminars will be held on Friday, June 10, at the Coast Plaza Hotel & Suites.

Registration is now closed.

Time: 9:30 am–3:00 pm (lunch included)
Location: Coast Plaza Hotel & Suites, Room TBA
Facilitator: Iva Cheung

Members $140, Non-members $200; GST extra

If you’re a project manager, managing editor, production editor, editorial coordinator, publications director, editor-in-chief, or have an entirely different title but do any or all of the following:

• Work for an organization or for clients that create publications (including self-publishers)
• Manage an editorial and production team of in-house staff and freelance professionals
• Hire freelancers, including editors and possibly writers, designers, and indexers
• Develop project schedules
• Create or work to project budgets
• Shepherd projects through the production process

. . . you’re invited to attend PubPro, the annual unconference for the professionals who do what you do.

Publishers often meet to discuss sales, marketing, and digital strategies, but rarely do the people who actually make the publications happen get together and brain-share. This special professional development event is a series of short participant-driven seminars, offering managing editors and production specialists the opportunity to meet others in similar roles and learn from one another.

Whether you’re interested in how others approach freelancer recruitment, training, and scheduling, or have a success story to share about streamlining workflow or project management, PubPro is the place to air your production-related questions and triumphs.

This unconference has no set program, and the participants will define the agenda. If you’re interested in giving a presentation or leading a discussion, arrive early to pitch your topic to the attendees. The program will be finalized based on participants’ interests, and you can choose which sessions you’d like to attend.

Possible topics may include:

• Recruiting, training, and retaining freelancers
• Freelancer communication
• Creating and maintaining house style guides
• Scheduling
• Project management software for publications
• Paying by the project vs. paying by the hour
• Collaborative editing tools
• Digital workflows
• Working with commercial printers
• Print-on-demand
• Negotiating vendor agreements (e.g., with stock photo agencies)
• Quality control systems
• Project crisis management strategies
• A managing editor’s wish list

Before she became an independent publishing consultant, Iva Cheung was editor and editorial coordinator at D&M Publishers, where she implemented editorial communication, workflow, and quality control systems. Iva, who holds a Master of Publishing degree from Simon Fraser University, is a Certified Professional Editor and a winner of EAC’s Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence. She blogs about editing and publishing at www.ivacheung.com.

Time: 9:00 am–12:00 pm (lunch not included)
Location: Coast Plaza Hotel & Suites, Room TBA
Instructor: Laura Poole

Members $85, non-members $130; GST extra

The ability to mark changes on a PDF is a skill modern editors should have in their toolbox. More and more, PDF markup is becoming a preferred method for proofreading and even some copy editing. This workshop will cover the most-used tools in Adobe Reader DC for text markup and annotation, plus stamps and other tools. Topics include:

• Assessing how the document was made and whom it goes to next
• Basic changes: drawing markup and text boxes
• Text markup: strikethrough, insert, and replace
• Comments and highlighting
• Attaching other files
• Using the comment pane
• Importing stamps and making your own

The workshop will use the most recent free version of Adobe Reader DC (Acrobat is not needed, although we will mention advanced features available in Acrobat) and will include hands-on exercises. Attendees should bring laptops (with Adobe Reader DC installed).  

Laura Poole is a copy editor of scholarly nonfiction for university presses. She trains editors in skills and freelance business knowledge. She is co-owner of and director of training for Copyediting.com.

Time: 9:00 am–12:00 pm (lunch not included)
Location: Coast Plaza Hotel & Suites, Room TBA
Instructor: Elizabeth Macfie

Members $85, non-members $130; GST extra

“When you have an editorial style guide and stick to it, your content will always reflect consistency. Consistency tells your customers and prospects that you have your act together, pay attention to details, and care about appearances.”
—Nancy Goll, award-winning business writer and editor

Although dictionaries and style manuals (such as The Chicago Manual of Style) provide answers and rules, you’ve noticed that there is often more than one right way to write. Do you capitalize “the Committee”? When do you spell out numbers? For emphasis, do you use bold or italics? How do you spell “judgment,” punctuate vertical lists, and close letters (“Sincerely,” “Regards,” or with something else)? Avoid debates and save time (especially in team projects) by choosing a style and recording it in an easy-to-use guide.

In this active half-day seminar, we’ll discuss what items to include, how to handle two languages, how to get buy-in, and how and when to make updates. You’ll take away tools for creating your own guide. Bring documents from your organization to work with if you wish.

Elizabeth Macfie has been a freelance editor for 20 years and a popular editorial-skills trainer for 11 years. She has three Editors Canada certifications and is a past chair of Editors Ottawa–Gatineau. Her recent style guide clients include a bilingual national business association, a physiotherapy company, and a historical society.

Time: 1:00–4:00 pm (lunch not included)
Location: Coast Plaza Hotel & Suites, Room TBA
Instructors: Eve Rickert and Franklin Veaux

Members $85, non-members $130; GST extra

This half-day workshop will educate editors to effectively communicate and collaborate with publication designers. It will cover topics such as terms and tools used by designers, the designer’s workflow and how it fits with the editorial process, the role of the editor in image-heavy works, how to provide assets to designers, and what kinds of “minor” requests from writers and editors are truly “minor” versus which ones will make your designer curse you in their sleep.

Franklin Veaux is senior designer and prepress specialist for Talk Science to Me Communications Inc. and design director for Thorntree Press. He has provided professional prepress and, later, design services since 1992 for large clients all over the world, and he has taught classes on prepress in the United States.

Eve Rickert is founder and senior writer/editor for Talk Science to Me Communications Inc. and managing editor for Thorntree Press. She is an Editors Canada Certified Professional Editor and has been involved in editing for print since 2002. Since then, she has been involved in editing and production for a wide range of materials including numerous multimedia elements, including museum exhibits and interactives, magazines and academic journals, trade and academic books, and websites.