FOR EDITORS, PROOFREADERS AND WRITERS

If you’re building your editorial business, you can’t afford to sit back and hope the work will come to you – too many colleagues will be taking a more proactive approach.

So, this time round I thought it would be fun to pretend to be someone else – someone with a different educational background and career history.

​I’m going to pretend that I’m new to the field but that I have completed some sort of recognized training in proofreading/editing and have joined my national editorial society. My technical skills are there but I’ve got to work out how to get myself noticed.

​So who am I today? My name’s Basil Rhoueny [it’s the best anagram I could come up with – alternatives on a postcard].

• I used to be manager for a large financial services company.
• I have a partner, a child, a guinea pig, and a mortgage. I love the first and the second, I tolerate the third, and frankly I’d like to be shot of the fourth (though I’m a realist, too). I’ve moved all around the country with my job but currently I reside in Ely.
• I’m a good runner. I love to run. I came eighth out of 450 other guys in my age group in the Cambridge half-marathon last year and have had an article published about the experience in Runner’s World UK magazine.
• I have a blog about running called JogMeBlogMe.
• After two decades in business, I was made redundant 14 months ago.
• Following some considerable discussion with my partner, I decided to retrain and set up a home-based editorial business. My partner works 9–6, so I’ll fit the childcare around my freelance work.

So how am I going to create awareness of my new business? I know it’s not going to happen overnight, but I have a plan!

​At the moment, this is who I am:

My name is Basil Rhoueny and I’m a fully trained copy-editor and a member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders.

Market
I write, I blog, I run, I (used to) manage staff, and I scamper around the garden with my kid (and the guinea pig when it escapes). I’ve retrained as a copy-editor, but which element of my experience will help me develop the best editorial business brand? All of them?

​Perhaps later on down the line I can expand my portfolio but right now I need a focus, something that I can really get my teeth into so that I can target my services.

As I said, I have 20 years’ experience of working for a large financial services organization. I understand the language of business: money, insurance, capital, funds, investments, portfolios, stocks, shares, corporate culture, management, organizational behaviour. Those terms trip off my tongue without a second thought. I can edit this stuff with my metaphorical eyes shut.

So that’s how I’m going to sell myself. I want a tight message that I can sell to people and I don’t want to confuse potential clients as to what my niche is. I’m not going to talk about running, or writing, or blogging. Not yet, anyway.

​So, now, this is who I am:

My name is Basil Rhoueny and I’m a fully trained copy-editor specializing in business, finance and related disciplines. I have 20 years’ experience in the finance industry and I am a member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders.  

Clients
Now that I’ve sorted out how I’m going to brand myself, I need to think about who my potential clients are.

• There are publishers galore whose lists include titles in the fields of management and organization studies, marketing, training, business, accountancy, finance, and corporate governance.
• There are students writing Master’s dissertations and PhD theses in the same areas.
• There are companies (like the one I used to work for) who produce business reports and marketing materials.
• There are professional societies who publish journals and magazines in these areas.
• There are academic researchers and business professionals looking for people to polish their work before they submit articles to these publications.

​Now, this is who I am:

My name is Basil Rhoueny and I’m a fully trained copy-editor specializing in business, finance and related disciplines. I have 20 years’ experience in the finance industry and I am a member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. I offer copy-editing and proofreading services for publishers, professional societies, companies, independent business professionals, academic researchers and students.

Subject areas
I now need to think about widening my net to make my niche as comprehensive as possible.

A quick browse through the management sections on only two large publisher websites tells me a great deal about the sub-disciplines that are being written about.

The world of business and finance has a lot of options that I can focus on – key words which will demonstrate that my specialist knowledge is wide-ranging.

​Now, this is who I am:

My name is Basil Rhoueny and I’m a fully trained copy-editor specializing in business, finance and related disciplines. I have 20 years’ experience in the finance industry and I am a member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. I offer copy-editing and proofreading services for publishers, professional societies, companies, independent business professionals, academic researchers and students.

Specialist subject areas:

Getting the information out there
Next, I need to decide where I’m going to put this information.

• I’m going to place this information in the key proofreading and editing directory listings, on the new website that I’ve built, in my résumé, and on my LinkedIn profile. And I’ll place summarized versions on my Twitter and Facebook accounts.
• I’m going to contact every single publisher and related professional society in the country whose book/journal lists include my specialist areas, either via email or by letter.
• I’m going to investigate strategies for building relationships with corporations and independent business professionals.
• I’m going to think about how I might work with and target students in management/business/finance university departments (Getting Noticed and Getting Work (SfEP Norfolk Group Meeting; “Can you proofread my thesis by tomorrow?” – Editorial Freelancing in the Student Market; Student Proofreading Ethics).

Networking
I need to think about networking, too. Fellow freelancers who have established businesses may be able to refer work to me once they get to know me.

I’ve decided to join the local chapter of my editorial society so that I can meet some of my colleagues face to face. I also aim to build up a network of freelance colleagues on Twitter and Facebook.

​I might pick up some good business-building tips as well as make some online friends who’ve taken the journey that I’m now on. But I’m going to take it further than this …

Being interesting
... I’m going to take a look at what’s being tweeted about in the business world, both from an academic and a trade angle.

The aim is to build up a Twitter network that stretches beyond the freelance world and into the world of my clients. If I want to get followers who are potential clients, I need to give as much as I take. I need to tweet about news, tools and resources that will make me interesting to these business people.

Since I’m branding myself as an editorial specialist in the fields of business and finance, I’m putting JogMeBlogMe to one side and attaching a new blog to my editing website. I might call it BazBiz (then again, maybe not!).

​Regardless of the name I choose, it will feature links, news, articles, resources, tips and tools related to business – about business people, and for business people.

Some of the features/links will cover editing and proofreading, but from the point of view of a client (tips for report writing, good-grammar guides, working with a freelancer, etc.); others will focus on business tools and tips based on my previous career knowledge (financial planning, good management practice, staff motivation, time management tips, latest research, etc.); still others might explore useful tools and apps for on-the-go business professionals.

The point is to make the content interesting to the kinds of people who might also use my services. And it might drive up my Google rankings because the freshness of the content will generate juice for my site.

I have a lot of work to do, but I’m focused and I know what I need to do. The results of my labour may take months to bear fruit but I’m investing in the future success of my business so I believe the hard work is worth it.

Now I’m off for a run. Did I mention that I’m good at running?

You don’t have to be Basil to try out the strategy above. You can take the same principles and apply them to your own background with a little bit of tweaking.

Maybe you’re an ex lawyer, teacher, accountant, sales manager, soldier, nurse, or social worker. Perhaps you have a degree in politics, biomedical science, or psychology.

The point is to focus on your specialist area and then mine the field to see what the associated areas and sub-disciplines are. In this way you can develop a core profile, rich in description, which can be displayed across a range of media. That profile will provide a comprehensive list of key words that will help you get found when potential clients are searching for editorial freelancers with specific skills.

It’s not the only strategy by any means – it’s simply one for you to consider if you’re starting out.

I’ll not claim the ideas above are mine alone – they’re more a culmination of time spent watching, listening and talking to my successful colleagues about how they network and market themselves to fellow editorial freelancers and potential clients by making the most of their specialist skills.

​They are editorial professionals now, but they came from a variety of career backgrounds: science, law, academia, education, management, publishing, journalism, and much more besides. I’d name each and every one of them if I had the space, but there are far too many. I thank them, anyway, for their wisdom and their knowledge sharing.

​Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you're an author, you might like to join Louise’s Writing Library. Members receive monthly updates featuring self-publishing news and resources.

Experimenting with new markets is not just about bringing in the money; it’s also about opening yourself up to new opportunities and experiences.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a creature of habit. I’m also a firm believer in not putting my eggs in one basket. Most of the prospective clients who contact me are similar to my existing clients: academic publishers. I know this market well – I understand its language; I’m familiar with its processes; and the expectations of what the work will involve are understood by me and the presses for whom I work.

Taking on work in areas that are unfamiliar can be somewhat daunting. How much should you charge? What’s the going rate? How long will the work take? Does your new client’s understanding of terms such as “proofreading” or “editing” match your own? Will you be comfortable doing the work? 

There’s nothing wrong with sticking to your comfort zone, especially if you enjoy the work. But every now and then it doesn’t hurt to take a punt. After all, the best-case scenario is that you find a new niche – another string to your editorial bow – while the worst-case scenario is simply that it doesn’t work out. And, really, what's wrong with that?

A. What if the work doesn’t suit you?
The great thing about being a freelance business owner is that you can always close the relationship if things don’t work out as planned. And even if your hoped-for long-term business relationship ends up being rather shorter than expected, you can still notch up the completed work to experience and use the knowledge you’ve gained to inform your future choices.

B. You like the work but the financial return is much lower than expected
I find it quite easy to estimate how much time work from academic publishers will take because it’s a market with which I’m familiar. Quoting for work outside the field is far harder for many editorial freelancers – and it may be that you make a mistake and seriously under-quote.

One way to avoid this is to offer a trial rate that you’ll honour for the first few projects, but suggest the possibility of reviewing the fee structure a little further down the road once you’ve completed one or two pieces of work.

If you haven’t gone for the trial option, and find that the work is taking much longer than expected (causing your hourly rate to plummet), don’t beat yourself up about it. Contact the client and explain the situation, stating that, of course, you’ll honour the original quote for the initial pieces of work supplied but that if the relationship is to continue you’ll need to review the price with them.

In this situation it may be that the client decides they can’t afford your proposed new rate. That’s fair enough – at least the discussion is open and honest. And if you’ve taken the time to give a careful breakdown of the work you’ve done, how long it’s taken, the reasons why you believe you initially underestimated, and why, in order to do the best job for them, you want to review matters, then your client will appreciate your professionalism and see that you’re not trying to rip them off. In this case you'll be able to close the door to each other on good terms.

Of course, there's always the negotiated compromise. You can ask them to make you their best offer and decide whether you can live with it. The experience you’re acquiring and your enjoyment of the projects might mean that you’re prepared to take a bit of a hit (though not one that makes you feel as if you are being exploited). Compromise isn’t for everyone, but it is an option.

C. What if the work’s not what you expected?
So you thought you were proofreading but actually you’re editing. Or you thought you were editing but actually you’re writing. Or perhaps you were expecting monthly projects of a couple of thousand words and you’ve ended up with a tome on your desk (or in your inbox). Ask yourself the following: 

1. Do you want to do the work as it now stands?
2. Are you fit for purpose? Can you actually do what the client needs and by when they need it, regardless of your initial expectations?
3. Is the agreed rate in line with what you feel is fair for the job you’re doing and the time it’s taking?

If the answer to (1) is “no”, then inform your client as soon as possible that the job’s not for you. That way they can find a replacement.

If you’re okay with the work but the answer to (2) is negative, then you need to take the same action – tell the client that you’re sincerely sorry but you don’t feel the job is within your skill set; or, if it is but the deadlines are unmanageable, give them the heads-up immediately. In the latter case you may be able to set up new arrangements whereby the time frames are workable.

If you still want the work and you’re fit for purpose, but you’re unhappy with the rate (3), it’s time to have the open and honest conversation outlined in section B, above.

Many an editorial freelancer has been surprised at how receptive clients can be to procedural or rate reviews as long as the conversation is timely, polite and expressed in a way that acknowledges their needs. If your work is of high quality, your client may just bend over backwards to make the relationship work.

Taking a punt brings up all sorts of unexpected pleasures, but sometimes a little pain, too. Good communication framed by honesty and immediacy will make the journey less bumpy.

​Whatever happens, as my editor friend Janet MacMillan recently advised, “There’s no point in getting one’s knickers in a knot over it. You win some and you lose some in this gig!” 

Jump-to coding is handy for when you have a webpage with a lot of information on it and you want your readers to be able to jump to key headings with ease.

Jump-to code is really easy to incorporate even if you’ve no experience of coding.

Most of the popular DIY website builders such as WordPress and Weebly include html boxes that you can write your code in.

Simplified example 
You have three headed areas on a page you want your readers to be able to jump to: Training, Qualifications, and Recent Clients.

Here is the code you could place in your html box at the top of your page:

Jump to <a href="#train">Training</a> ● <a href="#quals">Qualifications</a> ● <a href="#rc">Recent Clients</a>

This would appear as:

Jump to Training ● Qualifications ● Recent Clients

If you don’t want to use the words “Jump to” you can change them to whatever you want. The same applies to the bullet points. For example, you could use the following code instead:

For more information click on the following: <a href="#train">Training</a> | <a href="#quals">Qualifications</a> | <a href="#rc">Recent Clients</a>.

This would appear as:

For more information click on the following: Training | Qualifications | Recent Clients.

Now place the following code in an html box just above the section of the page with training information:

<a name="train"></a>

Then you would place the remaining two html boxes (with the amended code) just above their respective sections:

<a name="quals"></a>
<a name="rc"></a>

In the above example "#quals" could be rendered in any way you wish ("#q", "#qualifications", "#qu") as long as you ensure the abbreviated version in the above-heading code is the same (<a name="q"></a>, <a name="qualifications"></a> ,<a name="qu"></a>).

Some of you may have websites that allow you to do this automatically, without going through the rigmarole of coding yourself. However, if you do have to embed your own code then I hope the above example demonstrates that you don't need to be an html wizard to get the desired results.

A note from Louise: “[U]se the power of targeted email and website domain naming to make your customers choose you first” is the advice from Paul Icke, editorial colleague, and SfEP member.

Here are some super marketing ideas from Paul to get you thinking. Paul has deliberately chosen to leave the technical aspects for another day. However, if you have any questions you can either use the comments section or contact Paul direct at blog_feedback@pjicke.com. See what he’s done with his email address? Read on to find out why …

Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me. Really? Picture this: You are project managing for a University Press on a prestige series of international law titles. It’s Friday afternoon before a Bank Holiday weekend. Your lead proofreader has just called in and is now indisposed for the foreseeable future and the first title is about to come back from typesetting.

You still have a mountain of work to clear off your desk before you go home and so, seasoned professional that you are, you turn to the SfEP online directory for a replacement. Despite a fairly specialized keyword search list, you get three good hits. All three give return email addresses: 

        Kaz.Dave@theVonTrappFamily.whizzmail.com
        sally@knownonions.com
        PoliticsAndLaw@ProProofReading.co.uk*

There is a four-figure budget for each title with guaranteed repeat work but the clock is ticking. Which of the three do you feel like trying first?

Your directory entry, business card or advert is the key you hope will unlock income, and I hope that you will find some inspiration here to use the power of targeted email and website domain naming to make your customers choose you first.  

Take yourself seriously
I came into editing and proofreading along a non-publishing trajectory. I had a long career in IT and founded a successful consultancy in Marketing and Service Delivery before changing tack to deal with a family crisis, so I am older; I do gravitas, and I want you to feel that I am dedicated to doing your work and that your proofs will not come back covered in ketchup and crayon drawings.

Having rubbed shoulders on IT projects with consulting heavyweights such as Logica and PwC, I know what makes them tick, and having "Big_Daddy56@hotmail.com" on your business card just doesn’t cut the mustard.

In fact, many large organizations have deployed intelligent firewalls that will assign a high percentage probability to emails emanating from popular domains such as "gmail" or "hotmail" as potential spam, so your winning tender submission might not even get through to your customer contact.

The domain name, the bit after the "@" or the "www", says more about you than you think. When we want to buy on the internet, we look for clues in the domain names of unfamiliar companies – I visit www.nakedwines.com for claret, not car insurance.

It has taken eye-watering marketing budgets for Apple and Orange to re-define those words in the popular consciousness as entities other than fruit, money I will assume you don’t have, so the message is clear – choose an email address/domain name combination that tells your target customer exactly what you want them to know.

The sales pitch
As freelancers we are selling services to human beings who are buying, and there is a considerable body of work dealing with how we make decisions when we buy. I am very interested in the role of the unconscious mind in these decisions (I have an "ology", as Maureen Lipman would say). Three things stand out from this work for me:

1. Thinking requires effort and energy, so keep things simple for your potential customer and don’t make them work hard to choose you – they have pressures of their own and will want a quick and easy solution.
2. We are instinctively risk averse and will gravitate towards things we know, so use words that describe your service exactly. Clever domain names can convey intelligence and creativity, but do use the "alias", the bit before the "@", to provide the precise detail; your name is actually unimportant at this stage, and not supplying one will also remove the risk of any form of unconscious (or conscious) discrimination. 
   
   Tip: Why use only one address in your marketing? As you will see later, email domains allow
   multiple aliases, so if you offer multiple specialisms, give each one an address, i.e.:
   
   PoliticsAndLaw@ProProofReading.co.uk*
   FrenchAndItalian@ProProofReading.co.uk*
   Medical@ProProofReading.co.uk*
   
   This way you can turn yourself into a small army of top-flight academics.
   
   Other tip: Email addresses are case insensitive, so note the use of printed capitals to separate words and add emphasis.
   
   And still another tip: Show your top-paying clients how much you love them and give them their own contact address, such as "OUP_PRIORITY@ProProofReading.co.uk".* That way their mail will stand out from adverts for cheap Viagra and you can use your email software’s filter tools to make your inbox light up like Christmas when your work comes in.
   
   
3. Although we like to think we are rational and objective, our first impressions and experiences often override objectivity. Your very first contact with an enquiring customer will probably influence your entire relationship with them.

Get your domain name here
Domain names are as cheap as chips and even easier to acquire. There are rules on domain name registration, but suffice to say a ".co.uk" suffix (or a ".com" for you Walter Mitty types out there, like me, or if you have global clientele; ".eu" works well within Europe, too) will suit a UK-based freelancer working with UK organizations and cost as little as £4.99 a year. The choice of suffix really boils down to where you operate, so an overseas reader of this blog would register a domain in their home country, i.e. ".fr" for France, ".de" in Germany, etc.

You get your domain name through an easily found registrar. For reasons I can’t remember, I am with a registrar called FreeParking, with whom I am unconnected and I use them here simply as illustration.

Try out some domain names you like, bearing in mind what I have said above. You can type them into the box at the top of the FreeParking page and see if they are available. If so, you will simply need to pay and register your domain(s) under your sole trader, company or partnership name as owner of the domain(s) you buy.

There is a dizzying array of things you can do with your new domain and I don’t want to veer into the technical at this stage, so do explore; I will gladly answer any questions you may have. Basically, my registrar will host web pages for me. I can then have a free mail account with storage and 11 aliases (different bits before the "@") or I can have up to ten free aliases on the domain name that forward mail to any other email address(es) of mine. I can transfer-in domains I already own from somewhere else or I can forward traffic to them – the list of possibilities is as large as your imagination.

You can be up and running with a new marketing identity in minutes and for less than a fiver. Have several. Re-invent yourself periodically if things slow down, you feel stale or if you acquire new skills, interests or qualifications.

Practical tip: Create a totally different email alias, or even a different domain, to use for non-work activities such as social networking and internet shopping. When this address inevitably attracts too many phishing scams or Facebook exhortations, just delete the alias and make a new one. This will avoid risk to your client addresses.

I believe that a well thought-out email and domain name strategy makes you look smart and professional, so just remember to say what you do on the tin.

* "ProProofReading.co.uk" was available at time of writing and could be yours for £4.99 per year. 

Further reading
If you would like to know more about unconscious purchasing influences, a fascinating place to start is Philip Graves’ book, Consumerology: The Market Research Myth, the Truth about Consumer Behaviour and the Psychology of Shopping, Nicholas Brealey Publishing (London, 2010).

For background reading on domain naming, visit InterNIC or the UK’s central registry at Nominet.

Copyright Paul Icke 2012