MMPA Excellence Awards

Last night I attended the MMPA Excellence Awards ceremony, which was held at the Metropolitan Ballroom. What a fun event! I had served as a judge in two categories (Best Technical Article and Best How-To Article), and I really enjoyed becoming better acquainted with the variety of publications produced in Minnesota. Before the awards were handed out, we had some time to eat, drink, and mingle with other publishing professionals. The awards ceremony was hosted by local news anchor Jason DeRusha. He was entertaining and kept things rolling right along. The evening's prizewinning magazines really ran the gamut. They included Beef, Minnesota Law and Politics (whose tagline is "Only Our Name Is Boring"), Marine Fabricator, Bowhunting World, Minnesota Monthly, Corn and Soybean Digest, Street Thunder, Minnesota Bride, Trailer Boats, Pheasants Forever, Twin Cities Metropolitan Magazine (my favorite local mag), and the Carleton College Voice, just to name a few.

If you need a magazine article edited, or you work for a magazine and need a freelance editor/proofreader, I have experience with magazines and would be happy to help you out! Take a look at my website, and contact me with questions. To see my rates, click here.

Home Page - Julie Coleman - Freelance Editor and Proofreader

Double Trouble

For all of you budding writers out there, I'd like to point out one of my biggest pet peeves: Double spaces between sentences. Usually the first thing I do when I receive something new to edit is search for and replace the double spaces. You may have learned this rule in high school typing class, but it is no longer correct. On a typewriter, the fonts are monospaced, meaning that every letter (x, i, e, etc.) takes up the same amount of space. Thus, double spaces created a nice open distinction between one sentence and the next. But today's computer fonts are proportionally spaced, so you should use one--and only one!--space between sentences.

I know that a lot of people don't like this rule. It's not what they were taught. It's hard to say good-bye to that double space. But, trust me, your document will look a lot more professional if you use one space instead of two. (Unless you're using a typewriter...but that's a different story!)

Home Page - Julie Coleman - Freelance Editor

New Freelancers' Group

I really enjoy working as a freelance editor. Some of my favorite aspects are setting my own hours and having a flexible schedule, working on a wide variety of projects, and not having to commute. During warm weather, I especially like getting to work on the front porch with my dog, Chloe, at my side. However, I do sometimes miss having co-workers to chat with and learn from, and I think that's pretty common in this line of work. Well, today I had my first meeting with a group of freelance editors/writers. We all belong to the Minnesota Magazine & Publications Association, which is how we met. We decided that we're going to meet up once a month to talk about projects we're working on, any issues we're facing, advice we can share, and anything else related to the freelance life. It's sort of like going to a meeting, except it's fun and productive! It seems like a great group, and I'm looking forward to meeting with them again.

Home Page - Julie Coleman - Freelance Editor/Proofreader in the Twin Cities

Funny (and Ironic) Typo of the Week

http://www.nbc.com/The_Tonight_Show_with_Jay_Leno/headlines/H_2955/10.shtml

Don't let this happen to you! Hire a professional editor to review your documents.

Home Page - Julie Coleman, Freelance Editor/Proofreader

MMPA Editors' Roundtable

This morning I attended an "editors' roundtable" sponsored by the Minnesota Magazine & Publications Association. Today's topic was Time & Money. We spent the first half of the meeting discussing how we spend our time as editors: What do we waste our time on? What do we wish we had more time for? What strategies do we employ to use our time wisely? Most people agreed that the biggest time-wasters are e-mail and other online time vacuums, chatty coworkers (for those who work in office settings), clutter, and unproductive phone calls. Everyone seems to have their own methods for staying focused and organized. First of all, it's important to know when you do your best work each day (early morning? mid-afternoon? late at night?), so you can do your most challenging work then. One person suggested not answering the phone all day and then returning calls late in the afternoon. Other people use websites or social networking sites as a reward: As soon as I finish this article, I get to spend 15 minutes browsing my favorite site. Some people make prioritized to-do lists every day, while others dive into work first thing in the morning when they're most productive and save their e-mails for later. It was interesting to get so many different time-management tips--many of which were very helpful! During the second half of the meeting, the magazine editors talked about their 2009 budgets. Many are staying the same, but a few are going down. The cost of paper, ink, and postage are all increasing, so many magazines are moving toward more online--and less print--content. However, it sounds like most local publications are still going strong!

Maybe you've written an article you'd like to submit to a magazine, but you'd like to have an editor look it over first. I would be happy to! Please check my website for rate and contact information.

Home Page - Julie Coleman, Freelance Editor

Grammar Girl

Many people find the idea of editing kind of intimidating. There are so many rules! How will I know if I'm doing the right thing? In many cases, editing is actually a subjective art. However, there are some important rules--but you don't need to be intimidated by them! I suggest checking out the friendly and informative Grammar Girl website and signing up for her "Quick & Dirty Tips." (She also has a book available now, too.) She makes grammar accessible and even fun. However, if you'd rather have someone else do the editing for you, contact me, freelance editor Julie Coleman, and I'll help you with your book manuscript, sales materials, website text, report, dissertation, or whatever else you're working on. For me, editing really is fun!

Julie Coleman, Freelance Editor and Proofreader

A Different Kind of Dictionary

I recently picked up a copy of Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors by Bill Bryson. It's a wonderful resource, listing all sorts of names, places, phrases, titles, and other things an editor or writer might look up for clarification. Did you know that Calcutta is now officially known as Kolkata? Or that the correct phrase is "Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast"? I have learned that a pooh-bah is someone who holds many offices at once, and a valetudinarian is a person obsessed with their health. It's a treat just to browse through this fun and fascinating book--a great resource for anyone interested in words.

Freelance Editor and Proofreader, Julie Coleman

Book Design Workshop

On Saturday I went to a workshop entitled "Judging a Book By More Than Just Its Cover," hosted by the Twin Cities chapter of the American Society for Indexing. This was my first time attending one of their events, and I enjoyed getting to meet a whole new group of publishing-related people. In fact, one of the women was an indexer I had hired when I was working in Chicago! I had never met her face-to-face before. The main speaker was Dorie McClelland of Spring Book Design. She showed us a variety of samples of her work and explained some of the elements of design (including font selection, white space, photo placement, proportion, etc.). I learned that people read phrases rather than words, so if the text is too big it's actually difficult to read. Also, a block of text should not be more than five inches wide, for the same reason. There are countless subtleties involved in book design--more than I had ever realized, to be honest. I enjoyed learning more about the process. If you are looking to self-publish a book or you need a book designer, consider contacting Dorie. She does beautiful work. And if you need an editor, please contact me! (You can find info about my editing rates on my web page.)

Home Page - Julie Coleman, Freelance Editor

Welcome To My New Blog!

Hello! My name is Julie Coleman, and I'm a full-time freelance editor. I worked at a publishing company in Chicago for 15 years, and I've been in St. Paul (working freelance) for almost exactly a year now. I've gotten to work on some really interesting projects, and I'm enjoying getting more connected with the local publishing community as a whole. I thought it would be fun to start a blog to talk about projects I'm working on, grammar tips/opinions/pet peeves, publishing-related events, "word news," and anything else that might be of interest to readers.

In addition to the items I mentioned above, I plan to blog about:

• Recommended resources
• New books, magazines, seminars, and websites
  
• Ideas and opinions on the publishing industry
• Information about new rules and trends in word definitions and usage
• Tips on improving writing
• Thoughts on editing rates and style
  
• Opinions on grammar, usage, and editing in general
  

Please bookmark this page, and come back often!

Home Page - Julie Coleman, Freelance Editor