freelance at editing and proofreading

I’ve been running a freelance editing and proofreading business for a couple of years – here’s a recent article I wrote about it, it may help some of you set up your own freelance editing businesses:

With the continuing recession, thousands of people are searching for viable means of part-time or at home work. Proofreading or editing English documents can be an excellent opportunity for those with better than average English skills. Thousands of universities at home and abroad use English for academic purposes; English is the international language of business; and many native speakers are writing books and novels. The demand for English editors has never been higher – unfortunately, the same can be said for the competition.

Here’s a quick guide to setting yourself up as a freelance editor or proofreader, finding enough jobs, and getting repeat business.

1) Join another website like editage or editavenue. To get your feat wet, sign up with another company that does heavy promotion. This will guarantee you get some work and polish your editing skills; it will give you experience and confidence as an editor. Unfortunately, these sites will take around %40 of your profit, but it’s still a great way to start. You’ll also be able to take advantage of their free tests (often the price of registration) to measure your skills as an editor.

2) Join freelance sites. Getafreelancer.com, guru.com, elance.com and others all offer a chance to bid for projects. Try to make yourself stand out from the crowd with an interesting, friendly proposal. Elance offers some skills tests, which are worth taking and re-taking until you get them right.

3) Set up your own website. It should be clean, organized, and professional. Highlight your credentials and experience. Put up a nice photo of yourself under ‘featured editor’ (while not necessary, most people are probably looking for a ‘personal relationship’ with an editor and will feel more comfortable with a face.

4) Advertise locally. If you’re a freelance editor, you probably won’t be able to keep up with the yahoo or Google advertising budgets spent by big companies. Instead, make a clever flier and post it around your town – send it to schools and businesses. Put it in the newspaper. Attend conferences, university events, or anywhere that authors or students will congregate, and network. Most people still prefer to deal locally; make an address and phone number available. Just getting the business from your local area may be more than enough.

I just redid my website, looks pretty sleek now, what do you think? http://www.paper-perfect-editing.com

Long, project this time. Not in text length, but in time spent on it. Author submitted revisions (without tracked changes) after I’d already edited the article. On the day the article was due back. Oh, my.

That was a long night.

Thing is, my current payment structure does not accommodate such things. And it should. After all, I deal with things like this in my “real” job more often than not. But because I did not factor things like this into my fees, I’ll take a loss even charging extra for the late revisions.

Still, I’ll have my savings built back up after this, and might even have a little extra to throw at bills. So I’m not complaining. Much.

Actually, I realized something as I sat down to work on this article: I love editing. I mean love it. Most of what I do at work these days is graphic design. And I enjoy that, don’t get me wrong. It’s a challenge (I love challenges), and it’s immensely satisfying to me to create something cool, or just figure out the function of a Photoshop button. (I’ve not had time for training yet, so I’m learning the software through trial and error.) But editing is my true calling.

I don’t consider it looking for mistakes. I polish – making sure the author’s message comes through clearly, cleaning up any little errors or inconsistencies, and pointing out any confusing passages. It’s like detailing a car. You see cars on the road in varying stages of cleanliness (mine’s on the “have you ever washed that thing?” end of the scale), but in a car show, everything is sparkling and clean. I get writing ready for the show.

And not only do I enjoy it…I’m good at it. It’s not often I’m this sure about something. It feels good.

Is that another job in my inbox? I believe it is. Commence happy dance!

have done some editing here and there. Want to do more and get paid. we’ll see what happens

(Though I’m hanging on to the receipt, just in case I start getting scads of clients and need to claim it on my taxes.)

I’ve had parts all over my desk for a week now, and FFB is on his way over to finally turn them into a computer. How much of an upgrade? Let’s call the current puter a 10-speed, and the new puter a Porsche. (I’d call the current computer a Big Wheel, but having tried to work with my parents’ computer, I know better.)

Excited does not begin to describe me.

Just got my second freelancing job! Nothing big, but it’ll pay more than my last one. :) Might even be a regular client, too.

Squee!

I made $6. :) I’m assuming that, since I’m paid a percentage of the book sales, I will receive further checks. So it’s humorous, rather than sad, that my first check was $6. I got a bigger allowance when I was 10!

I also have another gig lined up (proofing this time). A small project this time, so it also won’t pay that much (but will be easy to knock out).

I’m thinking that, for the time being at least, I will sock away all my freelance earnings into savings. Gotta build that account back up somehow…

A friend/former coworker is trying to get me an editing gig where she was just hired as a designer. How cool! Especially if I got to work with her…we work really well together.

Oh, and I failed to add an update to my last entry. I did accept the designer position (atop my other responsibilities, of course). I’m supposed to be getting more money for it, though I’m not sure how much more (my review was postponed til Monday). But what it boils down to is I’m going to be real tired until things slow down. Which will be…oh, November or December.

Which makes me wonder how much energy I will have to devote to pursuing freelance gigs. (The past two nights, I’ve taken 3-4 hour naps after I got home…then slept all night.) Maybe I’ll have to take up coffee again!

Our graphic designer quit a couple of months ago. My bosses have offered to pay for training in design and the associated software if I take over the position. Now, I do like design. I’m not confident in my abilities yet, but I have made some things that I thought were quite cool…and my standards are heinously high, particularly when it comes to my own work. And it’s fun. Plus, I could add that to my ever-expanding list of freelance services.

However. I am not a designer…just a precocious newbie. And I’m already the editor/proofreader, webmaster of four websites (none of them simple, one-page jobs, o’course), and production assistant. Plus I support various other projects (read: the stuff nobody else wants to do). I used to be in charge of the journals, too; that’s the only duty I’ve ever managed to give back. Every time someone has quit or been fired from my department, their job has been tacked on to mine (“just until we hire someone else,” which they never do). For no extra money. I don’t want this to be another such scenario.

Also…I’m an editor first. These other skills are nice, but I don’t want to be so overworked that I don’t have the energy to put into my own business.

I guess I’ll reserve judgment until I hear exactly what they’re proposing. And think good thoughts. Maybe this time they’re not abusing my patience in order to save money!

_{Yeah, right.}

Well, my portion of it, anyway. Doing the happy dance now.