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Working alone doesn't have to equate to isolation. Here are some tips and reassurance for editors and proofreaders who crave company or revel in solitude.
‘Solitude vivifies; isolation kills.’
Joseph Roux (nineteenth-century priest and poet)
Alone or isolated?
I worked in an office for nearly fifteen years before I set up my editorial business. I’d stop and chat with friends and colleagues by the water cooler or coffee machine. There was always someone to talk to.
Sometimes it was difficult to knuckle down to the job, so social was the environment. Now that I’m freelance, I work from home. I don’t have colleagues in the traditional sense. I’m working on my own from 10 am until 5 pm. Non-freelancers have frequently asked me how I 'deal with the isolation', and are often surprised when I reply, 'I don’t feel isolated.' The experience is certainly different from that of my prior office life and it requires a different mindset, but need it be isolating? Or was Roux onto something when he reminds us of the different ways of being alone? I asked some of my freelance editorial colleagues about how they manage a life of working from home. The following is a summary of our collective wisdom on how to generate your very own freelance water cooler when you need it, and bathe in the quietness when you don’t. The rewards and challenges of freelancing
Many of us become freelance because it suits our needs – moving house, moving country, redundancy, parenting, disability, and caring for dependents are just some of the reasons why people move their work base from the office to the home.
These changes can bring rewards but also challenges, forcing us to withdraw from the traditional and easily accessible friendship and professional groups that we’d previously relied on. Some of the contributors to this article highlighted how having young children has provided them with much-needed human contact at the school gates. But many of us still miss the office banter, the colleague element, what one editor referred to as: '... those people who do the same or similar jobs so you can swap and share ideas: the manager who always supports your ideas; the people who are there to confirm your decisions; the security of responsibilities understood; and the confidence of knowing how to do the job.' So here are some options for you to consider. Option 1: Explore online networking opportunities
Editorial association forums and social media platforms all come up as recommended spaces for connecting with like-minded colleagues in similar working environments ... a place to meet, chat, share ideas and let off steam.
Those with private messaging functions are especially popular. I particularly like WhatsApp and Slack for having conversations with a small group of trusted colleagues. Using online networking spaces means you don't ever have to feel like you’re working on our own even if there's no one else in the room. Option 2: Join a professional body and volunteer
Joining your national editorial society (eg the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading) or editing-adjacent associations (eg the Society of Young Publishers) could be a critical first step in accessing colleagues who face the same professional and personal challenges as you, as well as providing excellent social and learning opportunities.
They may have committees, task forces, advisory/working groups, tutoring teams, a governing body or peer-to-peer mentoring programmes that you can participate in. Since 2020, I've been a member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading's Council (its board), and that's meant I have daily access to other editors and our staff team. I don't just learn a ton from those people. I really like them too. They've become friends, and those relationships will stretch beyond my term of service. Perhaps you, too, could volunteer for similar roles. Of course, you needn’t limit yourself to publishing folk. Says one editor: 'I’m also looking into various local small business networking groups – there seem to be quite a few nearby that are specifically for women or mothers.' Another colleague is pursuing an MA, which gives her valuable face-to-face time with adults. Others have taken a series of part-time jobs, which give them additional income and social contact with other people. Option 3: Try face-to-face meetups
The other favoured resource for combating feelings of loneliness is the good old-fashioned face-to-face meetup. It requires a lot more effort than dipping into LinkedIn or Facebook, but the rewards can be huge.
Again, this doesn't have to be publishing-based. It could be a hobby-based group such as a local choir, knitting group or book club. If you do want contact with people who do what you do, find out if your national editorial society has a regional branch or chapter that's accessible to you. If it doesn't, consider setting one up. Option 4: Embrace café culture for company without complications
One colleague suggests a change of scenery: 'Scope out a decent coffee shop – having the odd couple of hours working in a different environment with people around makes you feel a lot less isolated and a lot more like you're just your own boss.'
Even if you’re not directly interacting with other people in a particular place, that time spent outside your usual work space is an effective refresher. You can even incorporate your java time with your work – the café may not be the best place in which to do editorial tasks that require deep concentration, but it could be a space where you can catch up on emails, invoicing or any of your more general house-keeping tasks. I have an editor friend who's a member of a silent book club that meets weekly in a café. What that means is that they don't discuss the books they're reading ... in fact, they don't discuss anything at all. They simply meet, sit together and read their own books. It's company without complications. If that sounds like your bag, search online to find out if there's anything like that in your area. Option 5: Experiment with co-working
Co-working is where freelancers meet up to work alongside each other. This could be in a dedicated co-working office space, something more informal like a cafe, or online via Zoom or Teams.
Doing that helps you feel less isolated because you can pick each other's brains, bounce ideas off one another and so on. Like the silent book club, you might all agree to keep the chitchat to a minimum and use the experience as an opportunity just to work in a less solitary environment. One colleague emphasizes how there's less pressure to promote yourself in these situations. Instead, it provides a bit more of an office atmosphere than a networking atmosphere. And this approach could just be the thing to get your creative juices going. Read these articles for insights into how other types of professionals have seen their businesses benefit as a result of being in a co-working space: Option 6: Ditch the humans and hang out with the small furries
Having a dog or cat in the home office really can combat feelings of isolation. No, they won’t be able to bounce business ideas around with you. Nor will they advise you on how to deal with the frustrated author of the book you’re editing, but pets still make wonderful companions.
My trusty Lab is always ready with a tail wag whenever I’m feeling pressured by a deadline or tackling a particularly demanding editing job. Plus, as one colleague remindes us, dog walkers are usually sociable, and you get to work on your health – which keeps you business-fit and body-fit. And as we all know, a bit of exercise is wonderful for mental wellbeing. Oh, and did I mention that pets keep your feet warm in winter, too? More options ...
If you don’t fancy any of the above, consider the following:
Is being alone such a bad thing?
Here's one editor's take on working alone: 'Why assume isolation is bad? I don't miss the office politics, formal clothing, jockeying for time off, etc. I'm not so much antisocial as one who enjoys quiet time alone, so freelancing at home is ideal in that regard.'
It's a good point. Freelancing from home does require a different mindset, but once you’re in it, it can be quite hard to revert to old ways of working. Here are two more perspectives from editors embracing the solitude:
In an illuminating article in the New York Times Sunday Review, 'The Rise of the New Groupthink', Susan Cain reminds us that being alone, and enjoying the attendant privacy and freedom from interruption, can be an intensely creative and rewarding experience. Many of us do need our water coolers, online or off, but we can also enjoy the solitude that our freelance homeworking status brings us. About Louise Harnby
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) and co-hosts The Editing Podcast.
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Want to annotate a PDF with digital proofreading marks? Below are my free proofreading stamps files in red, blue and black. They conform to British Standard BS 5261-2 (2005).
Essential resources
You will not have to resize these stamps – I've designed them to work with the font size that most book files use. Simply upload them into your PDF editor and you’re ready to go!
What users are saying ...
A sample of just a few of my proofreading stamps
Click on the buttons below to download the PDFs files containing the stamps, then head over to the installation instructions. Now with transparent backgrounds
UPDATE 5 JUNE 2020. All the stamps now have transparent backgrounds, which means they can be placed on top of greyscale and colour pages and boxes, and squeezed between text without blocking out the elements.
Learn about how to mark up PDFs like a pro
Want to learn how to mark up page proofs with my stamps and other markup tools? Check out Denise Cowle’s course, Proofreading: How to Mark Up PDF Page Proofs.
About Louise Harnby
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) and co-hosts The Editing Podcast.
This article contains installation instructions for most versions of Acrobat and PDF-XChange. Scroll down the page to find the set appropriate for the platform you're working with.
No advanced tech knowledge required!
Rest assured that you don't need advanced technical knowledge to install the stamps. In fact, you don't need any technical knowledge at all! You simply need to be able to follow the instructions as they are given.
Use the right instructions!
I've updated this post several times since it was first written in 2012 as new versions of software have been released.
Please follow my instructions to the letter. I've provided installation support to a number of users in recent years. On every occasion, problems occurred for one of the following reasons:
Again, please ensure that you follow the instructions step by step before you contact me to report that you're having problems. If you do need to contact me, please tell me the following:
Download the stamps
The first step is to DOWNLOAD THE STAMPS, whichever set of instructions your are using.
PDF-XChange Editor 8.0
Instructions correct as of 4 January 2020 and apply to Windows 10, Office 365
PDF-XChange Editor 6.0
My colleague Helen Mortimor has kindly provided the following installation instructions for use with Editor 6.0:
PDF-XChange Editor 3.0
My colleague Steve Hammatt has kindly provided the following installation instructions for use with Editor 3.0:
PDF-XChange Pro and the free Viewer 2.0
One of the main benefits of using PDF-XChange Viewer is that you can import all my stamps in one go. Video tutorial. For those of you who'd like to watch a tutorial of the steps outlined below, here's a video demonstration in which I talk you through the process, step by step, while actually downloading a set of stamps onto my own computer.
NB: This is the squeaky-chair edit, a limited-edition version created especially to provide the feel-good factor for editorial freelancers whose home offices benefit from well-oiled swivel-seating arrangements! Written instructions
* Can't find the AppData folder? If you can't find the folder, the most likely reason is that the Application Data (or AppData) folder (a hidden folder) is invisible on your computer.
Acrobat 9 (Standard and the free Reader)
The first time you do this you’ll have to write in a category (e.g. Red Stamps). When you import a second stamp you can simply select this option. You can also name the stamp if you wish but I didn’t bother, choosing instead to leave the default New Stamp. When you have uploaded all your stamps and are ready to start marking up your document, select Show Stamps Palette from the stamp icon in the ribbon menu and a box will appear. If you have different categories (e.g. Blue Stamps) you can select these from here. Acrobat <9 (Standard and the free Reader)
The first time you do this you’ll have to type in a category (e.g. Red Stamps). When you import a second stamp you can simply select this option. You can also name the stamp. When you have downloaded all your stamps and are ready to start marking up your document, select the drop-down menu from the stamp icon in the ribbon menu, and the categories you have created will be listed along with the defaults. You can then select the stamp from the category you require. Acrobat X
My colleague Jenny Macgregor has very kindly put together some instructions for downloading my proofreading stamps into Acrobat X. Here's her advice...
Adobe Acrobat Reader DC
Instructions correct as of 5 December 2021
Tips
Here are a few tips to bear in mind when using stamps. Search the Stamps archive for other useful articles and resources.
PDF-XChange Viewer: screenshot of minimizing tool and stamps palette.
About Louise Harnby
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) and co-hosts The Editing Podcast.
Discover tips for marking up PDF page proofs using digital BS 5261-2 (2005) symbols.
Options for PDF markup
These days, it's commonplace to be asked to edit and proofread onscreen. If you're editing in Word, all well and good; you can amend the text directly. If you're tackling designed page proofs, you'll probably be working on a PDF. Stamps can help.
The PDF editor's onboard markup tool is one option. Using custom stamps is another, and that's what I'll be exploring in this article. Why use custom stamps?
Even in the standard versions of most PDF editors (as opposed to their freely available readers), the tools can be restrictive.
Punctuation errors can be a major problem – the insertion and deletion tools for punctuation marks (and even single letters) are often ambiguous, with the highlight or strike-out line appearing to ‘spread’ further on the page than would be the case on a traditional paper mark-up. About the digital markup stamps …
I created a set of custom stamps that can be imported into my PDF editing software (I have both PDF-XChange and Acrobat).
The stamps are based on the current BSI proofreading symbols and once downloaded can be imprinted onto the page, giving the proof the appearance of its paper cousin. No more clunky comments and digital sticky notes, and say goodbye to ambiguous highlighting. Now you can keep the comment boxes in reserve for queries to your author or in-house editor. The following is a sample of just a few of my stamps. 
Which software is compatible?
I’ve tested the stamps on Adobe Acrobat (standard version) and PDF-XChange and can confirm that they can be imported (other PDF editors that have stamping functions, such as Foxit and PDFill, may also be compatible.
However, always check with your client to make sure that the PDF reader you're using is compatible with their workflow. What if you only have a free reader/viewer?
You don't need to have the full paid-for versions of Acrobat or XChange in order to use the stamps.
You can use your free Acrobat Reader as long as you ask the person who has created the PDF to 'enable comments'. With PDF XChange Viewer, you don't even need to worry about enabling comments – the stamps will work on your PDF as soon as you have uploaded them. An additional benefit of Viewer is that you can import all the stamps in one go. Can you use the stamps with a Mac?
The stamps files are PDFs so it doesn't make any difference whether you're working on a PC or a Mac.
Rather, the most important thing is that you have the Mac version of your PDF editor, e.g. Acrobat for Mac. What does the marked-up proof look like?
I’ve been delighted with the results, as have many of my clients. The marked-up proofs using the stamps are much clearer to read, as the two examples show.
There are only four amendments in Example 1, the comment-box version. Imagine how much time it would have taken to select the text, choose the relevant option from the Text Edits menu and write the instruction to the typesetter if all the amendments in Example 2 had been made without using stamps. And if the typesetter opened up all these comments boxes, what a mess it would have been. 
Example 1: Using the comment box only.
Example 2: Using customized stamps.
Creating stamps
Creating the stamps is the fiddly part and the most time-consuming.
Getting the correct size, so that you don’t have to resize each stamp when you’re working on a set of proofs, takes a little time and, of course, creating each individual stamp can seem painstaking. However, the job only has to be done once and I’ve been using mine for a couple of years now. It’s worth spending some time playing around with your designs early on in order to make life easier for yourself later. I’ve created stamps in red, blue and black because my clients have different requirements. I used Publisher to create the stamps, but you could use any software with a drawing tool. Set up each stamp on a separate page. Once you’ve drawn all your stamps convert the file into a PDF. Want to use the stamps I've already created?
I’m happy to share with colleagues who have the same commitment as I do to improving skills and supporting our industry’s professional standards.
To access your copies of my stamps, click here – there's no charge. If you're using PDF-XChange (I'd recommend you do so), make sure you select the stamps labelled "XChange". Note: Please note that my stamps are based on proofreading symbols as defined by BS 5261-2 (2005). If you are working outside the UK, not all of the symbols may conform to those you are used to working with. Importing customized stamps
About Louise Harnby
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) and co-hosts The Editing Podcast.
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