People often get a deeper insight into their profession when their table turns: teacher becomes student, doctor becomes patient, or, in my case, editor becomes writer. I’ve been writing for years and have been edited plenty of times. My graduate…
The big question for many people working for the first time with an editor is, why? Why is this step needed? Why must I allow my finely honed work to be trod on by someone who’s not a subject matter…
In May 1992, seven editors (Nancy Flight, Anne Norman, Claudette Reed Upton, Lois Richardson, John Ricker, Barbara Tomlin, and Yvonne Van Ruskenveld) drafted a letter of agreement and West Coast Editorial Associates (WCEA) was born. So this month we are…
To celebrate or to lament? That is the question for West Coast Editorial Associates. On the one hand, we mark our 25th anniversary this year. On the other, we bid farewell to Yvonne Van Ruskenveld, who retired on March 31,…
There’s been a lot of fresh chatter recently among editors about rates. Maybe it’s because at this time of year we’re all looking over our accounts, reviewing how much we did—or didn’t—earn, paying bills, planning for the next 12 months,…
Imagine being an IMAX screen cleaner: you’d spend hours every day sucking the dust off the giant screens so we in the audience can get the full, vertigo-inducing effects of all the action. As a professional mattress jumper, you would,…
Every once in a while, a writing or editing project provides an opportunity to work with a person who is a master in his or her field. Most often, it’s someone who works with words—another writer or editor—but not always…