Telecommuting for editors

[Sabine]

I'm an editor who has been suffering under florescent lights for too long. I knew that my current company would not permit telecommuting, but I have been corresponding with my former boss, who wants me to come back. I told her I could not move back to the city where that publication is based, but I would consider a telecommuting arrangement. She actually sounded positive about it and said she'd seriously consider it!

Her biggest concern is not having me in the office during production week, where we pass around pages from the magazine and proofread them. Does anyone have any easy solutions to this? My suggestions were to have her send me low-res PDFs (which she could e-mail or FTP) or fax the pages to me for proofing. Both of these things take extra time and effort though, something that won't really help my case. If we're dealing with a 100+ page book, that's a lot of time wasted on her end... The easier I can make it, the more convincing my case will be. Are there any editors here (or anyone else for that matter) with good solutions on quick and easy file sharing for multiple documents?

If you have any other suggestions on telecommuting for editors, please let me know. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

[GlamourGirl]

Hi Sabine,

I'm glad to see there are other people in the magazine industry who are trying to make 4HWW work for them!

The only suggestion I can make is to see if the magazine has the capability to use InCopy and K4. My magazine uses it, and you can make track changes (notes, comments, etc.) directly on the layout or galley. That way, your edits can be made and passed on without ever printing a single piece of paper.

The only complication comes with getting remote access for a mac computer...

That's where I'm stuck.

Good luck and let me know if you find any other good solutions!

xoxo

GG

[Grayman]

Hi Sabine,

Another similar option is to try to setup a remote desktop solution so that you can connect to your company's network and then you can work just like you were sitting at your desk at your company. You wouldn't need to have these 100+ pages sent to you and nobody would have to take extra effort to accommodate the fact that you weren't there. You would be able to access them "directly."

I guess this wouldn't work too well if the proofreading process relies on hard copies being handed around and such but it's definitely an option that shouldn't be too hard to setup, especially if there is decent IT staff on site.

Hope you find something that works out!

[Sabine]

Hello everyone,
Thanks for your suggestions. I just talked to my old editor yesterday, and she said that as much as she'd like to have me back, she needs to have someone on site for this position. :( But, if the other off-site editor doesn't renew her contract by the end of the year, I will be her first phone call. So there is still hope.

In the meantime, I need to keep working on developing my muses, which haven't gone anywhere.