On Sunday 20 February, Kerry Davies AE, Sally Asnicar, and Jess Gately appeared at GenreCon, a premier fiction writers conference for the Queensland Writers Centre, to talk about what writers need to know about what editors do.
The panel introduced attendees to IPEd as an organisation, and explained the different types of editing, where to find an editor and what writers should expect to pay for an editor. Additionally, they discussed some of the more interesting aspects of editing genre fiction, such as historical and procedural inaccuracies in historical fiction and crime fiction, world-building and language in sci-fi and fantasy, and helping authors to avoid info-dumping. There were even some prospective editors in the audience who stayed behind afterwards to chat with our panel members, keen to know about how to become an editor.
This panel rounds out the IPEd Ambassador Program, a two-year pilot project aimed at advocating for the profession across universities, libraries, writers centres and writers festivals. Ambassadors have presented to a wide range of audiences over the past two years with the aim of dispelling misconceptions about editors and the editing process, and to give advice on the editors’ role in the publication process.
By Jess Gately, President, EdWA