If you’ve been a developmental editor for any length of time, you’ve likely encountered an author who just wants you to write the book for them. Or, you’ve encountered a manuscript that was in such disrepair that it required a herculean effort to fix it, dropping your hourly rate down to pocket change. As a…
AI is going to kill routine jobs. But it won’t kill jobs that require expertise and human judgment. That’s why it’s important for editors to move beyond basic skills like proofreading. It’s not enough to say, “But homophones!” Most people will accept a small error rate if it means they can save three thousand dollars….
My excuse-busting marketing method has been highly successful in helping potential author clients decide whether to get their books edited and published. Excuse-Busting Marketing: How to Help Authors Get Ready for Editing If you’ve hung around here for a while, you know that I’m a big fan of finding clients who already know they want…
There are several different types of editing, and it’s very common for authors to be confused about what type of editing their manuscript needs. They’ll ask you to “edit” their ms. You think they mean development but they mean copyediting and they’re disappointed in your work. Or they’ll say they need someone to fix the…
Editors with some experience often come to me with concerns about sustaining their business. They’re usually in a particular niche, such as copyediting mystery fiction, and they’ve stalled in some way – they don’t have quite enough clients and they’re not making quite enough money. But we know that niches are a great way to…
As a developmental editor, you’ll occasionally (maybe even frequently) encounter clients who need more than what you can offer in a developmental edit. Sometimes they don’t have the skill to do the necessary revision or they simply don’t have the time to do the writing. In these cases, instead of sending the client off to…