“The road to success and the road to burnout are the same for too many people,” a friend mine, a leadership coach, recently said to me. This struck me as one of those truths that you have never articulated but feels so obvious once someone has said it to you. I’ve been thinking about burnout…
I’ve been talking with newer and more established freelance editors about how they find clients and deal with ups and downs in freelancing. This week’s editor is Miranda Darrow, who has been editing part-time for a little over ten years. Here’s our Q&A: Tell me a little about your background and the kind of editing…
The other day I came across a social media post from an email marketer who said you would outwork 90 percent of your competition just by showing up every day! I nearly sprained my eyeballs from rolling them so hard. If you can outwork your competition just by showing up, you are dealing with very…
Editors who are just starting out or who are moving in new directions usually have an idea in mind of the work they want to do. Often this starts out as a very broad concept: they want to help novelists write better stories. Then they realize this is too broad – where do you find…
While I love being a freelancer, there are certain tasks that I don’t enjoy doing. For example, marketing. Or updating my website. I know I need to do them, but sometimes my motivation is lacking. It’s easy to keep kicking that can down the road: “I’ll do it later.” One way I get around this…
When I was living in Málaga, after more than a year of working hard to learn Spanish, I still didn’t understand a lot of what I overheard around me. This used to discourage me. I felt like I should be a lot further along, given the effort. Then one day I asked myself, “Is my…
Every now and then a topic comes up that gets a fair amount of discussion in freelance editor groups. One of these is the question of authors thanking their editors in the acknowledgments section of their book. And there are a lot of editors out there trying to convince indie authors that they have to…
As the main instructor at Club Ed, my goal isn’t just to help people learn the craft of editing but to help them learn how to run a freelance editing 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…
Newer editors often tell me something along the lines of “I feel like I have Imposter Syndrome. I don’t feel confident about approaching publishers or other potential clients.” So, clear your schedule and make a cup of tea because I want to talk about these challenges, and I have a lot to say! You’ve probably…
My daughter likes the idea of dogs more than she actually likes the reality of them, sort of like me and home ownership. So we both enjoy these things safely at a distance. “What a cute house!” I say as I walk on by. “What a cute dog!” she says as she walks on by….