7 things you should know about starting a proofreading or copyediting business

Are you thinking of switching careers and becoming a proofreader or copyeditor? I have 7 tips to help you decide whether it's right for you.

At the time of writing, I’ve had 5 requests in 5 days for advice on transitioning to a proofreading/copyediting career.

​Self-reflection isn’t uncommon at the turn of a new year – we use the time to think about what the future might bring and what changes we can make to achieve our life goals and business objectives. Here's a summary of the advice I offered my five enquirers based on the questions they asked.
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This brief article only scratches the surface, but I hope it gives those who are considering a new career some food for thought.
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​1. Do I have the right background?

​Probably! See how I answered that without knowing a thing about your educational and career experience?

​Here’s the thing – if you want to specialize in medical editing for publishers and you have a degree in economics, a rethink’s in order. Social science publishers, though? That’s more like it.

Ultimately, it’s about aligning your experience and skills with those who speak the same language.
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• My background education and work experience is in the social sciences. I don’t know medicine like my doctor pal, Jon. So if I’m proofreading a file that mentions both inulin and insulin (which Wikipedia tells me are both connected to sugar in some way or another!), I’m unlikely to have a clue about whether the mentions of either are correct. At best, I’ll be querying my heart out; at worst, I’ll fail to spot an error.
• Give me a book on politics or social theory and it’s a different story. I know when those two little dots in Jürgen Habermas’s and Loïc Wacquant’s names have been omitted – I don’t have to look ’em up!

​So, yes, you do probably have the right background to enable you to transition to a proofreading or copyediting career.

​Just make sure you focus (initially) on targeting clients to whom you have the best chance of offering an exemplary service – clients who’ll think you’re interesting and hireable because you’re comfortable with the language of their subject.

That doesn’t mean you have to specialize forever, or stay with the same specialization over the course of your career.

When I launched my editorial business, I worked almost exclusively for social science publishers. These days, I work mostly on fiction, specializing in proofreading and copyediting for indie authors. A lot can change in a decade.
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​2. Is training necessary and worthwhile?

​In a nutshell, yes. Why?
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• Professional training provides a confidence boost when you’re on track … and plugs the gaps when you aren’t.
• Training is one way of helping potential clients to identify your professionalism. It’s therefore a great USP (unique selling point). I like knowing that my electrician learned how to do the job. I don’t let unqualified dentists near my teeth. My kid’s taught by people with an appropriate educational qualification. I think clients are more likely to think I’m a catch because I can demonstrate that I’ve invested in industry-recognized editorial training.
• Training focuses your mind on the technical aspects of following a brief, marking up according to industry-recognized standards, and knowing when to change, query or leave well enough alone.
• There’s more than one way to mark up. Paper markup isn’t yet dead, but it’s not far off – some clients will want you to work in Word; others will prefer PDF; yet others specify another digital platform. Being able to work in the way that the client prefers is essential, otherwise you’re limiting your customer base. Furthermore, if you want to work as efficiently and effectively as possible, you’re advised to embrace a range of tech tools that combine traditional and contemporary skills. Training will help you prepare for these demands.

​Take advice from your national editorial society on the most appropriate training course. The list I’ve linked to includes organizations in Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.
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​3. Where’s my market?

​Perhaps a better question is: Where isn’t my market? Most proofreading and copyediting is done onscreen these days. Even traditional page-proof markup, using proof-correction symbols, is increasingly taking place in a digital environment. That means geography is not the barrier it once was.

Thirty years ago, an author from Colorado wouldn’t have hired me to proofread his crime thrillers – not because he didn’t want to, but because he couldn’t find me. Now, thanks to Tim Berners-Lee, he can and he has.
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• If you live in Dublin, your market isn’t just Dublin.
• If you live in Tromsø, your market isn’t just Tromsø.
• I live in Panxworth (it’s a hamlet in Norfolk, England – even the satnav struggles to find me). If my market were limited to Panxworth, I’d be unemployed before breakfast.​

​If you live in Dublin, your market is people who want to work with someone who lives in Dublin, and people who want to work with someone who lives in Ireland, and people who don’t care where you live but believe you have the skills to solve their problems. Same kind of thing applies to the Tromsønian and the Panxwegian.

It’s not always about where you live or where your clients live, but whether you can find each other, and whether, once you have, you can instil a belief in those clients that you’re the right person for the job.
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​4. Will the pay be enough to earn a living wage?

​This question gets rehashed over and over. There’s no quick answer. Here are some thoughts:
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• What do you need to earn? You can’t work out whether your freelance editorial business will be viable unless you know what your baseline is.
• Rates vary within and between client sectors, and within and between countries. There isn’t a market rate, whatever anyone tells you. Instead, there’s what you need to earn, what you want to earn, how much time you have available to work for those earnings, and what the clients who can find you are prepared to pay. Somewhere in the midst of that is a little bit of paradise where all four align. Don’t expect paradise to land in your lap – it takes time.
• Some editorial societies offer suggested minimum rates. These are guidelines not facts. They reflect neither the maximum that some clients will be prepared to pay, nor the minimum that some clients will hope to pay.
• In the start-up phase of your business, you might decide to accept lower rates than you want because of other benefits – glowing testimonials, a strong portfolio and superb experience. All of those things can be used as USPs that can make you more attractive to better-paying clients further down the road – future leverage. 
• A client’s value cannot be measured purely by the fee they pay, especially when the editorial pro is starting out. I used to work with a publisher who put a shed load of work my way. I considered their rates low but the experience, volume of work, references and full schedule were worth every hour I spent on their books. I no longer work for them because I’m now visible enough that I get better-paying offers. I’m not critical of their fee structure (they have a business to run, too); instead, I’m immensely grateful for the opportunity they afforded me.​

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​5. Do you think I’ll be able to find clients?

​Yes, if you’re prepared to be an active marketer.

Don’t wait – start thinking about your marketing strategy as soon as you can. Marketing is about being interesting and discoverable.

If you’re not interesting, it won’t matter who finds you because they won’t feel compelled to hire you. If you’re invisible, it won’t matter if you have a wardrobe full of USPs because no one will know you exist.
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• A good marketing strategy uses multiple promotional tools across multiple channels. That’s because different clients use different platforms to source us.
• Those tools and channels are interconnected. The website you build, the useful content you share, the social media platforms you engage with, the directories you advertise in, the networking meetings you attend, the business cards you hand out, the CV you publish, the portfolio you build, the testimonials you acquire, the emails and letters you post, and more, should all be branded consistently so that clients and colleagues can recognize you and your editorial business.

​If you’re not ready to do what’s necessary to make yourself visible to good-fit clients, you’re probably not yet ready to run your own editorial business. There's nothing wrong with that. Some people are best suited to employment rather than self-employment.

If you think that word of mouth will be enough at the start of your editorial career, think again. I do have a few colleagues who’ve relied, successfully, on that but they’re few and far between, and they have a lot of experience (and clients to spread the word).

Being active puts you in a position where, over time, you acquire choice. Choice is the road to alignment – where what you need to earn, what you want to earn, how much time you have available to work for those earnings, and what the clients who can find you are prepared to pay all come together in a way that works for you and your business.
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​6. What kind of information is relevant?

​It’s always about the client. When you’re creating content, put yourself in your client’s shoes and ask, ‘If I were searching for a proofreader, what would I want to know and what problems might I have?’

Some experts would say that my website has too many words and too many pages, that the portfolio is too cluttered, that there’s too much information below the fold, that my blog titles are too long ...

I do break some of the ‘rules’ of online promotion; I also follow many of them. I’ve tried and tested different ways of doing things and found what works for me. Next year, I might be doing things differently. Nothing’s set in stone.

If you’re struggling to organize your message, ask yourself the following questions. If the content you create answers them, you’re on the right track.
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• Who are you?
• Who is the client?
• What are their problems?
• How can you solve them?
• How can they contact you?

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7. But will it be lonely?

​If you’re still excited about building a freelance editorial business, then there’s an international community of colleagues waiting to welcome you.

​Thirty years ago, freelancing could be a lonely business. In 2017, independent proofreaders and copyeditors chat, ask for advice, share knowledge and expertise, and learn … together. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and editorial-society forums provide just some of the online spaces that editorial pros use to connect with each other.

We work solo but the digital watercooler has never been busier. See you there!

Louise Harnby is a line editor, copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in working with crime, mystery, suspense and thriller writers.

She is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), a member of ACES, a Partner Member of The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and co-hosts The Editing Podcast.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Fiction Editor & Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, connect via Facebook and LinkedIn, and check out her books and courses.