About me

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to apply for the position of Medical Copy Editor/Proofreader at Redsofa.

Having recently been employed on a temporary contract as an Assistant Editor on John Wiley's prestigious SCI Journals, I would like to broaden my experience and apply for a copy editing post. I am very enthusiastic about my career in scholarly publishing and would relish the opportunity of working at a high level in academic print. I think I will be very well suited to this post given my hard-working, methodical and meticulous personality along with my previous experience where I have learnt importance of high standards.

The work that I have undertaken at John Wiley should bear witness to my efficiency, organisational competence and my ability to pay attention to detail. My primary role from the beginning of my term of employment involved dealing with authors' contributions, from the first submission stage right up until the production process using Wiley's online editorial system.

However, I also dealt with all administrative duties; I organised invoices and honoraria, followed up commissioning leads, researched information on the marketplace and prepared documents for the department to present at board meetings, as well as recording minutes of meetings and distributing them promptly.

Whilst working in publishing, I feel I have proved that I can effectively multi-task, prioritise jobs and manage my own workload whilst making appropriate decisions. Working on such a big journal, I constantly had to deal simultaneously with several tasks by organising and tracking their 'stages' in spreadsheets on Excel. In addition, I effectively operated a variety of programmes including Word, PowerPoint and Outlook to optimise departmental productivity and efficiency.

While I at Wiley, I took responsibility for maintaining Wiley's Biofpr HTML website. As the website acted as an advertising tool to the journal, I worked closely with the marketing team and several of the promotional pieces that I wrote were included in their monthly newsletter.

I also consistently maintained excellent relationships with colleagues, authors, editors and board members. Indeed I have often had to use tact and diplomacy when encouraging contributors and editors to meet their deadlines. As a confident, articulate and outgoing person I feel that I was able to converse effectively in face to face situations, as well as in telephone conversations and through email communication.

During my time on the news desks at 'The Independent' and 'The Guardian', working in a lively and exiting environment, I demonstrated that I was able to successfully perform under pressure, while adhering to strict print deadlines. I often had to write clear concise copy to fit into limited spaces and enjoyed writing catchy promotional pieces. I also have an eye for detail with regard to copy editing. I worked as a Copy Editor for the 'I Am Joy' arts magazine, as well as helping to sell advertising space to local businesses. In addition, I helped with production costing and budgeting for the publication of a series of issues.

I also feel that my education and training will provide the useful foundation stones to underpin my role in this post. I have a high standard of verbal and written literacy.

Since I studied Journalism at Cardiff University for my degree, I also feel I will be able to usefully employ the knowledge and skills I acquired whilst doing my degree; for example I excelled in media law modules at university, gaining top marks in my year and feel that awareness of these laws could also be extremely helpful in this post.

I would very much appreciate the opportunity to continue my career in publishing at Redsofa. I should be available to attend an interview at most times and look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

Nick Gillison