Building Your Editorial Business: A Fictive Case Study

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.

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An alternative editorial persona

For this article, 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, and how to make myself stand out.

​So who am I today? My name’s Basil Rhoueny [it’s the best anagram I could come up with – alternatives on a postcard].
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• 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! That plan starts with providing clarity for myself about who I am and what I have to offer.

At first glance, this is me:

My name is Basil Rhoueny, and I’m a fully trained copyeditor and a Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP).

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​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 copyeditor, 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.
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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 copyeditor specializing in business, finance and related disciplines.

​I have 20 years’ experience in the finance industry, and I am a Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP).  ​

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​Clients

Now that I’ve sorted out who I am, I need to think about who my potential clients are.
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• 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, things are looking like this:

​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 Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP).

​I offer copyediting and proofreading services for publishers, professional societies, companies, independent business professionals, academic researchers and students.

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​​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 that will demonstrate my wide-ranging specialist knowledge.

​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 Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP).

​I offer copyediting and proofreading services for publishers, professional societies, companies, independent business professionals, academic researchers and students.

Specialist subject areas:

• accounting/finance
• business
• change management 
• corporate governance
• cross-cultural management
• financial services
• human resource development
• information management
• insurance 
• international business and management
• leadership
• management education and development

• management research
• management sciences
• management skills 
• marketing
• operations management 
• organization studies
• organizational behaviour
• public and non-profit management
• research methods for business and management
• small business/entrepreneurship
• strategic management and business policy
• training

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​​Getting the information out there

Next, I need to decide where I’m going to put this information.
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• 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.

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​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 …

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​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.

One of my goals is to build 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 BazBizBlog (then again, maybe not!).

​Regardless of the name I choose, it will be solution-based and 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 will drive up my Google rankings because the freshness of the content will generate juice for my site as well as answering questions that people search for answers to in the search engines.

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?

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Try this strategy ...

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.

Your profile, and the content you create that's associated with it, will provide relevant 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.

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More resources

• Booklet: Beyond editing qualifications: Gaining author trust
• Blog: Branding for editors and proofreaders – beyond me-me-me
• Course: Editor Website Essentials
• Book: Marketing Your Editing and Proofreading Business
• Guides: ​Business growth guides for editors and proofreaders
• Courses: Business growth training courses

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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.

• Get in touch: Louise Harnby | Crime Fiction & Thriller Editor
• Connect: X @LouiseHarnby, Facebook and LinkedIn
• Learn: Books and courses
• Discover: Resources for authors and editors

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