It amazes me how many events are now virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The church that my husband and I attend, for example, went virtual in March. I have mixed feelings about this. Ninety percent of my being loves that we can still hear wonderful praise and worship music and listen to the pastor’s weekly message all from our own home. We are staying connected, and I love that.

The ten percent that doesn’t love this misses the human interaction with others, the hugs, the smiles. To this part of me, there is no substitute. “Nice try,” this part of me says.

I have been having virtual counseling appointments and have found those to be very satisfying, even preferable to the in-person counseling since my counselor’s office is an hour from my residence.

A little over three weeks ago, my husband and I attended a virtual bar mitzvah for the son of one of my friends (the family lives in Ohio and we live in Maryland). It was really neat!

I have yet to attend a virtual conference or other such event. Have you ever attended one? What was it like for you?

Let’s talk about referrals for a minute.

When I took the EFA’s online course “Getting Work from Publishers and Book Packagers” three months ago, our teacher, the awesome Jennifer Lawler, suggested to me personally that I try to get referrals from people for whom I have edited. That is one of the many things I am doing now.

Getting clients through referrals is a lot like building a family tree. You begin with the roots, which are your current clients. Then you do some sleuthing and write down the names of, say, five people with whom one of your clients has collaborated or worked. These five people are your branches.

You contact each of these five people and say, “I know you have worked with [current client] in the past. Here is how I can help you.” Then you go on to show them your editing services. If you are lucky, at least one of these five people will respond and say that they are interested in your services. Then you go on and do a project for them.

If they like your editing work, you stay in touch with them (of course) and find five people with whom they have collaborated. Now the branch has five branches. You contact each of these people, and so on and so forth.

It’s a lot better than sending cold emails.

I am presently going through a kind of slump in my business. One of my dear friends was going to give me an 80-page paper to edit for her work, but her personal circumstances have prevented her from doing so at this time. I don’t dare pester her for the paper at such a difficult time in her life, so I must say to myself regarding this, “It will come when it comes.” Other work has been scarce as well (other than the editing of the church videos, about which I wrote last week).

So, you are probably wondering, what do I do in such times?

For one, I market myself. I contact current and former clients and let them know of my availability. I also reach out to potential new clients.

Another thing I do is improve myself and my skills. For example, I have been going through a book on MS Word 2019 chapter by chapter every weekday, reading the text and doing the exercises. I upgraded to Office 2019 from Office 2007 (stop that laughing!) last December, so I need to know everything I can about Word (and it doesn’t hurt to learn some stuff about Excel and PowerPoint, too; I will tackle those next).

Last summer, I completed an online course called Beginning Copyediting. I plan to go over the lessons which I downloaded, so that I do not forget what I learned. On September 8, I start the Intermediate Copyediting course.

What do you do during slow times?

Since mid-July, I have been working on an ongoing assignment for my church. I edit the captions that appear on the screen while the pastor or host is speaking during the virtual church service (necessary, of course, due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Usually these captions consist of Scripture verses or addresses, or sometimes very short announcements. I am given, via email, a list of the captions in the order in which they are to appear on the screen, and I make sure that they appear when they are supposed to. Yes, this means that I am also given a link to the video of the church service and I watch the entire service on the Thursday or Friday prior to the Sunday when it will be shown on the church website. SNEAK PREVIEW! 🙂

I even get paid for having this sneak preview!

The church, in case I didn’t say it before, was my first client, and they have been so supportive of my business.

Do any of you have nonprofits for which you do regular work?

 

Many editors have a presence on Facebook. I myself was on that platform for almost nine years, from 2008 to 2017. In October 2017, I deleted my profile and exited Facebook for good. Some may think I am crazy or stupid for doing so, for it can be a good source of marketing for an editor’s business. But at what a price:

• Memes. Many memes are offensive, cruel, judgmental, or just plain stupid.
• Politics. Political ideas are thrown around with no respect for the ideas of others.
• Name-calling. Need I say more?

I have had people whom I do not know from Adam yell at me, accuse me, and insult me simply because I had an opinion. (One person accused me of “hating liberty and freedom” just because I voiced my support for #BlackLivesMatter.)

I have lost friendships–real friendships–from Facebook posts, and I have a close friend whose nuclear family has been all but destroyed by the platform.

Since getting off of Facebook, I have actually been calmer and happier and feel much better about myself.

So why am I not on Facebook? The obvious answer is: Because I cherish my mental health.

Some (but not all) editors tend to turn into “writing snobs” at times.

Guilty as charged.

Being an editor of scientific papers, I am very much in tune to mistakes in scientific writing. Last week, for my own benefit, I was reading a published scientific paper in a well-respected journal and found myself turning into a snob in a major way. The paper contained typos, missing articles, and incorrect subject-verb agreement, to say the least, and I said out loud while reading, “This was published in [this well-known journal]? I can’t believe it!” I shook my head as I read the sentences which were poorly written (though not all of them were) and at the end, when I read the name of the person who “provided editorial assistance” according to the authors, I think I laughed.

I now feel badly about my actions. This is not the way to be when one is an editor. It isn’t good to have a swelled head or think you are better than another editor. Professional editors ought to think of each other as colleagues, not competitors. After all, I am not perfect although I strive for perfection when I edit, so why should I expect other editors and writers to be perfect? And it goes without saying that the authors of that paper can write better in English than I could in their native language.

I may have even made some errors in the writing of this post. Please feel free to point them out. Just be gentle, please. I am humbled already.

“…you will learn to love words and their meanings.” –Kevin Spacey in Pay It Forward

As a professional editor, I, too, have learned to love words and their meanings. How do I improve my vocabulary?

Joining professional editing associations has done a lot for me regarding this. I often read posts that my fellow members make. These are very intelligent people who have an impressive vocabulary and use sophisticated words habitually when they write. I tend to pick up on their language and use it myself.

Just yesterday my husband and I visited my parents, who live an hour away from us. My mother commented on how my everyday speech has become more sophisticated and how my vocabulary has gotten better. That was a high compliment. I told her that it was because of my reading the posts of other editors and thus virtually “hanging out” with them.

Reading books also helps, of course.

What do you do to improve your vocabulary and the way in which you speak and write?

Hello, everybody.

Today I would like to discuss one of my worst grammar pet peeves: the splitting of the word “another” into “a whole ‘nother” rather than “another whole.”

Example: “I need to reschedule our appointment, but I hate to push it back a whole ‘nother week.” This is incorrect.

The correct sentence: “I need to reschedule our appointment, but I hate to push it back another whole week.”

I have found this error to be made more in speech than in writing. Let’s face it, though…when something finds its way into speech, it will eventually creep into writing.

To combat this atrocity, I have devised a mnemonic: A comes before W in the alphabet. If A stands for “another” and W for “whole,” then one can remember that since A comes before W, “another” is placed before “whole.” It’s not hard at all. 🙂

What are some of your grammar pet peeves?

A week ago, I purchased a new tool that will be highly helpful in my editing. It’s an HP laptop. It was delivered to the store last Tuesday and I set it up Thursday. I’ve only used it for editing once so far, because by then I only had a small project to do for my church. But it’s working out well so far.

On June 24, the monitor of the desktop computer that I share with my husband died–and right when I was in the middle of editing a scientific manuscript. Oh, the stress of that day! Thankfully, a dear friend of ours had a spare monitor in his home that he no longer wanted, and so he gave it to us. This guy is an angel.

However, that got me thinking: We really need another computer to have in case something goes wrong with the one on which I am working. And now that I think of it, with the desktop, I need to stop working right away and shut it down whenever there is a thunderstorm, and that delays my work. But with a laptop, it doesn’t have to always be plugged into the wall outlet…

The cost of the laptop, plus MS Office 2019, plus McAfee virus protection, plus a mouse and mouse pad added up to quite a bit. (Ka-ching!) However, one has to spend money to make money.

This week, the husband of one of my good friends will be sending me a paper of his to edit. Onward and upward…

(Apologies to Melissa Manchester.)

My Zoom meeting this past week went extraordinarily well. I met, as I said last week, with a woman from my grad school alma mater. She was very enthusiastic about my work and, right then and there, formed a business partnership with me in which she will put me in touch with scientific researchers at the university and I will edit their grant proposals. I will also be a contractor for the university. How exciting! She will get back in touch with me in late July. The only caveat is that I will have to wait a few months to get actual work to edit, as COVID-19 has forced the state to cut the university’s budget.

This opportunity came about when one of my former grad school professors mentioned me and my editing business to the woman in charge of grant proposals. Hooray for the professor, and hooray for word of mouth!

Word of mouth also worked in my favor this week when a member of an organization of which I am a member recommended me to a fellow member who needed the assistance of an editor who specializes in scientific writing. Score another really cool paper for me to edit. 🙂

Bottom line: Word of mouth is the best advertising tool there is, so if you are starting out as a freelance editor, make sure to tell everyone you know what you are doing. It takes time, but it works.