Suzy Powling’s WISE talk was an insight into a career most of us possibly don’t even think about. A book just ‘happens’, doesn’t it?

Suzy has worked almost her entire career as a non-fiction book and magazine editor, and it has certainly been a varied career that relies on her using all her ‘ideas, skills and experience’ (WISE words!) in a variety of settings, to support a wide variety of authors from idea to publication. She is now well read (she must read every word of course) in areas as diverse as marriage guidance, antiques, wine, motherhood, military history, physics, psychology and much more.

Although Suzy started out at Faber & Faber, it was at a smaller independent non-fiction publisher called Batsford that she explained was her ‘crucially formative period’ for learning the trade. Not only learning the different aspects that make up an editors’ role, but also how to treat an author – with a delicate balance of sensitivity and scrutiny.

At its most basic, Suzy explained, editing is being able to read and write (she has a degree in English and Latin), have patience and an eye for detail. The ‘red pen’ of the talk title is the clearest way of marking up a manuscript for accuracy and make notes for consistency – her watch-words.

When describing what editing is, it was clear that this is not an industry for ‘one size fits all’. Everything needed an individual approach. I liked Suzy’s anecdote about how a whole book on flower arranging arrived to her on pieces of paper, in different handwriting, and all in a carrier bag! She made a sense of it all and a successful book was created.

She has more usually worked freelance and talked modestly of writing over a dozen non-fiction books and numerous articles herself over the years, and in a very recent change, she is part way though writing a novel.

Suzy had opened by calling herself a ‘dinosaur’, as the traditional editor’s role has been transformed by digital publishing. So, from someone who once had to laboriously count every single word on a page to this new era of computer word counts, Suzy’s career has spanned all types of editing, multiple subject matter, and innumerable books and journals.  A WISE woman indeed. (Summary: Cathy Smith).