A career as an editor is often a solo adventure, especially if you’re a freelancer. So, we thought one way to better connect with fellow editors was to ask them to submit their responses to a set of questions based on the Five Ws: who, what, where, when, and why. Read on for some thought-provoking, enlightening tidbits from those of us who choose to work with words to earn our keep.
Eric Hübler is a Canadian/American/Polish (in order of passport acquisition) editor who worked as a reporter and marketing writer before settling down as a freelancer in Denver. He loves his Tilley hat, curling, and humorous writers.
Please tell us a little about yourself, the kind of work you do (and where you live), and how long you’ve been an editor.
I was born in Montreal and brought to Europe and then to the New York area as an infant. (“New York area” is what people say if they grew up in northern New Jersey.) I worked as a freelance reporter and copy editor in Tokyo and New York, then moved to Denver with my wife and our two children to join the reporting staff of The Denver Post for about seven years. Later, I surprised myself by falling for long-form editing while on staff at an education non-profit that was launching a line of books, and I began making a go of it as a freelance editor about three years ago. Now I’m a contract copy editor for CEO Update, a Washington-based newsletter, and for independent authors.
Who: If you could edit one famous author, living or dead, who would it be?
Editing a humourist like Mark Twain, P.J. O’Rourke, David Sedaris, or Bill Bryson would be an excellent challenge. I like drawn-out anecdotes with uproarious punchlines, but I also like grammatical precision, and I don’t think those are mutually exclusive. I’d draw the line at editing Hunter S. Thompson because after reading Jann Wenner’s description of what it was actually like to edit him, I don’t think I could have managed it except maybe if I were paid by the hour.
What: What is the one thing that has helped you the most in your career as an editor?
My mother was an English teacher and went through life copy editing the world, so I absorbed the conventions of written English early. I began freelancing in high school, so my initial impression of editors was that they were gods who could bestow affirmation and money. I later encountered editors of, let’s say, diverse quality, and decided to model myself on the supportive ones.
Where: If you could work anywhere in the world as an editor, where would that be?
I got a Polish passport as a pandemic hobby, so now I can work throughout North America and the European Union. But my wife is a Colorado civil servant, and her job is not portable at all, so I think we are here for the duration. I just need to be someplace I can curl, and we have ten sheets in metro Denver now.
When: Was there ever a time in your life when you seriously questioned your career choice?
Every time a prospect turns down my bid.
Why: Why did you choose to become an editor? Or, should we ask: Why did editing choose you?
Because I worked with editors for decades, and sometimes was one, I thought I knew what the career was all about, and it didn’t seem that appealing. Maybe I had a long-delayed mental growth spurt because when I returned seriously to editing in my fifties, I got the same satisfaction helping authors as I once got from seeing my own byline. Now I bolt to my desk in the morning to keep plugging away. Editing provides what all “knowledge workers” crave: the ability to focus on a task for the length of time I deem appropriate. I no longer compulsively apply for jobs, and I feel like my transition to a “phased retirement” will come naturally.
And, of course, we just had to ask the inevitable how: How would you sum up your motto?
I wrote this for my website: “You think thoughts. I clean ’em up.”
This article was copy edited by Vilma Indra Vītols, a part-time freelance editor and opera singer living in Toronto. She is a member of Plain Canada Clair and sings with the Canadian Opera Company Chorus.
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