National Association of Independent Writers & Editors
Member Benefit #32
The Institute of Professional Editors hosts a biennial conference, which is an exciting opportunity for editors and other publishing professionals, researchers, students, and associates from all across the world to connect, learn, and celebrate best practices in editing and publishing. In addition, IPEd offers training and webinars to improve your skills.
NAIWE members receive member pricing!
Visit the NAIWE website to see all of the member benefits.
Today’s podcast episode is a Member of the Month episode, where we get to know one of our fellow NAIWE members.
Our guest today is George De Stefano.
George De Stefano is a New York–based writer and editor specializing in culture and politics. He is the author of An Offer We Can’t Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America (Farrar, Straus, Giroux) and a contributor to numerous other books, including the Routledge History of Italian Americans; Mafia Movies (University of Toronto); The Essential Sopranos Reader (University of Kentucky Presses); and Reggae, Rasta, and Revolution (Schirmer Trade Books). His forthcoming book is Gumbo Italiano: How the Sicilians Made New Orleans. His writing has appeared in The Nation, Newsday, Film Comment, The Advocate, The Italian American Review, Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, and the online publications PopMatters, Rootsworld, the New York Journal of Books, La Voce di New York, and I-Italy. He also is a freelance editor for academic and trade publishers of books and journals, and for nonprofit organizations.
Q: Please share a little of your professional history with our readers.
I began my professional life as a journalist, reporting and writing feature articles for a weekly paper in Connecticut. I then became the arts editor of a New Haven weekly while also contributing articles and reviews to such publications as The Nation, Cineaste, Film Comment, the Advocate, Newsweek, and other newspapers and magazines. In the late 1980s, I went to social work school because I wanted to contribute to the fight against AIDS. I then worked in public health for 25 years while continuing to freelance. I published my first book while employed by a public health department. After leaving full-time employment in 2013, I began my editing business, GdS Editorial Services, while also working on my own writing.
Q: How and when did you make this business a reality?
In September 2013, I set up my editing business, GdS Editorial Services.
Q: What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned so far in your career?
That there is a dialectic between writing and editing: one informs the other. Editing other writers’ works, helping them say what they want to say as effectively as possible has made me a better writer. I read my own work much more closely and critically.
Q: Are you working on any personal writing projects at this time?
I am now finishing my nonfiction book, Gumbo Italiano: How the Sicilians Made New Orleans.
Q: Are you working on any special projects you’d like to tell us about?
I am just finishing my book and getting the manuscript in shape to go to my editor.
Q: What are some of the teachers, books, or authors who have influenced your professional life in a positive way?
I have been an avid reader since I was a child. My mother often would say that when she wanted a break from her homemaking duties, she’d give me a book to read and then I’d be out of her hair for hours. When I became a writer, I retained the reading habit I’d acquired as a child. Novels, short stories, books about history, politics, culture—I devoured them all. From them, I learned invaluable lessons about craft and how writing can have an impact on readers and the world.
Q: As a seasoned professional, what advice would you offer an independent writer or editor who is just beginning a career?
Read a lot—widely and critically. Take an editing course or two and join professional organizations like NAIWE that can help newbies build their careers. Be patient, too, because building a successful career takes time.
Q: What inspires you?
Great literature and intelligent critical writing about it in such publications as the London Review of Books and the New York Review of Books. The arts, especially music, and especially jazz, with its dialectic of freedom and discipline. The lives of great fighters for freedom and social justice. The constant and unstinting support from my partner, Rob.
Q: How has your membership in NAIWE benefited you professionally?
My NAIWE website has exposed my writing and editorial services to a wider audience. I’ve also gotten excellent tips and advice from other members of NAIWE about the craft and business of editing.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to share?
I am so looking forward to a return to some degree of normal life after two years of a pandemic hell. I can’t wait to go to restaurants again, to jazz clubs, plays, and travel.
Member Benefit #31
As of 2018, H&R Block operates approximately 12,000 retail tax offices staffed by tax professionals worldwide. It also offers consumer tax software as well as online tax preparation and electronic filing from their website.
NAIWE members receive 25% off for new H&R Block clients, 20% off for existing H&R Block clients, or 20% off for tax preparation software!
Visit the NAIWE website to see all of the member benefits.
Member Benefit #30
Shaila Abdullah has over a decade of experience designing websites for authors. Being an award-winning author herself, she understands the industry and will provide you with a content management website that reflects your unique style, genre, and personality. Other design services such as book covers and interiors, marketing materials, and email campaigns (e-newsletters, announcements, etc.) are also available.
NAIWE members receive 10% off any service!
Visit the NAIWE website to see all of the member benefits.
Author: Dick Franklin
Plagues have taken the lives of many people of Little Ariccia, Italy, including the lives of six of the nine people in the Giordano family. Shortly thereafter, the oldest living Giordano boy along with his father burn the chaff to clear the fields. When the winds pick up and the fire grows and becomes uncontrollable, the two living boys are orphaned.
The teenage Giordano boys take different paths for their futures.
Nicolo, the younger brother, is accepted into the music conservatoire, but only after being castrated, a medical procedure that has taken the lives of many other young boys seeking to join the music conservatoire. Luca, the older brother, is nursed back to health after the wildfire by a band of Roma (Gypsies). Luca is captivated by Donka, the Roma chieftain’s daughter, and struggles with whether to leave the band or remain with those who are persecuted.
The characters of the two boys were well developed, and the scenes were well described. It was easy to immerse oneself in the scenes and visualize what was happening. Shortly before the wildfire, Nicolo was taken from his father to be part of the music conservatoire; there are extensive pages on Nicolo and his castration process (and fears of seeing the boys before him die due to the castration) and being brought to the actual music conservatoire (and being forced to beg with the orphans). It was so detailed and lengthy that it was easy to almost forget about Luca.
However, when the chapters returned to Luca, the scenes and the characters were again well developed, and it was easy to feel his pain and struggles. Because of the wildfire, half of Luca’s face was disfigured. Luca’s feelings about this (and possible self-consciousness) could have been emphasized more. Even so, he was a well-developed and believable character who has great courage in trying to help the Roma to prevent persecution and death.
Overall, we enjoyed this novel. The author has a skill for writing and capturing the audience. At 800 pages, this is a long book. Chapters were short. Print was large. And the writing was so good that it was difficult to put down.
Member Benefit #29
Anyone working in today’s publishing industry is in a double bind. Not only is an editor expected to hit deadlines and produce compelling work, but they also have to be up to speed on industry developments and trends—whether for their own work or to help clients. The Hot Sheet is an email newsletter available only by subscription, delivered every other Wednesday at midday. It’s modeled on the financial-advice newsletters produced by analysts for their clients on Wall Street, and on the Publishers Lunch newsletter that many publishing professionals subscribe to.
NAIWE members receive 20% off a subscription!
Visit the NAIWE website to see all of the member benefits.
Whether you are a hobbyist or a full-time writer/editor, Hart’s Write Faster With Your Word Processor will help you work more efficiently while enduring far less headache. This text covers all of the bases from buying your computer and programming your word processer, to making sure your symbolism and characters’ background stories are bullet proof in your final draft. The content focuses on working with Microsoft Word, yet it is inclusive of all writing platforms. Hart has even gone so far as to inlay links throughout the text connecting to additional online resources including reference pages and informative essays.
I personally have always thought that customizing my computer and word processor was just an extra day’s worth of work that wouldn’t make much difference in the long run. Boy, was I wrong! After trying out a couple of Hart’s suggestions, I went back and ran through the entire text with my word processor settings open on the side. My workday has not been the same since.
Alexandra Goodman is an author, editor, and for-hire copywriter and ghostwriter. She has tackled a wide range of genres including creative fiction, poetry, non-fiction, business, press, and technical writing. She has personal experience and interest in business management, marketing, non-profit organizations, ecology, animal-care, alternative energy use, and travel.
Member Benefit #28
Confusing and sloppy writing damages your company’s credibility and frustrates your customers. Grammarly helps you write clear messages every time.
NAIWE members receive over a $75 savings annually!
Visit the NAIWE website to see all of the member benefits.
Write Faster, thanks to Geoff Hart!
Toiling for more than one master, many knowledge-workers give short shrift to their electronic interface. Besides wasting time, such a choice hastens data loss and repetitive stress injuries.
Wordsmith Geoff Hart has developed an answer to our prayers: a comprehensive and down-to-earth guide to harnessing the full powers of our workstations. The book is available in three formats: print, e-book, and PDF.
Based on Hart’s 30 years of teaching writers and editors, Write Faster builds on his Effective Onscreen Editing (4th edition, 2019). Hart offers nuanced answers for many of our nagging questions, including
Though the new work overlaps with Onscreen, Write Faster updates its guidance through Microsoft Word 2019 (both Mac and PC editions). Hart notes that most of his tips apply to any operating system and word-processing software.
Write Faster takes both experts and newbies by the hand, thanks to its engaging style. Readers will appreciate Hart’s glossary, which offers authoritative definitions of terms such as antialiasing, macro virus, and non-breaking space. Perhaps most importantly, Hart clearly informs readers on issues dividing writers; rather than taking sides in the Apple vs. PC debate, he lays out the merits of each side. Hart speaks his mind on software’s nagging limitations and offers fixes for many of Word’s challenges.
The advice offered by this book will help maximize writers’ efficiency. As part of the Write Faster site, Hart includes a “Things Not to Do” section, an indispensable resource for those of us who apprenticed on typewriters. Two strategies Hart offers are (1) eliminating the vestigial carriage return (ENTER key) and (2) creating your own page-numbering style. Appendix I advises adopting the Dvorak keyboard scheme in place of the less efficient QWERTY. Appendix II, devoted to the health aspects of our work, advises on our choice of lighting and keyboard.
Both writers and editors will enjoy Hart’s proactive approach to exploiting what our computers can do, warding off writing-specific trauma, and keeping manuscripts safe from prying eyes. To ensure the safety of our data, Hart advises us to buy an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), which will secure our files even during blackouts.
Hart puts readers in touch with some of the best resources available. Hart’s hotlinks, provided in the electronic edition, point us to resources such as Eyesafe, a brand devoted to reducing the eyestrain of onscreen work, and StretchWare, a tool that regularly reminds us to limber up. Hart includes links to the work of peers such as Paul Beverley, author of Macros for Editors and Jack Lyon of Mastering Word for Publishing Professionals.
Hart’s #1 tip? Create Word styles for every occasion. That way, you won’t spend your time, and that of your teammates, fiddling with your ruler or space bar every time you begin a new document.
Based on Hart’s broad coverage, nuanced discussion, and abundant links to complementary work, we recommend Write Faster to writers and editors seeking to work more efficiently.
Jon Hartmann copyedits academic, business, and literary work, specializing in writing by non-native speakers of English.
Member Benefit #27
Ghostwriting Professional Designation Program (GPDP) trains writers, journalists, and published authors to be book-industry experts proficient in ghostwriting theory, skill sets, unique tools, and mindset transitions. The GPDP prerequisite Introduction to Ghostwriting is the 6-week GPDP prerequisite class to help you decide if professional ghostwriting is a good fit for you.
NAIWE members receive 10% off Introduction to Ghostwriting!
Visit the NAIWE website to see all of the member benefits.
