Two items this week highlight the value of editing. First, an academic client contacted me to say she had been awarded a highly competitive ARC Discovery Project grant for 2023. She was very grateful for the help I provided in editing her grant application in economics. While not all high quality applications can be successful, job and grant applications are some of the best examples of the value of editing and return on investment.

As I noted in my recent blog on cultural safety in editing here, this is the second time in recent months that an ARC Discovery Project application I have edited has been successful. The two projects were in very different fields.

Second, Alice Grundy from the Australian National University wrote in The Conversation on 28 November 2022 on the visibility of editors here. It is obvious and true that it is very hard to appreciate the value of editing if it is never mentioned or credited. In my many years as a reader, I have noticed that in the preliminary pages of a book, the book cover designer is often named, but not the people who worked on editing the book and shaping it into the final product. It is not always possible to credit editors, and some editors may prefer not be credited on some work, but we can do better.

Several aspects of editing contribute to it being under-recognised and under-valued: it is mostly done by women, it is creative work, it can be done alone and at home, it is invisible, and it is piece work. Better recognition of editors is central to better pay and conditions for editing, and to increase the diversity of editors and published material.

I have been working on this issue for several years. At the members forum following the AGM of the Institute of Professional Editors in November 2022, I spoke briefly about the work of the Pay and Conditions Standing Committee to increase pay rates in the Book Industry Award for employee editors in the publishing industry. This builds on my other volunteer work for the Institute of Professional Editors including indicative costs of academic editing here.

See my related previous blogs:

• the return on investment of editing

• how to acknowledge your editor

To work with an accredited editor who provides value to clients, please contact me at rhdaniels@bigpond.com