I was lucky enough to learn to edit from staff editors who gave me encouraging but useful feedback on how I was doing my work. And over the years I’ve worked with a lot of colleagues who aren’t shy about saying what I’m doing well and what I’m not doing so well. But not all…
As the owner of Club Ed, my goal isn’t just to help people learn the craft of editing but to help them learn how to run an editorial freelancing business. Running a freelance business is hard – I’ll be the first to say so. But there are some common reasons people don’t succeed, if we…
Freelance editors often focus on what we might call indirect marketing and inbound marketing – that is, letting people know about their work through social media, blog posts, SEO, networking, and similar activities. Since freelance editors rarely have a marketing background, these approaches feel appropriate and doable. And that’s fine as far as it goes!…
Because coaching is expensive, personal, and requires trust, it’s unlikely that a random client will see your website and immediately sign up for services. They need to get to know you first. And this is a good thing! There are some people I’m not a good coach for because our personalities and approaches don’t mesh…
Recently I wrote about being asked to do a manuscript evaluation for free (which earned a big fat “no, thanks” from me) and a commenter suggested that maybe briefly reviewing the ms and offering some affirmative feedback would ensure the author returned when they were ready for an edit. The thing is, I’m not their…
Authors are sometimes worried about getting feedback on their work because they’re afraid it will be “ripped apart.” It’s perfectly understandable that they would feel a little nervous about feedback—after all, they want their work to be perfect. They want other people to love it the way they do. But they know there are probably…
Typically in a manuscript evaluation or developmental edit I focus on what I perceive to be the three-to-five most important concerns I’ve noticed in the ms. This is the approach I teach my editing students. In any given ms, there may be ten or fifteen developmental problems but not all of them are equally important and…
Some editors ask authors questions in the editorial queries (the comments an editor makes on a ms.) For these editors, a typical query/comment might be, “What are you trying to accomplish here?” or “Do you mean for Martha to sound so cruel?” Often such editors feel that they’re prompting their authors to think about what…
Club Ed started out as a place to take editing classes, but over time it has morphed into a community. To support that community, I’ve launched a membership program for anyone interested in developmental editing and book coaching, whether for fiction or nonfiction. Through April 30, 2023, enjoy a special introductory price ($12/month or $100/year)….
There are two kinds of freelance editors: those who have pissed off a client and those who will piss off a client. It’s inevitable. No matter how competent you are, someday you’re going to have a client who’s unhappy with your work. This can feel awful, even soul-killing, the first time it happens. It can…