Review of the year

Well, it’s the end of 2022 and time to look back at the last 12 months in life and business!

Health-wise, I’m pleased so far to have got through another year without contracting Covid-19. I don’t want to jinx this (and it hasn’t been easy), but up to now I’ve managed to avoid it.

This hasn’t been without cost though, because my social world has contracted. I’ve stuck with meeting colleagues and friends outside, and not attending the normal local networking events to connect and catch up with the people I know on the creative and business scene in my area.

Thankfully these days, online remains a viable option and continues to form a large part of my global work. I’ve had very positive and productive Zoom meetings with clients all over the world, which has proven invaluable to stay closely connected and collaborate effectively.

This year I’ve copy-edited a number of book projects which have been successfully published, including these:

– all useful guides written by subject-matter experts to help professionals reflect on their own practice and solve their pain points and problems.

Highlight of the year
Every book I take on for a client is incredibly important to me. This year, a particular success was working with Julia Elliott Brown, author of RAISE: The female founder’s guide to securing investment.

Being a business book editor tapped into the corporate zeitgeist, I was already conscious of the fact that female founders find it challenging to raise finance for their enterprises. Especially from venture capital (VC), which is largely a male-populated world. Even some men within the VC industry acknowledge the bias that exists.

When Julia approached me to ask if I might consider being her editor, I recognised as soon as I read her pages that this was going to be an important, seminal, groundbreaking book by a woman founder and CEO specifically for women CEOs. Someone who had been there, done it and come out the other side with the road muscle to coach others to their own success.

That this book was going to help many founders recognise and smash through those obstacles to get their companies where they need to go.

As a woman in business myself, I realised quickly that I was going to be very personally invested in this project. It was meaningful to me, and I knew it would be just as meaningful to other businesswomen too.

I definitely wanted to be the editor helping her to bring it to the world.

Thankfully, Julia saw in me a kindred spirit for her vision and was 100 per cent on board – a fantastic client with unwavering determination to see it through.

I couldn’t possibly have asked for a better author to collaborate with: our work together over a number of months to shape the book and get it to design was a real creative partnership.

This book will go a long way to inform the people who operate in that industry just how stacked the cards are against women CEOs who need funds to start and grow their businesses. It’ll be doing good work not just now, but well into the future.

I’m delighted to report that RAISE went bestseller on release in the Amazon Venture Capital category, has been enthusiastically received, and is going from strength to strength in the market with its target audience and tribe – which was exactly my goal for Julia and her brilliant book.

New mini-guides
This year I produced six new mini-guides on writing and editing to help authors.

I decided to publish these because first-time authors and experts unfamiliar with publishing in particular often need clear, superfast guidance that breaks through the jargon, giving them exactly what they need to know.

My easy-to-access explainers deal with how to prepare a manuscript, what editing does and the publishing process.

They’re completely free, and available here.

Other resources
One thing I understand from being a non-fiction editor is that authors (and readers) can be seriously time-poor. You already have more than enough on your plate!

I continued my blog series on points of writing and editing to help you gain clarity, boost your productivity and shape your work effectively.

I also included some posts on self-care, because it’s a misconception that authoring has to be a nose-to-the-grindstone, 24/7 activity.

Writing is incredibly intense work which can take a lot out of you. It’s important to structure your practice, and recognise that taking breaks, giving your brain time and space to process ideas, think, strategise and pull everything together can help.

This may seem counterintuitive, but doing nothing is as much a valid part of the creative process as actually sitting in front of your computer and plugging away!