ABOUT OUR OWNER
Kathy Ide has been a published author since 1989. She has written books (fiction and nonfiction), articles, play and movie scripts, short stories, devotionals, and curriculum. She is the author of Proofreading Secrets of Best-Selling Authors, Editing Secrets of Best-Selling Authors, and the Capitalization Dictionary. She is also the editor/compiler of the Fiction Lover’s Devotional series.
Kathy has been a professional freelance editor since 1998, offering a full range of editorial services for aspiring writers, established authors, traditional book publishers, and independent publishers. She is the managing editor for Redemption Press.
Kathy has served on faculty at numerous writers’ conferences across the country. She directed the Orange County Christian Writers Conference, the SoCal Christian Writers’ Conference, and the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. She has also put on Christian writers’ retreats in Southern California and at Mount Hermon.
Kathy Ide
Kathy is the founder, manager, and owner of the Christian Editors Association.
THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN EDITORS ASSOCIATION
A few years after Kathy Ide launched her editing business, she realized that while there were many organizations for Christian writers, there weren’t any for Christian editors. On a six-hour drive home from the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference one year, the Lord filled her mind with ideas for what such an organization could do. The next day she asked the few Christian editors she knew if they were aware of any groups like that. They all said, “No. But you should start one!”
Having no idea how to do such a thing, Kathy learned how to create an email loop, called it The Christian PEN: Proofreaders and Editors Network, and asked her editor friends to join. They did, then invited their editor friends, who invited more editor friends. People started asking Kathy if they could design a logo for our group, if they could create a website for it, if they could offer online courses. “Oh, yes, please!” she said every time. It soon became apparent that God was the “CEO” of this organization, and he had called Kathy to get it started, then called others to help it grow.
Three years later, some PEN members asked Kathy if she could create a separate organization for established, professional freelance editors so they’d know where to send potential clients who needed a specialty they didn’t have. Kathy purchased the URL ChristianEditor.com and started Christian Editor Connection.
Ten years in, the PEN and CEC collaborated to hold the first PENCON editors’ conference . . . one of the big dreams Kathy had come up with on that six-hour drive home from Mount Hermon.
After attending a writers’ conference award presentation where self-published and small-press-published books were allowed to be entered if enough copies had sold, and wondering if those sales figures might have more to do with the author’s marketing skills and platform than the books being well written and edited, Kathy launched the Excellence in Editing Award. Members of Christian Editor Connection judged recently published books written by Christian authors or published by Christian publishers. The authors, editors, and publishers behind those books that were superbly written and well edited were honored and promoted.
As each of these organization grew, two people who’d put in a lot of volunteer time helping Kathy run them—Christi McGuire and Jenne Acevedo—suggested forming an umbrella company and bringing all the organizations under it. The three of them formed a business partnership and named the company Christian Editor Network. They created a separate division for the online training that had become such a huge part of The Christian PEN, calling it The PEN Institute.
Three years later, Kathy’s partners felt led by the Lord to pursue other avenues, so on May 3, 2019, Christian Editor Network became a sole proprietorship. The three of them worked together to bring on directors to run all the divisions.
A few years after that, some members of CEN’s management team informed Kathy that there was some confusion about the name Christian Editor Network, since the parent organization didn’t actually offer networking, like The Christian PEN: Proofreaders and Editors Network does. So on August 25, 2022, the company was renamed Christian Editors Association.
Then the director of the Excellence in Editing Award recommended it be renamed the Editors’ Choice Award, to better reflect its focus on honoring beautifully written and meticulously edited books—books even a professional freelance editor could enjoy!
It’s been quite a journey from that seed of an idea the Lord planted in Kathy’s heart on that drive home from Mount Hermon! Over the years, we have helped several hundred people start, maintain, and grow their editing businesses. We’ve also connected numerous writers with top-level professional editors to polish their manuscripts for publication. And we’ve brought the authors, editors, and publishers of several well-written and well-edited books the recognition they deserve.