They say cats have 9 lives. I have reinvented my working life many times. And now I’m writing to my peers for the record. I’ve travelled many miles as a writer, editor and indie publisher and arguably I’ve left my fair share of rubber on the road.
Some time ago I bookmarked a conversation with then President of Editors Victoria, Susan Keogh DE. I had raised the subject of retirement. Her response when I said I was getting closer was that editors never really retire. I think she meant never fully retire.
In early 2025 I was feeling the effects, not for the first time, of a busy working life. Not even the buzz of a new or interesting project produced a spark. I had reduced my hours the year before. I knew I needed to stop working permanently as an academic editor – to lift my head and explore other identities/interests.
Life is short. I badly needed some downtime to reflect on where to next. I imagined a gap year but that fell over almost immediately. I put the wheels in motion for a life outside of desk work, screens and rolling deadlines. I bought a state-of-the-art pair of binoculars for birdwatching. And in 2025 I set off on road trips to Victoria and later to Canberra, the latter with a close friend and 3 dogs.
In less than 2,000 words, let me give you the backstory. This provides context and insights along the way. As an indie feminist publisher in Adelaide in the late 1980s and 1990s, I was actively involved in the writing and publishing community. In 1994 I resigned from my paid work as in-house publicist with the South Australian Writer’s Centre. I relocated to Melbourne to take up study in the inaugural editing and publishing diploma at Monash University in 1996. One of 5 mature-age students in a class of 25, I gained a high distinction which included coursework and a rigorous 3-hour examination set by Beryl Hill. In the Monash course we were also expected to seek industry placements. I was fortunate to secure placements with Hale and Iremonger in Sydney, and Allen & Unwin and Reed Publishing in Melbourne. A highlight was working with Jackie Yowell in her tiny office, an outpost of Allen & Unwin in Carlton at that time. I listened and I learned.
I also joined the Sybylla Feminist Press collective, the only baby boomer, working with a voluntary collective of intelligent, energetic young women. I finished my diploma and was awarded an Australian Publishers Association scholarship to research my PhD on publishing culture and, in particular, commissioning books in Australia from 1970 to 2000. This involved interviews with key industry subjects and would have meant travel Australia wide, but life “chucked a wobbly” and took a different turn. My partner was diagnosed with a life-threatening blood cancer in 1998. Her treatment and bone marrow transplant saved her life. My work priorities were on hold for the best part of that year. My supervisors at Victoria University were incredibly supportive. This enabled me to complete my qualitative and quantitative research and thesis write-up while caring for my partner. I conducted over 40 interviews with key players in the Australian publishing industry. A few face-to-face interviews were conducted in Melbourne. The rest were recorded over the phone from my home office. I was granted access to the McPhee Gribble archives at the University of Melbourne and to the extensive Australian publishing archives at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra.
In the early 2000s I edited literary fiction and nonfiction sponsored books for Indra Publishing and Haddington Press respectively, both Melbourne based. I continued my industry research as a Monash associate, writing for publication in academic journals and books. I was fortunate to be employed part-time in the School of Creative Arts at Melbourne University, for one of its Discovery projects funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC).
I was also a full professional member of the then Society of Editors (Victoria). I had read Lee White’s 1986 Master of Arts thesis earlier on the role and status of book editors in Australia. I invited Lee to collaborate in research with a view to presenting a paper at the Editing in Context conference in Melbourne in 2005, exploring how book editing had changed over 20years. I enjoyed research collaboration and subsequently presented a second paper with Marilyn Dorman at the 2007 conference in Brisbane on editors’ knowledge and upskilling in the 21st century. In that year I was also hosted by Michael Webster and Mary Kalantzis at RMIT University to embark, as chief investigator, on industry-based research on the working lives of Australian editors for an ARC Linkage project. Three industry partners were secured but unfortunately the project was not funded by the ARC, much to everyone’s disappointment. I reset and returned to freelance academic editing, while continuing the research arm of my business. As an independent researcher, something had to give.
In 2007 and 2008, I edited several large-format sponsored books with academic reference lists that nearly brought me undone. I decided to drop my unpaid research activities and focus on freelancing. This decision led to working on educational and academic books for Palgrave Macmillan. I was steadily building my client base when an opportunity presented itself. I was invited by the publishing manager to bring along some of the books I had edited to a meeting at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) at Camberwell. I had contacted them about freelance work and thought this meeting was about freelancing, but the next day I was offered an in-house job, 4 days a week. A project editor was on maternity leave with her first baby. I was living out of Melbourne beyond Eltham but my daily return train travel to Camberwell was 3.5 hours. The car was needed at home. The publishing manager wanted an experienced academic and educational editor. She offered flexible working hours including working one day a week from home with a networked ACER laptop. I accepted the job.
I had still not learnt the lesson about burnout. But I grabbed this opportunity with both hands. I kept my freelance business going before travelling to work at Camberwell. The ACER project editor returned to work after 5 months and only one project editor’s salary was available. I recall the ACER farewell in 2011 with pride and some regrets. I arrived for my last day of in-house work. My boss and another project editor had been to the Queen Vic markets on their way to work and carried a huge bouquet of flowers to present to me at morning tea. Most staff attended, including in-house project editors, designers, and sales and marketing staff. I felt truly valued.
I acquired new clients: Australian and overseas academic and general book publishers including the Monash Asia Institute, Aboriginal Studies Press, Cambridge Scholars Press, SUNY Press, the University of Chicago Press, Brill and Routledge amongst others. I was also working for several Victorian universities as an independent contractor, editing HDR (higher degree research) theses. I established good working relationships with academic supervisors and not-so-good relationships with the bean counters (university finance staff). A big part of this work was educating them about what it is that external editors actually do. We are not monkeys so we should not be paid peanuts – we add value.
And what about voluntary work I hear you say? I had managed to juggle paid work and voluntary work for a long time. I have to say this workload took its toll. I convened a subcommittee of the then Society of Editors (Victoria) to manage the Occasional Series on Australian Editors (OSAE). A small group of editors worked incredibly hard outside of their paid working hours to secure sponsorship for and publication of 2 Editors in Conversation volumes on the working lives of Australian editors. [I guess you could say this sort of made up for the aforementioned ARC Linkage project that was not funded.] The first volume was published by Australian Scholarly Publishing (2007) and the second volume was published by the Victorian Society (2009). Other state branches believed in the project and subsequently offered sponsorship.
These volumes focused on Honorary Life Members around Australia and their contribution to the editing profession. An extraordinary bunch of talented women. The 2 standout editors on the Society’s subcommittee, who with me stayed with the project for its duration, were Kerry Biram and Jenny Craig. Others made valuable contributions to the OSAE project over time to ensure its successful outcome. It is regrettable that the series was discontinued when the subcommittee retired after the second volume. But that is the nature of voluntary projects and the ongoing professional focus had necessarily shifted to IPEd and accreditation. This required a great deal of voluntary work across all branches.
Then a change of pace, or so I thought. When I returned to live and work in Adelaide in 2012, I was persuaded by the then SA Society President, Loene Doube, to join her and other members on the management committee. Her expert chairing of committee meetings and her people skills meant less time wasting. Loene had many strings to her bow, but the ones I loved best were her ability to listen well and mentoring. When she first asked me to nominate for the committee, I said I could not possibly put myself forward. I had just returned to South Australia after an absence of 15 years. She simply replied, “Then I’ll nominate you.”
I served for about 18 months on the management committee. I was then invited to sit on the SA working party to revise the Australian standards for editing practice. This working party reported back to IPEd regarding revisions to the Standards. I also joined forces with Susan Rintoul and Celia Jellett on a subcommittee to put together the first strategic plan for the SA Society. I then stepped away from voluntary work and focused on earning a living wage.
Before and since that time I have mostly contributed to IPEd with professional feedback regarding various initiatives, including communication with the Standing Committee on Academic Editing.
I would like to close by adding that my working life has been enriched as a professional freelance and in-house academic, educational and general editor. I did not start my working life as an editor. Looking back, I did not resume my tertiary education until I was in my early 40s. I don’t discount my 7.5 years at Flinders University as a secretary to senior academics in the School of Education in my 20s. In those days secretarial staff could study in university courses at Flinders during working hours. I took advantage of that PD opportunity and enrolled in Australian Politics and Women’s Studies. Interestingly, in 2012 and 2014, I returned to Flinders as part of its RHD (Research Higher Degrees) Professional Development Program, offered through the Office of Graduate Research. I had been invited by the Dean of Graduate Research to share my knowledge with PhD candidates about working with a professional editor in finalising the thesis. I had also offered this consultancy work to HDR candidates at Victoria University in the School of Postgraduate Research.
There is more, but here I draw the line. One takeaway from my working life is that to be fully engaged in work that nourishes you, it’s not always about the money. But of course it is essential to earn a living wage. One last hurrah.
For me, one reason I was comfortable stepping away from academic editing was my concern about AI’s environmental impact. Living in the driest state on the driest inhabited continent, I’m increasingly concerned about the water and energy demands of AI technologies. It’s a personal view that’s become part of how I think about the future of editing and the world around us.