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Learn about editorial foundations, growth, sustainability, legacy and marketing with this 5-book series from the hosts of The Editing Podcast.
Fancy reading some of the core takeaways from The Editing Podcast? Notes from the Podcast is a brand-new book series that focuses on five core areas of editorial business development.
What’s in the series?
Currently there are five books in the Notes from the Podcast series, all focusing on what Denise and I like gassing about the most – running, growing, sustaining and marketing an editing and proofreading business.
Is the content identical to The Editing Podcast?
So, yes, it’s still our podcast content, but it’s been repurposed and reworked so that it’s book-fit.
How long did it take to create the books?
The answer to how long it took depends on your starting point.
We didn’t write the books from scratch – creating them required having the podcast scripts in the first place. And since we broadcast our first episode in 2019, so you could say the journey started then.
We’ve spent the past three years doing the following to bring these books to life:
Did you use AI?
The biggest challenge we faced in making this project viable was untangling well over 100,000 scripted words spread across 145 separate episodes broadcast in no particular order.
Some of that scripted content was irrelevant because it:
Even the content that was relevant wasn’t located only in episodes whose titles made it obvious. It was all over the place! Plus, it was scripted in a way that suited voices rather than books.
Unless we got help.
We talked over the options and wondered if AI might come to the rescue. We decided to give it the task of:
That was a learning curve because it took a while to work out how give it the right prompts to ensure it gave us exactly what we wanted. However, it was time well spent because we got there in the end! So, yes, we did use AI – to analyse our own content and extract the chunks of it that we wanted. From then on, it was up to us to do what we do best … What Louise and Denise did
With that done, we turned to:
And finally, we published! Why bother publishing when people can listen?
Denise and I have always been massive advocates for repurposing valuable content because it respects the fact that people like to get their information in different ways.
Some like to listen. Some like to watch. And some like to read.
How to buy the books
All five books are available through Amazon.
Still want to listen? Head over to The Editing Podcast!
About Louise
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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Do you know your brand colours? They’re part of what makes you recognizable, so they’re worth paying attention to – and sticking to. Here’s one way to keep track of your choices and enforce consistency.
What is a brand palette?
A brand palette is the group of colours you use across your business materials, including the following:
If we’re communicating in online spaces that we don’t control, we’re limited to a certain extent by the platform’s own brand palette.
For example, we can upload on-brand images to our Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn headers, but we can’t change the colour of the links or icons on our posts. And members of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading who advertise in its Directory of Editorial Services can upload on-brand headshots, videos and images to their listings but must work within the CIEP’s unique brand palette. Do the best you can in the spaces you don’t control. In those you do, go for consistency. Here’s why it’s important. Why a consistent brand palette is powerful
Think about brands like Coke, Reese’s Pieces, Cadbury, McDonald’s, IKEA and Aldi. You can probably reel off the colours you associate with those companies, and that means you can identify them from afar or with just a glimpse.
Editorial brand palettes work the same way. They make us recognizable such that our colleagues, clients, friends and business partners can identify us in online spaces before they’ve dug into the detail of our messaging. If we’ve already built trust with those people, they’re more likely to take the time to engage with our content because they know who it’s from. Of course, they can also decide not to engage with us when our brand colours pop up in their social feeds or email inboxes because they’re not interested in us. Being recognizable means we don’t waste their time, and they don’t waste ours! Deciding on your brand-palette rules
Once you’ve decided which colours are in your brand palette, consider your rules.
My brand palette comprises grey, white, grape, maroon and teal. My brand-palette rules include the following:
If you’re the kind of editor who can hold several hex colours in your head, all power to you. I’m not. I need to record them so I can access them quickly and remind myself of the ‘rules’ I’ve created. That's why I built a brand book. How to record your brand palette
A brand book isn’t the only way of recording your brand colours, but it’s useful if you want a single space in which to keep track of your brand colours, something you can access every time you create content related to your business. Mine's bookmarked so I can get to it quickly.
It's also a one-stop-shop you can send to creative consultants if you’re commissioning artwork or design services. Don't stop at colours! Use it record all your editorial business's brand essentials. For example:
Here's what mine looks like. Use the thumbnails to move through the slideshow. If you’d like a free copy to mimic, head over to the branding page in my resource library and select the FREE BOOKLETS icon.
If it’s not something you think you can create for yourself, the Canva template is included free with the following courses:
If you’ve already bought one of them, log in to access the template, then copy it and edit it to create your own brand book quickly. Summing up
A brand palette ensures your editing business is consistently recognizable across multiple media. That means those who already know and trust you can spot you from afar or with a glimpse. And those just getting to know you understand what to expect.
Pick your colours and stick to them. Then keep a record of your choices. It means you can be sure you’ll be on brand everywhere! 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), a member of ACES, a Partner Member of The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and co-hosts The Editing Podcast.
Audio content has never been more popular. Publishers recognize this; so do independent authors. Here’s a list of tips and tools for freelance editors and proofreaders who’d like to introduce audio content into their business workflow and amplify their editorial voices – literally!
5 advantages of audio
Here are my top 5 reasons why I think audio is a superb tool for the editor or proofreader who wants to use audio as a marketing and business tool.
2 pieces of kit
Contrary to what a lot of people think, you don't need a lot of expensive and difficult-to-use kit. Assuming you already have a computer, here's what you'll need to get hold of.
3 ways to record
Recording audio content needn't cost you a single penny. Here are three resources you can use. You might even have two of them already.
3 ways to host
Here are three hosting options to consider. There's something for everyone – whether you want to keep your costs down while you experiment or you want to go full on in to audio content creation.
6 ways editors can use audio
One of the reasons why I love audio is that it's versatile. If marketing makes you nervous, think of how you might use your voice as a business or educational tool. Below are six things you could try.
5 ways to make audio interesting
Here are five ideas to help you add a cherry on your audio cake! None of them will cost you a bean!
Listen up!
Audio content is now showing up in search engines. Editors and proofreaders who use it to solve problems and engage with clients and colleagues will increase awareness about themselves and the profession they love.
[An earlier version of this post was originally published on The Editors’ Weekly, the official blog of Canada’s national editorial association.] Related marketing and audio resources
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.
Editorial training is critical. However, when it comes to attracting the attention of indie authors, we need to add value beyond the baseline. This article shows you why it's worth investing time in standing out.
You’re not alone
You’re a professional editor or proofreader and you want to work with indie authors.
Should be a doddle, right? After all, your tutor gave you amazing feedback. Your scores were high, your pass solid. The course was intense – it tested your skills and knowledge to the limit. That’s good because now you’re feeling confident. Fit for purpose and fit for market. And to prove it, you’ve got that shiny certificate. The problem is, you’re not alone. Editorial training – critical but standard
The next time you’re in a room or online forum with a bunch of fellow editors, ask them to shout out if they’ve taken editorial courses or carried out continued professional development.
Scratch that. Ask those who haven’t to shout out. It’ll be much quieter! The fact is, most pro editors have studied. Which means it’s not a compelling proposition for an indie author trying to work out who to hire. Training is critical – of course it is. It teaches us what we don’t know, allows us to discover our weaknesses and fix them. That way we’re in great shape by the time we start searching for clients. Training is a solid baseline. When it comes to being practice-fit, that’s its strength. But when it comes to attracting the attention of indie authors, that’s also its weakness. The snag with competing at the baseline
Imagine walking into a hospital. How impressed would you be to discover that all the doctors have been to medical school?
Not very. It’s critical, yes, but not impressive. Rather, it’s expected. The same applies to editors and proofreaders. No indie author seeks to hire an editor who hasn’t learned how to their job. And why would they? That’s no more likely that any of us walking into a hospital hoping there’s an untrained medic on the premises. Our being fit for purpose is expected too. And so, if we want to stand out, we need to add value beyond the baseline. Adding value by solving problems
You might be wondering what that value looks like and why it will appeal. The answer comes in the form of solutions to problems.
Let’s revisit the hospital. If we or someone we care about is a patient, there’s a problem. And the moment we enter the building, we’re not focusing on the qualifications of the doctors; that’s baseline stuff. Instead, we’re focusing on ourselves or our loved ones, the problem in hand, and whether one of those professional, qualified people in scrubs can fix it. If the medical pros succeed, we feel immensely grateful. And we trust them. When editors solve their target clients’ problems, the same thing happens. Those clients feel grateful and warm towards us. And they trust us. That’s how we add value. The problems indie authors have
The problems indie authors have lie in what they don’t know. Their expertise can be found elsewhere – maybe they’re one of those doctors in our hospital. Perhaps they’re a taxi driver or a plumber or a teacher.
They have a ton of skills and knowledge related to their professions but they don’t have the skills and knowledge related to ours. That’s great news because it gives us a whole raft of stuff with which to start building our trustworthiness – an online basket of free goodies ... gifts that solve indie authors’ problems and make them feel warm and fuzzy about us. ‘But somebody’s already done that!’
Maybe you’re thinking it’s a waste of time. After all, loads of people have already created online content – blogs, vlogs, podcasts, booklets – about spelling, punctuation, grammar, story structure, line craft, the types of editing, and a thousand other things that indie authors query in Google Search.
Trust me – that’s not the point. The point is that when they go searching for that stuff, we’re in the mix. Most indie authors do not search for ‘Louise Harnby crime fiction editor’. They search for things like ‘What’s third-person limited viewpoint?’ If my website’s all about Louise Harnby, I won’t appear in the search engines when an author hunts for information about narrative point of view. If my website’s about viewpoint – and other questions that authors ask – it’s a different story. Content that solves problems enables us to become visible, add value and build trust. The solutions your clients are searching for need to be:
... even if other people have already covered these topics in their own unique way elsewhere. Trustworthy added value: 7 ideas
Here are 7 ways in which you can add value. Each can be published on multiple platforms, including your website and social media:
Rising above the baseline and the noise
The internet is big and noisy. Editors and proofreaders who want to attract best-fit authors from within that online space need to be discoverable there.
A list of qualifications isn’t enough to cut through. We must add value. When we do so, we show our worth rather than telling it. That’s about trust. We get found, too. And that’s about business success! 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.
What do people say about your editing and proofreading business when you’re not in the room? Whatever it is, that’s your brand. Here’s what happens when you show who you are by talking about the problems you solve for others.
Is your editorial branding on track?
You’ve got work coming in but your analytics make you wonder whether you should be getting more requests to quote, given the volume of traffic.
Or perhaps you’re a new entrant to the field and have just begun to think about who you want to work with and what your message is. Do yourself a favour and take a look at your branding. Is it on track? Brand blurriness
I spent the first five years of my freelance career specializing in proofreading for publishers, first in the social sciences, then in fiction.
Over time, my client base began to shift. Now, I do sentence-level editing exclusively for indie fiction authors. Here’s the thing, though. For a long time, my website and directory entries didn’t reflect this shift. And while the content on my blog began to reflect my passion for supporting self-publishers, especially beginner writers, you wouldn’t have known this from the way I communicated my business mission in the rest of my marketing materials. I was playing safe. I was nervous. I was getting a lot of visitors to my website and a lot of requests to quote. However, only about 25% of those requests were from my target audience – the indie authors. And while the other 75% was work I always referred elsewhere, I felt safe having that as an option. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That was my mantra. I had enough work that I wanted to do, and plenty of offers to quote for work that I didn’t want to do. Still, I spent a lot of time sending work elsewhere. And I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that a lot of effort was going into marketing that ended up as jobs in other people’s hands. Why not just make things leaner? Discovering the problem
I found my courage and decided to make some changes. I amended the lead text on my page to make it clear that I was a fiction specialist.
And I readied myself for losing the 75% – those requests to quote that had made me feel all warm, cosy and safe for so long. Over the next three weeks the numbers plummeted. Most of those students, businesses and academics stopped getting in contact. But things were leaner. I was spending less time sending work elsewhere that I didn’t want to do anyway. I became more efficient, more productive, more focused. I was using my time wisely. I was streamlining my business. I felt great, right? Honestly? I’d lost my safety net. And I didn’t feel great at all. I reminded myself that I’d been fully booked for the past two years without having to dip into that 75%, so I should just relax. As you were – that was my new mantra. It’ll be fine – that was my other new mantra. Stop overthinking things – yet another new mantra. Louise Harnby | Mantra Queen is what I should have changed my business name to. I took a look at my home page, my directory entries, my business cards, and I noticed something. All the passion I felt about championing my target clients was missing. My branding was off. Making the message about the client
I completely overhauled my home page, resources page, my Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading directory entry and my blog, so that everything started to work together in harmony.
Now I’m telling my target client group about what makes me tick but in a way that focuses on solutions to their problems. It’s all about them, not about me. Here’s what I learned. Even if you’re findable, when your message doesn’t make your client feel like you get them, then you’re doing a lot of marketing work for a poor return. And even if that return is enough to keep your schedule full, it’s not giving you as much choice as you could have if your message was on point. Getting in the right gear
Being findable but having a weak brand is like driving along a motorway at 70 miles an hour in second gear. The car has to work really hard to get you where you want to go! Getting the branding right is like slipping into cruise-control.
Here’s what happened when I rebranded:
Sorting out our branding is the most powerful gift we can give our businesses. If we don’t understand our own brand values, we can’t expect potential clients to. Make sure yours are evident at every touchpoint of your editorial business. Learn how to brand your editorial business
If you want to learn how to do it, my online course Branding for Business Growth will teach you what you need to know. I created this course specifically for editors, because I'm one and I know what the challenges are. For a shorter course on building trust with ideal clients, try To Visibility and Beyond.
To find out more about either of these courses, visit the Courses page. 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.
If you’re struggling to decide what to call your new editing or proofreading business, here’s a 6-step framework to set you on the right path.
Your business name is part of your brand
Deciding what to call your editing or proofreading business is part of the BRANDING process and needs careful consideration. Follow these steps to work out what’s right for you.
Step 1: Brainstorm a list of possible business names
Let your imagination fly. Put your silly hat on. Then your serious one. Then your smarty-pants one. Anything goes at this point. This is all about you and what floats your boat. There’s no wrong or right – just ideas.
For demonstration, let’s imagine a new proofreader called Basil Rhoueny. Basil is trying to decide on a business name and comes up with the following ideas: 1. Basil Rhoueny | Academic Proofreading Services 2. Basil Rhoueny Editorial 3. Bulletproof Editorial 4. Comma Sutra 5. Full-proof Editorial Services 6. Norfolk Editorial 7. Perfect Prose 8. Responsible Editing Step 2: Identify target clients
The next step is for Basil to identify his target clients. If he doesn’t know who he wants to work for, he can’t create a message that compels them – via his business name, his mission statement, his elevator pitch, his web copy, or any other marketing materials.
And if he doesn’t have a compelling message, why would anyone choose him over any one of the tens of thousands of colleagues who are also offer editing services? ‘I’ll edit and proofread anything for anyone’ isn’t a standout proposition. Basil needs to do better. Even if an editor is prepared to be something of a generalist, I recommend talking like a specialist when communicating with different client groups. On our websites, that means giving visitors signals so that they can navigate to specialist messaging on different pages that focus on solving group-specific problems. Some people know who they want to work for right from the get-go. Some have no clue. Some think they do, but seven years ahead find that they’ve completely shifted their client base. We’ll deal with that issue in Step 6. For now, let’s imagine that Basil thinks his editorial training, educational background and former career make him best suited to the following client groups:
Identifying these groups will help him with Steps 3 and 4. Step 3: Identify core brand values
A brand can be loosely defined as what others think about us – external perceptions. A brand identity is the distinctive business persona we present that nudges target clients to notice the things that we want them to notice. It’s what allows us to influence those external perceptions.
Brand values are the essence of our brand identity. They represent the kind of editorial pro we want to be seen as – the things we stand for, what we’re passionate about, what makes us tick, why we’re different. Our business name, photographs, colour palette, web copy and marketing materials should reflect our brand values so that the clients we’d most love to work with will most love to work with us. It’s no small thing to develop a brand identity. If you need help, I have an online course called Branding for Business Growth that can help you develop an emotion-based business brand identity. Let’s imagine that Basil has identified the following brand values that he wishes to convey at every touchpoint of his business:
Identifying these brand values will help him with Step 5. Step 4: Serve the client
In this step, Basil revisits his list of business-name ideas and considers whether they’re appropriate for his target client groups: academic publishers, students and independent academics.
1. Basil Rhoueny | Academic Proofreading Services 2. Basil Rhoueny Editorial 3. Bulletproof Editorial 4. Comma Sutra 5. Full-proof Editorial Services 6. Norfolk Editorial 7. Perfect Prose 8. Responsible Editing He asks himself the following questions:
Names (1) , (2) and (8) best reflect exactly what he’s offering. Names (3), (5) and (6) are next in line, though they’re less specific. Name (4) alludes to sentence-level editing work, and some will think it amusing. However, Basil wonders whether some of his non-fluent English-speaking clients will get the joke and bypass him. Name (5) is a problem – there’s an existing established business called Full Proof | Professional Proofreading Solutions. Names (4) and (7) give him cause for concern regarding their searchability. It’s likely that the words ‘proofreading’ or ‘editing’ or ‘editorial’ will be searched for by potential clients. It’s far less likely that someone will search for ‘comma sutra’ or ‘perfect prose’ if they need proofreading assistance, though they are distinctive. Name (6), however, might be great for being found in the search engines by local clients. Basil decides to remove Comma Sutra, Full-proof Editorial Services, and Perfect Prose from the list of contenders. Now he turns to the branding issue. Step 5: Serve the brand
In this step, Basil revisits his list of business-name ideas and considers whether they’re good brand practice. His remaining names are:
1. Basil Rhoueny | Academic Proofreading Services 2. Basil Rhoueny Editorial 3. Bulletproof Editorial 6. Norfolk Editorial 8. Responsible Editing He asks himself the following questions:
Basil has an unusual name. If he’d been called John Smith, he might have been easy to confuse with other editors called John Smith, at least in the West. However, either of his remaining business names would work. There is, however, a good chance that his name might be misspelled. Is this something he needs to worry about if people are searching for him by name? This could be an issue if he’s referring someone to his website by phone, or if a word-of-mouth lead is trying to find him. Here’s a test. Type ‘louise harby editor’ or ‘louis hornby proofreader’ into the search engines. Can you find me? I can find me! I’m not convinced that tricky-to-spell names are as problematic as we might think. Back to Basil. Name (3) is at odds with the sentiment of BV-Green Editor. This brand value seeks to nudge potential clients towards thinking of Basil as compassionate, respectful, broad-minded, ethical, warm … someone who can see the bigger picture. The word ‘bullet’ might bring to mind thoughts of violence, death, harm and brutality. It’s potentially a negative nudge rather than one that evokes positivity. Name (6), while potentially clickbaity for local searches, doesn’t sit so well with BV-Globalist. Basil would be happy to work with local clients, but he’s not sure he can build a sustainable business on this alone. Name (8) has a definite though subtle nod to BV-Green Editor. He elects to remove Bulletproof Editorial and Norfolk Editorial from the list of contenders. Step 6: Think ahead but don’t get bogged down
Can any of us be absolutely sure that what we want to do now is what we will want to do in the years ahead? Choosing a business name requires us to think ahead, but also to be true to who we are and what we’re offering in the present time.
In case you didn’t spot it, Basil’s name is an anagram of mine. When I set up my business in 2005, I was a dedicated proofreader who specialized in working for social-science publishers. If you’d told me back then that by 2016 I’d be specializing in line- and copyediting for indie fiction authors, I’d have been a tad surprised. But that’s exactly what happened. My original business name was Louise Harnby | Proofreader. My URL was and still is: www.louiseharnbyproofreader.com. My business name now is Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor. It wasn’t actually a big deal to add an ampersand and the word ‘copyeditor’ into my business name and didn’t affect my findability in the search engines. Would it have if I’d changed it to Louise Harnby | Fiction Editor, or Fabulous Fiction Editing, or something else? Possibly, but Google Search is a tricky beast to master and shifts the goalposts often in a bid to thwart those who’d use black-hat SEO techniques rather than genuine attempts to be interesting and discoverable online. Basil is left with choosing between the following:
There are good arguments for the SEO-friendliness of the first two, and the flexibility of the third. My view is that any would work because they are true to his business’s brand identity in different ways. What’s right for you?
Basil’s brand identity and your brand identity will not be the same because you and Basil are individuals, each with your own businesses, ideal clients, goals, hopes, dreams and passions. The decisions you make will therefore be different to the one Basil makes. That’s fine.
Will there be a perfect solution? Unlikely. There will be choices to be made.
What’s important is that you choose a business name that you feel comfortable with: one that reflects your brand identity and nudges your ideal clients towards an awareness of the kind of editor you are and why you’ll be a great fit with them; one that alludes to what you do. Here are just a few of my favourites:
It’s likely your choice will not be clear cut. Try not to get bogged down by that. Business names alone will not make you visible or discoverable. The compromises you make can be offset by other business-promotion activities that strengthen your online presence. Happy naming! 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.
Here’s how to build a knockout editing portfolio page even if you’re relatively new to the editing or proofreading field.
Bring your portfolio page to life
Deciding what to include, what to omit, and how to lay it out so that it grabs a potential client’s attention can be tricky. If your business is new you might not have a lot to shout about. If you’re established, you might have too much.
One thing’s for sure, though – an editing site without a visible portfolio is at a disadvantage. It’s the next best thing to the social proof of a testimonial because it demonstrates that you practise what you preach. Using stories is a method every editor can use to bring their portfolio page to life. Moving from mechanics to emotions
Stories are lovely additions to any portfolio page because they give us the opportunity to take our potential clients behind the scenes ... to show them how we helped and how the project made us feel.
That’s important because it shifts the attention away from mechanics and towards emotion. Those of us who work with non-publisher clients such as independent authors, academics, businesses and students are asking our clients to take a big leap ... to put their project in the hands of someone they’ve never met, and pay for the privilege. It’s a huge ask and takes not a little courage for some. Think about it from the client’s point of view:
These clients will be looking for an editor they can trust, someone who gets them, understands what their problems are and can solve them without making a song and dance about it. Trust is something that is usually earned over time – think about your friendships and partnerships. Editors and their clients don’t always have the luxury of time. What’s needed is something that will fast-track the growth of trust. Word-of-mouth recommendations are fantastic for this. Testimonials from named clients are also excellent social proof. Portfolios work in the same way. The problem is, they can be boring. The list: boring but powerful
A partial screenshot of my boring but useful list!
I’m not going to suggest you dump your long lists. Boring though they may be, I believe there’s power in them, and for two reasons:
So, if you want to keep your long lists, do so. I have. Make them more accessible and aesthetically pleasing by breaking them into subjects or genres. Add thumbnails of book jackets, journal covers or client logos (subject to securing permission from the client). Use a carousel or slideshow plug-in to show off multiple images without cluttering up the page. 
Carousel of thumbnail images with scroll buttons
Adding pizzazz with stories
Now it’s time to add the wow factor. Stories take the portfolio one stage further. They’re basically case studies of editing and proofreading in practice. Can you recognize yourself in the following list?
Stories work for all three groups of editors:
What to include
It’s up to you what you include but consider the following:
Example 1
I’m a crime fiction and thriller editor who works for a lot of first-time novelists. Many haven’t worked with an editor and don’t know what to expect. Some feel anxious and exposed. My two portfolio stories have a friendly, informal tone. One of my case studies focuses on a self-publishing series author whose fictional world I’ve become close to. By showing how we work together and how his writing makes me feel, I demonstrate my advocacy for self-publishing and the thrill I get from working with indie authors, the emotional connection I make with the characters, and the delight I experience in seeing writers hone their craft. 
Example 2
If you work with corporates, your stories might have a reassuring, professional tone that conveys confidence and pragmatism. Your case studies could feature clients whose projects required the management of privacy and confidentiality concerns. You could use the space to talk about the challenges you faced and the successes you and your clients achieved even though the projects were complex and demanding.
Example 3
If you work with publishers, you could create case studies that show how you managed tight deadlines, a controlled brief, and a detailed style guide. The stories could highlight some of the problems you and the publisher overcame, your enthusiasm for the subject area, the pride you felt on seeing the book published, knowing the part you’d played in its publication journey. Crafting stories about relationships
If your home page is all about the client, the portfolio page can be all about relationships. By crafting stories for our portfolios, we can invite potential clients onto the stage and let them experience – if only fleetingly – editing in action.
And because the case studies are real, they’re a powerful tool for knocking down barriers to trust. They show a client how we might help them, just as we’ve helped others. 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.
If you're a new proofreader or editor and you're wondering whether you should specialize, here's my advice on how to stand out.
Get the free booklet
I believe that being a specialist makes sense in a global editorial market, and in this free mini ebook, I discuss how using the appropriate language helps you achieve the following goals, even if you're a new starter:
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.
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].
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).
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. 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). Clients
Now that I’ve sorted out who I am, I need to think about who my potential clients are.
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. 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:
Getting the information out there
Next, I need to decide where I’m going to put this information.
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.
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.
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? 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. More resources
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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