A publisher asked if I would edit a math textbook. “Oh, I’m not good at math. I’ll pass,” I said. I said that the next three times they called about that project too. “I’m just not comfortable with math,” I told them. The fifth time they called, I agreed to help them as long as they acknowledged … [Read more...]
How to Choose Your Business Name
As editors, we know that the right article title is best determined after the article is written. So, too, with the names we give our businesses. Last week, I shared three categories of business names: eponymous, fun, and descriptive. Today, I’ll share how you can define your business in order to … [Read more...]
Type, Edit, Evaluate: How Back-Formations Proliferate
It can be difficult to enthuse as you type or edit words like liaise. “How awkward,” you might think. But before you escalate the situation, consider that difficult, enthuse, type, edit, and escalate entered English through the same linguistic process as liaise. It’s called back-formation—and … [Read more...]
Toward a More Accurate Vocabulary of Hate
Greek gives us a useful combining form for creating words about hate, but we might not be using it as often as we should. Miso- comes from misein, meaning "to hate," and it gives us a handful of highfalutin words for low-brow antipathies, like these: misogyny: hatred of women misogamy: … [Read more...]
Ergonomics for Digital Nomads
With a laptop and an Internet connection, you’re ready to take your editing show on the road. You are location independent, thanks to the internet, a digital nomad. You can work beach side, hospital bedside, or even while sailing the ocean. But it can be downright painful to work on the … [Read more...]
What’s in a (Business) Name?
When launching a new business, often one of the first things we decide on is a name for our new venture. But a business name should actually be one of the last things we determine. What’s in a Name? Like your personal name, your business name is what people will remember. It will come to … [Read more...]
Passing the Ball: Options for Editorial File-Sharing
Editors share files with other team members, with writers, and with themselves. There are hundreds of ways to do that, including sending a CD-ROM or thumb drive by snail mail or sneakernet, as was common back when Internet access meant dial-up. Of course, you can email many files, but there are … [Read more...]
Developmental Editing: Starting Conversations
A potential client reaches out to you. They say they have a fiction manuscript and need a developmental editor. What do you do? Your first step is to get samples from the work and information about the project. There are basic logistics to cover, such as title, word count, and timeline for … [Read more...]