My fiancé and I host a game night the first Saturday night of every month. We’ve been doing this for several years. The four other couples know they’ll be receiving an email reminder from me sometime during the last week of the prior month.
My fiancé and I also get together separately with two of the four couples. (We laugh till we cry.) I sent an email to one of the gentlemen, who responded with the dates mixed up. I emailed him, “No, my house is the 11th.”
Here’s where I refer to the phrase, everyone’s an editor. Before I became a professional editor, no one edited my emails. No one, except me, that is. And if I was in a hurry and just wrote shorthand, it was fine. My friends understood my meaning. Now that I’m a professional editor, they don’t understand me anymore. That gentleman wrote back asking me how my house could be a number, an 11. Well, OK, I know the sentence should have read, “No, you’re coming to my house on the 11th” but I wrote shorthand. He knew; he was just being a comedian. Everyone now loves to edit the editor. As a professional editor, I need to show the world that even my emails are polished.
Last month I attended the Writers Coffeehouse, hosted by Barnes and Noble in Willow Grove and led by members of the Philly Liars Club www.liarsclubphilly.com (named so because they all lie for a living). One of the discussions centered on “presence,” and how a public figure such as a recognized author must always be “on.” Keith Strunk, accomplished actor and author, said when he walks in his neighborhood, or the area near the theater where he performs, he doesn’t know who he’ll run into. He could have had the crappiest day, but he has to put on that smile and shake a hand or two. Authors must project an image as well, because an author doesn’t know when they’ll run into a fan. The public image projected, at all times, must be professional and energetic.
When Ruth and I work on a client’s manuscript, or game rules, or promotional materials, we ensure the final product is as polished and perfect as it can be. We know the pieces we’re creating or editing will be used by our clients to project and enhance their professional images. From now on, the image I project in my emails will reflect a more polished and professional stance too.
Ann