Effective Marketing for Editors
I learn a lot about what not to do from the spam emails I get. For example, I get a lot of offers to help with my website, wherein the writer breaks the bad news that my site is not ranking on Google.
But . . . not ranking FOR WHAT? Chinese restaurants near me? How to keep a New Year’s resolution? The keywords for which my site is apparently not ranking are never disclosed . . . because the sender is just throwing spaghetti against the wall and hoping something sticks. They don’t actually know anything about my website or its rankings, they’re just pretending they do.
Use Jargon Wisely
From this, I (and we) can learn that throwing out jargon without any specifics is a problem. When you’re sending out a project quote you have to be careful not to sound like this. It’s common when you’re delivering a quote to give some generic information about what you’ll look for in an edit:
“A full developmental edit is a big-picture edit that covers issues such as character development, plot arc, conflict, setting, and more. It includes manuscript edits and editorial queries (which are comments and recommendations about problems spotted in the ms) along with a revision letter (typically three-to-five pages).”
And that’s fine. But don’t try to pass that off as a description of anything you’ve found in the prospective client’s ms: “I’ve noticed some issues with character development, plot arc, and conflict. My fee for a developmental edit is $X.”
You’re just throwing out jargon without giving any indication that you know what you’re talking about.
Show Your Expertise
It’s common (and perfectly fair) not to want to give away all of your knowledge in the project quote. Why would anyone need to pay you if you did that?
But it helps to pick out one or two examples that are specific to the ms, so the prospective client recognizes that you know what you’re doing and you can help: “For example, I’ll outline some ways you can strengthen Samantha’s motivation for quitting her job so that her character arc is more compelling and the emotional payoff at the end is more powerful for readers.”
Don’t tell me my website “isn’t ranking.” Tell me what keywords my website isn’t ranking for and I might in fact pay attention.
