October 2020 Editors VIC

EdVic President sees hopeful signs

by Stephanie Holt

It has been a September like no other in Victoria. As I write, I am enjoying the regions tentatively opening up, while fast-dropping infection rates suggest Melbourne will start to reopen come October. That cannot come soon enough.

Beyond my study window, the birds embrace the change of seasons. A pair of wood ducks lead their clutch of ducklings down to the dam. Swallows carry nest-building material up to the eaves. Magpies swoop and dive to protect their patch from the galahs. Apologies to any ‘Zoomees’ (do we have a preferred word for that yet?) who have been met by distracted looks and delayed responses — perhaps it is the birds outside, not the dodgy internet, to blame. Here is a simple but essential bit of self-care at the moment — do take some time to engage with nature, and remember to look up from the screen from time to time.

As we emerge from all this, the branch committee will reflect on the relative merits of online and face-to-face gathering. We have developed effective new ways to network, train, meet and even celebrate. We have welcomed the ease of meeting with and learning from colleagues beyond Victoria. Some of these changes will be worth retaining, post-lockdown.

But while online has been a lifeline, there is still something special about a good face-to-face chat. I am keen to host a freelancing cuppa in an actual cafe for editors in my part of the state (Central Goldfields). Let me know if you are interested.

And a final reminder for our student members: the new-look IPEd student prize opens in mid-October. This is a great opportunity for student members to share and show off your achievements. Do consider entering your best work.

Look after yourselves this October. If your footy team has made the finals, may they liven up your month (though preferably not at St Kilda’s expense). And happy editing.

Stephanie Holt
edvic.president@iped-editors.org

New members

EdVic is pleased to welcome members who have joined or upgraded since the last issue of Gatherings.

Welcome to our new associate members, Hayden Jones and Margaret Quinn Knight, and to our new student member, Thirangie Jayatilake.

We look forward to seeing you at our workshops and events and encourage you to make the most of IPEd’s networks for news and support.

Event report: managing your business data with The Editor’s Affairs

by Marie Pietersz

On 27 August 2020, 37 EdVic members and non-members tuned into Zoom video-conferencing to hear Maya Berger present her talk on how editors and writers can employ her clear and easily accessible data-analysis tool for improving administrative efficiency and therefore keeping their businesses healthy.

Maya Berger is a Toronto-based editor and proofreader who launched The Editor’s Affairs (TEA) in May 2020 with the aim of helping fellow freelance editors keep their business affairs in order.

‘The admin side of freelancing can seem daunting for many self-employed editorial professionals. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by questions like:

• When should I raise my rates?
• Has my client given me an impossible deadline?
• Will my income cover my expenses this month?
• Are my marketing strategies working?

‘Clear and easily accessible data about your editorial projects, your income and your expenses can help you answer these questions with confidence and keep your business in good health,’ Maya said.

TEA is a system of Excel tools allowing self-employed editorial professionals to manage their income, expenses and project data. In this presentation, Maya demonstrated the standard fields and functionality of the TEA Excel spreadsheets, showing how their built-in formulas can automatically generate project fees, monthly income and expenses summaries, late-payment flags and much more.

TEA is tailored to the country of the user. For Australians, the standard TEA package includes:

• income and expense tracking in Australian dollars
• GST calculations
• financial year record-keeping from 1 July to 30 June
• expenses divided into Australian Tax Office-allowable income tax deduction categories.

Additional country-specific features may be available as customisations. Other popular customisation options for TEA include tracking household and personal expenses, recording payment in instalments, automatic alternative currency calculations, recording time spent on editing references and footnotes separately, and linking a monthly personal budget to your income and expenses.

Once you fill in the data-dense tabs, the system makes calculations and summaries automatically. These will reveal how you can cope with unexpected changes and scenarios.

Maya can change TEA’s heading styles, e.g. from title case to sentence case, dates m/d/y to d/m/y, at an editor’s request. Maya will also update her templates to reflect evolving national conventions. Customisations can often be turned around within a week and standard TEA orders are fulfilled two working days after payment is received.

And what’s more, in response to a question raised, Maya said she could tailor TEA to make it user-friendly for student editors if there is demand for this, and suggested that the basic TEA would be suitable for student members.

Attendees provided very positive feedback about the presentation and the TEA tool and no doubt will be getting their own to add it to their editor’s toolkit.

The standard TEA program costs CA$150 (about AU$157) and can be purchased from Maya directly. You can contact Maya with questions or customisation requests at maya.berger@gmail.com.

Maya Berger is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), and she has given seminars at CIEP annual conferences and appeared as a guest on The Editing Podcast. Maya specialises in copyediting and proofreading speculative fiction, erotica, and academic texts in the humanities and social sciences.

[Photo credit: Maya Berger]

Marie Pietersz can be contacted at edvic.events@iped-editors.org.

EdVic develops useful online PD courses

The professional development (PD) subcommittee has been working hard to develop online courses and these are being well received by the whole IPEd community.

Please note:

• It is worth booking early if you know you want to attend, as courses have been selling out quickly.
• Occasionally, registrants find the email containing their link for a course has gone into their spam folder, or otherwise astray. If you do not receive your link to an online workshop by 48 hours before the course, please contact Administrative Officer Donna Quinn at edvic.admin@iped-editors.org to ensure you receive the link in time.

Forthcoming courses
Sold-out course Punctuation: solving tricky issues runs on 17 and 31 October.

A new course on Reference and bibliographies will run on 7 and 14 November. This comprises an overview of the context and various styles of referencing, and strategies for editing references and bibliographies. Both sessions include hands-on exercises to hone your skills, making this course highly useful preparation for accreditation exam candidates. Book now.

This will be our final activity for 2020, with courses resuming in February 2021.

Claire Kelly
Professional Development Officer
edvic.profdev@iped-editors.org

Louise Harnby