Engaging with Other Editors
Panelists: Kyra Freestar, Joanie Eppinga, Linda Stuckey, and Ginger Everhart
This Guild meeting was all about the benefits of community, and how to create that community for independent editors. The panelists each discussed their time building and leading editor groups outside of Seattle, including everything from keeping up morale to meeting attendance numbers.
After the panel, everyone joined in a brainstorming session about what more the Guild could do in its community building efforts. Proposals were drawn up, voted on, and then submitted to the board for appraisal.
Panelist Bios:
Kyra Freestar: A long time contributor to the Guild and facilitator of the panel, Kyra served on the board from 2012-2014. Nowadays she runs her own editing business with a focus on speculative fiction, as well as an editorial partnership for nonprofits, research, and policy proposals.
Joanie Eppinga: Joining us from the far reaches of Spoken, Joanie brings 18 years of editing experience to the table, not to mention two awards from her work on the Westboro Baptist Church. She founded the Spokeditors so that editors in the eastern half of the state would have somewhere to go for community support.
Linda Stuckey: Starting with Macmillan Publishing in 1985, Linda has had more editing jobs than most of us can dream of. After a long career with the community of an in-house position, Linda saw how lonely an independent editor’s life can be, so she restarted the South Sound Editor’s group, which she somehow finds time to run between freelancing and a day job.
Ginger Everhart: Editing across the spectrum from developmental to copyediting, Ginger works on everything from short stories to play scripts. She’s a member in good standing of the Near North Editors group, for those of us who live north of the cut and enjoy meetings that are just a short bus ride away.
Meeting Notes
(Written notes from the 7/10/17 meeting by Oren Ashkenazi)
Christina Johnson opened the meeting and asked the board members to stand and wave so members in attendance will know who they can ask if they have any questions about the guild or its activities.
Announcements:
The Guild is hosting a panel at the Willamette writer’s conference in Portland. A big thanks to the Portland area volunteers!
Recruitment is beginning for the Editor’s Guild 2018 board of directors.
The Red Pencil Conference is coming up in September.
Guild members save $30, and everyone saves an extra $30 if they register before July 31st.
Thanks to everyone who’s interested in volunteering, and more volunteers are still needed, especially swag bag stuffers and direction givers.
The Guild is gathering documents for for the archives.
They’re looking for meeting agendas, minutes, financial reports, operations reports, and other similar documents.
If you have any documents like these, please share them with Roberta Klarreich (rklarreich@gmail.com)
Their target date for submission is July 31st.
The potluck this year is the 20th Anniversary of the Guild, and it will be in October.
With announcements taken care of, Kyra and the panel began their discussion.
How did you get started with your groups?
Joanie was first to answer. She’d worked alone for two decades, with only close family members for support. That changed in 2013, when a young editor asked for Joanie’s mentorship.
The young editor convinced Joanie that they should start an editor group in Spokane, and through unforeseen circumstances Joanie ended up in charge of the whole operation.
Spokeditors meets for an hour each month to talk shop, passing along work when they have the opportunity.
Ginger was next. She came to her group in Edmonds after it had already started.
She had just finished the UW program and was volunteering with her friends at Red Pencil.
In Carpooling she met Beth Chapel, and eventually started meeting with what would become the Near North Editors group in Lake Forest Park.
It has a rotating membership, and as so often happens, Ginger found herself in charge.
Finally, Linda spoke about how she restarted the lapsed South Sound Editors group.
She first attended an editing group that met in Olympia, and realized that the editors who lived between Seattle and Portland needed a group.
She found other south sound editors within the Guild, and they agreed. Their first meeting was attended by 8 people.
Linda was used to the in-house community and wanted to establish something similar with freelancers.
Since then, Linda has opened her group to people who aren’t part of the Guild, since everyone needs support.
What are your meetings like?
In Linda’s group, they talk about work a little, but more often it’s just chatting and small talk. Since editing is a solitary profession, this sense of community is important. Most of the group members are part time, and they don’t get this support in their day job.
Their biggest challenge is scheduling and location. Sometimes not enough people can make the commute to justify a meeting.
Ginger’s group has evolved since she first started. At the start, the group leader would assign a topic to give some rough structure.
Now they’re very free form, talking a lot about networking and their projects.
Often they share expertise from outside editing. If one of them is editing a work that involves music, those with musical knowledge will chip in.
They are flexible with time, and have anywhere from two to eight people.
Out in Spokane, many of Joanie’s editors are new and still learning the trade. They have a ten minute presentation on a preselected topic, then do free form discussion.
They’ve had the goal of creating a website for a while now, but are still working on it.
Their attendance is four to twelve people, lower in the summer. Since so many people travel in the summer, Joanie is considering suspending meetings at that time of year.
What sets the stage for meaningful relationships among editors, and what does your group do to build them?
Linda’s group doesn’t focus on “networking” as she’s usually seen it described. She doesn’t see it as a trading commodities like business cards. She thinks the commonly pushed model of networking is disingenuous, that it’ll just be a source of work.
For her, networking should be an opportunity to learn from each other, not a search for referral.
Her group is very casual. No need to dress up, or go home to dress down.
Ginger’s group works hard to be mutually supportive for people at all stages of their career.
A big chunk of their meetings are spent with editors commiserating about the difficulties they face. Sometimes solutions are offered, other times it’s just important for someone to listen and understand.
Joanie’s group tries to keep the atmosphere as welcoming as possible. Sometimes, brownies are involved! It’s important that people feel safe enough to ask questions when they need help.
Are you open to people dropping in?
The general consensus was yes, they don’t mind new people dropping in without an introduction, though at the moment all of them recruit entirely by word of mouth.
Kyra noted that while each of these groups is different, they all operate around a few core members.
Have there been surprises along the way that people should think about?
Joanie was surprised and fascinated by how many different kinds of editing and editors there are.
The traditional fields are already diverse, but over the years she’s met people with very niche focuses.
Ginger was surprised to find herself the leader of the group. Fortunately, her stage manager instincts from the theater days took over, and she happily acts as group wrangler.
Linda didn’t expect running a group to feel so validating. When you’re freelancing you don’t always get the validation that you’re good at your job. Meeting with others reminds her that she’s a real editor after all.
She was also surprised to learn how important it is to have signs for your meetings, and that she needed to update the photos on her online profiles so people could find her.
Some of you are involved in some online communities, how does your participation there feed your life as an independent editor?
Joanie talked about how all three panelists are members of the Editors of Earth Facebook group. They’ve had great experiences asking random questions there.
Joanie’s also worked with the Society for Editors and Proofreaders, which is based in the UK. They have a strict tier system, but working your way up the tiers actually gets you more work.
She’s met a number of editors online that she later connected with face to face.
Ginger has also used Editors of Earth to ask questions, including from editors who speak other languages. Its membership is global.
Linda pointed out that Editors of Earth has subgroups as well, for everything from academic to fiction editing.
Final Thoughts
In closing, the panel discussed the difference between online and face to face support. In general, it was agreed that face to face meetings allow for better relationships, but online groups can mean a much wider field of interests.
Kyra spoke about how a group as large as the Guild can sometimes feel impersonal, which is why she champions smaller meetings like the coffee hours. More personal gatherings often make it easier for people to connect.
She encouraged people to check out the Guild website for more info on coffee hours, and that people who are interested volunteer to host their own!
Serving on the board is also a great way to make connections with other editors.
Idea Brainstorming
After the panel discussion, everyone at the meeting wrote down an idea for something they’d like to see from the guild. The ideas were posted on one wall, and everyone used sticky notes to indicate which ideas they supported. The ideas presented were incredibly diverse, but some of the more popular ones were…
The idea of community-building hikes or walks (because we sit most of the day anyway, right?) was the single idea with the most votes of the night!
Themed trivia night
Editors’ game night
Bimonthly reading group to discuss books on the art and craft of editing
Coffee hours that focus on specific editing specializations
A more structured/focused networking event designed for true introverts
Volunteer events or a social night to fundraise for a specified cause
Activity toward reaching out and supporting editors from minority communities
Beer and Business pub nights