Join freelance editor Kellie Hultgren, acquisitions editor Josh Leventhal, and project manager Madeleine Vasaly as they discuss the specific types of interpersonal skills needed to be successful in their editorial careers. Panelists will cover everything from contract negotiations to meeting tough production timelines to delivering tough edits. This panel is intended for current and aspiring editors, as well as publishing professionals who are looking for ways to improve their production process.

Panelists

Josh Leventhal is an acquisitions editor at the Minnesota Historical Society Press. He has worked in publishing as an editor for more than twenty years and has acquired books in a range of subject areas, including history, sports, music, travel and transportation, gardening, and nature and wildlife. He is also the author of seven books, most recently A History of Baseball in 100 Objects.

Madeleine Vasaly is a project manager at Quarto Publishing Group in downtown Minneapolis. She sees twenty to twenty-five nonfiction books a year from content edit through preproduction, working with acquiring editors and authors on in-house editing and directing the work of freelance copyeditors, proofreaders, indexers, and book packagers. She is also the senior editor of local online magazine Twin Cities Geek, where she content edits and copyedits articles, screens prospective writers and editors, and reviews the work of the site’s current editing staff.

Kellie M. Hultgren started KMH Editing after stops at every other stage of the book business, from slush review to production, marketing, distribution, and sales. Thanks to this varied background, she knows how to wield both an en-dash and a hydraulic knife. She has worked in-house at Bookmobile, Beaver’s Pond Press, and Lerner Books and now provides developmental editing, copy editing, and project management for trade and academic publishers and individual writers from Saint Paul to Singapore. Kellie specializes in inspiring writers to up their game without blowing (too many) deadlines.

moderator

Laura Zats is the editorial manager of Wise Ink Creative Publishing and a literary agent at Red Sofa Literary. She is also one half of the publishing-focused podcast Print Run. Currently, she sits on the board of the Minnesota Book Publisher’s Roundtable, where she acts as vice president.