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Screencasting for editors by Malini Devadas and Hilary Cadman Because it was easily one of the best sessions available at the conference
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from a session on screencasting. I have screencast before using different software programs and edited videos for Youtube. And I was a bit puzzled as to how all this could be used by an editor for the purposes of editing. Or as part of a business. Part One of the presentation was telling us what screencasting was. And what is wasn’t. Screencasting is basically like taking a screenshot but instead of an image, ending up with video as the result. Video of whatever may be on your screen at that time. I am aware of people using screencasting for gaming purposes to showcase…
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Evolving tools for digital publications: Stephen White’s presentation at IPEd 2017
This session was really eye opening. Stephen started with the question of what exactly constituted a digital publication. What is a digital publication? He urged us to think beyond text alone on a page. Digital publications can include maps, atlases and other interactive works online or offline. But there is a problem with editing such works. While the tools to create and deliver such works exist, there often are no simple functions built into the tools for the ease of editing the information in the work. Information within the works has to be pulled out, edited in other software and pieced back into the work, looked at in context with…
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Mentoring writers as an editor and writer Notes from my panel session on mentoring at #IPED2017
This blog post is intended to be a summary and cheat sheet on my part of the mentoring panel on 15 Sept 2017 at the IPEd 2017 Conference in Brisbane. Proceedings will be published online by the conference organisers so you can always check those out for more information but here are my tips, tricks and my experiences of mentoring writers as opposed to mentoring editors. First, a definition of mentoring and what I mean by it: I don’t mean actively editing a writer’s work but more reading it and discussing how they go about developing the story, how they go through the process and if it’s a business/practice related…
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Beatrice Davis Editorial Fellowship 2017 Report – Annabel Blay A year in the US looking at the role of the editor in commercial fiction
Every two years, one lucky editor gets to go on an all expenses paid research trip to work with publishers in the US as part of the Beatrice Davis Editorial Fellowship and this past year it was Annabel Blay. Part of the Fellowship involves speaking at the next IPEd Conference on what the outcome of the research was and presenting a report to IPEd that is made available to all members and the public. Annabel Blay wanted to see what the role of the editor was in commercial fiction in the US and compare it to the role in Australia. In point form below are some of the things she…
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Freelancing panel at IPEd 2017 The cheat sheet/summary notes for the freelancing panel
I’m not necessarily going to write these notes out in order but here is a quick run down of my bootstrapping for a freelancing business. Use tech to bring freelancing work to you: I find that my work comes through being the first person to email someone as soon as an opportunity comes up. I also find it useful to work across time zones. So how do you bootstrap this? And for free? Facebook groups: figure out which group has the most posts for the sort of work you want to do popping up and change its settings so that you are notified by Facebook of new posts popping up.…
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IPEd 2017: Workshops, whirlwinds and welcome Because it isn't a good conference if I haven't forgotten something.
Today is sort of the first day of the IPEd 2017 conference. Sort of but not quite. There are lots of things that have evolved into traditions over the years with this conference. One of them is the running of workshops the day before the conference actually starts. So today there were workshops on marketing and freelancing and technical aspects of editing. From all accounts they were wonderful – unfortunately I didn’t get to attend any this time around. But I needed that time. I had landed in Brisbane sans business cards. And so after brunch committments, I had to have a catch up meeting with fellow IPEd 2017 panelists…
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Amanda Jay’s The Other One is a Fairway Literary Award finalist! Which means two of my authors have been shortlisted in a row.
Ok, first things first, who is Amanda Jay? Amanda Jay is a Sri Lankan writer – Amanda Jayatissa – who wrote a book titled The Other One. I edited it earlier this year and she decided to self publish it in both e-book and hard copy format. It’s not doing too badly sales wise. But yesterday she got the news that it was shortlisted for the Fairway Literary Awards in the English Language section. Guess who got shortlisted for the Fairway literary awards? One of my authors! @mandysillybob I’m very proud of you. I’m so excited. You better win so that we get two in a row! #srilankanauthors #srilankanliterature #theotherone…
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IPEd Conference 2017 is next week and guess who is going? Pssst. It will be me.
Yay! I am off to the IPEd conference! And then of course you would ask “Yeah, ok Mari, what does IPEd stand for?” IPED: Institute of Professional Editors. Professional society of editors working either in-house or freelance throughout Australia. Basically, once every two years, somewhere in a state capital, the IPEd conference is set up and run by the local branch of IPEd. In 2013, it was our turn in Perth and yours truly was the IPEd Conference convenor. Yes. There is a video on the about me page. Go watch it. We were cool. In 2015, the IPEd Conference was in Canberra but I could not go. I was…
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A Guide to effective activism in Australia in 2017 Borne out of a brainstorming session online as to what we can all effectively do
Share this post on effective activism around. This list of the things we can do right now came out of a brainstorming session online where people were despairing a bit and I thought creating a post would render it more available to the public. If you have more ideas on effective activism to share or want to critique an idea listed here (I am not an expert on these things), leave a comment and I will add it with credit. Some of these will have different options to cater for the run up to the WA election. Before you read this post, please read this one by Gilbert Caluya on…
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9 unexpected helpful lessons learnt as a freelance writer in 2016 A long list of the things I should probably not do
I think it is important to reflect on what lessons you have learnt so far from time to time especially when it comes to the business side of being a freelance writer. I think it is also important to acknowledge that some lessons you tend to have to keep learning over and over till they stick in your brain. And some things are easier for others to get straight away but tend to take you forever and vice versa. But in case this helps, here is a list of what I learnt in 2016, proving yet again that I did not know everything when I started out.
