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EAC Career Building Sessions
EAC Career Building Sessions
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Session: An in-house editors’ open discussion group
Speaker: Iva Cheung
Day/Date: Sunday, May 29
Time: 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
About the session:
Are you an in-house editor who wants to discuss editorial issues with others in the same position?
In-house editors face a unique set of challenges, yet they don’t have many forums for getting together to talk about them. Usually they each develop their own problem-solving strategies, essentially reinventing the wheel at each of their respective organizations. This session is an invitation to in-house editors to contribute to an open, moderated discussion group.
Topics will include:
- communicating with authors
- recruiting, training, and communicating with freelancers
- editorial workflow and systems
- inter- and intradepartmental cooperation and communication
- editorial consequences of emerging publishing technologies
- editorial advisory boards and acquisitions
Participants in this session will share and learn about industry best practices and solutions to common in-house editorial problems.
About the speaker:
Iva Cheung has been active in publishing since 2001, beginning with newspapers and scholarly journals. Today she primarily edits books. She holds a Master of Publishing degree and is editorial coordinator at D&M Publishers. She also freelances as an editor, indexer, designer, and publishing consultant.
Session: EAC publications today and tomorrow
Speaker: Melva McLean
Day/Date: Sunday, May 29
Time: 2:45 PM – 3:45 PM
About the session:
The EAC publications committee recently published Meeting Professional Editorial Standards, which includes volumes on stylistic editing, structural editing, copy editing, and proofreading. Next, the committee plans to expand EAC publications, including producing a new edition of Editing Canadian English.
At this session, members of the publications committee will discuss:
- the process of producing Meeting Professional Publishing Standards
- EAC’s future in electronic and print publishing.
About the speaker:
Melva McLean is chair of the EAC publications committee. She has been an editor for almost 20 years, is a graduate of the SFU Master of Publishing program and is an optioned screenwriter.
Session: e-Survival: How to start – and sustain – an online editing business
Speaker: Patricia Anderson
Day/Date: Saturday, May 28
Time: 1:15 PM – 2:15 PM
About the session:
Being in business today almost always means being online. Learn from a veteran editor and e-entrepreneur the basic steps, skills, and strategies entailed in starting and sustaining an online editing business. The session will cover
- motivations, skills, and goals associated with starting an online business
- the basics of getting started, from setting up your domain to establishing your niche
- the daily routine of online enterprise (vetting and acquiring clients, setting fees, getting paid, using email effectively, and following up)
- dos and don’ts, featuring practical, experience-based tips
- strategies to ensure the long-term success of your online business
About the speaker:
Patricia Anderson, PhD, an editor, book author, and scholar in cultural history and publishing studies, has done contract work for various publishing houses, served as assistant/deputy editor of an academic journal, and developed content for the Dictionary of Literary Biography series. As an editor and literary consultant, she works with an international clientele of emerging and mid-career book authors writing a range of fiction and nonfiction. She has spoken in Canada, the US, and Europe—on media, popular culture, and publishing history—and presented workshops on such topics as memoir writing, novels that sell, and how to break into the mainstream book trade. Her company, based on BC’s Sunshine Coast, is HelpingYouGetPublished.com.
Session: How to do business with the federal government – Cancelled
Speaker: Lisa Banxachai
Day/Date:
Time:
About the session:
Here’s an opportunity to learn the fundamentals of selling writing and editing services to the Government of Canada. This seminar provides information on how to market to the federal government, how the government does its buying, and how to keep track of opportunities to bid on Canadian government purchases.
This seminar explains how the Federal Government purchasing process works, with an overview of the different types of purchases, such as Standing Offers, Supply Arrangements, and Requests for Proposals.
Also included:
- how to register as a supplier (using the government’s Supplier Registration Information and Professional Services Online systems)
- identify marketing contacts in the government (using buyandsell.gc.ca)
- how to do market research on the government departments that are likely to buy writing and editing services
Time permitting, the session will briefly cover MERX, the Government Electronic Tendering System and the RFP process. Detailed handouts will be provided.
About the speaker:
Lisa Banxachai works in the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises (OSME) with the Department of Public Works and Government Services Canada. She is a key contact for small and medium businesses that would like to understand the federal government purchasing process. OSME works with individual businesses, trade, professional and industry associations, academic institutions, and not-for-profit organizations to provide information and support to help them navigate the federal procurement process.
Session: The networking system: A fresh take on what, why, how
Speaker: Elizabeth Macfie
Day/Date: Saturday, May 28
Time: 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
About the session:
Everyone can use a network: that set of mutually rewarding relationships that provides contract or job leads, as well as personal and professional support. This session, based on real-life experience and how-to examples, explains the principles of successful networks and demonstrates how to create them, maintain them, and profit from them.
The principles apply to all personality types and industries—freelance or in-house. The people you want to connect with need to
- like you
- know what your unique selling points are and what you are looking for
- see you as suited for the work you’re looking for
- remember what you are looking for, as well as the details about your services and unique selling points
- feel that you deserve the help and leads
Get practical advice on how to make all that happen, in a variety of settings. For example, learn how to comfortably circulate and meet people at an event (including this conference), use contacts in all parts of your life to extend your business network, and connect at a distance on LinkedIn.
You will leave with a handout on these principles and techniques, as well as several network-building exercises to try.
About the speaker:
Elizabeth Macfie has built a successful freelance editorial business since 1996, mostly through networking. After wondering why certain people weren’t in her network, she articulated five steps they would have to take to become—and remain—actively connected with her. To share these steps, Elizabeth has spoken at conferences and meetings over the past five years. She also teaches proofreading and editing, and is an EAC-certified proofreader and copy editor. Elizabeth is a past chair of EAC’s National Capital Region branch, a past member of EAC’s national executive council, and a past president of the Indexing Society of Canada.
Session: Practical steps for building a successful freelance editing career
Speaker: Arlene Prunkl
Day/Date: Sunday, May 29
Time: 10:15 AM – 11:15 AM
About the session:
This session features practical approaches to building a successful career in the North American freelance editing market. It begins with a brief overview of the steps the presenter took to establish her own business, relating stumbles and pitfalls as well as successes.
If you’re considering “going freelance” or want some tips to make your existing business more profitable, you will benefit from this step-by-step action plan, covering
- educational tools and resources
- how to gain fiction editing experience (time permitting)
- best ways to market your business
- motivation and other intangibles that can be key to success
- mistakes to avoid while building your business
- a detailed look at financial management and profitability
About the speaker:
Since 2002, experienced editor, entrepreneur, and educator Arlene Prunkl has built a successful freelance editing business. An unabashed autodidact, Arlene is passionate about sharing her experiences, expertise, and tools with new editors, giving them confidence to establish their own successful careers. In recent years she moved from BC’s Lower Mainland to Kelowna, BC, where she says she is enjoying the more relaxed pace.
She has presented similar seminars at writers’ conferences in BC, the US, and Mexico alongside self-publishing guru Dan Poynter of ParaPublishing. Before finding her career niche in editing, Arlene worked in a variety of fields, including television broadcasting and classical music. She has a BCIT diploma in television broadcasting and is the owner/originator of PenUltimate Editorial Services.
Panel: Retirement? What’s retirement?
Panellists: Joan Irving, Anita Jenkins and Rosemary Tanner
Day/Date: Saturday, May 28
Time: 11:15 AM – 12:15 PM
About the panel:
Explore the positive aspects of winding down a freelance editing career. The three panellists, all over 60 and working as editors in different fields in different parts of the country, will talk about how they are changing their work and personal lives as they age but do not officially retire. Questions from participants are encouraged!
Topics will include:
- finding a rhythm when you are no longer chained to the desk 40 hours a week
- exploring new activities that the former schedule didn’t allow for
- living simply in order to work less
- coping with change (particularly technological change) in ways that allow you to keep work options open
- maintaining ties with professional networks and forging new networks
- cutting loose and rediscovering play—and doing the things you’ve always wanted to do!
Participants in this session will gain an understanding of what to think about when approaching retirement and how to create a personal version of retirement.
About the panellists:
Joan Irving built a freelance career in Montreal as an editor and translator specializing in words for films. She still has regular clients but now devotes fewer hours in a week to professional work. This is allowing her time to renovate a house and keep a large garden. And to take greater advantage of her wonderful city.
Anita Jenkins is now semi-retired, and has been operating a home-based writing and editing business in Edmonton since 1991. Her clients have included the provincial and city governments, school boards, universities, colleges, hospitals and aboriginal organizations. For a change of pace, she is now editing local history books for minimal pay and serving as the returning officer for her constituency in the next provincial election.
Rosemary Tanner is not quite semi-retired. She edits science text books in her school-house home in rural Ontario. Drawing from her EAC board experiences, she has recently joined the volunteer board of the Cancer Patient Services Corp. in Mount Forest, ON, as communications coordinator. She also drives cancer patients to their treatments in hospitals farther afield.
Session: Speed mentoring
Mentors: Morgan Chojnacki, Janice Dyer, Nancy Flight, Jennifer Glossop, Peter Moskos, Louise Oborne, Rosemary Tanner and Karen Virag
Day/Date: Sunday, May 29
Time: 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM
About the session:
In this unique and popular session, editors who’ve signed up in advance get together one-on-one with some of EAC’s most highly regarded members for concentrated 15-minute consultations. Speed mentoring is a terrific opportunity to get expert advice and fresh perspectives, whether you’re starting out as an editor, changing the focus of your editing career, or wanting to discuss specific editing challenges with a peer who’s been there.
Here’s how to sign up:
- Email your request to Helena Aalto at helena.aalto@editors.ca. Include “speed mentoring” and your name in the subject line.
- In your email, tell us your top four choices of speed mentors from the list below, in order of preference. We’ll accommodate as many first choices as possible.
- Tell us if you’d like to talk to two or three speed mentors. If schedules allow, we may be able to book up to three consultations.
- About two weeks before the conference, you’ll receive an email with your mentors, times and room numbers.
Consultations will be scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis, so send in your request ASAP to secure a spot. Deadline is Wednesday, May 11.
About the mentors:
- Morgan Chojnacki: substantive editing, editing using content management systems, project management, communications planning
- Janice Dyer: freelancing, resume writing, editing for educational publishers
- Jennifer Glossop: freelancing, copy editing, stylistic and substantive editing, trade fiction, non-fiction, children’s books
- Peter Moskos: plain language, structural and stylistic editing, government contracts, government reports, building an editing business, finding work
- Louise Oborne: client-editor relationships, structural and stylistic editing, copy editing, plain language, developmental editing
- Rosemary Tanner: developmental editing, copy editing, proofreading of science textbooks, freelancing
- Karen Virag: editing for educational publishers, stylistic and substantive editing, non-fiction, fiction, writing
Conference Information
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