FOR EDITORS, PROOFREADERS AND WRITERS

I recently posted an article on the blog about how I believe that loving reading isn’t in itself enough if you want to run a proofreading business (Proofreaders-to-be: Loving Books Isn’t Enough).

​One commenter suggested that my approach was “over-complicated” and could be seen as “throwing the kitchen sink” at someone “who just wants to know how to fix a leak”.

​I thought long and hard about what he said, and I think he’s right. I do tend to throw the kitchen sink. But, actually, I’m okay with that. Though it's not everyone's way, it's the way I approach my business. I take it very seriously and, like every one of my colleagues and friends (in the editorial community and beyond), I’ve worked very hard to make a success of my enterprise. 

By “success” I mean that it delivers what I need it to deliver in terms of career fulfilment, personal satisfaction, and a decent living wage.

I like surprises as much as the next person – an unexpected bouquet of flowers from a client, an unplanned visit from a dear friend, an unknown gift under the Christmas tree, an email from my partner that pops up in my inbox during the working day for no other reason than “I wanted to tell you how much I love you”. Yup, I like surprises very much indeed.

But I don’t like the surprise of finding there’s not enough money in my bank account to pay the mortgage because I’ve not had enough work. I don’t like that element of the unknown that comes from wondering when the next client is going to contact me. I don’t like the idea of taking the plunge into a new area of my life and not having a strategy for how I’m going to make it work.

That’s why I’m a planner. I don’t do dabbling or toe-dipping very well. I know some people who are far more relaxed than me and take a more easy-going approach to aspects of their lives in general and their businesses in particular. And that is fine. Vive la différence.

Some years ago, a friend and I decided to take a trip around Italy. His attitude was: “Let’s just get there and see what happens. It’ll be part of the adventure!” I was horrified. “No way! We need pre-booked tickets and accommodation. We need to read the guide books so that we know where we’re going and how we’re going to get there. We need emergency credit cards and emergency #2 credit cards in case the emergency credit cards get stolen!”

Road trips are fine for me – as long as I have a map, and a phone, something to write with, something to write on, internet access ... and emergency credit cards, of course. Lots of them!

Others are happy to start their journeys and see where the roads take them. I respect them for that because that’s their way and it matches their personalities.

I, however, am not a risk-taker. I’m a bit more of a straight-down-the-line person. That’s my personality and it’s therefore no surprise that this concords with the way I built my business and the approach I take when I give business advice. 

When I started to think about proofreading as a career, I approached it my way: For example, I found out what publishers want in terms of training, and I did that exact course. It took seven months.

I found out what professional membership they respected, and I joined that organization.

I found out what directories they found their proofreaders from, and I did everything I needed to do to qualify for entry.

Bang bang bang, straight down the line. I researched and planned and researched and planned. I had a business plan and a marketing strategy on the go before I’d even finished my training.

I’ve tweaked them both again and again as I’ve acquired new skills, explored new client groups, and learned about new resources and tools, but I was planning from the word “go”. I threw the kitchen sink at myself!

Can you do it any other way? Of course you can. You can do it however you want.

Sitting in a bar one night some years ago, my friend Bernie came out with some words that I’ve treasured from the minute she spoke them: “There are many ways to live a life.” She’s right – there are, and there are many ways to build an editorial business, too.

But if you want advice about the other ways, ask someone else. Because if you’re a new starter and I’m the person you choose to call or email, I’m going to throw my kitchen sink at you! I’ll do it gently, I promise. I’m a nice person and an optimistic person. But I’m also an organized realist and this is my way. I can’t help it – it's like that proverb about the scorpion that stings the fox during their river crossing: it’s in my nature.

So what I have learned? If there’s one very important and valuable thing that I gained from this exchange of blog comments it was this: I need to make sure that I make it clear to my readers that I don’t think my way is the only way. It’s not. Self-righteous blogging is no use to anyone and was never my intention. I welcome comments, and discussion and disagreement ... as long as they are orderly, written in nice straight lines, and come with an index ;)

Oh, and one more thing – if you're one of the proofreaders-to-be whom I've thrown my kitchen sink at, I've loved talking with you and I hope I didn't dissuade you. My intention was to inspire you and to help you think about substantive ways in which you can get your business off to a good start.

​I want all the best for you. I want you to love your new editorial career as much I love mine, and to enjoy "success" in the way you define it. But there are indeed many ways to go about it. That's the great thing about working for yourself – you get to choose.

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.

I recently received a phone call from someone thinking about a career in proofreading. “I just wondered if you could spare five minutes to tell me how to go about starting a proofreading business.”

She was really sweet but at the word “five”, alarm bells started to ring. I can’t imagine a scenario where I would ever have thought that I could learn what I needed to know about running a business in five minutes …

“I love books. I've always loved books. I read two books a week. I'm a voracious reader! Always have been, always will be.” The alarm bells were getting louder.

The thing is, I love eating (and I have a waistline to prove it). I've always loved eating. I eat three meals a day (at least). I'm a voracious eater. Always have been, always will be. But that doesn't make me a chef. It doesn't mean I can run a restaurant.

So I let her talk for a bit longer and then I gently suggested that it’s a big decision – that it’s great that she loves reading – but that my best advice was for her to think about the other stuff, too: the clients she’s going to target, what training she needs to do, how she’s going to promote herself, what knowledge base she can bring to the table in terms of specialist experience (prior job, hobbies, education, etc.).

I told her that there are a lot of us out there already doing this, which makes it competitive.

• I suggested my book to her (Business Planning for Editorial Freelancers), which she can use as a road map to help guide her through the basics of starting out.
• I told her about the books my colleagues Val Rice (Starting Out: Setting up a small business) and Liz Broomfield (Going it Alone at 40: How I Survived my First Year of Full-Time Self-Employment) have written, which take a slightly different angle on freelancing and provide equally supportive advice for the new business owner.
• I referred her to my national editorial society (the UK’s Society for Editors and Proofreaders) and The Publishing Training Centre in London.
• I told her about some of the fabulous resource centres that offer free online advice about working in our business: Kathy O’Moore-Klopf’s Copyeditors’ Knowledge Base, Kate Haigh’s Kateproof blog and the Parlour (especially the starting-out archive). 

I could have talked for hours but I don't have hours to spare. And she asked for five minutes so that’s how long I talked for.

I thought I’d done quite well (given the time span available) to point her in the direction of a small but substantive group of resources – none of which would cost her more than six quid, and most of which are free – that she could use when making the monumental decision to set up a new proofreading business.

A silence followed on the other end of the phone. I assumed she was frantically scribbling down all this information. “The thing is, I really want to make a career out of this but there’s so much to get your head around. That’s why I called. I just need to know how to go about it. I've always loved books, always loved reading. I think I’d be good at this. I notice spelling errors when I read magazines and books and newspapers and I really love words.”

I sensed I'd not told her what she'd hoped to hear. I don't for a minute think she expected me to hand her a client list on a plate. She seemed very pleasant, genuine and passionate.

Rather, I suspect she'd thought that the task might be easier or more straightforward; that in these days of reduced employment opportunities, editorial freelancing would be something that was relatively simple to slip into. 

I tried to move her back to the issues in hand, reiterated that the resources I'd pointed her towards would help her work out "how to go about it", and I emphasized that it’s not a love of books and words that will enable her to run an editorial business. Because that’s not enough.

The fact is that in the list of things that enable a proofreader (or any other type of editorial freelancer) to run a successful business, loving books is so far down on the list that I've yet to be convinced it's worth giving it a number.

There is a lot of information to read and a lot of issues to consider. And so there should be. Running an editorial business isn't something you can learn to do in five minutes. It requires research, patience and commitment. It requires the wearing of many hats. It requires perseverance, business savvy and hard graft.

If you love books, words and reading – great. But all that tells you is that you love books, words and reading. It doesn't tell you if you have skills such as planning, marketing, time management, financial management and accounting, client-appropriate training, an understanding of industry expectations, taking the ups with the downs, creative thinking, client negotiations, networking, and business development.

And if you want to run a proofreading or editing business you’ll need all of the above in spades or you'll have to want to learn them. I’ll say it again, loving books isn't enough.

There are no short cuts. Your dentist doesn't get to stick a needle in your gum by taking short cuts. Your cleaner doesn't get to make your house sparkle by taking short cuts. Your five-year-old doesn't learn to read because their teacher takes short cuts.

While colleagues will be delighted to advise you of various different approaches and tactics to help you on your way, ultimately you'll have to put in a lot of hard work. It doesn't matter whether you're Richard Branson, Bill Gates, or lil' ol' Louise Harnby – when you set up a business, the basic rules of the game are the same. Do the planning, do the research and never, ever forget that you’re considering running a business first and foremost, whatever your likes and dislikes are. 

If you still think becoming a proofreader (or editor) sounds like a great idea, welcome on board. It really is a great job, and there’s a huge international community of editorial colleagues waiting to engage with you.

​And if you happen to love books, reading and words, all the better. Just as long as you remember that, in itself, that's not enough.

Good luck, and see you on the other side!