In the age of corporate downsizing, most publishers are turning exclusively to freelancers (instead of staff members) for manuscript editing. There is a notable lack of training – especially at an academic publishing level – and many of those starting out in this field have a lot of questions on how to do the work and how to survive as a freelancer.
Carolyn and Laura, your intrepid trainers.
Carolyn Hassett, teaching proofreading technique, November 2010
After mentoring many beginning editors, Laura Poole and Carolyn Hassett came together to create a workshop for those interested in copyediting and proofreading – to provide a serious leg up to editors at nearly any level. They are joined by Alice Osborn, who brings her fiction editing expertise to offer new training opportunities to students.
Laura Poole
Laura Poole
has been in the publishing industry for 15+ years. In 1997, she started her own company, Archer Editorial Services. She provides professional high-level copyediting to publishers, specializing in academic nonfiction projects. She brings a thorough, detail-oriented approach to her work. Her clients have included Oxford University Press, John Wiley & Sons, Bytheway Publishing Services, Impressions Book & Journal Services, Duke University Press, Frommers Travel Guides, Carolina Academic Press, Menasha Ridge Press, Ventana Communications, Vital Source Technologies, and more.
Laura is also a certified professional life coach and a member of the International Coaching Federation.
Carolyn Hassett
Carolyn Hassett
started out in publishing as a freelance copy editor and proofreader for such clients as Bedford/St. Martin’s and Duke and Georgetown University Presses, moved to in-house production editing for Doubleday Direct and Oxford University Press (where she contracted and oversaw the work of freelancers), and continued on to online publishing for Oxford and SAGE Publications (where she helped set standards for electronic editing and online content models). Due to her experience, Carolyn has excellent insight into what managing editors are looking for in freelancers, as well as a broad overview of the whole publishing process. She has trained several staff members in production, editing, and content management through the years. Carolyn holds a B.A. in Literary Studies from Williams College and a PRINCE2 practitioner project management certification.
Alice Osborn
I found your website this morning. You seem to be enthusiastic about recruiting more people into the copy editing field, and I’m very interested in doing just that! It’s too bad I live so far from your Boot Camp offering this weekend! Could you please suggest a good training program to get into this field? I have extensive experience in proofreading and in teaching grammar and writing skills. Are there reputable online programs that lead to attaining a certificate?
Hi Diana! Keep your eyes peeled on our main page (better yet: subscribe via RSS) for our travel announcements. Also, we do hope to be creating webinars soon, so that anyone anywhere can attend! We created this seminar precisely because there are NOT really any training programs for breaking into the field. There is a certificate in publishing you can earn from the USDA Graduate College, with online classes, but I don’t know how well it is regarded among publishers.