EdANZ
by Caroline Simpson
Kia ora,
This year is going in leaps and crawls. It helps me to balance time if I look at what we have achieved and remind myself of the progress we are making amid the upset of wider happenings.
This year has been all about finding our feet and getting some events and professional development opportunities under way for you. We have Zoomed and chatted and Zoomed and learned. We have seen and welcomed the blossoming of open-to-all online events run by Australian branches. We are working towards the accreditation exam in December and have offered online workshops, through the Accreditation Board, to help prospective candidates. We continue to plan behind the scenes for a schedule of professional development opportunities for 2021 and for the IPEd conference to be held in New Zealand in a few years. We have just had our first Annual Branch Meeting and voted in our committee for the year to come, and at the same meeting we nominated a new director for the IPEd board.
This coming year is going to be about introducing IPEd to the wider industry. We will do what we can to make IPEd and our EdANZ branch more visible. We will promote the professional development opportunities we make available to all editors, members or not, in-house or freelance.
And we will educate organisations and publishers about the accreditation scheme and how to find editors they can feel confident in hiring. Obviously, joining a professional organisation shows a good level of commitment to your profession. But think about taking that a step further. If you are an associate member, take a look at the membership categories and see if you are ready to apply for professional membership. The boost to your confidence when you see those references from your clients or colleagues makes it all worthwhile.
If you are a professional member, even if you cannot sit the accreditation exam this year, start planning for when it is next run in 2022.
To show your competence as an editor, these steps are provided by IPED for you, the editors of New Zealand and Australia, so you can show your clients or employer you are serious about your profession.
Ngā mihi,
Caroline Simpson
EdANZ Branch President
edanz.president@iped-editors.org
New members
We are pleased to welcome new associate member Juliette Richards.
New members profile:
Little Owl’s Kimberley and Claire Davis
What drew each of you to editing as a career?
Kimberley: When I left school, I only had the vaguest ideas about what I wanted to be when I ‘grew up’, but I knew I wanted to do something involving language and books and stories … So, if I had been a bit more switched on, I might have worked out that editing and writing could be a job for me sooner than I actually did. I ended up studying English literature for four years at uni, then living in Spain and then France, until I came back to NZ and got accepted into the one-year Whitireia publishing course. And the rest is, as they say, history.
Claire: I took a slightly more circuitous route than Kimberley. I have always loved stories and, after finishing an undergraduate degree in English literature and film studies, I decided to continue on to a Master’s in film studies at University of British Columbia in Canada. Following that, I worked in a few different film-related roles (as a project coordinator for a few different film festivals and in communications at NBCUniversal International) and kept gravitating towards work that involved writing and editing. When I moved away from London I left my role at NBCUniversal. Kimberley suggested that we work together and pool our resources and I thought that was a great idea — it gave me the chance to bring together my film-related work with my love of books.
How did you end up working together?
Claire: As above, it was at Kimberley’s suggestion. Our professional paths sort of lined up momentarily (in that we were both planning our next steps) and we jumped at the opportunity.
What do you find most rewarding about working together?
Kimberley: Our skills and areas of interest complement each other’s really well, so we can always bounce ideas and advice off one another. If one of us does not know the answer to something, then the other usually does (or at least knows where to go to find it). We make a really good team.
Claire: We are very supportive and respectful of one another, which makes for a very productive work environment. We also have quite high expectations for ourselves, so that means, once we get pointing in the right direction, we steam along at a pretty impressive rate. Kimberley is a great person to have on your team — she is passionate, no-nonsense and she gets things done.
What do you find most challenging about working together?
Kimberley: Actually, the challenging bits are the best bits. Neither of us is afraid to challenge the other on our ideas or our logic, and that means we will often have really thorough discussions about things we care a lot about. I value working with Claire enormously, as she always looks at things a bit differently from me, and that helps me to see things from new angles.
Claire: Like Kimberley, I see the challenges as the parts that make my work really rewarding. We do not shy away from getting into it with one another, and I really respect Kimberley’s opinion. Whenever things get heated, it is really just because we both care a lot — about doing a good job, about learning, about trying new things. We do also sometimes get carried away talking about things only tangentially related to the task at hand — that can sometimes be a challenge on a deadline. We like to talk rather a lot.
What’s the best piece of editing advice you’ve received from your sister?
Kimberley: For my birthday and Christmas over the past few years, Claire has made a habit of giving me books by writers about writing. They are not advice from Claire per se, but they feel like advice of the best kind — supportive, encouraging and engaged with what both of us do all day every day.
Claire: Gosh, it is really hard to think of just one thing. Kimberley is helpful in this regard every day. She has a very broad view on the work of editing, and I think that is probably the most valuable thing I have adopted from her — to read widely, to really engage with the work I do, and to view ongoing learning as a crucial part of the job (because language, culture, stories, etc. are always changing — there is always something you do not know that would help you to be a better editor).
What’s your favorite word or editing-related book? Why?
Kimberley: It is really hard to pick my favourite editing-related book. I loved Stet: An Editor’s Life by Diana Athill, and Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris, and … Well, I could go on, but will not.
Claire: Favourite editing-related book is probably The Subversive Copy Editor: Advice From Chicago by Carol Fisher Saller, and I also love Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft as a more general writing-related book.
Which upcoming book are you most excited about reading for fun?
Kimberley: At the moment I am reading We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (I have been on a Shirley Jackson kick since I finally worked up the courage to read The Haunting of Hill House), and am also reading Words Are My Matter: Writings on Life and Books by Ursula K. Le Guin, which is wonderful and inspiring and so very refreshingly candid. I seem to always have a few books on the go at once … Next on my bedside-table pile is Because Internet by Gretchen McCullough and The Fifth Season by N K Jemisin.
Claire: I just finished Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood, which was transcendent. I loved it so much. Next up I have Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half and also Benjamin Dreyer’s Dreyer’s English. I am also excited to read Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin.
Do you have any favourite music to listen to while editing and who gets to listen to it?
Kimberley: We often listen to Slumberville, Bonobo, Philip Glass, Max Richter and Ennio Morricone. Anything that does not have words but will not send us to sleep. I subscribe to a newsletter called Flow State, which sends through music recommendations for your workday: flowstate.substack.com.
Regional events in September
by Caroline Simpson
Auckland Editors’ Catch-Up, Saturday 12 September 2020
It was a stunning Saturday in Auckland and it seemed a shame to be spending it inside looking at a screen. Our in-person meeting had been turned into a Zoom catch-up in case our level 2.5 status in Auckland changed at the last moment. But once we were in front of our computers, reservations were forgotten. We chatted our way through such topics as contracts, the accreditation exam, semicolons and how our businesses were going.
We next meet on Saturday 12 December at 2.30pm for our Christmas get-together. Here’s hoping it will be in person.
Caroline Simpson is a freelance editor, and EdANZ Branch President and can be contacted at edanz.president@iped-editors.org.
Future events, meetings, training
Bay of Plenty editors catch-up
Location: Grindz Café, 50 First Avenue, Tauranga
Date: Thursday 8 October 11am
Editors in the Bay of Plenty (NZ) area, whether resident or visiting, are welcome to join us at Grindz Café in Tauranga for this informal social event. This is your chance to get out of the house and meet other editors.
Book for the Bay of Plenty catch-up. It is free — pay for your own drinks and meals at the venue. For more information, contact Jacqui at aproofreadingservice@gmail.com.
Zoom Hui: Academic editors
Date: Monday 12 October 7.30pm
Do you edit or proofread for academics, medical staff or students? Join EdANZ to share information with, and learn from, other editors who work with these types of clients.
In this second of our thematic catch-ups we will be discussing topics such as:
- how to help ensure your client’s work is accessible for all
- whether to provide help sheets for your clients on common problems.
There will also be time for other questions. If you have a question you would like covered, mention it on your registration form or email Joan Gladwyn at edanz.website@iped-editors.org.
Book here.
Zoom Hui: Fiction and poetry editors
Date: Tuesday 13 October 7.30pm
Do you edit or proofread fiction or poetry? Join EdANZ to share information with, and learn from, other editors who work with these types of clients.
In this second of our thematic catch-ups we will be discussing topics such as:
- Should you edit and then proofread the same client’s work? How do you work around this?
- Accessibility and conscious language in fiction. When to query.
There will also be time for other questions. If you have a question you would like to see covered, please mention it on your registration form or email Marja Stack at edanz.socialmedia@iped-editors.org.
Book here.
Zoom Hui: Non-fiction, newspaper and magazine editors
Date: Wednesday 14 October 7.30pm
Do you edit or proofread non-fiction, newspapers or magazines? Join EdANZ to share information with, and learn from, other editors who work with these types of clients.
In this second of our thematic catch-ups we will discuss topics such as:
- including fact-checking as part of the editing process and how far to take this
- the pros and cons of working within a niche.
There will also be time for other questions. If you have a question you would like to see covered, please mention it on your registration form or email Susi Bailey at edanz.training@iped-editors.org.
Book here.
Zoom Hui: Government, NGO and business editors
Date: Thursday, 15 October, 7.30pm
Do you edit or proofread for governments, NGOs or businesses? Join EdANZ to share information with, and learn from, other editors who work with these types of clients.
In this second of our thematic catch-ups we will be discussing two topics:
- how to nurture relationships with existing clients and attract new clients
- how to present the services and products you offer.
There will also be time for other questions. If you have a question you would like to see covered, mention it on your registration form or email Helen Bradford at edanz.ab@iped-editors.org.
Book here.