National Association of Independent Writers & Editors
Cadman Training aims to help writers and editors to save time and improve quality. Its online, self-paced courses combine videos, exercises, and quizzes, making it easy to track your progress. And lifetime access means you can return to the courses whenever you need to. Cadman Training currently offer courses in PerfectIt and EndNote, for both PC and Mac users. NAIWE members receive 25% off all courses!
Visit the NAIWE website to see all of the member benefits.
This summer, NAIWE is challenging you and your fellow NAIWE members to be the best version of yourselves. You may personalize this challenge to fit your needs and summer goals. Choose a book to read that you classify as a self-help book even though its genre is far from that. Choose a project that has been nagging at you but will also produce great reward upon completion. And finish the challenge by spending some quality time with our experts learning how they mastered creating multiple steams of income. Throughout the challenge, be true to yourself and your goals!
As you finish your one nagging project, leave a comment below about your accomplishment and how it made you feel.
We wanted to get to know Greg Smith (NAIWE’s Novel Writing Expert) better, so last month we sat down with him. Here are some thoughts he shared with us.
Is this a guide to follow at will?
The Agile Writer Method is something you can do at your own pace and on your own schedule. However, it is structured for 10 pages per week for 25 weeks. I recommend you find two critique partners and have weekly meetings where you review your weekly 10-page output. This creates a sense of accountability that motivates you to write each week. However, you can follow the program and write your novel at whatever pace works best for you.
Do all the steps need to be in order to write a good novel?
Yes, and no. The big idea behind the Agile Writer Method is successive refinement. You’ll start with a single sentence describing your story. Then write an elevator pitch (one paragraph). Then a synopsis (one page). During the plotting phase, you create an eight-stage Storyboard (or outline) that structures your story. Then you write 10 pages a week for 25 weeks. So, yes, there is a progression that you need to follow. However, many Agile Writers will write their beginning, then their ending, and then fill in the middle! So, it’s a pretty flexible method.
Do you offer a template?
Yes, there are templates for the Hero Abstract, the Story Abstract, and the eight-stage storyboard (or outline). These templates will get you started. Most Agile Writers are pretty creative; they’ve embellished and augmented the templates to suit their needs. As I have said, The Agile Writer Method is very flexible!
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Storytelling is as old as the human race. Over the ages we’ve come to expect a pattern to storytelling. In this webinar, Greg Smith lays out this time-worn pattern. Based on Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, mythology, psychology, and screenwriting techniques, the “The Eight Stages of the Novel” will help you plot your story before you put pen to paper.
You can join in this conversation on September 13, at 8:00 pm eastern, when NAIWE will host a discussion on writing your novel. The cost for NAIWE members is only $10! Non-members can join for $30. Register today!
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 Ruth Thaler-Carter.
Ruth E. “I can write about anything!” Thaler-Carter, NAIWE’s Networking Expert, provides writing, editing, proofreading, website critiques and updates, and presentations to publications, associations, businesses, not-for-profit organizations and individuals in diversity, decorative arts, cats, landscaping/gardening, education, facilities management, healthcare and wellness, communications, freelancing, business, law, public relations/marketing, and much more.
Thaler-Carter is the author/publisher of “Get Paid to Write! Getting Started as a Freelance Writer” and the short story “Sometimes You Save the Cat …” and co-author of the 2020 editions of “Freelancing 101: Launching Your Editorial Business” and “Resumés for Freelancers” for the Editorial Freelancers Association. She owns Communication Central, which co-hosts with NAIWE an annual conference for freelancers; A Flair for Writing, which helps aspiring authors get published; and the An American Editor blog.
Thaler-Carter has received awards for her writing and editing skills; contributions to the Rochester, NY-area literary community; and support of fellow freelancers. She is a popular presenter at conferences and in webinars about freelancing, websites, editing and proofreading, grammar, websites, working with associations, specializing vs. generalizing, networking, and other topics related to the world of writing, editing, proofreading and publishing.
Known as the “Queen of Networking,” Thaler-Carter is active in the NAIWE, EFA, Cat Writers Association, Society of Professional Journalists, ACES: The Society for Editing, and several more.
Q: Please share a little of your professional history with our readers.
I did my first freelance writing back in high school, first by creating my own literary magazine after being turned down for the one published by the school and then by writing a column for a local community newspaper. In college at Indiana University-Bloomington and the University of Missouri-St. Louis, I wrote for the campus newspapers and typed and edited papers for other students, which expanded my skills in editing. I had several full-time jobs in communications before going freelance full-time and have never regretted that decision. Over the years, I’ve expanded my independent business from writing only to writing, editing, proofreading, website work, speaking, and conference host. I’ve also become known as the “Queen of Networking” through my active involvement in, and support for, professional associations.
Q: How and when did you make this business a reality?
I was freelancing on the side for several years while working in full-time, in-house communications jobs until I hit burnout with the day-to-day routine and went full-time freelance at the end of 1984. It was a reality from the jump, because I negotiated a contract with my job and set up two part-time gigs, so I started with a good flow of work and income.
Q: What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned so far in your career?
Two things, actually: Diversify, and never give up!
Q: Are you working on any personal writing projects at this time?
I’m trying to be better about posting regularly to the An American Editor blog and playing with some fiction possibilities.
Q: Are you working on any special projects you’d like to tell us about?
Starting to plan the 2021 “Be a Better Freelancer®” conference!
Q: What are some of the teachers, books, or authors who have influenced your professional life in a positive way?
My parents, who brought me up to love reading and learning; my sixth-grade English teacher, who instilled never-forgotten and constantly used grammar skills in me; my 11th-grade “Critical Reading and Writing” and 12th-grade AP English teacher, who gave me confidence in my skills. I’ve been a voracious reader my whole life and couldn’t begin to pinpoint any specific books or authors as influences.
Q: As a seasoned professional, what advice would you offer an independent writer or editor who is just beginning a career?
Learn something about the type of work you want to do as a freelancer, ideally by getting real experience; save money before you launch; identify what you need to earn so you can set your rates accordingly; network to learn from—and give back to—colleagues.
Q: What inspires you?
I’m inspired by the memory of my parents’ and husband’s pride in what I do; my parents, grandparents, aunt and uncle as Holocaust survivors; and how great it feels to do good work.
Q: How has your membership in NAIWE benefited you professionally?
Belonging to NAIWE has introduced me to new colleagues and brought a welcome partnership for my “Be a Better Freelancer”® conference.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to share?
The beauty of being an independent writer and editor (etc.) is that I’m never bored by my work, am always meeting new people and learning new things, and have a life I enjoy. I wish colleagues the best of luck in all of your freelancing endeavors and hope you’ll all participate in the “Be a Better Freelancer”® conference!
September: Self-Improvement Month. Take some time to improve yourself. What class will you take or conference will you attend to improve your business self? Think ahead and prepare to sign up for the Be a Better Freelancer conference!
September 6: National Read a Book Day. Grab a book (a fun read or even one for professional development), and spend the day reading.
September 6: Labor Day. This day recognizes the men and women who labor to build this country. As self-employed professionals, many tend to work on this day, but what will you do to celebrate?
September 10: National Swap Ideas Day. Share a creative or helpful idea with a client or colleague.
September 12: National Day of Encouragement. This day is dedicated to uplifting people around us and making a positive impact. Who can you encourage?
September 15: National Online Learning Day. This day recognizes the advantages and vast potential of online learning and the accomplishments of these students. What can you study today to improve your skills? NAIWE hosts monthly webinars to help you improve your skills!
September 21: National IT Professionals Day. This day is set aside to honor the venerable geeks of the world we all rely on to keep us connected.
September 22: American Business Women’s Day. A day set aside to honor and reflect on the contributions and accomplishments of the millions of women in the workforce and the millions of women business owners in the United States.
September 24: National Punctuation Day. A period, a comma, a semicolon, a question mark, and an exclamation point are examples of some of the punctuation used in writing to separate sentences and their elements and to clarify meaning. National Punctuation Day commemorates these and all punctuation marks.
No matter the service you offer in the publishing industry, you are a business owner and, therefore, a professional. As a professional, your profession requires education and skill.
When offering editorial services, I find that I regularly educate authors in the difference of a friend reading their work and of myself (a professional with education and experience in the industry who has reviewed numerous manuscripts and seen their success or failure and the reasons behind that outcome).
Though you may have taken classes when you first began to increase your skill level, it is always a good idea to regularly attend classes or conferences to keep your skills up-to-date. You can never know it all, and even if you feel you know everything about your specific skill, your clients will benefit from your learning about other areas within the publishing industry.
Having obtained a master’s degree in publishing, I took courses in book design, copyright, and many other topics that I do not offer services in. Plus, having worked in-house, I was able to see the bigger picture of the publishing process, and where my services fit in the process. And these insights have benefitted my clients because I am more knowledgeable and able to offer additional assistance or advice outside of my provided service.
Having seen the importance of education, I have put a great emphasis on it within NAIWE. We record all webinars and make them available to you on demand. And though the topic of every recording may not be directly related to the services you offer, the knowledge you gained may prove beneficial for your clients when you apply it to their needs.
April Michelle Davis has been the executive director of the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (NAIWE) since 2018. Prior to that, she was NAIWE’s Social Media Marketing Expert. NAIWE is an association that focuses on career building for writers, editors, and other professionals in the publishing industry by developing multiple streams of income; it helps its members market their products and services through social media, newsletters, and more.
She is also the coordinator for the Virginia chapter of the Editorial Freelancers Association, a lifetime member of the American Copy Editors Society, and a freelance editor, indexer, proofreader and author. April Michelle has taught courses through her own company, Editorial Inspirations, as well as for associations and colleges on topics such as editing, indexing, grammar, writing, and creating macros.
Her credentials include a master’s degree in publishing from George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in English from Messiah College, as well as certificates in editing (University of Virginia), book publishing (University of Virginia), and professional editing (EEI Communications).
April Michelle has shared her insights about her career development by contributing quotes and vignettes to several books. She has presented sessions on various editorial topics to many groups, including the Virginia Writers Club, the Communication Central conference, Randolph-Macon College, the Christian PEN: Proofreaders and Editors Network, the EFA, Copyediting newsletter, RavenCon, and the Hanover Book Festival. In addition, April Michelle has published three books.
We have hundreds of recorded webinars that are available for NAIWE members to help keep your skills up-to-date.
Visit the NAIWE website to see all of the member benefits.
We wanted to get to know MJ Courchesne (NAIWE’s Copyright & Permissions Expert) better, so last month we sat down with her. Here are some thoughts she shared with us.
Should a freelancer expect to sign a work-for-hire agreement for each job?
It’s good practice to sign some sort of contract before starting a new job. Whether it’s a work-for-hire or another arrangement is really up to the freelancer. If you’re new to the field, you may wish to sign a work-for-hire to get your name out there and establish your reputation in a certain topic area. If you’re an established writer, you may wish to push for a royalty or another arrangement wherein you maintain your copyright. But either way, a contract between you and your client is good business so that both you and your client understand the full terms of your arrangement from who owns the work to how payments should be made.
Can you use your own contract in lieu of using the other party’s?
It may depend on the client. If it’s a small company, they may be amenable to signing a contract that you prepared. If it’s a well-established corporation, however, they may very well insist you sign their contract.
What language in a contract would cause you not to sign it?
This is tricky because it really depends upon the nature of the job. Obviously, if you are interested in maintaining your copyright, you will want to avoid any transfer of copyright language. Beyond that, it really depends upon your goals and business needs for the job.
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This interactive webinar will feature some sample agreements and sources for templates that the writer might find useful during their writing career. What does a work-for-hire generally look like? What should you expect in a standard trade publishing contract? How common are NDAs in the publishing world and why might you need one? How do you format a simple permission request? Who can you reach out to for help when reviewing a contract? Be ready to take notes and bring your questions for this informative session on contracts and agreements.
You can join in this conversation on August 31, at 7:00 pm eastern, when NAIWE will host a discussion on writing agreements. The cost for NAIWE members is only $10! Non-members can join for $30. Register today!
If you’re like me, fellow editors, you have a document open to edit on your PC and then you also have open links to the Merriam-Webster (M-W) online unabridged dictionary and Google. I also open a link to my online Chicago Manual of Style (abbreviated as CMOS and pronounced “SEE-moss”).
I hope you also have PerfectIt sitting up there on your Word ribbon as your go-to editing checker. It’s also one of my essential tools, and the good news is that PerfectIt has married CMOS and—get this—shows you and links directly to actual citations in CMOS and defers to spellings in M-W. Is this editor heaven?
I was delighted to test the beta version that will be available to you now.
I bring in PerfectIt at two critical times in a book edit: I will often run PerfectIt before I tackle a book manuscript to see all the inconsistency in a manuscript. I look for words not spelled correctly or even consistently (advisor, adviser, for example), for words not hyphenated correctly or consistently (nonnegotiable, non-negotiable, for example), for awkward and inconsistent capitalization of headings, and for whether the author used the serial comma and how, among many other mechanical editing areas to prereview for fine-tuning.
PerfectIt allows me to get the big picture of the work. Then I can make editorial decisions about certain usages, allowed by CMOS (US, for example, and percent, not %) and breaking the rules consistently (such as capping the job title President in a book on leadership).
I run PerfectIt again when I have completed an edit to catch any further inconsistencies in hyphenation, in particular, and everything else this powerful program flags. I often find myself leaving parens open or missing closing quotation marks, and PerfectIt keeps me as perfect as we editors can ever get.
When testing PerfectIt 5 in beta, I threw some rough drafts at it, and I have been simply amazed at the power of the link with CMOS. In the yes-you-can-teach-old-dogs-new-tricks department, I discovered a few style points I have been getting wrong. I’ll give you one example. The word vs. gets a period, and, dang it, I’ve been using vs for years. But because my new best friend flagged vs and I could click on CMOS 10.42, I could get a quick tutorial on the rule.
You can still customize and build your house style. Downloading the new version was seamless, and I understand that if you already have subscriptions to CMOS online and PerfectIt, upgrading to version 5 is free.
Will PerfectIt ever become AI and replace us as editors? I sure hope not, but this marriage with our venerable Chicago Manual of Style is one step closer to making editors appear to be superhuman (and yes CMOS via PerfectIt says superhuman is one word).
Sandra Wendel is a nonfiction book editor, NAIWE member, and author of the award-winning book Cover to Cover: What First-Time Authors Need to Know about Editing.
This summer, NAIWE is challenging you and your fellow NAIWE members to be the best version of yourselves. You may personalize this challenge to fit your needs and summer goals. Choose a book to read that you classify as a self-help book even though its genre is far from that. Choose a project that has been nagging at you but will also produce great reward upon completion. And finish the challenge by spending some quality time with our experts learning how they mastered creating multiple steams of income. Throughout the challenge, be true to yourself and your goals!
After you read your book selection, leave a comment below with the name and author of the book and your take away from this book so others will know if they should read this book.