Saturday, November 8, 2025 | Lynnwood Event Center & Online | Lynnwood, WA
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Presentation Descriptions
In-Person Activities
Newcomers Meetup
Those who are just starting out in editing as well as first-time Red Pencil attendees and new Guild members are welcome to drop in for an informal chat with experienced Guild members.
Luncheon / Discussion Tables
Grab a buffet lunch and a seat to talk with friends or join one of the marked discussion tables for an editing-related chat.
Breaks / Exhibitors
Breaks between sessions provide an opportunity to speak with exhibitors, have copies of presenter books signed, and catch up with other attendees.
Virtual Activities
Welcome Chat
Online via Zoom
Gather with other virtual attendees as the conference day begins, to start with some networking, conversation, and connection.
Links and info distributed by email to virtual conference ticketholders.
Lunchtime Gathering
Online via Zoom
During the conference lunch break, gather with other virtual attendees for topic groups and discussions. Join a topic group, or suggest your own topic.
Links and info distributed by email to virtual conference ticketholders.
Keynote Presentation
Editing in the Age of AI:
Protecting and Advancing the Craft of Writing
As artificial intelligence reshapes the publishing landscape, editors face unprecedented questions about their role, their relationships with writers, and the future of literary creation itself. In this keynote address, publishing industry veteran Jane Friedman examines how AI is already transforming the editorial process—from manuscript evaluation to developmental guidance to line editing—while placing these changes within broader industry shifts. Rather than taking a utopian or dystopian view, Jane will offer a clear-eyed assessment of both the opportunities and threats that AI presents to editors and writers alike. At this pivotal moment, editors have a unique opportunity to shape how these technologies serve—rather than supplant—the craft of writing and editing.
Jane Friedman has spent more than two decades working in the publishing industry, with a focus on author education and business reporting. Her latest book is The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition, (The University of Chicago Press, 2025), which received a starred review from Library Journal. In addition to serving on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund, she works with organizations such as The Authors Guild to bring transparency to the business of publishing.
As a trusted industry resource, Friedman has advised and served multiple organizations, including The Chicago Manual of Style, Writer’s Digest, the Virginia Quarterly Review, the Editorial Freelancers Association, the Alliance of Independent Authors, and the Midwest Writers Workshop. She has served on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Whiting Awards, and the Creative Work Fund, bringing her expertise to the development of literary culture and arts funding.
Her long-running newsletters exemplify her commitment to helping creative people navigate the publishing landscape: Electric Speed, published since 2009, reaches more than 30,000 subscribers, while her paid newsletter, The Bottom Line, serves as an industry beacon to thousands of publishing professionals. In collaboration with The Authors Guild, she authored The Authors Guild Guide to Self-Publishing, further cementing her role as a trusted voice in publishing. Learn more at JaneFriedman.com.
Sessions
The sessions that will be livestreamed and recorded will be announced here soon!
Building Bridges: Networking for Freelance Editors
Presented by: Linda Ruggeri
Description: Intentional networking empowers editors to turn connections into lasting partnerships, unlock new opportunities, and achieve their business goals.
Bio: Linda Ruggeri is a bilingual (EN/SP) nonfiction editor and writer based out of Napa Valley, California, the author of Networking for Writers (IBPA Gold Medal Winner) and the co-author of Networking for Freelance Editors: Practical Strategies for Networking Success (IBPA Silver Medal Winner). Linda is the co-founder of The Networking Studio and the Argentinean nonprofit 3 Vías Creativas. When she’s not editing, she’s gardening, or trying to be a fun mom, and would gladly trade any night out for a glass of bourbon and a good nonfiction book.
The Copy Editor’s (Life)Style Guide
Presented by: Jamaal D. Pittman
Description: Jamaal D. Pittman, author of The Copy Editor's (Life)Style Guide, will discuss his journey as a copy editor and how to navigate the parts of this career that aren't about grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Bio: Jamaal D. Pittman has been a copy editor for 20 years and is currently Copy Editor Manager at Capital Group, a financial services company. In 2024, he wrote, designed, funded, and self-published The Copy Editor’s (Life)Style Guide, his first book.
The Editor’s Toolkit: Do More In Less Time
Presented by: Jess Stampe
Description: This session dives into practical tools and techniques to supercharge your writing and editing workflow.
Bio: Jess Stampe is a technical editor and writer at Leidos. She has over a decade of experience working on technical documentation, books, dissertations, theses, and marketing materials. She specializes in automations, developmental/structural editing, proofreading, formatting, fact-checking, and citations in APA and Chicago style.
Melissa Haskin
Editors Helping Editors Live!
Hosted by: Melissa Haskin and Beth Hutchason
Description: Perhaps you've attended Editors Helping Editors over Zoom. Now, join us in person to meet your fellow editors and work together to solve quandaries and queries related to editing and running an editorial business.
Bios: Melissa Haskin is a freelance editor with 15 years of experience. Before striking out on her own, she worked on staff at Cooking Light and Men's Health magazines. She holds a master's degree in journalism and a bachelor's degree in economics with a minor in business and entrepreneurship.
Beth Hutchason is a freelance editor with 4 years of experience. Since earning an editing certificate from the University of Washington, she has been editing primarily medical and academic content. Beth is also a nurse practitioner with decades of clinical experience.
Beth Hutchason
Panel: Finding Work as a Freelancer
Presented by: Melissa Haskin et. al.
Description: Join experts for a panel discussion on how to find freelance work!
Bio: Moderator Melissa Haskin is a freelance editor with 15 years of experience. Before striking out on her own, she worked on staff at Cooking Light and Men's Health magazines. She holds a master's degree in journalism and a bachelor's degree in economics with a minor in business and entrepreneurship.
Helping Indie Authors Thrive without a Traditional Publisher
Presented by: Elizabeth MS Flynn
Description: Authors are in the driver’s seat, and indie editors have to step up to help them along on their journey.
Bio: Elizabeth MS Flynn, who writes as Eilis Flynn, has been a professional editor for almost fifty years, editing topics as diverse as academia, technology, finance, genre fiction, and comic books.
How to Give Yourself Accommodations: On Working as a Neurodivergent Editor
Presented by: Laura Burge
Description: It’s one thing to ask others about accommodations, but what about when you work for yourself and you’re neurodivergent? How do you give yourself those same considerations?
Bio: Laura Burge (she/her) is a fiction editor, writing coach, and author. She’s an ADHDer who works with a lot of neurodivergent authors, volunteers with neurodiversity nonprofit Umbrella Alliance US, and has online courses available on working with neurodivergent writers. When not working with words, she enjoys baking, hot cups of tea, and bowing to her cat’s every whim.
Intro to Plain Language
Presented by: Kristen M. Clark
Description: Learn the basics of how to edit for simple, clear, yet compelling language—transforming technical information into reader-friendly content.
Bio: Kristen Clark is an experienced government editor and writing coach by day and runs Pristine Clarity (a plain language editing and communications consulting firm) in her spare time. She has been a government editor for local and federal agencies since 2018, where she has honed her expertise in plain language editing. Before that, Kristen spent a decade in journalism covering local, state, and federal government, politics, and public policy.
Keeping Grounded: Work-Life Balance for Freelancers
Presented by: Laura Poole
Description: Learn how to craft and maintain a work-life balance in which you can be a successful freelancer AND a happy person.
Bio: Laura Poole has been freelancing for 28 years and has a successful business copyediting for scholarly publishers. She wrote Juggling on a High Wire: The Art of Work-Life Balance When You're Self-Employed.
Rebecca Brinbury
OK Computer: Advocating for Human-Powered Editing in a Technical World
Presented by: Rebecca Brinbury and Jen Koogler
Description: We’ll tackle a conundrum that editors have faced since even before AI started knocking on our door—how to convince your stakeholders, clients, leadership teams, or colleagues that a skillfully executed, human-led editorial process matters.
Bio: Rebecca Brinbury has been working with and on behalf of words in the Seattle area for more than 20 years, including leadership roles in the Northwest Editors Guild. She also cofounded the nonprofit Seattle City of Literature and wrote the successful application to UNESCO that got Seattle designated as a City of Literature in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. After many years in the arts, book publishing, and literacy sectors, she joined Amazon as an editor in the IT Services department in 2023.
Jen Koogler started her editorial management career wrangling over a dozen contributors and reviewing hundreds of movie reviews for the 832-page Scarecrow Video Movie Guide, published by Sasquatch Books in 2004. Since then, she’s edited everything from cross-stitch patterns to employee manuals to descriptions of baby clothes for an online retailer. She also co-taught two sessions of Business Writing: Reports, Proposals & Documents for University of Washington Professional & Continuing Education. For the last 10 years, she has been a technical editor at earth science and engineering firm Aspect Consulting, now a part of Geosyntec Consultants, Inc.
Jen Koogler
Red Pen, Green Light: How to Use AI Without Using Client Text
Presented by: Erin Servais and Nadia Geagea Pupa
Description: Discover how AI can support your editing practice without crossing your red lines around privacy, security, and ethics.
Bio: Erin Servais helps editors upskill with artificial intelligence through her AI for Editors courses and Servais Strategic Business Solutions corporate training. Since launching the AI for Editors programs in August 2023, she has taught them to editors from over 20 countries.
Nadia Geagea Pupa—Co-Founder and CEO of Pique Publishing, Inc.—works with a variety of clients from the ideation stage to the final distribution of their products. She specializes in manuscript evaluations, book coaching, developmental editing, and copyediting, in addition to page design and art direction for books, magazines, journals, and textbooks. She is the podcast host of The Editor’s Half Hour and a guest speaker at the University of Chicago.
Sensitivity or Censorship: How Editors Address Bias
Presented by: Brittany Yost
Description: This session will explore strategies to navigate challenging conversations with authors when biased language is detected.
Bio: Brittany Yost holds an MA in Publishing Studies from University College London, where she focused on diverse manuscript acquisitions. She has a strong professional passion for inclusive storytelling. With over a decade of experience as a freelance developmental editor, she has worked on projects for Writing in the Margins, Write Up, Penguin Random House, and Wiley, among others, in addition to collaborating with self-published authors.
Ingrid Emerick
Trends in the Book Publishing Industry as They Impact Freelancers
Presented by: Ingrid Emerick and Katherine Richards
Description: What are traditional, hybrid, and self publishers looking for today from their editorial service providers? We’ll discuss how they differ and what remains the same among these clients.
Bio: Ingrid Emerick is the President of Girl Friday Productions, a company she founded with Leslie Miller in 2006. The two met at Seal Press, where Ingrid’s stint lasted fifteen years in all. During that time, she ran the publicity and marketing departments before rising to the role of associate publisher. A book coach and a developmental editor of both fiction and non-fiction, she is a long-time instructor for the University of Washington’s Editing Certificate Program.
Katherine Richards is a senior editor at Girl Friday Productions. Before joining Girl Friday in 2020, Katherine worked as a freelance copyeditor and proofreader for a number of years with clients such as Sasquatch Books, Quarto, Kirkus Editorial, Elite Editing, Girl Friday Productions, CreateSpace, and independent authors.
Katherine Richards
Up Your Query Game: Build Client Loyalty with Declarative Language and Empathy
Presented by: Gina Wassyng
Description: Turn your queries into a collaboration, not a confrontation—learn how to use empathy, declarative language, and strategic questioning to make tough edits easier for clients and keep them coming back.
Bio: Gina Wassyng works full-time at Envive AI where she edits and trains LLMs for e-commerce brands like Supergoop, Spanx, and Green Pan. She's also passionate about editing digital content and recipes. She completed the Certificate in Editing from the University of Washington and has a M.S. in Nutrition Science.
World Building for Developmental Editors of All Genres
Presented by: Andrea Karin Nelson
Description: Learn how architecture and landscape, laws and customs, history and technology come together to create a fully realized world for characters to inhabit, and how to guide writers of any genre to apply robust world-building to their stories.
Bio: Andrea Karin Nelson is a developmental editor and the founder of Allegory Editing. Twenty years as a writer and theater maker has developed her keen sense of story structure, plot, and character development and eighteen years as a master-level Sign Language interpreter has tuned her ear to the subtleties of language and the nuances of human interactions.
The Writing Coach: Boost Your Business and Nurture Aspiring Writers
Presented by: William Kenower
Description: Learn how a writing coach differs from a developmental editor and why you might want to offer this service to your clients.
Bio:William Kenower is the author of Everyone Has What It Takes: A Writer’s Guide to the End of Self-Doubt, Fearless Writing: How to Create Boldly and Write With Confidence, and Write Within Yourself: An Author’s Companion, and is the Editor-in-Chief of Author magazine. He also hosts the popular podcasts Author2Author, and Fearless Writing With Bill Kenower.