Colin McIntosh – Editor

Editor for academic/educational publishers with 25 years' experience, specializing in ELT, languages, linguistics and language education.

Overview

I have been writing, editing and adapting educational material for over 25 years, first as an editor and publisher for Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press and then as a a freelance writer, editor and lexicographer, with clients including Cambridge, Oxford, Cengage and Alphary.

My expertise is in editing language reference material, including dictionaries and grammars, coursebooks and self-study titles. I have outstanding language skills (native English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German), with degrees in languages and applied linguistics, and I am also skilled in content and copy editing, proofreading, and adapting material.

Services

Developmental Editing

Copy Editing

Proofreading

Non-Fiction

Education & Reference ELT

Languages

English (UK)

Work experience

Writer/Editor/Lexicographer

Self-employed

Feb, 2014 — Present

I write, edit and adapt educational material for print and digital formats. Clients have included Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Cengage and Alphary, an ed tech startup specializing in adaptive learning.

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Mar, 2009 — Feb, 2014 (almost 5 years)

• management of Cambridge Dictionaries Online, the market-leading dictionary website; leading the team to deliver strategic goals; commissioning dictionary and ancillary content; liaising with technical partners to build strategy and maximize traffic and revenue; partnering with external collaborators, including K Dictionaries, Playlingo and Memrise. During my leadership the site achieved remarkable success, with over 8M unique visitors a month and almost 2M Facebook likes, as well as a massive increase in revenue. • management of the dictionaries, vocabulary, grammar and skills lists; monitoring of performance; identifying publishing opportunities and priorities; researching, specifying and commissioning new products from external suppliers and authors; delivery of products for print, online, e-book and app formats, to tight schedules and budgets; leading publishing teams; liaising with production and technical teams to ensure effective delivery; building and maintaining relationships with authors, suppliers and external collaborators • Chief Editor of Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Fourth edition • liaising with sales and marketing teams to develop effective promotion and sales strategy; representing the company at international conferences, including presenting new titles

Senior Editor

Oxford University Press

Oct, 1995 — Mar, 2009 (over 13 years)

Responsible for several areas of a successful dictionaries list, including the bilingual list for Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and Latin America, as well as major monolingual titles and components (Oxford Collocations Dictionary; Oxford Phrasal Verbs Dictionary; Oxford 3000), in print and digital formats.