Editors Unplugged: Get to know our speaker for How to Find Freelance Editing Work

Interview conducted by Catherine Dorton.

Our popular monthly program meetings often feature a jam-packed agenda. We like to keep our introductions short, so you can hear more from our panellists and less from us! It’s hard to do justice to the incredible wealth of experience these guests bring to the table, so we are offering you a preview with this short Q&A beforehand.

This month, we are honoured to be joined by Greg Ioannou, who will be talking about how to find editing work, including freelance, and Editors Canada’s plans to help editors find work

What book, movie, or TV show title best describes your life?

My brother sometimes talks about how he’s never seen or read anything that remotely resembles our lives. I may have to write the damned thing myself.

What was the luckiest thing that ever happened to you?

Getting drafted by the Australian army. They were going to send me to Vietnam. I opted for Canada instead.

What genre or type of project have you not yet had the chance to work on, but would like to?

I’ve done three books on cannibalism, and many, many cookbooks, but never a cannibalism cookbook.

What can’t you live without?

Chaos, apparently. I can’t stand a tidy desk, a completed to-do list, everything being orderly and under control. I thrive where things are about to fall apart, revel in avoiding inchoate rubble and ruin. Neatness is the ultimate evil.

What can’t you work without?

Co-workers. I used to freelance at home, and found it boring, lonely, depressing. I need an office to go to and people to work with.

More About Greg Ioannou

Greg Ioannou has a long history in publishing. He’s worked on well over 3,000 books, on topics ranging from cannibalism to vegetarian cuisine, and from science fiction to how to design a helicopter. He’s taught publishing at Ryerson University, George Brown College, and elsewhere, and served four terms as president of Editors Canada. He is the CEO of Colborne Communications, a writing and editing company, and president of the Toronto hybrid publisher Iguana Books. Through Colborne, Greg and his team have worked on everything from websites and self-published books to board games and government reports. As a hybrid publisher, Greg has helped more than 100 authors publish top-quality books in genres ranging from mysteries to political thrillers to humour, and in 2018, Iguana Books co-published with Canadian Authors Association the first in a series of planned anthologies of new Canadian writing.