Author Archive

Sabertext’s general manager, Benjamin Hourigan, is part of the first cohort of Australian editors to be formally accredited and entitled to use the postnominals AE.

Results for the Australian Institute of Professional Editors’ inaugural accreditation exam, held on 18 October 2008, were announced tonight. Hourigan reached or exceeded the 80% pass mark to receive accreditation, in a rigorous exam that covered wide-ranging matters of style, editing, markup, and the publishing process.

Australia’s Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd) has scheduled its first exam for 18 October 2008. The exam will be held in all Australian state and territory capitals except Darwin.

IPEd has stated that editors with at least two to three years’ work experience should be able to pass the exam. Successful candidates will join the first cohort of Australian editors authorized to use the postnominals AE, designating them an accredited editor.

The cost of sitting the exam is set at $490 for current paid-up members of the societies of editors constituting IPEd, or $650 for non-members. Even the lower rate is hefty, and successful candidates will be right to expect a return on their investment.

Despite the cost, Sabertext’s general manager, Benjamin Hourigan, has enrolled to sit (and pass) the exam in Sydney.

Editors: Is $490/$650 too much to charge for accreditation? What will you be expecting from accreditation? Will you raise your fees?

Clients: How will accreditation influence the way you perceive, seek out, and deal with editors? Will you be more inclined to hire staff or freelancers with the AE designation?

Comments are open.

Watch out: if you ever find yourself writing homogenous, you probably mean homogeneous.

According to the New Oxford American Dictionary:

Homogeneous means “of the same kind, alike … consisting of parts all of the same kind.”

Homogenous is “an old fashioned term for homologous,” which means “having the same relation, relative position, or structure.”

This one of those tricky distinctions many writers are unaware of, and an instance where an editor’s specialist attention can ensure absolute correctness and precision.

From benhourigan.com #

As an editor, I often follow this rule:

• When you can, change a word to one with less syllables but the same meaning.

I’m also quite happy to follow copywriters’ rules and start sentences with “but” or “and” when it helps to break long, multi-clause sentences into more readable chunks.

So, when I see a sentence starting with “However,” I usually change it to start with “But.”

This can produce some unfortunate repetition, as an author today pointed out to me. Take this sentence:

Not all of these welfare recipients rely entirely on benefits—some combine benefits with an element of paid work—but nearly all are net tax beneficiaries who do not make a real contribution to the public purse. But come election time, as adults they are compelled to vote. (emphasis added)

This shows that while it’s good to have a clear set of rules to edit by, it’s also important to keep looking for places where breaking them makes the writing better.

The key to raising your Google PageRank, which determines how far up or down your site appears in search results, is to have high-ranking sites link to yours.

To that end, one of the important ways to start is to incorporate a blog into your site, perhaps by basing it on a major content management system (CMS) like WordPress or Drupal. Blog posts on topical and highly searched for subjects can generate inbound links. You can also list your site on the top-ranked blog directories. Just search for “blog directory” on Google, and list with directories from the first page of hits. The sites themselves will give you instructions on how to do it.

Be aware that some directories will charge you for listings. These directories are only for the desperate and we don’t recommend them as a starting point.

We’ll start by listing with Blog Catalog, Bloggapedia, Total Blog Directory, and blogarama.com. These directories are free and open to all comers, but Blog Catalog and Bloggapedia won’t take your blog if it is brand new and has limited content.

So before you start trying to get listed, make sure that your site has been running for at least a month, and that you have been posting regularly. Three times a week is an reasonable goal for people serious about getting their site noticed.

This brings us to one of the key points in using a blog as a marketing tool: if you want your blog to work hard at promoting your site and business, you need to be update it regularly with content that readers find interesting and useful.

Make sure you use a traffic analysis tool like Google Analytics or Mint to see what posts generate the most readers and inbound links. Focus your posts on those topics that are most compelling to other bloggers and readers interested in your industry.

If you’re serious about making your business a success, you should have real expertise and advice to share. Don’t be stingy and think you ought to keep it for those who pay upfront: your knowledge is much more valuable in the open. Becoming a credible online authority will only boost your reputation and earnings.

So get blogging! Or if you don’t have the time to generate content for yourself, Sabertext can help you develop a strategy, set up a site, and write or edit the posts—this is just one of the services we offer. Contact us today by email with your inquiry or to request a callback.

We don’t pull punches.

Sabertext aims to be the number one provider of premium writing and editing services to influential individuals and major businesses and institutions.

We’ve just begun our journey, and we plan to work hard to reach our goals.

One of our first orders of business is to become the top hit on Google anytime you search for “writers” or “editors.” The current number one for editors is one of the UK’s top bands (PageRank 5). English Wikipedia (PageRank 7) holds the top spot for writers. Can we beat them? We’ll give it our best shot.

We’ve got a variety of strategies in mind to get to number one, among them making this blog an outstanding source of comment on writing, editing, and their associated industries. We’ll keep you posted on the rest.

Hold us in your sights as our star rises.

Image: Alastair Moore. Some rights reserved.

Sabertext’s general manager, Benjamin Hourigan, has a new article out.

What kind of moral responsibility could you have for actions carried out in a game, which have no lasting consequences?

To find out, read The Moral Code of Grand Theft Auto IV, published in the latest issue of The IPA Review, judged the world’s best free market magazine by the Atlas Foundation in 2008. It’ll be on newsstands within the next week or so, but it’s online right now.

Benjamin Hourigan has written and lectured on videogames for several years. He is available to write and edit articles, marketing material, documentation and in-game text for the videogaming industry. Contact us today to discuss how Sabertext can help you.

Welcome to Sabertext Editorial Consulting, the firm that puts you in touch with the world’s best communications professionals.

In the months and years to come, we plan to revolutionize the writing and editing business, making it more businesslike and international than ever before.

Watch this space.