Act Like a Business! | The Quad- Laura Poole, Lori Paximadis, Amy J Schneider, Erin Brenner
Move beyond the "artisan" freelance mindset and start acting like a business owner. Learn from the experienced editors of The Quad mastermind about mindset shifts, managing time and money, setting boundaries and policies, marketing and finding work, and keeping clients satisfied. A business approach can lift your work to new levels of success, keeping your business sustainable.
Intermediate Level, Freelance editors, Business of Editing
The Quad, a mastermind group of successful editors, has been active in its current incarnation since 2015. We have seven members: Katharine O’Moore-Klopf, Sarah Grey, Adrienne Montgomerie, Erin Brenner, Amy J. Schneider, Lori Paximadis, and Laura Poole. Over the years, we realized we functioned as a mastermind group. We support each other with daily chats (now in Slack), yearly retreats (some virtual), work sprints, emotional support, and more. Of our members, three have won the Robinson Prize, two have written books to be published by a major university press, and two have published chapters in books produced by major presses.
Laura Poole is a copyeditor for scholarly nonfiction in the humanities, working exclusively for university presses and other scholarly publishers. She has over two decades of experience in editing and freelancing. She is widely known and respected as a teacher and trainer for editors, including mentoring and coaching. She won the 2020 Robinson Prize from ACES: The Society for Editing. She is a member of ACES and the Northwest Editors Guild, and an Advanced Professional Member of the CIEP. In her spare time, she bakes and quilts.
Lori Paximadis has been a successful full-time freelancer for more than half of her 30+-year career in publishing. She edits fiction and nonfiction for clients ranging from major publishers to indies. She has been presenting and training on the topics of systems and efficiency since 2016. Find her at LoriPax.com and SystemsAndShortcuts.com.
Amy J. Schneider, owner of Featherschneider Editorial Services (featherschneider.com) since 1995, is the author of the forthcoming Chicago Guide to Copyediting Fiction. She is a full-time copyeditor and proofreader of trade and scholarly nonfiction books and best-selling fiction in a variety of genres. Amy has written articles and presented on a variety of editorial topics for ACES, CIEP, EFA, Editors Canada, IPEd, and the Northwest Editors Guild. When she's not working in the soft glow of her four-monitor desktop, she enjoys running, singing, and teaching her springer spaniels to do silly tricks (not all at the same time).
Erin Brenner is the owner of editorial services firm Right Touch Editing, which specializes in providing small and midsized organizations with writing and editing teams. She has won awards from NEDMA for her marketing writing and is the author of Copyediting’s Grammar Tune-Up Workbook. She continues to write for both her blog and clients and is currently writing a nonfiction book. Erin is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute for Editing and Proofreading, a partner member of the Alliance of Independent Authors, and a Full Member of ACES.