And so the old argument rears its ugly head every year: Should we say “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays”?

My answer: “It depends.”

Some may argue that “Merry Christmas” is insensitive to those who do not celebrate Christmas and/or who are not Christian. That may be so, although there are many people who celebrate the secular aspects of Christmas (tree-trimming, gift-giving, etc.) without celebrating the spiritual aspects (the birth of Christ) of it. I believe it’s perfectly fine to say “Merry Christmas” to these people, as well as to Christians who are commemorating the Savior’s birth.

Then there are other folks who claim that “Happy Holidays,” which is often used as a more inclusive alternative to “Merry Christmas,” is too liberal. In fact, I’ve heard of people wearing shirts that read “Happy Holidays” Is What Liberals Say. I can understand that they are concerned about Christ being removed from the holiday itself (and I personally am concerned about that myself), but I also think that “Happy Holidays” Is What Liberals Say is rather arrogant. Name-calling is never okay, folks.

So, to get back to my answer to the dilemma, “It depends.”

If you know for a fact that a person is of a faith that is not Christian, you should say “Happy Holidays.” If you say “Merry Christmas,” the person may think you are assuming that they are Christian–and it’s rather insensitive to assume that anyone is of a particular faith. It’s the same as seeing someone who appears to be from India and assuming that they are Hindu. (Not all people from India are Hindu, and not everyone who “looks” Indian is from there.) I personally have two good friends who are Jewish, and to them I say either “Happy Holidays” or “Happy Hanukkah” (the latter during the eight days when the holiday is celebrated). They, however, say “Merry Christmas” to me, which is perfectly acceptable, since they know what faith I belong to.

What are your opinions on the “Merry Christmas” vs. “Happy Holidays” debate? Please, no bashing any particular faith.

Every editor should have their own grapevine.

What do I mean by this?

A “grapevine,” as I call it, is a network of referrals. If I do great work for a client, I want that client to refer me to others who might be in need of editing. Of course, the client is under no obligation to refer me, but I do like to encourage clients to do so.

If a client refers me to another person who is in need of editing and I do a great job for that person as well, then that person will (I hope) refer me to other people. It is in this way that an editor’s grapevine grows.

In the summer of 2020, a colleague of mine whom I know through a professional organization referred me to an editor friend of hers who had been asked to edit a scientific manuscript. The friend specialized in editing fiction, but asked me if I would work on the manuscript. I accepted, and after I had finished editing, the manuscript was accepted for publication in a scientific journal.

Just last week, my colleague’s friend mentioned me on her blog and linked my name to my website. That was so wonderful of her!

Sometimes referrals can come from the most unlikely sources. When I was in grad school, there was a professor in my department whom I’d had no contact with in some twenty years. When I launched my editing business, I contacted her and told her that I would love to edit scientific manuscripts and grant proposals for the department. The professor referred me to a part of the university that was looking to build a pool of editors to do such work. A few interviews and signed paperwork later, I became one of the university’s contractor editors who edits for various scientific faculty. God bless that professor.

My grapevine is growing.

Some of you may recall that I successfully completed the Editorial Freelancers Association’s series of online copyediting classes last April (specifically, I completed Advanced Copyediting at that time). Although the classes were fun, they did take up a significant amount of my time (Advanced especially so) and at the end of April, I said to myself, “It will be a long time before I take another class!”

You know what they say: Never say never.

This past week, I registered for another online class offered by the EFA: Macros from A to Z.

“What is a macro, what does it have to do with editing, and why do you want to learn about macros, Suzelle?” you ask.

It’s very difficult to explain what macros are without plagiarizing the words that I have read that were written by others. So I will attempt to explain them on my own. Bear with me.

Macros are, in my feeble understanding, keyboard shortcuts that editors install on their computers and that make editing more efficient.

I’ve read in Carol Fisher Saller’s The Subversive Copy Editor that if you aren’t using macros, you’re not making an honest living (paraphrased).

I’m all for efficiency and I’m definitely all for making an honest living, so off to “macros class” I go, come April 18, 2022.

Fortunately, the class is for macro beginners, and comes with a discussion forum and three Zoom sessions in which students can help each other and get help from the instructor. I’m looking forward to it, although it is most likely not going to be easy, as it deals with material with which I am unfamiliar. With the copyediting classes, I could say, “Oh, I’ve seen this kind of thing before.” With macros…uh-uh.

I blogged a while ago about how one should never stop improving, and what I’m writing about here goes right back to that point. If I use macros in my editing and they make me more efficient and save my clients money, then that is a strong improvement. (And yes, I will be doing my editing work as usual during the period of time in which the class will be, which means that my Saturdays will be for macros.)

Dear readers, if you know any information about macros, kindly share it with us in the comments.

Editors know that well-known style guides, such as The Chicago Manual of Style and APA, are revised every several years and a new edition is released.

An editor should, of course, make every effort to obtain the latest edition of every style guide they use. But what to do with the previous edition they were using before?

Should they toss it into the recycling bin? Sell it on eBay? Donate it to a library?

No!

If you are an editor, you should keep the previous edition of your style guides for “the time being” (I’ll explain what that means in a minute). Why?

Some authors or publishers may require that an older edition be used.

I found this out (almost the hard way) last week, when I edited a scientific review that was to be published in a certain journal. When I looked up the journal publisher’s style guide, I found that the publisher required APA 6th edition style.

APA is up to the 7th edition at the time that I type this. I ordered the 7th edition of the APA almost as soon as I heard that it had come out. I had already possessed the 6th edition for a few years…and thank Heaven I still had it, or I would have been in big trouble.

You know what? I almost didn’t have the 6th edition last week.

A year ago, I wondered what the 6th edition could do for me now that I had the 7th edition. So I asked my husband to sell it on eBay.

Less than a week later, I almost took a gig where the 6th edition was required, and I asked my husband to take the listing off eBay, which he promptly did.

Thus, I kept my APA 6th edition…and I am incredibly glad that I did!

I believe that if, for example, you have the 1st edition of a style guide and the 2nd edition comes out, you should obtain the 2nd edition but keep the 1st edition until the 3rd edition is released. Then, and only then, is it safe to get rid of the 1st edition.

Do you believe differently? If so, please comment. I would love to hear your thoughts.

The Thanksgiving holiday is later this week and Christmas comes just a month later. Good grief! Where does all the time go?

Some editors might take holidays off from working. They might tell clients who approach them that they are not available during that time, or advise their long-term clients that they will not be available from this date to that date.

Do I work during the holidays?

Oh yes I do.

However, when possible, I plan my work time around the date of an actual holiday. For example, right now I have a project due on November 30 (the Tuesday after Thanksgiving) which was handed to me on November 19 (the Friday before Thanksgiving). I have planned my work time so that I work on the project during Thanksgiving week on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and (Black) Friday (I don’t join the shopping frenzy anyway), and then Monday, and put the finishing touches on it on Tuesday before sending it in that day.

Note that Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) is not in the plans. I will be with my family that day and I need that day to be with them. It’s called work-life balance.

Two years ago, I was handed a project shortly after Christmas, and it was due two days before New Year’s Day. I worked on it, including over a weekend, and completed it on time. A lot of people take off the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Not I.

Getting back to the work-life balance issue…Had the project been handed to me before Christmas, I would have planned the work around the holiday (not during it!) as I am doing now.

When I worked in biological labs, I once worked in a lab where the manager had no concept of work-life balance. You were expected to work long hours and basically be married to the lab. If you had a spouse or children, they were to play second violin. Needless to say, this lab had a high turnover rate, and I only lasted five months there. (Thank Heaven I didn’t have to stay longer!)

So tomorrow I begin editing the new project. Bring it on! Just be respectful of my work-life balance, please.

As my birthday is next Sunday, November 14, I will be taking that day off from blogging. This week, I am writing a post about my reflections on this past year.

What did I accomplish, business- and editing-wise, at age 47?

I began by continuing to edit a series of catalogs for the company for which a friend of mine works. This consisted of combing through many PDF pages and listing the required corrections in a Word document. It reminded me how much I need to learn how to edit PDFs directly (hello, Denise Cowle? I want to take your class on this.). However, I got to look at a lot of beautiful pictures of the company’s furniture in gorgeous settings, which was fun. The catalogs were finished in mid-December.

At the time, the church which I attend had just begun meeting in person again, but many attenders (my husband and me included) still opted to watch church online out of fear of COVID. The pastor was also wary of the disease, so he delivered his messages on video which was projected to the big screens in the church auditorium. That was where I came in. The captions and Bible verses and such that came on the video at specific times were checked and edited…by yours truly. The pastor returned in person on Easter Sunday (April 4) and that task vanished.

But…then the church began producing programs again, complete with Scripture outlines, so there was still work to be done. (Yay!) (I’m not being sarcastic here.) There were also Bible study materials to edit.

Alas, in late December, I learned a painful lesson, as my business suffered a blow due to a grave mistake I made. A sincere apology was made and the matter was buried, but it really put a damper on the holiday season. Also, in January, I did work for a researcher who then said he could not afford my fee, and I ended up giving him a huge discount, which did not feel good on my part.

However, in general, 2021 started with a cheerful bang. I began an assignment to edit the entire website of my friend’s company–a project which took me until the end of August (eight months!) and netted me a nice sum of money, which was paid monthly. Between pages of furniture, I managed to edit a scientific manuscript in March (and I would love to do more) and keep going with the church materials.

As for my pro bono work on the website of a local nonprofit, I handed the reins to a colleague from one of my organizations who was looking for pro bono work for herself. That felt good, as I was not leaving the organization high and dry.

I turned a profit in 2020 (Yay!) and will probably do so again in 2021 (Double yay!).

Age 47 was a difficult year for me personally, so I am ready to jump into 48, hoping the year will be kind.

Ten days ago, I took the plunge and changed my business email address.

Why would I do such a thing, you may ask?

When I started my business three years ago, I knew that I would need an email address for it that was separate from my personal email address. At that time, I mistakenly believed that I was a proofreader, and so I made up an email address almost on the spot which contained a reference to proofreading. (Sorry, but I am keeping the actual address to myself, out of respect for my own privacy.)

Alas…I soon realized that what I did for my new career was not proofreading, but copyediting.

In one class I took a year and a half ago, our teacher suggested that I get a new email address–one that more accurately reflected what I do. Otherwise, she said, potential clients (and other people) might think I am a proofreader who knows nothing about copyediting.

“The teacher is definitely right,” I thought, “but changing an email address once everyone knows it is such a pain in the rear end! I’ll never be able to do it. Woe is me!”

I finally stopped whining ten days ago and changed the address. I made up one that references copyediting instead of proofreading and made it active.

But then came the hard part–letting all of my contacts know about my new email address and asking them to use it from now on.

Thank Heaven that I keep an Excel spreadsheet of my past and present clients’ names, affiliations, and email addresses. I used the spreadsheet to make a list of client email addresses, plus addresses of other important contacts. Then, I composed my email:

“Good afternoon. This is to inform you that my email address has changed. The new email is […]. Please make a note of it. Thank you very much.”

The last step was typing each email address into the “To” field from scratch. Yes, this was a drag, but very necessary.

My email address is much more accurate now, and I love it. My old one is still active in order to “catch” folks I may have missed (and whom I will notify of the change very soon).

Have you ever changed your email address? How easy or difficult did you find the process?

This past week, work-wise, has been “the calm before the storm.” What do I mean by that, exactly?

I mean that next week, a bunch of work is going to be handed to me at once. I will be editing the first of three catalogs for a retail company and editing a church website which is being redone. My goodness–I will have to tell other potential clients that I am booked! (That’s a good problem to have.)

This past week, however, I was in a dry spell. I had finished a client portfolio for the retail company the previous week, plus a little bit of work for the church (a program and a supplement). So, in my dry spell, all I had to was edit this week’s program and supplement, plus a first-time guest card, all for the church.

What to do with all of my downtime?

For starters, I made two bank runs this past week–one for my business and the other for a personal reason. Thankfully, I was able to conduct my affairs both times from the drive-thru.

I also caught up on correspondence with two colleagues from one of my professional organizations. They both emailed me back quickly. Once you make connections, it is very important to keep them. Speaking of that organization, I found three names of new members who live in or near my state and looked up their profiles to try to contact them. I often do this with new members to welcome them and network with them. Sadly, I was out of luck this month, as none of these members had their email address on their profiles. This is understandable for security reasons, however.

I had a few Zoom meetings. I did some cleaning.

I voted in our city’s elections for mayor and aldermen (that is, I filled out the ballot at home and took it to an official drop box).

And finally…(drum roll) I changed my business email address to one which more accurately represents the specific kind of editing I do. And then came the task of changing the address with all of my organizations and social media sites, emailing my clients, and such. It’s a pain in the rear end, but it will be worth it.

Here comes the new week. Bring it on!

Roughly two weeks ago, I was leaving my home to go to church when, upon opening my front door, I saw a package. It was a box addressed to me. Funny, I thought. I didn’t order anything lately from eBay or any retail site. Since I did not want to be late for the church service, I put the box aside before I left.

Hours later, I checked who had sent me the box. It turned out to be my bank.

Hmmm, I thought. I know I recently changed my business name and opened a new checking account, but why would they have sent me a box? When I opened the old account under my old name three years ago, I was not sent a box (although this was at a different branch of my bank). With some trepidation, I opened the box.

Inside were gifts: a disbursement journal, a binder containing checks, and a stamp. I knew what the checks were for, of course, but…Whaa?

I figured there had to be some kind of mistake. When I first started my business with its old name, all I got was checks in a checkbook with a register in it. That was all I needed, right?

I absolutely had to clear this up. I put the items back in the box and drove to the bank, where I showed them to an employee and said, “There must be a mistake. I don’t think I’m supposed to have all of these things.”

The employee, a young woman, explained to me what each item was and what it was for. The disbursement journal was to be used like a check register–to keep track of deposits and debits. The stamp was for endorsing checks that I received (i.e. from clients). And the checks in the binder were real and if I wanted checks in a checkbook, it would cost [insert outrageous amount here]. The whole value of the items in the box was over $100, so I should keep them.

I thanked her for her help, decided to keep everything in the box, and apologized to her. I should not have apologized, because what was I apologizing for? Being stupid? Although the young woman was incredibly nice and patient with me, she probably thought I was just that. At least, that is what I suspected, being paranoid as I am. (I have an MS in biochemistry, by the way, so stupid I am not.)

I’ve begun to use these items, and I feel like I am an “official” business. It makes me feel very professional.

Dear reader, if you own a business, what items to you use in the bookkeeping of your business? I would love to know and get some ideas.

As most of you know, my editing specialties are in the biological and biochemical sciences. I have, after all, an MS in biochemistry.

However, in my time as a freelance editor, I have learned to branch out, or “diversify,” to be more refined. I believe that this must be done in order to succeed as an editor. It’s just common sense.

For example, I edit materials for my church. Now, none of them have anything to do with the sciences. However, quite a bit of fact-checking can be involved in the form of looking up Bible verses in different translations of the Bible. There is an absolutely wonderful website, BibleGateway.com, which one can search to find just about any Scripture verse in any Bible translation. Since the programs at my church contain Bible verses, I could not do my job without this website.

Another way in which I have diversified is in my editing of the website and catalogs of an outdoor furniture company, Country Casual Teak, which sells very beautiful teak outdoor furniture. My job here requires more of a sharp eye than anything else, since I have to compare prices on a PDF with prices on a master spreadsheet, for example, or make sure that a product’s dimensions are correct and consistent. Although such work can be tedious at times, I enjoy it, largely because I get to see so many beautiful photos as a fringe benefit.

This past week, I was assigned a scientific paper to edit which was in a field that was very different to me: economics and logistics. I surprised myself by being able to understand the terms used and the logic behind the conclusions. I found myself having impostor syndrome while I was working on this paper, and I still have it now, because I do not yet know whether the authors approve of my work. If things go well, however, I will definitely be able to claim a huge victory.

How about you? How do you diversify?