If you were not able to attend our May member meeting, or you'd like to review Rosilynn Yoon's fabulous presentation and all the strategies she discussed, we have great news for you—the recording is now available on the Northwest Editors Guild's website! It will be available publicly until July 20, 2026, and after that it will be locked to Guild members only.

Thank you to all those who responded to the Northwest Editors Guild 2026 Member Survey. We had a response rate of nearly 27%, with 118 of the Guild’s 440 members completing the survey. 

We hope that you will find this summary of survey responses informative, and we look forward to incorporating your feedback into future Guild programming.

Our all-volunteer board of directors changes a little bit every year, with most members serving a two-year term on the board that ends in February. This year, our new 2026 leadership team answered a few questions so that you can get to know them better!

Our latest blog post looks at the University of Chicago’s latest editing reference, Medical Editing: A Guide to Learning the Craft and Building Your Career, by award-winning editor Barbara Gastel.

On Saturday, November 8, over 300 editors gathered in Lynnwood and online for the Northwest Editors Guild’s 2025 Red Pencil Conference! This year’s hybrid event, Framing our Futures: Perspectives on a Changing Industry, drew 185 in-person attendees, 131 online attendees, and 24 panelists and speakers (11 of whom were Guild members). The program included 15 empowering sessions exploring everything from working with authors to AI to freelancing. “This conference was the boost I needed to re-energize and refocus,” wrote one happy attendee. “I have so many notes and ideas to think through. The professional development from this day is going to help me be a better editor.”

Read more about the conference highlights in our latest blog post!

Did you miss our September 22nd meeting, The Basics of Sensitivity Reading - Editor Edition, with Brittany Yost? Don’t worry: you can now watch the video on our website! It will be accessible to the public until November 24th, and then available only to Guild members.

Sensitivity reading is a service that’s evolved significantly over the past 5 years and is still growing. In this session, we’ll take a quick look at how the practice has developed, where it stands presently (including the effects of the ongoing pushback around DEI), and what best practices are coming to the forefront. Our presenter, Brittany Yost, will cover how to speak with authors about needing a sensitivity reader, how to approach a sensitivity reader, and what pitfalls to avoid through both the freelance and acquisition editor's perspective.

The Northwest Editors Guild blog team had the fabulous opportunity to chat recently with Aisha “Ash P” Panjwaneey, owner of Ash P Reads Editing Services. Aisha has two decades of experience in editing across diverse genres and online content. Known among peers as "the book surgeon," she specializes in safe-for-work nonfiction and fiction for all ages. We’re excited to share with you everything we learned from that discussion and her experiences.

Did you miss our June 16th meeting, The Editor’s Edge Marketing Marketing Workshop | Elevate Your Editing Biz with Rosilynn Yoon? Never fear, the video is now available! It will be accessible to the public for one month starting from today, and then available only to Guild members.

In this marketing workshop made for freelance editors, Rosilynn Yoon—a full-time digital marketing freelancer—will help you to stand out in a saturated market, how to go beyond your services, how to speak (and find) the right people, and how to amplify your work online and offline.

The definition of a mentor as a “trusted counselor or guide” speaks to the core of what our editing community can offer. Since October 2021, I have been fortunate to mentor 10 editors through the Northwest Editors Guild’s Mentoring Program, and others outside of the Guild. Imagine the collective impact we could have on our community if more of us stepped into a mentoring role. We are supporting our peers by fostering growth while simultaneously strengthening our profession—and, perhaps surprisingly, gaining new perspectives ourselves as well. Curious about becoming a mentor? Let’s explore how you can offer invaluable guidance to your fellow editors.

Have you heard the big news? Jane Friedman will be the keynote speaker at the 2025 Red Pencil conference on November 8th in Seattle and online! Save the date for a day of learning and fun.

As artificial intelligence reshapes the publishing landscape, editors face unprecedented questions about their role, their relationships with writers, and the future of literary creation itself. In this keynote address, publishing industry veteran Jane Friedman examines how AI is already transforming the editorial process—from manuscript evaluation to developmental guidance to line editing—while placing these changes within broader industry shifts.

Learn more on our Red Pencil 2025 page, and keep an eye out for registration opening this summer!

The Northwest Editors Guild's 9th biennial Red Pencil Conference will take place on Saturday, November 8, 2025! This year's theme is Framing Our Future: Perspectives on a Changing Industry. The 2025 Red Pencil conference will explore how editors can play a pivotal role in shaping the future of our industry during this time of rapid change. 

With an inspiring keynote and a full day of sessions led by experts in our field, we'll examine the myriad challenges and opportunities facing editors today. These include the dizzying growth of AI, rising censorship and intellectual property theft, and preserving the diversity and value that is vital to our industry.

Learn more and on our blog.

Red Pencil Conference 2025, Framing Our Future: Perspectives on a Changing Industry

November 8, 2025
Lynnwood Event Center and online

Join us for an engaging and interactive conference where you’ll hear insider perspectives on the editing industry. There will be sessions for new and advanced editors, multiple networking opportunities, a buffet lunch, and an inspiring keynote to bring the day together.

Tickets will go on sale in the summer of 2025.

The Northwest Editors Guild blog team had the fabulous opportunity to chat recently with Madeleine Vasaly, editor, proofreader, and author of The Proofreader’s Guide to Comic Book Style. We’re excited to share with you everything we learned from that discussion in our latest blog post.

Do your clients need help dragging their style guide into 2025? Member Beth Chapple shows us how to help clients implement style changes from the 18th edition of CMOS.

Did you miss our November Member Meeting, Indexing with Daniel Heila? Never fear, the video recording is now available! It will be accessible to the public for one month starting from today, and then available only to Guild members from then on.

We have a newsletter! If you are a member of the Guild, we hope you received the most recent issue of our monthly newsletter on the afternoon of the first of the month. If you did, great!

If not, don’t despair—it almost certainly got lost in a spam or promotions folder. To receive future issues straight to your inbox, please add info@edsguild.org to your email client’s safe list. Or, if you’d rather view it on our website, you can find this issue and all future issues in the member-only Newsletter Archive (under the news tab in our navigation bar).

Did you miss our July 8th meeting, Disability / Language / Grace: An Introduction? Never fear, the video and handout and resource list are now available! Everything will be accessible to the public for one month starting from today, and then available only to Guild members from then on.

Did you miss our May 13th meeting, AI for Editors with Erin Servais? Never fear, the video is now available! It will be accessible to the public for one month starting from today, and then available only to Guild members from then on.

Did you miss our November 20th meeting, Making Your Business Accessible with Mary-Colleen Jenkins? Never fear, the video, resource list, and PowerPoint slides are now available! It will be accessible to the public for one month starting from today, and then available only to Guild members from then on.

The Northwest Editors Guild community has been deeply saddened by the loss of one of the Guild’s two co-founders, Sherri Schultz.

Sherri and Phyllis Hatfield started what was then called the Northwest Independent Editors Guild in 1997 with just eleven members, and in 1999, as the Guild became a little more formal, Sherri built its first website. In addition to her extensive work in helping the Guild to grow into a registered nonprofit and setting us up to become today an organization with more than 400 members across the United States, Sherri was a passionate educator, organizer, and builder of community.

To learn more about Sherri and everything she did for the Guild and its members, check out our new memorial page.