Month: December 2023

Goals for 2024

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Well, 2023 was quite a year for Fiedler Editorial.

My editing workflow increased, particularly in the late summer, which was definitely an excellent thing. I also learned about Word styles and templates from Hilary Cadman, an MS Word expert and teacher in Australia. I began editing PDFs in Adobe Acrobat. (I’m getting better at it and have been doing it for the last four months—and I love it!) And, of course, I attended EFACON 2023 in Alexandria, Virginia in August, where I met a whole lot of awesome people, several of whom with which I am still in touch, and learned a whole lot more about editing and running a business.

Now that another year is about to begin, it is time to set goals again.

What are my goals for 2024?

  1. I want to increase my workflow even further, to the point where there are few, if any, “dry spells.” The last four and a half months of 2023 have been like this, and I want to keep the momentum going.
  • I want to learn more about editing PDFs using Acrobat and have more opportunities to do this kind of editing.
  • I want to set up a business savings account. Experts at EFACON 2023 advised us attendees to do this in a panel session. Ten percent of every payment will go into it, and I will be able to save for editing-related things of which I want to be a part, such as the 2026 ACES Conference in Atlanta. (Unfortunately, the 2024 and 2025 ACES Conferences are in cities which are too far for my budget—San Diego and Salt Lake City, respectively.)
  • One very personal goal that I cannot share on this blog but which means the world to me.

What are your goals for the new year?

Holiday greetings

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Happy holidays, dear readers. Since I celebrate Christmas, I am taking this weekend off from blogging in order to reflect on the spiritual significance of the holiday and spend time with loved ones.

I wish that you enjoy good health and happiness during this time and in the new year.

Friends in client places

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When some freelance editors launch a new business, their first clients are their friends because they need work and their friends know this. This was the case with me five years ago when I first hung out my shingle as an editor. My first client was the spouse of one of my friends, and the project went very well—in fact, this person has had me edit other things for them since.

Following this, the friend whose spouse employed my editing services began using me for editing a short time later. Years have passed, and I have done a lot of work as a contractor for the company for whom my friend works. It has been highly enjoyable and has paid me well, as has the scientific work I have done for clients whom I do not know personally.

Some editors would not dare have friends (or family) as clients. I have read discussion list posts in one of my professional editing organizations in which a poster literally says, “No friends!” when speaking of their client base. Although I respectfully disagree in principle, I can understand why an editor would have this policy.

Would you want to have one of your good friends as your boss? Although a freelancer’s boss is not the client (a freelancer is their own boss), they want to make the client happy, and will do whatever it takes to do so. If the friend/client is unsatisfied with the final product, this undoubtedly puts a strain on the friendship. If the friendship is strong, the subpar result can be forgotten, at least eventually. But if the friendship is not strong enough…you get the idea. Personally, I am choosy about which of my friends I would take on as clients. I must ask myself, “How would this person act if they were a traditional boss?” The friend I mentioned earlier in this post has been a wonderful “boss,” so to speak, but other friends I have, while being great people, I would not want as clients.

If you are a freelance editor, do you have any of your friends as clients?

The great American novel

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Would you believe that about eight years ago, I wrote a novel? I felt my creative juices flowing like a whitewater river and let them go.

I will not give details in this post on what the novel is about, because I do not want to have someone steal my ideas. I will say that the story is dramatic, set in the summer of 2003, and told from the point of view of a 25-year-old woman.

In the novel’s current state, it is not very good.

It is good in terms of grammar, sentence structure, capitalization, punctuation, and the like. After all, I am an editor and reread the novel more than once to check those things. But in terms of the setup, the story’s progression, and the resolution of the main character’s conflict…I’m sorry to say that the writing is subpar.

This is all very embarrassing, because while I was writing the novel, I told several of my friends that I was writing one. (Big mistake!) Now, years later, they are asking me how it is coming. And I never really know what to say anymore.

I refuse to let this novel die.

When I have more funds, I plan to hire a book coach or developmental editor to help me flesh out the story. Following that, I want to hire an editor or copyeditor to catch mistakes that I might have missed. Then I need to enlist the services of a formatter and a cover designer.

After all of that has been accomplished, I plan to self-publish.

The process, as you can guess, takes a lot of money, so I must keep saving. But this novel will see the light of day before I pass away.

Have you ever written a novel and if so, did you publish it?

What’s new on the bulletin board

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A good while back, I wrote about some of the things I keep on my office bulletin board, which is located directly above the desk where I work. Since then, I have added some new items.

At the top center of the board, I have one of my business cards. I had the cards made for EFACON 2023, which I attended last August, and I thought it highly appropriate to have one on my bulletin board. Having it there makes me feel very official.

I also have a certificate of graduation from Cadman Training Services, from whom I took an online class in Word styles and templates for PC this past summer. The certificate makes me feel accomplished. Underneath it are two more documents that make me feel good about myself: certificates of completion for Intermediate Copyediting and Advanced Copyediting. Both classes are taught by Lourdes Venard and offered through the EFA.

I also have my Garfield mask hanging from one of the tacks on the board. It serves as a reminder that I made it through the COVID pandemic alive (I deeply apologize if you have a loved one who did not—please accept my sympathy). Also hanging from a tack on the board is my ID badge from EFACON 2023. My first badge from my first professional editing conference is definitely significant.

One thing on my board that is very important to me is a small flyer giving information about the EFA Academic Editing Chapter. Since this is the kind of editing I do, it made perfect sense to me to join. The flyer contains the chapter’s webpage and email address. It serves as a reminder for me to stay in touch with the chapter, several of whose members I had the privilege of meeting at EFACON 2023.

But the most precious new addition to my bulletin board was given to me the day after my 50th birthday, which was less than a month ago. It is a Garfield card that was homemade by one of my friends. She used PowerPoint to include several pictures of Garfield, including one of him holding balloons and wishing me “a year full of great health, love, peace, and happiness!” (Can you tell I love that fat orange tabby?)

What is on your work bulletin board? What is its significance to you?