Occasionally I hear from editors who’ve gotten stiffed by a new client (and sometimes by a returning client!) and want to know how to avoid it. Because my publisher clients are all reliable, the main thing I do to prevent problems is to expect full payment in advance from indie authors. Not everyone can do…
Some years ago, I taught copyediting for the University of California San Diego (long before I ever moved to sunny California myself) and often I would get students who asked, “So, does this apply to copyediting fiction, too?” And the answer was, “Yes, but no.” Yes, you need to apply consistent standards throughout the manuscript….
The other day, I reached out to a company that offered a product priced for (a) nonprofit companies and (b) corporations with up to 15,000 employees. As you can imagine, (a) was cheaper than (b) by a significant degree—think $250 versus $2000. As a small business owner who uses a few subcontractors to handle things…
One of the challenges with working with indie author clients is they aren’t always the best judges of what constitutes good editing. They may think that because an editor has left very few comments on their manuscript, the editing is fine and their manuscript must be in good shape. But maybe the editor is just…
A question I’m commonly asked is “how do I get started in freelancing?” I never answer this question because it’s so complicated whole books have been written on the subject. But today I’m going to answer it because once I’ve done so, I’ll just start sending people the link. Here are the basic steps to…
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…