︎ EDITING
IF YOU’RE READING THIS, YOU NEED SUPPORT WITH YOUR WRITING PROCESS.
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MAYBE PEOPLE ARE FINDING YOUR WORK THROUGH SEARCH ENGINES, BUT YOU’RE NOT SEEING ANY NEW BUSINESS RESULTS; YOU WONDER IF THE WORK ISN’T RESONATING WITH THEM. YOU MAY HAVE HIRED A FREELANCE WRITER OR GHOSTWRITER, AND FEEL LIKE YOU’RE NOT SURE HOW TO SET THEM UP TO SUCCEED. PERHAPS YOU NEEDED TO SPIN UP A WRITING TEAM YESTERDAY TO MEET YOUR CONTENT PRODUCTION NEEDS, YOU’VE FALLEN BEHIND, AND NOW YOU’RE FEELING THE BURN.
ABOUT
A natural evolution from my writing practice, I learned to be a better editor through writing, as well as to integrate strategy and creative direction with writing. This includes developmental and structural editing, revising for style and proofreading, and considering shared language and cultural context. I’ve brought this perspective to work as an deputy editor at Shopify, an editor-in-chief at Intuit’s QuickBooks, and an editorial director at WorkOS.
While we may communicate our work through technology, communication is a person-to-person process. Technology is merely a facilitator. I approach editing with a person’s perspective in mind; their circumstances as they’re approaching the work, how they discover it, and why they should give up their most precious resource—time—to care. Work must earn people’s attention, and strong, clear, collaborative, editing is the best way to make that happen. An editor’s job is to cover the writer’s blind spots, to remind them of the original vision of the piece, and to take each work to its best possible state.
WORK SAMPLES
Civic Innovation Office (City of Toronto)
Through my editorial studio at Wonder Shuttle, I worked with the founding director Paula Kwan at the City of Toronto’s Civic Innovation Team, to create a 44-page report outlining the progress of 7 municipal technology projects over 2 years. The report was distributed to stakeholders in the City of Toronto and Bloomberg Philanthropies. I was responsible for editorial direction, and I managed a client, writer and editor, and designer.
Links to more info ⤵
Grant Outcomes Report: Civic Innovation Office
Civic Innovation case study
Shopify Plus
During my tenure as the deputy editor at Shopify Plus, I edited a dozen pieces per month, and directed and ghostwrote dozens of interviews and guest posts with brands like The Hundreds. I also personally wrote deep dives into topics such as Nike's omni-channel strategy, or more technical pieces such as this one on Product Information Management systems.
Links to more info ⤵
My writing at Shopify Plus
The Hundreds Creates Culture, Content & (Then) Commerce: Streetwear Fashion
Shopify
My team at Wonder Shuttle and I also worked with Shopify's core product team to build their publication. Within 30 days of our soft launch, we had seen 20,000 organic pageviews and visitors reading 31,144 minutes (nearly 520 hours) worth of our articles.
Link to more info ⤵
Product @ Shopify
Through my editorial studio at Wonder Shuttle, I worked with the founding director Paula Kwan at the City of Toronto’s Civic Innovation Team, to create a 44-page report outlining the progress of 7 municipal technology projects over 2 years. The report was distributed to stakeholders in the City of Toronto and Bloomberg Philanthropies. I was responsible for editorial direction, and I managed a client, writer and editor, and designer.
Links to more info ⤵
Grant Outcomes Report: Civic Innovation Office
Civic Innovation case study
Shopify Plus
During my tenure as the deputy editor at Shopify Plus, I edited a dozen pieces per month, and directed and ghostwrote dozens of interviews and guest posts with brands like The Hundreds. I also personally wrote deep dives into topics such as Nike's omni-channel strategy, or more technical pieces such as this one on Product Information Management systems.
Links to more info ⤵
My writing at Shopify Plus
The Hundreds Creates Culture, Content & (Then) Commerce: Streetwear Fashion
Shopify
My team at Wonder Shuttle and I also worked with Shopify's core product team to build their publication. Within 30 days of our soft launch, we had seen 20,000 organic pageviews and visitors reading 31,144 minutes (nearly 520 hours) worth of our articles.
Link to more info ⤵
Product @ Shopify
The World According to Kanye
I self-initiated a book project, working with three friends to create The World According to Kanye, an ebook covering recording artist Kanye West’s best quotes.
Links to more info ⤵
The World According to Kanye (ebook)
The World According to Kanye (hardcover)
Hypebeast coverage of The World According to Kanye
Complex coverage of The World According to Kanye
The Fader coverage of The World According to Kanye
Exact Media
In 2016, I hired a freelance writer and edited a piece for Exact Media co-founder Daniel Rodic that covered Zappos founder Tony Hsieh’s schedule. Daniel then used that work to start a conversation with Hsieh and his VTF Capital general partner Will Young, which led to them leading their funding round.
Links to more info ⤵
I studied the Zappos CEO’s schedule for a year. Here’s what I learned by Daniel Rodic
Daniel’s coverage of how the article helped him raise funding
I self-initiated a book project, working with three friends to create The World According to Kanye, an ebook covering recording artist Kanye West’s best quotes.
Links to more info ⤵
The World According to Kanye (ebook)
The World According to Kanye (hardcover)
Hypebeast coverage of The World According to Kanye
Complex coverage of The World According to Kanye
The Fader coverage of The World According to Kanye
Exact Media
In 2016, I hired a freelance writer and edited a piece for Exact Media co-founder Daniel Rodic that covered Zappos founder Tony Hsieh’s schedule. Daniel then used that work to start a conversation with Hsieh and his VTF Capital general partner Will Young, which led to them leading their funding round.
Links to more info ⤵
I studied the Zappos CEO’s schedule for a year. Here’s what I learned by Daniel Rodic
Daniel’s coverage of how the article helped him raise funding
TESTIMONIALS
Writing and editing sound simple, but the deep work that goes into it - structure, presentation, delivery - can all get incredibly challenging especially when you're responsible for multiple priorities.
I brought in [Herbert’s editorial studio] Wonder Shuttle at a crucial time to create a compelling piece of work that could capture the outcomes and stories of what my team achieved. It was important to me that the final product was simple to follow, visual, accurate, thought provoking, and of course, that it would meet my aggressive timeline. Herbert and his team delivered on that promise and were a dream to work with - they incorporated feedback quickly, challenged my ideas with their expertise to raise the quality of the work, worked collaboratively with the teams involved to draft the stories, and shipped a mock-up of the work each week so that we were aligned every step of the way. I'm still not sure how they managed to do it all with the 45-day timeline I set out, but they did with flying colours.
The result was a one-of-a-kind product that serves as a storybook anyone can pick up to understand the legacy of the Civic Innovation Office's work. It was used as an grant outcomes report, annual report, transition document, and most importantly, an important asset for the public. Wonder Shuttle’s team and contributions are invaluable, one that any leader should consider working with, in any situation where an important story needs to be told. How it looks and feels is up to your imagination - Wonder Shuttle can make it happen.
︎︎︎︎︎
Paula Kwan
(Founding Director, Civic Innovation Office at the City of Toronto)
I brought in [Herbert’s editorial studio] Wonder Shuttle at a crucial time to create a compelling piece of work that could capture the outcomes and stories of what my team achieved. It was important to me that the final product was simple to follow, visual, accurate, thought provoking, and of course, that it would meet my aggressive timeline. Herbert and his team delivered on that promise and were a dream to work with - they incorporated feedback quickly, challenged my ideas with their expertise to raise the quality of the work, worked collaboratively with the teams involved to draft the stories, and shipped a mock-up of the work each week so that we were aligned every step of the way. I'm still not sure how they managed to do it all with the 45-day timeline I set out, but they did with flying colours.
The result was a one-of-a-kind product that serves as a storybook anyone can pick up to understand the legacy of the Civic Innovation Office's work. It was used as an grant outcomes report, annual report, transition document, and most importantly, an important asset for the public. Wonder Shuttle’s team and contributions are invaluable, one that any leader should consider working with, in any situation where an important story needs to be told. How it looks and feels is up to your imagination - Wonder Shuttle can make it happen.
︎︎︎︎︎
Paula Kwan
(Founding Director, Civic Innovation Office at the City of Toronto)
Herbert is an extremely driven and talented individual with the rare ability to turn complicated subject matter into an easy to follow story. He is instrumental in helping developing and evolving our voice. His work challenges you to think critically as a reader and allows you to apply your own context to the information being presented. This is extremely rare in today’s noisy content space, and something I find incredibly valuable.
︎︎︎︎︎
Tommy Walker
(Editor in Chief, Shopify Plus)
︎︎︎︎︎
Tommy Walker
(Editor in Chief, Shopify Plus)