Did I tell you we have a new copy editor?

I know I told you we were on the lookout for a new copy editor, but did I tell you we hired one?  Her name is Karen Robinson (and I can totally put that online because you’ll see it on the masthead soon enough), and I couldn’t be happier.

It wasn’t an easy decision.  Not at all.  Within 48 hours of putting up the call for a copy editor we got over 200 applications.  As they came in, I broke them into 3 groups (so they’d be easier to manage) and replied with the test packet.  The test packet included our just-barely-there style sheet (the thing with all the specific-to-PLY rules that we try to follow), one article in 2 stages — edited by me (what they’d get if they had the job), and  the final, print version (so they could see what their job would entail), and another article edited by me that they had to copy-edit.

Within 3 days almost everyone had returned articles and I sat down to read.  And I sat some more.  And then I sat some more.  It was a lot of sitting and reading.  Some I could dismiss right away – not that they weren’t good – but just not the level of editing I was looking for (some too deep, some too shallow).  Some went into my maybe pile and a few went into my yes pile.  My plan was to go through the yes pile again first and if I didn’t find somebody, to reach into the maybe pile.  I can tell you that my maybe pile was about 25 and my yes pile was about 25.

That meant more sitting.

I never had to reach back into the maybe pile because the yes pile was full of amazing editors, most of which are more qualified to do my job than I am.  There were 6 that copy-edited the style sheet.  There were 3 that copy-edited my entire email.  There were 2 that copy-edited the finalized article that had already gone to print! It was a little intimidating, honestly.  I liked them all. Finally, I narrowed it down to 5.

Our of those 5, I couldn’t choose.  I felt like I’d just be closing my eyes, spinning,  and pointing, so I sent all 5 to Kitten.  I may be the one that reorganizes and restructures but he’s the one with the close eye and quick brain for editing.  I told him to choose which one he’d like to work with and while he said all 5 were good, Karen was his top pick.

And so it’s Karen.  And Karen rocks!

You’ll see her handy work in the next issue (the Leicester issue).  She’s going to make us so much better!

Give her a little welcome, won’t ya?

5 replies
  1. Karen Robinson
    Karen Robinson says:

    Thank you so much to Jacey and Kitten. I feel so blessed to have been the one who was chosen, especially after reading this!

    Thank you to Spinfoolish and Jenna-Lee for the congrats.

    From what I’ve seen so far, you’re going to love the Leicester issue! I can’t wait to see it in print myself as I get just the text to copy edit, so layout and pictures will be new and exciting when the issue does go out. For now, I’m still slowly reading my way through the Worsted issue that just came out as it’s my last issue that’s a complete surprise to me. 🙂

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply to Karen Robinson Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *