I've got a contract to substantially edit a manuscript this weekend that, um, is in serious need of my services. I'm also trying to deal with comments from my own manuscript that will be celebrating a birthday along with my PhD soon. Honestly, dealing with the revisions of my own paper makes me feel like a terrible scientist. Looking for old files lost in what passed as my 'organizational system,' and trying to find ways to respond to very reasonable reviewers comments is really stressing me out. Trying to navigate this all with my old adviser and our ever growing team of collaborators just feels messier and messier as we go through each resubmission. I just got an email from him that said, "Check submission 4, we used a different supplemental figure 4 there." Oh. Uh. Right. I can't keep this straight because, seriously, if I believed that publishing this paper would improve my career prospects, it would have torn me to bits months ago.
This is why editing someone else's manuscript right now is fantastic. Their manuscript is pretty rough. The manuscript came with comments from two previous submission- one in 2006, one in 2008. Both said the language needs help, but also such silly comments as, "it wasn't clear until halfway through the paper that there would be two drugs tested" and "You need to include the IRB approval" and my favorite "Please discuss the limitations of this study." I'm not very far into this paper, but I suspect the experiments were well done. They have just not been presented well at all. And if THESE people can publish their paper, with it's outdated references and scattered presentation, I've got a shot for sure. I often feel like I must be the worst scientist ever. Being an editor means I get to see other people's work before it is polished, I get to see the weakness and struggles they have, and it's nice to know others go through that too.
My manuscript is, in the scheme of things, probably pretty close to publication. I'm looking forward to being done with it because I feel like I never really finished grad school while this keeps coming back into my life. I'm completely resigned to the fact that it won't change my prospects at all. Other, more interesting papers have come out in the last year. And much more importantly, I'm able to get paid to do stuff that has nothing to do with small molecule inhibitors of polyomaviruses. I'd like to talk more about this later, but I'm pretty sure I am not going to be employed to continue my grad work or anything like it. So finishing it up would be a HUGE relief.
Showing posts with label editing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label editing. Show all posts
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
New Contract and a Leave of Absence
Some interesting opportunities have opened up, and I want to document some of the choices I've made and why. In another fit of "Maybe I'll just apply for some OTHER crazy job!" I put my hat in the ring for a position as a developmental editor with a curriculum development company in Seattle. Remember, I wrote a ridiculous letter and put in for a position that a hundred people had already applied for? Well, I got a call back the next day (Ha!).
The call was from the director who confessed that he was too swamped to hire a developmental editor because they were behind on writing. It's a growing company with some very interesting projects, and the just need some extra hands right now. Would I be willing to take on a writing contract?
My feeling on writing contracts is that they are a good way to make money, but not really a career. When you work off-site, you don't hear about things like new openings, or extra work or other things that would make it easier to advance your position. They are a growing company, but will I get a chance to grow with them? And frankly, I find working off-site boring. I miss having awesome coworkers. That being said, I've also come to realize that contract work is what is developing my CV these days, and frankly I do like the work. And the money.
So I agreed to take on a 5 week writing contract. But it sounds like a 40 hour/week position. (Oh, and I'll be paid hourly, unlike my work with Words and Numbers where I bill per task). I consider contract work one of 3 jobs I juggle currently, and so I knew I'd need to push back on the other two. I notified my internship I was going to be away, and that I am planning to send them a status update this week. The scary conversation was to tell the bank I was going to need some time. I'm just a teller, so I didn't figure they would be interested in making concessions for me- but for a 5 week contract, it seems stupid to walk away from a steady pay-check.
I thought a lot about how to have this conversation- I knew I needed to ask for something, so I tried to ask in a way that made them feel like they were generous to offer (not that they OWED me this- Here's to negotiation training!). And I also tried to be really clear about what was already decided, and what wasn't. I have accepted a contract. It is a great opportunity for me. It will take up all my time. I don't want to leave you guys in the lurch, and I am not sure how to do that best. To his credit, my manager was very excited for me, and was able to give me everything I need to make this work. I'll be at the bank for 2 more weeks, and then I am going on a leave of absence. In August, I'll get back in touch and get my old position back. I may be at a different branch when I come back, but I shouldn't have to reapply for my job. I'm glad that I asked for that, because it makes taking this contract much less intimidating- as I said, it's a contract, not a career.
The call was from the director who confessed that he was too swamped to hire a developmental editor because they were behind on writing. It's a growing company with some very interesting projects, and the just need some extra hands right now. Would I be willing to take on a writing contract?
My feeling on writing contracts is that they are a good way to make money, but not really a career. When you work off-site, you don't hear about things like new openings, or extra work or other things that would make it easier to advance your position. They are a growing company, but will I get a chance to grow with them? And frankly, I find working off-site boring. I miss having awesome coworkers. That being said, I've also come to realize that contract work is what is developing my CV these days, and frankly I do like the work. And the money.
So I agreed to take on a 5 week writing contract. But it sounds like a 40 hour/week position. (Oh, and I'll be paid hourly, unlike my work with Words and Numbers where I bill per task). I consider contract work one of 3 jobs I juggle currently, and so I knew I'd need to push back on the other two. I notified my internship I was going to be away, and that I am planning to send them a status update this week. The scary conversation was to tell the bank I was going to need some time. I'm just a teller, so I didn't figure they would be interested in making concessions for me- but for a 5 week contract, it seems stupid to walk away from a steady pay-check.
I thought a lot about how to have this conversation- I knew I needed to ask for something, so I tried to ask in a way that made them feel like they were generous to offer (not that they OWED me this- Here's to negotiation training!). And I also tried to be really clear about what was already decided, and what wasn't. I have accepted a contract. It is a great opportunity for me. It will take up all my time. I don't want to leave you guys in the lurch, and I am not sure how to do that best. To his credit, my manager was very excited for me, and was able to give me everything I need to make this work. I'll be at the bank for 2 more weeks, and then I am going on a leave of absence. In August, I'll get back in touch and get my old position back. I may be at a different branch when I come back, but I shouldn't have to reapply for my job. I'm glad that I asked for that, because it makes taking this contract much less intimidating- as I said, it's a contract, not a career.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Comparing the work environment
I've got a couple comparisons I would like to make for the sake of
sorting out my own impressions. The first is with regard to the 3 major
groups I do freelance work for. In the first, Nobo Live, I've been
working with them the longest. I edit foreign manuscripts before they
go up for peer review. The second, SciEdit, I've only been working with
a few weeks but it is a similar gig. The final is Words and Numbers,
where I have done some text book editing, and also some curriculum
development writing.
To compare the first two, I make $0.03/word at Nobo Live, and about $0.04/word at SciEdit. NoboLive mails me a check, SciEdit pays me in yuan through PayPal. In both place, my only contact is a person who is my editor, but the role of this person is different. At Nobo Live, the editor will deal with the client, or suggest I may need to make further changes based on her own observation. At SciEdit, I receive a QA form with comments from a separate party. Neither has provided any training on what types of comments/changes they would like to see- which I have heard other groups like American Journal Experts do.
I'd been doing editing for a while before I actually wrote anything that needed to be edited. It was really enlightening to go over editor's comments/changes on some of my stuff. At Words and Numbers, I have an editor who provides me work, keeps in touch with the client, and gets my work edited. I like that my main contact there who provides me contracts (and at SciEdit) is not also the person providing criticism for my work, but that may just be a preference thing. There is a similar QA process, with writers and editors going back and forth to polish a piece before it is returned in the final version to the client. I find it a little frustrating sometimes not to be able to talk directly with the client ("You wrote this software. What do YOU think it does??"), but for the most part, I think it keeps everyone honest and unemotional. The client only sees a near final version that they approve with some minor comments. It's a much more corporate structure then the Chinese version which feels like it has all the structure of a hotmail account. And I do have a lot more interaction with my editor at Words and Number than I do with either of the others.
All three are easy to work with. The first two tend to give me short to very short deadlines (I recently got a paper to edit in 2 days). The third tends to give me a lot of time to schedule things (would you be willing to take a 20 hour contract in the next month or so?). Between the three styles, this week has been very busy, and it's nice to be making some cash.
To compare the first two, I make $0.03/word at Nobo Live, and about $0.04/word at SciEdit. NoboLive mails me a check, SciEdit pays me in yuan through PayPal. In both place, my only contact is a person who is my editor, but the role of this person is different. At Nobo Live, the editor will deal with the client, or suggest I may need to make further changes based on her own observation. At SciEdit, I receive a QA form with comments from a separate party. Neither has provided any training on what types of comments/changes they would like to see- which I have heard other groups like American Journal Experts do.
I'd been doing editing for a while before I actually wrote anything that needed to be edited. It was really enlightening to go over editor's comments/changes on some of my stuff. At Words and Numbers, I have an editor who provides me work, keeps in touch with the client, and gets my work edited. I like that my main contact there who provides me contracts (and at SciEdit) is not also the person providing criticism for my work, but that may just be a preference thing. There is a similar QA process, with writers and editors going back and forth to polish a piece before it is returned in the final version to the client. I find it a little frustrating sometimes not to be able to talk directly with the client ("You wrote this software. What do YOU think it does??"), but for the most part, I think it keeps everyone honest and unemotional. The client only sees a near final version that they approve with some minor comments. It's a much more corporate structure then the Chinese version which feels like it has all the structure of a hotmail account. And I do have a lot more interaction with my editor at Words and Number than I do with either of the others.
All three are easy to work with. The first two tend to give me short to very short deadlines (I recently got a paper to edit in 2 days). The third tends to give me a lot of time to schedule things (would you be willing to take a 20 hour contract in the next month or so?). Between the three styles, this week has been very busy, and it's nice to be making some cash.
Monday, March 12, 2012
My new professional life
In addition to my part-time job at the bank, this week I am starting as an intern at the Center for Commercialization at the UW (C4C). I've been assigned my first project, which will be helping in some regard with an SBIR. An SBIR is a grant award via the Small Business Administration to help provide vehicles for commercialization of ideas. I'll write more about this once I've read some more, but researchers who do more applied research are interested in these types of grants. I spent the afternoon reading about the differences between patents and trademarks, and searching google.com/patents which was kinda fun.
I also accepted a new contract from another mysterious Chinese editing company. I must say that dashing out of the bank to campus, then fighting through traffic to come home and look up the Instructions to the Authors for Pediatric Surgery International is pretty much where I thought my career has been headed. Someday we'll get to look back on these posts and laugh, or maybe even reminisce about the good old days when I was editing for Chinese Yuans and chilling in the U district. (That's what I'll call waiting in traffic when I am old and nostalgic.) For now though, I have 4,000+ words to 'polish' and format for publication before Friday.
I also accepted a new contract from another mysterious Chinese editing company. I must say that dashing out of the bank to campus, then fighting through traffic to come home and look up the Instructions to the Authors for Pediatric Surgery International is pretty much where I thought my career has been headed. Someday we'll get to look back on these posts and laugh, or maybe even reminisce about the good old days when I was editing for Chinese Yuans and chilling in the U district. (That's what I'll call waiting in traffic when I am old and nostalgic.) For now though, I have 4,000+ words to 'polish' and format for publication before Friday.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Interview: Grant Writer
It's been a while since I did an informational interview, I should do them more often. Talking with people about why they love their job makes me feel optimistic, and every job hunt could use a bit of that. So here is the context, as you know, I need a job. While getting a full time permanent job has not come easy, finding small contract editing work (of manuscripts and educational texts) or some related writing seems to have come up fairly often. I've been relatively passive about this, but I wanted to give this idea a fair shake, could I (should I?) make a career of reading and writing?
So I had to know, was she working week to week on contracts like me? Well, no. Although she had started doing that, she now works as an off-site contractor for a firm that sends her clients who need various levels of technical and administrative help. She said this sometimes means she is literally writing their grants, and sometimes this means she is just convincing a disparate group of PIs to stick to their writing deadlines. Depending on the client, this may feel like she is making the best use of her background, synthesizing complex data into an easily understandable package, and other times, this might just feel like she is the secretary (but she did admit the administrative work pays better).
Speaking of pay, she makes more than she did as a post-doc, and figures she'll continue to make significantly more than her husband (a post-doc) for a while.
The contract for this is novel to me, it's the antithesis of a non-compete. She signs up for a 3-6 month contract with her employer. They have renewed her contract consistently for 4 years now, so she has confidence that this is fairly permanent work. However, for tax reasons (and as part of this contract), she must take other contracts, to prove that she does not have a sole employer who ought to pay her taxes for her. She said she normally works 40 hours a week, but certainly goes through periods of working 80-90 hours a week, as a result of having to juggle multiple contracts.
So how does a person get into this? She recommended to get started, work with a recruiter. Alternatively, there are writing firms that have stables of writers for regulatory/technical/medical writing, like Synchrogenix. Another option is to subscribe to job lists, like the Hitt list (available here). And this last website brings up some other interesting resources. Medical writers are certainly in demand these days, and while having a PhD is great preparation for this career, to help with the transition, Emma Hitt offers some short courses and workshops on running a med writing business, or med writing. Biotech Ink Insider is another resource for those in the field. The American Medical Writers Association also offers some workshops/short courses in similar subjects. Again, these aren't essential certifications, but if you are looking for a way to show on your CV that you are serious about this transition or just want to build your own confidence this might be a good route. I'd be very interested to hear from someone who has taken one of these courses to see what they think.
I recently joined the Council of Science Editors group on LinkedIn, and in one of those discussions these additional resources were listed. Exciting, right? Doesn't it make you think you could take on a whole new career??
National Association of Science Writers (http://nasw.org)
National Writers Union (http://www.nwu.org)
Society for Technical Communication (http://www.stc.org)
Health Sciences Communication Association (http://www.hesca.org)
Bay Area Editors' Forum (http://www.editorsforum.org)
American Copy Editors Society (http://www.copydesk.org/)
So I had to know, was she working week to week on contracts like me? Well, no. Although she had started doing that, she now works as an off-site contractor for a firm that sends her clients who need various levels of technical and administrative help. She said this sometimes means she is literally writing their grants, and sometimes this means she is just convincing a disparate group of PIs to stick to their writing deadlines. Depending on the client, this may feel like she is making the best use of her background, synthesizing complex data into an easily understandable package, and other times, this might just feel like she is the secretary (but she did admit the administrative work pays better).
Speaking of pay, she makes more than she did as a post-doc, and figures she'll continue to make significantly more than her husband (a post-doc) for a while.
The contract for this is novel to me, it's the antithesis of a non-compete. She signs up for a 3-6 month contract with her employer. They have renewed her contract consistently for 4 years now, so she has confidence that this is fairly permanent work. However, for tax reasons (and as part of this contract), she must take other contracts, to prove that she does not have a sole employer who ought to pay her taxes for her. She said she normally works 40 hours a week, but certainly goes through periods of working 80-90 hours a week, as a result of having to juggle multiple contracts.
So how does a person get into this? She recommended to get started, work with a recruiter. Alternatively, there are writing firms that have stables of writers for regulatory/technical/medical writing, like Synchrogenix. Another option is to subscribe to job lists, like the Hitt list (available here). And this last website brings up some other interesting resources. Medical writers are certainly in demand these days, and while having a PhD is great preparation for this career, to help with the transition, Emma Hitt offers some short courses and workshops on running a med writing business, or med writing. Biotech Ink Insider is another resource for those in the field. The American Medical Writers Association also offers some workshops/short courses in similar subjects. Again, these aren't essential certifications, but if you are looking for a way to show on your CV that you are serious about this transition or just want to build your own confidence this might be a good route. I'd be very interested to hear from someone who has taken one of these courses to see what they think.
I recently joined the Council of Science Editors group on LinkedIn, and in one of those discussions these additional resources were listed. Exciting, right? Doesn't it make you think you could take on a whole new career??
National Association of Science Writers (http://nasw.org)
National Writers Union (http://www.nwu.org)
Society for Technical Communication (http://www.stc.org)
Health Sciences Communication Association (http://www.hesca.org)
Bay Area Editors' Forum (http://www.editorsforum.org)
American Copy Editors Society (http://www.copydesk.org/)
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
A bit more contract editing
One of the things that haunted me as I was finishing up in my grad school lab was that not having somewhere to go would mean I am unemployed, and it seems like a slippery slope from unemployed to unemployable. Yes, any rational person would say that taking some time to get the first job out of college is pretty normal. But look around at this economy, I can't wait for something to just show up! I gotta work! This is what drove me to contract editing- I started out editing manuscripts, but that petered out after the event I was recruited for. A quick look on LinkedIn showed me that there were three major groups that are in constant need of editors:
NoboLive
Write Science Right
American Journal Experts
These companies tend to help improve the readability of manuscripts, especially coming from overseas. I liked this work, I got to learn about new things, and it didn't take long to get a feeling of accomplishment. But, it doesn't really feel like my own accomplishment. Telling someone about how you hate their writing is hardly a challenge. It's good to be able to make some quick cash, but even though I know there are those who do this work full time, I don't think I could.
But, it did open the door for me to do some text book editing at Words and Numbers, which I found via LinkedIn. (I'm under NDA with them as well, but I am pretty sure it's ok for me to say that much.) Although it is similar work, someone else wrote something, I try to help them improve it. There is an educational bent, which I feel better about (I want to use my science in service, not just to make money), and the added challenge of pedagogy. Those last 50 pages were all technically correct, but if I were going to teach it, what would I test on? If I were the student, what would I study?
This may allow me to do some writing with them in the future, which I am interested to try. For now, I don't feel like this is my calling, if for no other reason than I am constantly on the prowl for contracts, which feels conspicuously like being on the job market, which I don't love.
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