May–June 2011
Communication and professional development
Accreditation
Standards
Members-only website forum
4th National Conference
Beatrice Davis Fellowship 2011–12
The IPEd Council met twice over the period covered by these notes.
Both meetings were by teleconference. One of the main topics on the
agenda of the 15 May meeting was planning for the new financial year
almost upon us. I can report that the Council has a diverse program of
activities scheduled for 2011–12. These notes give summary information
on some of them.
Communication and professional development
These are areas requiring urgent and strong attention.
The societies and, to even to some extent their members, all know
each other, but it is clear to the Council that, to raise the profile of
the profession, we need to forge stronger links with the publishing
industry. This will be a major effort during the year, primarily through
liaison and cooperation with the Australian Publishers Association
(APA) which, like our societies, has a strong training and professional
development program, aspects of which will be of interest to many
members. Important too, of course, is that the APA has its finger on the
pulse of the industry.
The evidence is that, unless we make a real effort, editors will
remain largely invisible players in the publishing chain. IPEd was
recently asked by the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) to complete a
survey of opinions on the likely effects of e-books on the industry. The
questions asked were similar to those in the Book Industry Strategy
Group (BISG) survey on the same topic conducted earlier in the year.
But, as with the BISG survey, ‘Editors’ was not one of the many specific
categories to be nominated by respondents. Why is it that ‘Editors’
seem to have lower status – sorry, no status in some quarters – in the
publishing business than photographers, illustrators, journalists,
designers and Uncle Tom Cobley and all? We know how important we are.
The first episode of IPEd’s ‘transportable training’ scheme will be
aired soon. With IPEd support, a course on ‘Advance Microsoft™ Word’,
first held in Victoria, is being planned for WA for the benefit of our
colleagues there. Members in SA also want to have this course run for
them.
Accreditation
Promotion of the national accreditation scheme will be another
high-priority activity in the year ahead. IPEd has now run three
accreditation exams, the latest on 21 May, and by the end of June there
should be well over 200 AEs across the country. But, proceeding from the
first to the third exam, the number of registrants has fallen, and we
wonder why, seeing there are still well over 1,000 society members who
have not yet sought accreditation.
One reason might be that many editors are not taking the exam because
they are primarily on-screen editors, no longer attuned to
paper-and-pen work. To try to determine if that is so, and as a first
step to gauging the wider views of the members of Australian societies
of editors about the next stages of the national accreditation scheme, a
discussion paper has been prepared by Rosemary Luke (IPEd Council
Chair), Pam Peters (NSW Councillor) and Julie-Anne Justus (Accreditation
Board Chair). This will be sent to societies in the near future, with
an associated survey of all members, seeking responses to the questions
the survey raises. Keep an eye out for these documents in your society’s
newsletter and on its and IPEd’s website.
Another objective of the Council for the next exam will be to widen
the catchment of potential candidates. Already in each of the three
exams held so far there has been a small percentage of candidates who
are not members of one of the Australian societies. Extending the range
of the accreditation scheme can only benefit the profession and the
societies.
Standards
The Australian Standards for Editing Practice (ASEP) are
sorely in need of revision to take account of massive changes in
editorial and publishing procedures that have occurred since they were
first published in 2001. The task is difficult in a rapidly changing
landscape for editors and, indeed, has been underway for some time. The
aim is to finish the job this year, with the product being strongly
influenced by, among other things, the outcome of the exam survey
mentioned earlier.
Other news
Members-only website forum
Traffic on the IPEd website is steadily increasing. A members-only
area of the site is now open, and all members of the SA, WA and
Tasmanian societies have agreed to sign up to join the area. Individual
paid-up members of a society of editors who wish to do so should send a
request via the ‘Contact us’ link on the home page. Recently implemented
on the members-only area is a forum via which editors can tap into the
collective wisdom and experience of their colleagues for advice on
points of grammar, style, syntax, lexicology or whatever, or maybe just
get a conversation going on a topic of editorial interest.
4th National Conference
You can keep abreast of the evolving program for the 5th IPEd
National Editors Conference, 7–9 September 2011, hosted by the Society
of Editors (NSW), on the conference website.
Exciting news is that, thanks to a generous grant from the CAL
Cultural Fund, the organisers are able to offer bursaries to four
emerging editors from all parts of Australia to attend the conference.
Applications have been invited from emerging editors who have a
particular interest in conference program items such as the
presentations on Indigenous editing mentorship. Indigenous editors
especially are encouraged to apply for a bursary. Two of the four
bursaries are available for editors participating in the State Library
of Queensland’s kuril dhagun Indigenous Editing Mentorship program.
Beatrice Davis Fellowship 2011–12
Jane Morrow is the winner of the 2011–12 Beatrice Davis Editorial
Fellowship. The award was announced on 19 May at an event during the
Sydney Writers’ Festival. Jane has 12 years’ editorial experience
specialising in illustrated non-fiction, working for Penguin (on
Lantern, Viking and Penguin lists), Elwin Street (London) and
HarperCollins. The Fellowship will enable her to spend 3 months in the
USA in multinational and smaller publishing houses, and with a literary
agency, to research how US editors of illustrated books adapt their
practices to publish digitally as well as in traditional print form. In
her research, Jane will concentrate on adaptations in digital
publishing, especially in the field of illustrated books.
IPEd sponsors the Beatrice Davis Fellowship on behalf of its members, the Australian societies of editors.
Just to wind up these notes, can I acknowledge that it is not unknown
to get news of society members asking what IPEd is actually doing, if
anything, or complaining about a perceived lack of progress. I suggest
that such sceptics examine the evidence, which indicates that there has
been quite remarkable progress in the only just over 3 years since the
Institute was established. The development and running of three
accreditation exams is, by itself, a major achievement and, indeed,
accreditation was the primary, but not the only, reason that a majority
of the members in all the societies voted to establish the Institute.
Consider too all the other matters that are covered in these regular
reports to members. Furthermore, keep in mind that all IPEd’s
Councillors and Committee Convenors are volunteers with day jobs. Many
of them have been serving the profession through the Institute and its
predecessors for many years. Some of them need a break, and the Council
needs new blood. Think about it.
Ed Highley
Secretary
ipedsecretary[at]gmail.com