The Concierge (Blog)
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Writing the project quote
After I posted my thoughts on setting boundaries with clients, an editor asked me to describe how I set expectations ahead of time. Mostly this is part of my project quote, which you can see below. I use slightly different wording for publisher clients to account for the differences in working with them—they aren’t the author,…
Ignore the clichés
Starting and building a freelance editing business is hard. It requires a lot of perseverance. What makes it even harder is not knowing when to stop doing what you’re doing to try something else. For example, maybe you’re faithfully tweeting writing tips on Twitter five times a day, engaging with writers and others in the…
Setting Boundaries for Client Work
One of the most important things freelancers can do is set clear expectations for their work. You give a project fee, describe what it includes, communicate deadlines, and so on. These expectations are necessary because otherwise a project can turn into a zombie that keeps coming back for more, sapping your will to live. If…
Training your competition
Back when I was active in martial arts, I used to teach a class or two a week for my instructor. He (and I) knew that one of the best ways to get better at a skill is to try to teach it. This is a humbling process because it points out all the things…
Ground Rules for Beta Readers and Critique Partners
Two ways newer editors get experience with developmental editing/story editing is through beta reading and critique partnering. Beta reading is giving a basic reader reaction to someone’s manuscript. Critique partners are writers who trade their manuscripts and give each other feedback. Here are some basic rules to follow when beta reading and critique partnering: 1….
Lessons from Rejection
I was turned down for an ongoing editing project recently, which hasn’t happened in a while. I’ve been focused on building Club Ed for the last year or two, so I haven’t been pursuing other projects. And most of my editing work has always come by referral and word-of-mouth, so potential clients tend to already…
Novels Aren’t Movies
I encounter a lot of novelists and fiction editors who use movies as examples of various storytelling techniques they want to discuss. I understand this impulse: it is easier to assume that everyone has seen The Matrix or can easily find the two hours to sit through it than it is to assume that everyone…
Freelancer Flexibility
When you first begin freelancing, it’s like being parachuted, blindfolded, into a ten-acre field you’ve never seen before and your job is to grow a crop. You have no idea where you are or what the soil is like or what the seasons will bring or what grows here. You’ve got a plow, or maybe…