Join Us for the Virtual EFA Conference & 55th Anniversary Celebration!
September 5–6, 2025
Theme: Strong Stories, Stronger Community: Celebrating 55 Years of Editorial Excellence
This September, the Editorial Freelancers Association marks 55 years of cultivating a vibrant community of freelance editorial professionals — esteemed for their expertise, inclusive in their ethos, and thriving in their businesses.
Join us online September 5–6 for a special two-day virtual event filled with insight, inspiration, networking, and celebration.
This year’s conference features dual programming tracks designed to meet the evolving needs of editorial freelancers. The Editorial Know-How Track is designed to help you hone your craft with sessions led by experienced editors covering best practices, tools, and techniques. The Business Track will help you strengthen your freelance business with guidance on pricing, contracts, client management, marketing, planning for retirement, and more.
Schedule at a Glance
Day 1
9:30 a.m. (ET) Coffee Break w/ EFA Staff
10:00 a.m. (ET) Welcome + State of the EFA (EFA Executive Director Autumn A. Arnett and EFA Co-chairs Cody Sisco and Katy Grenfell)
11:00 a.m. (ET) Concurrent Sessions 1 (Click on arrow to view or hide sessions.)
- What to Charge: Digging into the numbers to define the right rate for you:
Whether you are a newish or experienced freelancer, having a system to streamline the rate-setting process can take away any second-guessing and the fear of missing out on the job. Learn how to: Determine full or part-time income expectations; calculate your personal target hourly rate; establish minimum project rates using the online Rate Calculator; and adjust the project fee to accommodate life changes or experience level. - Turning Your Life Experience Into An Editing Career:
This course discusses turning your personal expertise into an editing service that you can profit from. I’ll share my story, along with examples pulled from a handful of novels, to demonstrate how life experiences, training, hobbies, and previous occupations can translate into valuable editorial feedback for authors. We’ll cover methods to package and market your expertise, including virtual consultations, editorial letters, and even videos. This course is designed to help editors unlock hidden potential in the skills they already have, while expanding their services in unexpected ways. - Forensic Fact-Check:
Dissecting Bone-Chilling FictionLearn to fact-check fiction-how bones break, what scientists can tell from them, and crime scenes really work-to help authors create stories with a forensic level of accuracy.
11:45 a.m. (ET) Break
12:00 p.m. (ET) Concurrent Sessions 2 (Click on arrow to view or hide sessions.)
- From “I’m Interested” to “You’re Hired!”: Steps to Woo and Win a Client:
We all want to land the job. Learn how in this presentation. This presentation covers the steps between “I’m interested” and “You’re hired!” You will learn: What to ask to determine if the project is for you; when to use systems and templates and when to personalize pitches; why providing too much information can be overwhelming; how to keep you leads warm, even if they don’t hire you immediately. - Mastermind Magic: Unlocking Success Together:
In a sometimes lonely profession, forming a mastermind group is a way to gain colleagues who know your personal goals and challenges – people you can turn to for advice, motivation, commiseration, and celebration. Join four EFA members as we share the story of our mastermind group: how we got started, how we’ve kept the group going, and how it has helped us stay motivated and grow professionally. - Editing for the ear: getting the book audiobook-ready
In this lively, interactive presentation by audiobook producer and engineer, Mary Catherine Jones, you will gain an understanding of the audiobook market (including the fastest growing genres), learn to “think with your ears” when editing copy and addressing graphics, and get a comprehensive overview of how an audiobook is made, options for narration, and how to make that process as smooth as possible. Understanding this related segment of the publishing industry will establish competence and build confidence between editors and the writers they work with.
12:45 p.m. (ET) Brown Bag Lunch Roundtable: Boosters and Barriers: Supporting Editors of Color, sponsored by Inclusive Media Solutions LLC
Publishing is a tough business for all, but even more so for underrepresented editors. Business decisions can be as nuanced as editorial decisions! Join a conversation led by editors of color about how to build a freelance career amid a dearth of good business advice. We’ll discuss how we can boost visibility while challenging long-standing barriers to entry. All are welcome as we touch on topics such as business structures, networking, and relationship building.
Publishing is a tough business for all, but even more so for underrepresented editors. Business decisions can be as nuanced as editorial decisions! Join a conversation led by editors of color about how to build a freelance career amid a dearth of good business advice. We’ll discuss how we can boost visibility while challenging long-standing barriers to entry. All are welcome as we touch on topics such as business structures, networking, and relationship building.
1:30 p.m. (ET) Deep Dive 1 (Click on arrow to view or hide sessions.)
- Business Operations & Strategy Workshop for Freelancers:
As freelancers, we work IN the business delivering value to clients and ON the business. This interactive workshop gives you a chance to focus ON your business operations and strategy. What’s working? What needs to shift? Whether your goals have shifted or you’re ready to regain momentum, this guided check-in will help you realign with what matters most. You’ll leave with greater clarity, a refreshed sense of direction, and a few practical next steps to move forward with intention. - Narrative Alchemy: Blending Human Creativity with AI Tools for Developmental Editing:
It’s time to explore the dynamic world of developmental editing, where human ingenuity can partner with AI technology elevate storytelling. This session features exercises with real manuscript excerpts and actionable strategies for delivering empathetic, effective guidance. Whether you edit fiction, memoir, or long-form nonfiction, you’ll leave with a robust toolkit for leveraging AI to enhance revisions that bring manuscripts to life. Learn how to embrace this omnipresent technology while keeping the personal touch authors value from human editors for developmental edits.
2:45 p.m. (ET) Break
3:00 p.m. (ET) Concurrent Sessions 3 (Click on arrow to view or hide sessions.)
- Intentional Time Management for Freelance Editors: Plan, Track, and Take Control:
Many freelance editors manage their time reactively-juggling tasks as they come-without a clear plan for how they want to use their hours. This session will help you establish a personalized time management plan and a set of strategies to help you track and evaluate how you actually spend your billable and nonbillable time. You’ll leave with a system you can stick with-one that flexes as your workload and goals evolve. Whether you’re overwhelmed or just want to work smarter, this session will give you the tools to finally feel on top of your time. - LinkedIn Stylin’ and Profilin’:
Learn how to to add every possible enhancement to your LinkedIn profile to add featured content and make your profile stand out from the crowd. - Your editor is your friend: Tips for choosing and working with the right editor for you:
Writers often fear that an editor’s job is to tear their work apart-but a good editor is actually your creative ally. In this session, we’ll reframe the editor-writer relationship as a collaborative partnership built on trust, mutual respect, and a shared goal: making your work shine. You’ll learn how to find the right editor for your project, what to expect from the editing process, and how to communicate effectively so your voice stays strong and your final piece is the best it can be.
3:45 p.m. (ET) Break
4:00 Sponsored Deep Dive (Click on arrow to view or hide sessions.)
- 1,2,3 Easy as A,B,C: Demystifying Financial Statements for Entrepreneurs:
Financial statements don’t have to be intimidating. In this session, you’ll learn how to read and understand balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements in simple, practical terms. Designed for entrepreneurs without an accounting background, this workshop will give you the tools to make confident, informed decisions to grow your freelancing business.
5:15 p.m. (ET) Break
5:30 p.m. (ET) Fireside Chat: The EFA Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow — Celebrating 55 Years of Editorial Excellence with panelists Elliot Linzer, Sheila Buff, Joy Drohan and moderator Lisa Goich-Andreadis
Day 2
4:00 a.m. (ET) International Networking Session
10:00 a.m. (ET) Coffee Break w/ EFA Staff
10:30 a.m. (ET) Concurrent Sessions 4 (Click on arrow to view or hide sessions.)
- Keeping the Pulse of Your Editorial Freelance Business: Prompts and Templates to Use Annually, Quarterly, and Monthly
It is vital to give yourself time and space to reflect on your editorial freelance business regularly, not only to hold yourself accountable and assess the health of your business but also to allow yourself room to explore what’s possible professionally. I will share more about my introspective process during this presentation as well as useful prompts and templates to help you incorporate this practice into your own routine. - The Freelance Editor’s Guide to Low-Stress, Authentic Selling
Discover a fresh approach to sales that aligns with your values as a freelance editor. This session introduces a client-centric mindset that prioritizes long-term relationships and mutual benefit. In this session you’ll learn how to: adopt to a consultative approach, identify ideal clients among prospects, qualify leads, manage your sales time, and maintain value while negotiating rates - Editing Transcribed Speech
Advances in machine learning have transformed the field of audio transcription, making it easier and cheaper than ever to produce serviceable transcripts and captions for all kinds of speech, but there’s still a role for editorial professionals in correcting and refining this output. This session presents principles for balancing accuracy and usability in transcribed speech depending on its context and purpose, focusing on three cases: captions and transcripts for accessibility, interviews intended for publication, and writers’ use of speech-to-text tools.
11:15 a.m. (ET) Break
11:30 a.m. (ET) Concurrent Sessions 5 (Click on arrow to view or hide sessions.)
- Pack Your Parachute: Contingency Planning for Freelance Editors
When you’re a solo business owner, it’s all on you to deal with emergencies that crop up, whether it’s equipment failure, an extended power outage, severe injury or illness, or worse. You can’t necessarily prevent emergencies, but you can make contingency plans so that they are less disruptive to you and your clients if they do happen. In this session, we’ll discuss various types of emergencies that might affect your business and how to lay a solid foundation for creating plans to handle them – including a framework for notifying your clients and handing off your work in worst-case scenarios. You’ll leave with an outline for thinking through and establishing your own personalized contingency plans. - LifeEdits: Put The Freedom Into Freelancing!
As an editor, you are expected to manage multiple projects and tasks while also taking time to stay current with evolving trends, develop or sharpen editorial skills, and network with other industry professionals. If you’re a freelancer, add numerous business duties such as tracking expenses, preparing taxes, and marketing yourself to ensure steady work. And somehow in between all this, you’re trying to fit in some semblance of fun, rest, and quality time with the people you love-including yourself!
In this session, you’ll learn how to maximize your seven LifeZones so you can feel that you’re in control and making the absolute most of your life. By the end, you’ll have a plan in place to start making small, simple changes-LifeEdits-to make it happen. - Email Marketing for Book Professionals
You’ve heard about email lists for businesses, but how do you make it work for book professionals? Learn why and how you can build an email list to connect with your author clients and help keep you top of mind for their next project. In this presentation, we’ll cover what email marketing is (and isn’t) and how to begin from zero, grow your audience, and email your subscribers.
12:15 p.m. (ET) Lunch
1:00 p.m. (ET) Deep Dive 2 (Click on arrow to view or hide sessions.)
- Which Expert Should I Choose? Elevating Editors of Color, sponsored by Inclusive Media Solutions LLC
Sometimes it helps to yield the stage! We all have our areas of expertise, but it can often be difficult to join the conversation when you haven’t been invited. Join a candid discussion about which supports more editors of color wish they got from their peers. All are welcome as we talk about making meaningful connections that allow opportunities to showcase the perspective and overlooked editorial prowess of editors of color. - What Powers a Prompt? From Servers to Sentences
Every time you generate AI content-text, images, or video-there’s a hidden energy cost. This session explores the environmental footprint behind AI, from data centers and power grids to the complexity of the prompts we write. As these tools become more common in editorial and creative workflows, understanding their real-world impact is increasingly important. We’ll look at what drives energy use, where transparency is lacking, and how editors and writers can make more informed, responsible choices.
2:15 p.m. (ET) Break
2:30 p.m. (ET) Concurrent Sessions 6 (Click on arrow to view or hide sessions.)
- Not-So-Scary Contracts: Things to Consider to Protect Yourself
There is way more to signing contracts than meets the eye. Contracts protect both parties, but most editors only think about getting paid! In this Q&A session, join intellectual property and business lawyer Nequosha Anderson and social justice writer and editor Ebonye Gussine Wilkins in this informative session about what editors should look out for, who protects who in contracts, and what you should consider when creating your own legal protection document-as an editor who works with client’s intellectual property. - Don’t be a Poopyhead: Slurs, Ableism, and Inclusive Language
As language artists, editors shape the world with the words we use and those we delete. In this session, I’ll provide background on ableism and slurs, and then I’ll invite attendees to offer replacements for common slurs, insults, and phrases with inherent stigma. This presentation is informed by “Elements of Indigenous Style,” The Radical Copyeditor, “The Conscious Style Guide,” and others.
3:15 p.m. (ET) Break
3:30 p.m. (ET) Happy Birthday to the EFA/Closing Remarks
Registration is now open!
💻 Virtual Event
🎟️ $120 for EFA members | $165 for non-members
Sponsor the Virtual EFA Conference & 55th Anniversary Celebration!
Hosted on an interactive virtual platform, the EFA’s Virtual EFA Conference & 55th Anniversary Celebration’s planning team is working intentionally to recreate the natural collaboration and interactions that exist in in-person formats. The event will include virtual meet-up opportunities, networking games, and the ability to chat with speakers and other guests in conference “hallways.”
