Content hubs for proofreaders and editors
The ‘self-publishers’ page on my site is a content hub. I call it Louise's Writing Library. It’s where potential author clients can find lots of resources to make their lives easier.

Each resource has a picture. Clicking on that picture takes the visitor to a blog post, a Word file or a PDF booklet (though it could just as easily link to a video, podcast or Excel spreadsheet).

All of that stuff is on my blog too, so why did I create a dedicated page to curate it? Here are 8 reasons why:

1. Hubs help your visitors find your useful stuff
It's much easier for a visitor to navigate from one resource to another when you offer clearly titled images in one place than it is to find what you want in a search bar or blog archive.

And if they get distracted, it’s easy to start the content review process all over again back in the hub. That might not be so easy if they’re on a 7-year-old blog with several hundred articles on it, especially if the ones they want to read appear in different subject- or month-archives.

Your visitor can also bookmark a hub page on your site. They can’t do that with a list of results generated by your search bar. They can probably bookmark an archive, but that will only show the first article or two on your blog, not a chunk of your core resources at a glance.

2. Hubs keeps your visitors on your site for longer because there’s more to engage with
The more goodies you offer visitors, the greater their engagement. That’s good for obvious reasons – you’re helping your clients, showing them you’re engaged with their problems and are willing and able to solve them.

But there’s another important reason. The longer someone sticks around on your site, the more likely they are to hire your editorial services.

It’s no surprise, really – I don’t stick around in a high-street shop, desperately trying to find that one thing I want, if the overall feel of the place and the products it’s selling don’t feel like me. But if I keep finding things that grab my attention, I’m much more likely to walk out of the door with a bag full of something nice.

Editorial websites are no different. If your hub makes potential clients drool because you’re offering them a lot of free, helpful, valuable content, if it makes them feel that you get them, and that you’re a good fit for each other, you have a much higher chance of persuading that person to ask for a quote or a sample edit/proofread.

3. Hubs reinforce your brand
Content hubs are perfect for reinforcing your brand identity because you can create a uniform look and feel by theming your images with consistent colourways, fonts, and design.

Include a few lines of text at the top to explain who your resources are for, and what problems they’ll solve – your mission, so to speak.
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Here’s a partial sample of the images in my own content hub:

​And here's a partial shot of John Espirian's Learning Zone. John's hub has a very different feel to it, and so it should. His brand identity is built around a different set of skills, services and target clients.

8. Hubs encourage ‘you’re worth it’ moments
Certainly, a great content hub will increase the likelihood that your visitor will hit the contact button, but not everyone will be ready to make that commitment.

That’s why building a mailing list is a great way to keep in touch with potential clients who are thinking, ‘I’m interested in you and like what you’re doing, but I’m not quite at the point where I’m ready to hire you as my editor or proofreader.’

Still, it seems like everyone and their aunt has a mailing list or newsletter these days. And if you’re going to persuade someone to allow yet another email into their already crowded inbox, and make them want to actually open it, displaying a hub of gorgeous resources might just be the tipping point – the thing that makes them think you’re worth it.
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Make sure your hub includes a way of signing up to your mailing list, and a clear call to action that tells the visitor what you want them to do, and why. Here’s what mine looks like:​

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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.

Another email from a Parlour reader ... the answer will be of interest to anyone with similar manual dexterity issues.

Rachel asks:

‘I am looking into a career in proofreading. I have multiple sclerosis and need to work from home. I was wondering if you know whether any of the online courses cover the use of things such as Track Changes. Unfortunately, I have lost almost all manual dexterity and am unable to mark up on hard copy. I am, however, able to use a keyboard and mouse comfortably.’

Thanks so much for your question, Rachel.

So the good news is that because you can use a keyboard and mouse, and you therefore prefer to work onscreen, professional proofreading is certainly a viable option for you (assuming your spelling, grammar, and punctuation are up to scratch, and you're ready to market your business effectively).

Furthermore, there are industry-recognized training courses and resources that will support your onscreen learning.

One thing we need to look at is how different client types’ expectations of what proofreading entails present challenges for you.

It’s important to me that you’re forewarned about this so that you can target your clients appropriately, and communicate your service offering in a way that makes it clear what you will and won’t do.

I’ll tackle that issue first and then move on to the training options available.

Proofreading – expectations and possible challenges
So, you’ve told me that your MS affects your manual dexterity, but my first thought was whether it also leads to fatigue. You didn’t mention this in your email, but I think it’s worth discussing for reasons that I hope will become clear.

In my first decade of proofreading practice, almost all of my clients were mainstream publishers. Now I work exclusively with self-publishers (a few businesses but primarily writers of fiction).

What’s clear from my experience is that the expectations of what has to be done and how it has to be done often differ depending on client type.

Furthermore, how much will be done by the proofreader is often (though not always) quite different.

What and how much does a proofreader do? Traditional publishers
When working for traditional publishers, a proofreader is usually annotating designed page proofs. These are the pages (either paper or digital) that are almost identical to what readers would see if they pulled a book off the shelf.

It’s a quality-control check of a book that’s been through developmental-, line- and copy-editing. The author has reviewed the files at each stage. Once the team is happy that the book’s ready to be laid out, an interior designer or typesetter will format the book to professional, industry-recognized standards.

The proofreader’s job is to find anything missed during an extensive copy-edit, that no errors have been introduced at design stage, and that the various elements of the book are rendered consistently, correctly, and according to the design brief.

In this case, the proofreader is looking at more than just spelling, punctuation and grammar. She’s also spotting problems with page numbering, chapter headings, line spacing, paragraph indentation, running heads, image captions, table and figure numbering, widows and orphans, page depth, prelims and end matter, and more.

In my experience, because most of the problems in the text have already been attended to during previous rounds of editing, there might be only a few changes that warrant querying or marking up on each page.

Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, but, on the whole, most of a proofreader’s time is spent carefully reading and checking rather than marking up.
That’s important for you because while your hand movement is somewhat impaired, your vision isn’t.

And because you wouldn’t have to make thousands of changes, the strain on your hands wouldn’t be excessive or challenging.

What and how much does a proofreader do? Non-publishers
Outside of the mainstream publishing industry, things become a little more tangled. The role of the proofreader is not nearly so well defined.

It’s not unusual for clients to ask for a service they call ‘proofreading’ but that a traditional publisher would call ‘copy-editing or even ‘line editing’. Here the raw text is amended (or suggested recasts to the text are made using Word’s commenting tool).

Furthermore, it’s not unusual for the so-called proofreader to be the first professional to work on the text.

And that means that the changes made might well run into the thousands. We’re not talking about a few amendments on each page, but hundreds per chapter, perhaps even per several pages.
​
Of course, it does vary, but every change, every query, requires the use of one’s hands. So you need to be aware of the potential impact of this kind of work on your health, and think carefully about how it will affect your hands and your fatigue levels.

I’m not saying that working for non-publishers isn’t an option for you. Rather, you’ll need to take your speed and fatigue levels into account and factor them into the time you assign to complete projects.

If you're working in Word, I suspect that =2K–10K-word business documents, Master’s dissertations, journal articles, short stories, brochures and newsletters won't present you with the same challenges as book-length work of 80K–100K words will.

How does a proofreader mark up? Traditional publishers
Because the proofreader is usually providing a pre-publication quality-control check on designed page proofs, most publishers like the annotations to take the form of industry-recognized proof-correction marks. In the UK, these are BS 5261C:2005.

Any decent professional training course will teach you how to use these appropriately.

Traditionally, these annotations were made on paper but publishers are increasingly providing PDF proofs.

This affords you an opportunity because you can use a keyboard and mouse to annotate the page proofs in a way that mirrors a paper markup. There are a few options, but many proofreaders use a combination of a PDF editor’s (e.g. Adobe Reader DC, Acrobat Pro, or PDF-XChange) onboard comment and markup tools and digital proofreading symbols (custom stamps).

I supply free files of stamps that proofreaders can download and install in the stamp palettes of their PDF editors. These stamps conform to BS 5261C:2005.
 
How does a proofreader mark up? Non-publishers
Because many non-publishers supply Word files, you’ll be working directly in Word and using Track Changes.

You’ll also be able to take advantage of several macro suites and find/replace strings that will improve your efficiency and reduce the strain on your wrists and fingers.

That’s good news for all of us – with or without MS or other manual-dexterity issues – in terms of time, quality and consistency.

Summary of what, how, and how much
So, all in all, it’s worth your taking the time to think about the types of clients you’ll work for, how many changes you might be required to make, how those client types will expect you to mark up, what length the projects will be, how long it will take you to complete the different project types, and how all of those things fit in with your specific health condition.

Professional training
My two recommended online proofreading training providers in the UK are the Society for Editors and Proofreaders and The Publishing Training Centre.

The SfEP has practical online courses on the technical aspects of professional proofreading, a grammar brush-up course, and editing in Word. Of the latter, the SfEP says, ‘It includes chapters on styles and templates, find & replace and wildcards, and macros. Guest chapters have been written by Paul Beverley on FRedit, Daniel Heuman on PerfectIt and Jack Lyon on The Editorium. All chapters contain downloadable study notes, exercises and model answers.’

The PTC offers a grammar course, and its flagship Basic Proofreading course.
Before you sign up, I’d recommend you have a conversation with either or both organizations in order to assure yourself that the course materials are usable in a way that suits your needs.

Additionally, there are numerous free online tutorials and screencasts on how to use Word’s Track Changes, so Google will be your friend here. Search for one that matches your own version of Word.

The most important issue for any professional proofreader is understanding first what to change, and making sure that she and the client are on the same page, figuratively speaking, about what degree of intervention is expected and how it will be rendered.

Online books and resources
Here are some resources that should help you on your journey:

• My favourite punctuation guide is R.L. Trask’s Penguin Guide to Punctuation – straight to the point, lots of easy-to-understand examples, logically organized, and short! If you can manage print, there’s a paperback on Amazon.
• If you need an online version, try this guide by the same author, and available free online via the University of Sussex: Guide to Punctuation.
• New Hart’s Rules online: If you’re a UK library member, you can access the premium version of Oxford Dictionaries, which includes NHR and a number of other excellent online grammar and style resources. I like it because it’s easier to search than the paper version, but you’ll benefit from the fact that you can access its content using a keyboard and mouse. You'll need your library card number.
• The Chicago Manual of Style: There’s a searchable online version of this too. Great for all the same reasons as NHR!
• Jack Lyon’s Wildcard Cookbook for Microsoft Word is brilliant for helping the complete novice learn how to use wildcards to save time when editing/proofreading Word docs. It’s a small book, but, again, if the print version’s going to impede access, then use Google Search. Try, for example, Graham Mayor’s Find and Replace using Wildcards.
• Check out the myriad macros on Jack’s The Editorium, too.
• PerfectIt is a simply gorgeous Word add-in that, in my opinion, is a must-have for any professional editor or proofreader working in Word. There are lots of tutorials on the developer’s website.
• Rich Adin’s EditTools is also popular with non-fiction Word editors and proofreaders.
• ​And let’s not forget the mountain of macros available via Paul Beverley – do check these out; they’re all free!
• Finally, for a tiny but excellent summary of BS 5261C:2005 proof-correction marks, visit the SfEP website. There are freebies online but they’re not always up to date. This is still, for me, the best and cheapest reference guide to the marks. It comes as a sturdy piece of folded card, so I’m hoping it won’t be a challenge for your hands.

I hope this helps you move forward, Rachel, and wish you all the very best in your search for a career that will work for you alongside your MS rather than in opposition to it.

Good luck!

Further reading

• Not all proofreading is the same: Part 1. Working with page proofs (Louise Harnby)
• Not all proofreading is the same: Part 2. Working directly in Word (Louise Harnby)
• PDF Editing – Making the Most of the Stamps Tool​ (Louise Harnby)
• Does Training Matter? What Publishers Say about Proofreading & Editing Courses (Louise Harnby; The Proofreader’s Parlour)
• The Proofreader’s Corner: Page Proofs and the Domino Effect (Louise Harnby; An American Editor)
• Proofreading Practice: Exercises with model answers and commentary, 2nd ed. (contact Margaret Aherne direct)

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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.

This question is from Alison, who’s new to proofreading and still completing her professional training with one of the UK's industry-recognized bodies.

‘I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on the iPad Pro 12.9" with a stylus as a proofreading tool. I am currently using my MacBook Air.’

That’s a great question, Alison. Here’s my take on the situation:

Broadly speaking, I wouldn’t recommend a tablet as a primary professional proofreading tool because I think you’ll struggle to match the functionality available on a laptop or desktop computer.

That doesn’t mean you can’t use it in your home office to increase your screen real estate – perhaps for fact checking, referring to an onscreen style guide, displaying your online dictionary, or checking emails.

Overall, though, I think there are too many limitations for the pro proofreader. Here are some thoughts …

Proofreading and tangled terminology
Your professional training will distinguish between proofreading (annotating designed pages – page proofs) and copyediting (correcting the raw text).

This distinction will match the expectations of many traditional publishing houses, though not all.

I’ve worked for two publishers in my career whose ‘proofreading’ required me to edit raw text. We might call it a light edit, or a proofedit, or just stop beating about the bush and use the term copyedit!

What we’re talking about here is a quality-control check prior to publication. And it’s done in Word.

In this case, you’ll not be scribbling hieroglyphics on your tablet with your stylus; you’ll be directly amending the file.

iPads and Word files
I have an iPad Air. I love it for email, search, messaging, reading, listening to music and audiobooks, social media and gaming. I also like it for writing – drafting anyway. But I wouldn’t use it as a professional proofreading tool if you paid me (unless you paid me a lot to compensate for how much slower I’m going to be!).

The screen size is still too small for one thing. Now, it’s not necessary to have two mammoth screens, but I like mine! I’m happy to work on my 15” laptop when required, but that’s as low as I’ll go. The more I can fit on a screen the less I have to scroll. And that reduces the strain on my wrist.

There is a lot of functionality in the app, but I just don’t think it’s anywhere near as quick or accessible as when one’s working on a laptop or desktop. Making a decent living from professional proofreading means taking advantage of complementary efficiency and productivity tools wherever possible.

Basics like find/replace, wildcard searches, keyboard shortcuts, and the styles palette should speed you up, not slow you down.

But the biggest downside is what you’ll lose from not being able to run a whole suite of gorgeous macros that will make your life easier and improve the quality of your proofread.

• PerfectIt for iPad. Doesn’t exist.
• StyleWriter for iPad. Doesn’t exist.
• EditTools for iPad. Doesn’t exist.
• Macros for Editors (Paul Beverley) … the iPad version. Doesn’t exist

You get the point!

So, for me, the iPad is not a contender for working in Word. Not for the professional, anyway, for whom quality and efficiency are key.

iPads and PDFs
Whom you’re working for will affect things here.

If you proofread for publishers, you’ll likely be asked to work on designed-for-print page proofs. This presents a number of challenges on a tablet.

Even on a larger tablet like the one you’re considering, you won’t get a clear view of a facing recto and verso. And that means you won’t be able to check quickly for unequal page depths.

Then there are the comment and mark-up tools to consider. A stylus is great if you want to use industry-standard proofreading marks, though it’ll need to be a high-quality stylus with a fine nib if your marks are to conform to BSI 5621C.

I’ve experimented with a stylus and it wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped to annotate a PDF to professional standards. I wasted time ensuring each symbol was clear and neat, whereas if I’d been working on paper or on a laptop using digital BSI stamps, I’d have already moved on to the next annotation. Just something to bear in mind – practice will be essential if you experiment with tablet/stylus markup.

Talking of stamps, you can mark up a PDF on a laptop or desktop (Mac or PC) using digital symbols. I provide a free set (see More Resources below).

I want to mention the search function, too. One of the things I like best about marking up a PDF is the ability to do global searches for repeated errors. And while the search tool is quite neat on a tablet, it doesn’t have the range of functionality that you’d find on a laptop or desktop, particularly if you’re using pro versions of Acrobat or PDF-XChange.

And, yes, the comment and markup tools, and the bookmarking are there in the app, and again quite neat if you’re working on a basic file with very little text for a non-publisher client. But for an 80,000-word book in which you might have to make hundreds of changes, I think you’ll struggle.

Overall, the issue is one of speed. There’s a lot you can do on an iPad but I don’t think tablets in general are designed to let you move efficiently around a designed book page in the way a professional proofreader needs to.

I want to be able to see a double-page spread at a glance. Yes, I’ll need to inspect the text word by word, line by line, but I also want to be able to view the page as a whole, including its running heads, its margin and line spacing, the position of all of the various elements and whether they’re aesthetically pleasing.

I want to be able to bounce around on one page, and back and forth between pages via bookmarks, without keyboards and windows popping up all over the place while I’m working! That just slows me down, and in an age when many mainstream publishers are feeling the pinch and increasing their freelance editing rates only marginally each year, smart proofreading is essential. The more efficient you are, the better the hourly rate you’ll earn.

I recommend you stick with your MacBook Air. My friend and colleague John Espirian concurs:

'My iPad is a wonderful writing platform but I wouldn't use it for editing or proofreading in any professional capacity. A MacBook is going to win hands down on that score. I write all of my blog drafts in Byword on my iPad. I use Apple's Smart Keyboard (see More Resources for a review). 

And unless you're location-independent and need to carry as little as possible, treat yourself to a second screen.

I wish you good luck with your training, Alison!
 
More resources

• Working with two screens (John Espirian)
• Not all proofreading is the same: Part 1. Working with page proofs (Louise Harnby)
• Not all proofreading is the same: Part 2. Working directly in Word (Louise Harnby)
• PDF Editing – Making the Most of the Stamps Tool​ (Louise Harnby)
• iPad Pro Smart Keyboard: first impressions (John Espirian)

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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.

[Note from Louise: the typos in the title are a little joke by A&P! No emails, please!]

Please direct any hate mail about this article to: Andrew and Pete, Bluff House, Middle-of-Nowhere Lane, Fakeshire, FK3 QQX

When Louise asked us to write a guest blog for proofreaders, we thought to ourselves: ‘Proofreaders, they love words, right? Hmm ... we know ... why don’t we write a blog about why they should all stop writing stuff and start creating videos instead?’

WHAT. A. GREAT. IDEA.

Deep breath ...

... here we go. 

Should you all start video marketing?
Excusing the dramatics at the start of this article, let’s talk seriously for a moment about why video marketing can’t be ignored when it comes to marketing your proofreading business.

We aren’t saying stop writing, period. We do think blogging should be a key part of your marketing mix, but our aim in this article is to make the case for bringing some elements of video into your content marketing strategy.

Remember, you may like to write, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s how all your customers want to consume their content.

Reason number 1: Consumers are switching to video content
With faster internet connection both at home and on mobile, video content has been opened up to the masses, and more and more people are turning to video content over written blogs.

This may be the case for you, too! Think about how many videos you’ve watched online in the past 7 days compared to the amount of blogs you’ve read.

Chances are the former is higher; and if it’s not, you’re in the minority here.

Why is this happening? Well, other than the tech allowing it in the modern world, people are becoming highly trained multi-taskers. We’re used to triple or quadruple screening with our devices – watching TV while checking our phones, scrolling through Facebook on our tablets, and maybe even taking a fourth glance at the smart watches on our wrists.

A lot of the content we’re consuming is video because, actually, it’s less effort. Reading generally requires our full focus on 1 screen.

In fact – especially on social – video is being watched with the sound off more often than with it on! Crazy, right? (Rev.com is your best friend for subtitling, btw.)

So, if we want to get people’s attention, if we want to educate them, entertain them, or even SELL to them, video is the best way to get that all-important attention. At least today, anyway.

​Reason number 2: Video builds trust, something that’s lacking
Once we have the attention, the next thing we need is trust.

In 2015, we attended talk by our marketing hero Seth Godin, who painted the picture of the modern business landscape.
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He argued that the businesses that are going to win are the ones with attention and trust. 

Trust is lacking nowadays. It’s never been easier to start a business – the internet has allowed for that.

We’re sure you’re running a legitimate business, but there’s no denying the number of charlatans out there as well as the people who – let’s be honest – have no clue what they’re doing.

But all you need is a website and BOOM! you’re in business.

Because of this, trust is falling … fast. People don’t really know if you’re an experienced proofreader, if this is your first time at the rodeo, if you’re doing this to put yourself through an English degree, or even whether English is your first language. We have to earn that trust before somebody parts with their cash.

Yes – nice websites can do this, as can client testimonials, a nice logo and an about page that says you’ve been doing this since Andrew and Pete were in diapers.

But if you want to go from being a stranger, or a faceless logo, to earning trust to the extent that somebody will actually hire you, video wins the day.

Why? Because people still trust a friendly face.

Add a face to your brand and you’re getting somewhere. Add a talking face and you’ve hit the money.

Let’s be honest – we need to know, like and trust our proofreader. If we don’t, we might as well check our own stuff.
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But if you can show your expertise and let people get to know you through video, you speed up that know–like–trust factor tenfold.

​Reason number 3: It can be a more effective way to communicate
Marketing is basically communication.

Whether we’re looking at blogs, home pages, print, sales copy – whatever – we want to communicate a message in the most efficient way possible, and in a way that people remember.

Video allows for that.

Studies have shown that on average people remember 20% of what they see; or 30% of what they hear, BUT A WHOPPING 70% of what they see and hear!

​It seems a lot but it makes sense when you think about. 

​Reason number 4: Social media marketing and video are a match made in heaven
Being a proofreader, you can work from wherever you like, at whatever time you like – whether that’s the cupboard under your stairs or a beach in the Seychelles.

Because of that, you can’t ignore using social media to find clients and network with people all over the world.

The majority of the social networks are pushing users towards video, and because of this they’re giving preference to it in feeds. You’ll see a significant increase in reach online when using video content natively on a platform, compared to links or plain-text updates.

Side note: ‘natively’ means uploading the video direct to that platform, rather than linking to, say, a YouTube video or similar.

The only exception is the classically late-to-the-party LinkedIn, where video can’t be uploaded natively, yet (for the general user at least). We’d place bets on them catching up soon.
​
Video comes in different formats depending on the platform. Whichever platform you’re focusing on, try adding video into the mix. 

Reason number 5: Stand out from the crowd and show your brand personality

Everybody wants their businesses to stand out from the competition, but only a few are willing to take the action to do something different. Video probably isn’t the norm for proofreaders, so it’s therefore a great way to stand out from the crowd and show your brand personality.

We’ve talked about trust and attention already, and this increases tenfold if you show some personality in your business.

We aren’t saying you have to be funny, or crazy, or unprofessional, but rather know what your brand personality is.

By the way, if you aren’t sure what we mean by brand personality, check out Creating a Brand Identity, a video we created ;) 

Once you know your brand personality, you have to show it! Yes, you can do this with the written word (we’d like to think this article gets across some of our personality), but oftentimes this can be much easier with video.
​
So don’t go with the flow. Be different and you’ll get attention. 

Using video in your marketing
Okay, hopefully we’ve set the scene for incorporating some video into your marketing. The next thing is getting going with it.

The first thing people tend to jump to is the sales video – the videos for your home page, services page, about page, etc.

This is cool – you can create these to help people through the buying process – but we also want you to use video for content marketing.

Just like you might write blogs to educate, inspire or entertain, make videos for the same purpose. And, importantly, be consistent so that you build your brand awareness over time and max out the 5 reasons we covered earlier in this article.

Remember, just because you’re creating video it doesn’t mean that you can’t write as well. Feel free to embed your videos on your blog and write, too, like we do on the Andew and Pete blog.

Here are 3 main styles of video you could implement:

1. The edited video. This is the classic. You shoot some footage, and then use a video editor to put it all together (btw, if you’ve bought a Smartphone in the past two years, the camera on it will be perfectly okay to use). Check out the HitFilm video tutorial; it's the free editing software we recommend.
2. Live video. This has become hot over the past few years. You can go live on Facebook, Twitter (Periscope), Instagram and YouTube and create video on the fly super quickly.
3. Stories. Another fairly new video format is the story. Popularised by Snapchat, but unashamedly ripped off by Facebook and Instagram, stories can be created on the fly, too, then downloaded and repurposed. Again – these are super easy to do.

You don’t have to do all three! Find out what works best for you, and stick with it!

Final thoughts
Thank for reading this article. We hope it’s got you thinking twice about using video. Our own marketing efforts improved significantly when we switched to video. Our only regret was not doing it sooner!

Let us know how you get on, and if you need any help don’t hesitate to ask.

​Extra resources (if you want to get started with video)

• 3 Ways to Create a Video Studio on Any Budget
• Best Free Video Editing Software 2017
• HitFilm Express Tutorial 2017
• How to Add Subtitles to Your Facebook Video and YouTube Videos | The Quick and Easy Way
• Facebook Live: How To Get Started and Not Be Scared With Ian Anderson Gray
• Creating a Brand Identity | The First Thing You Must Do

Written by Andrew and Pete

Andrew and Pete run an award-winning content marketing company called Andrew and Pete, where they help small businesses create share-worthy content that builds brands people love.

They have been featured on Social Media Examiner, Huffington Post and Entrepreneur on Fire, and are the authors of the hit book The Hippo Campus and Content Mavericks, launching Autumn 2017. You can find out more about them at www.andrewandpete.com.

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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.

This recent question was submitted by a colleague who wishes to remain anonymous. I’m calling him Johnny. He says:

I'm just starting my freelance copyediting and proofreading business, working with authors.

My client has a publishing contract with a small independent press. He’s published three novels with them to date.

My client said: ‘I always like to have an external person read my work before I submit it [to my publisher], so perhaps you could let me know what it would cost.’ The pre-submission editing work in the past was carried out by writer friends rather than an editorial professional.

We’ve agreed on a price and what should be included. The price is more of a token payment because this is my first client and he's writing a series.

Is this the right way to go? Why pay me to copyedit and proofread his work to make it as error-free as possible before he sends it off to his publisher? Surely they’ll want to go through a batch of revisions for which he’ll need to pay.

Much as I'd like the work, should I tell him that the publisher will handle it and that he should save his money? Or am I making assumptions about the small-press publishing process that I shouldn't be?

Louise, I want to do this right – he’s already agreed to introduce me to his publisher as a freelancer, whether I do the work for him or not. However, if I do a good job, his recommendation will be more qualified.

​So, I'm wondering what your thoughts are and what you would advise in this situation.

Thanks for your question, Johnny! It’s not unusual for an editor or proofreader to be confronted with this conundrum. Here’s my take on your situation ...

There’s quite a bit going on so I’m going to consider the following, just so you get a sense of the big picture:

• The client’s preferences, motivation and knowledge
• Editorial processes in small presses – who pays, and for what?
• The press’s expectations
• My proposed ethical solution
• Your token fee – precedent versus leverage

 
The client’s preferences, motivation and knowledge
One of the things that stood out when I read your email is that your client was explicit about his preference for commissioning third-party editorial work prior to manuscript submission.

True, he hasn't paid for this work in the past because he's used writers rather than a professional editor. You and I both know that being a good writer does not a professional proofreader or copyeditor make! What pleases me is that he recognizes this too. I think he’s willing to pay because he believes you’ll bring additional value to the table.

I think he also recognizes he’s getting a good deal here. And he is. I’ll talk about this in more detail under ‘Your token fee – precedent versus leverage’. For now, let’s accept that while this is costing him more than if he’d tapped a writer pal on the shoulder, it’s not costing him anywhere near what he’d have to pay if you’d offered him your standard fee. And that’s a motivation for him to work with you.

He knows you’re new to the business and he might well have figured that he’s going to get a pro service for an amateur price. And while you're worrying about whether you’re exploiting him, he might be thinking that this is nothing short of a win for him. I’d be inclined to agree!

He’s also not new to the publishing process. He has three novels under his belt with this press, so he understands how they work and what they’ll do for him. You, however, are in the dark.

Which leads us nicely on to ...

Editorial processes in small presses – who pays, and for what?
You’re right to question your assumptions about small presses, indeed any press.

Mainstream production flows tend to follow a model that looks something like this:

• Shaping (structural, developmental, or substantive editing – big-picture stuff)
• Smoothing (line editing – sentence-level work that focuses on structure, flow and sense)
• Correcting (copyediting – sentence-level work that looks at spelling, punctuation, grammar, consistency and logic)
• Checking (proofreading – quality control for spelling, punctuation, grammar, consistency and professional layout)

The larger press usually (but not always) pays for all of these levels of editorial work. Smaller presses don’t have the same economies of scale. Any of the following might happen:

• They do all the editorial work in-house (along with the marketing, accounting, publishing, and everything else under the sun).
• They do some of the editorial work in-house and buy in, and bear the cost of, other services from third-party providers like you and me.
• They do some of the editorial work in-house and buy in other services from third-party providers. The external costs are borne by the author.
• They buy in whatever editorial service package the author agrees to pay for, but offer no in-house editorial support.

No doubt there are other models, but these four give you a flavour what’s on offer.
In your case, you don’t know what the deal is.

Which leads us on to ...

The press’s expectations
Here’s a scenario (A) that would make sense in your author’s situation:

The two people who run the press have worked with your author before. They know that he tends to submit files that are in good shape.

• He’s a good self-developmental editor so there are no structural problems that they need to take care of.
• His writer friends have pointed out some of his purple prose and sticky grammar, so a lot of the copy- and line-editing work has been done – enough to satisfy the press, anyway.
• They therefore offer an advance and royalty that reflect this, and agree to do a final pre-publication proofread in-house prior to publication.

The point is that they expect to have a decent manuscript submitted. Anything else would change the terms; his publishing contract is based on an understanding that most of the work has been done prior to submission.

Here’s another scenario (B) that I think is less likely but still possible, and it’s the one you’re worried about.

• He’s not a good self-developmental editor.
• You sort out the purple prose and sticky grammar during a two-pass process.
• The press receives the file and suggests a ton of changes, which your author makes. During the process, he introduces a lot of errors.
• The revised drat is submitted and the team advise him that they’ll need to hire a copyeditor to sort out the mess, but they’ll do a final in-house pre-pub proofread themselves to keep costs down for him.
• He ends up paying for three rounds of external editorial work when one would have sufficed if things had been handled logically.

However, because you don’t know what the agreement is between the author and the publisher, you can’t know for sure whether it’s a good or a poor decision for him to hire you.
​
My proposed ethical solution
To give yourself peace of mind, I’d advise the following:

• Ask him if he’d be kind enough to walk you through the publisher’s production process – what they do for him in-house, what they contract out, when these things happen, and who pays.
• If he describes something that looks like scenario A, you’re good to go.
• If he describes something that looks like scenario B, explain the problem and do the right thing.
• If, with B, he insists on hiring you anyway – perhaps for personal pride or perceived reputation maintenance – you’re good to go because he has all the facts with which to make an informed decision.

If he walks, you’ve still got the introduction with the publisher, you’ve upheld the terms of your professional code of conduct, and you’ve demonstrated to him that you’re trustworthy. If at some stage he decides to self-publish, or if one of his writer friends needs an editor, guess who’ll get the call?

Honestly, even if you are facing scenario B, I don’t think he’ll walk because you’re a winner in his eyes – recall my comment above about offering a professional service for an amateur price!

A quick word on that …

Your token fee – precedent versus leverage
I want to talk about this because some readers’ hackles will rise in response to your offer of a ‘token payment’.

My view is that your decision is fine as long as your eyes are open, and your author’s are too.

• Do make it absolutely clear what your standard rate would be – that you’re offering X (rather than Y) as a special rate for him; that you see this as a collaboration from which you will both benefit. You’re gaining experience and building a client portfolio, and you’re excited about having the opportunity to support an author and a small indie press. It’s essential that if he passes your name on to other clients or presses they don’t automatically assume you’re a cheap option. The token payment is a private arrangement between the two of you, and it avoids your setting a precedent.
• When your work for the author is complete, ask for a testimonial, and for his permission to use it on your website, online channels and other marketing materials (including your CV). Also ask him if he’ll act as a referee if required.
• Ask for permission to use a thumbnail image of the book you’ve edited on your website, online channels and other marketing materials.

You want to be able to leverage this lower-paid work at every opportunity so that the value you extract from it lies well beyond a number on an accounting spreadsheet or lump sum in your bank account.

Publishers and indie authors value training, of course, but experience should never be underestimated. Getting that first break is one of the biggest challenges a new entrant to the editorial field faces. This could well be yours.

I have no problem with a bargain being offered as long as the following apply:

• It’s for a client who wouldn’t have hired you otherwise.
• You’re not using a low price to undercut other professionals.

If you use this book (and the series, should you get it) as a foundation for acquiring more and better-paying clients, you can view the exercise as a strategic marketing activity that will serve you well into the future.

I wish you the very best of luck!

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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.

What if …? Measuring value in terms of risk
In ‘Part Three/Money Talk: Pricing Design’,* Chris Do, founder of Blind, a brand strategy design consultancy in Santa Monica, discusses pricing the client (or more specifically, their perceived risk) rather than the job.

He asks a group of logo designers, ‘What does it touch?’

The video is 30 minutes long but it’s well worth watching.

The nub of it is this: a bad logo on one niche website, 10 booklets and 50 promo flyers is a different problem to a bad logo on 40 aeroplanes, 20 helicopters, 14,000 vending machines and a million mailshots.

The cost of rectifying the problem is different in those two scenarios, and so the cost of ameliorating the risk of it happening in the first place is different.

So the questions editors might ask themselves are:

• Do I have clients, or might I have clients in the future, for whom errors in the text would have a significantly higher negative impact than is the case for my other clients, and should I therefore price those jobs differently?
• Do those clients understand that risk? How can I articulate it if they don’t?
• How would shifting to client-type-based pricing rather than time-to-do-the-job pricing affect the way I publicize my prices (e.g. on my website)?

I know some editors who already have a differential pricing structure based on type of client rather than time to do the job, but I know many who don’t. I offer this as a what-if moment for those in the latter group – nothing more.

Those editors with relatively homogeneous client types are less likely to find this approach useful; generalists, however, might well consider testing it.

These days, I specialize in proofreading and copyediting for independent and self-publishing authors. That’s a homogeneous client base in terms of client-perceived risk so my rates are based on time to do the job.

But if I were working with a lot of corporates, Chris Do’s approach would be food for thought.

How about you? Do you have what-if lessons from non-editors that made you step back and ask whether there are other approaches to thinking about your editorial business practice? I’d love to hear about them!

*Thanks to my pal Averill Buchanan for alerting me to this link and thinking I’d find it interesting. She was right!

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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.

Abigail is based in the UK and has been proofreading and editing for around five years. Most of her work thus far has come via existing contacts, personal referrals, and a third-party site.

Until recently, that was sufficient. Consequently, she hasn’t spent any time thinking about a website, marketing, or other forms of outreach. Furthermore, the third-party site has changed the service-fee structure so that the work is no longer as lucrative.

She asks:
‘At the moment, I do a lot of academic work, which I love and would like to continue; I just want to secure it privately rather than through third-party sites. In addition, I would like to move away from website copy, blog posts and more generalised proofreading, and start working with publishers on longer and more interesting projects. However, I don’t know where to start, what’s required, or how to approach them. Many thanks for any guidance you can provide!’

Thanks for your question, Abigail!

So, something else you mentioned in your email to me is that you’re undergoing professional training. I was really pleased to hear this because I think it’s an essential element in the mainstream publishing market.

So, I’m going to focus on the following:

• Why targeting publishers is such a good step
• A quick note on earnings and work stream
• Training for academic publishers – what you need to know
• Where academic publishers search
• Why going direct is still your best bet
• Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
• Taking academic publishers’ tests
• Asking for testimonials and building a portfolio

Why targeting publishers is such a good step
Publishers are still the preferred client group for many editorial freelancers. There are several reasons for this:

• Publishers do all the project-acquisition work for us, which means we can sit back and allow the work to come to us (if we have enough publishers in our pockets).
• They understand what we do – we don’t have to nail our brand identity in a way that’s becoming increasingly critical if we want to be visible in the search engines! No proofreading or copyediting course will teach you how to build a compelling brand, and doing that is an art in itself! Getting a publisher’s attention requires a strategy that’s skills- and experience-focused.
• The definitions of proofreading, copyediting and developmental editing are homogeneous. You won’t be asked to proofread an academic textbook but expected to sort out the structure. The terminology in the rest of the world is rather more tangled (see the Untangling Proofreading booklet below).

​A quick note on earnings and work stream
There’s a lot of talk in the online international editorial community about publishers and low fees. The situation is not straightforward.

There is no universal fee for copyediting or proofreading. I rarely work for publishers these days, but when I did I was offered proofreading fees from academic presses that worked out as low as £10 per hour and as high as £40 per hour.

It depends on the complexity of the project, the press, the brief, the length, the number of authors, and a ton of other things. After you’ve done a few projects for a publisher, you’ll start to get a sense of how things work and what you can expect to earn on average.

Some publishers will offer you a fee of £X per hour, and a guideline for the number of hours they expect the project to be completed in. Some will offer a flat fee for the job. Some of my colleagues (like Liz Jones: see her excellent post in Further reading, below) have successfully negotiated fees when they encountered scope creep.

With some presses, I found that I could counter what seemed initially to be a less favourable fee by being as efficient as possible.

You’ll also speed up as you become more familiar with a press – their house style, the format of their books, and their preferred professional style manuals and reference systems.

Regardless of their fee structure, they do all the project-acquisition work for you, which means you can sit back and focus on the proofreading and editing rather than worrying that your Google Search rankings aren’t as high as you’d like!

Here are three supplementary booklets: Proofreading for Publishers: Do They Always Pay ‘Low’ Fees?, Editorial Efficiency: Rates, Data Tracking and Digital Tools, and Untangling Proofreading.

​Training for academic publishers – what you need to know
In order to ensure you’re fit for purpose with publishers, ask them which style guides and reference systems they prefer, and take time to familiarize yourself with these manuals. Most presses will provide you with a summary of their preferences.

Your training course should draw attention to the importance of following a brief. Publishers are usually rigid when it comes to scope, and going beyond the brief without querying first could have detrimental consequences.

For example, if you’re training to proofread, you’ll need to practise when to change, when to query and when to leave well enough alone – no in-house editor will thank you for recasting sentences to improve the flow in a proofread.

That’s because: it’s expensive to make extensive changes on page proofs; the pagination could be affected; cross-references might be impacted; and the index could be damaged if it’s being created simultaneously.

Also check that the training course you’re doing is recognized by the UK publishing industry. You won’t go wrong with the following organizations, though they’re by no means the only ones to consider:

• The Publishing Training Centre
• Society for Editors and Proofreaders

Certainly, if you want to proofread for publishers, you’ll need to be familiar with the industry-recognized proof-correction markup language (BS 5261C: 2005). Even if a publisher asks you to proofread on PDF, you might be required (or find it efficient) to use digital versions of these marks.

Where academic publishers search
Some publishers do search for editors and proofreaders. The SfEP’s Directory of Editorial Services is one port of call. Some also attend the SfEP’s annual conference and the London Book Fair, so those two events are worthy networking opportunities to put yourself on the radar of academic presses.

Recently, I was contacted by a publisher via Reedsy. It’s the first time I’ve received a request to quote from a press via this platform, and it was for a fiction title, so I’m not convinced that this would necessarily be a primary channel for you if you want to acquire academic work, but I’m mentioning it just as food for thought.

Why going direct is still your best bet
My top tip for getting in front of publishers is to contact them direct, by email, phone or letter. The reason why many don’t search online for editorial freelancers is simply because they don’t need to.

Build a list of UK academic publishers, then find out the name of the person in charge of hiring – it’s probably someone in the production department – and get in touch with them.

You already have lots of experience, and you’ll have a top-notch training course under your belt. I recommend customizing your CV and cover letter/email for each press so that your portfolio of projects sells you as a perfect fit.

Read Philip Stirups’ article for more top tips (see Further reading).

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
I recommend you build a bank of around ten publishers. If you stick to one or two you could end up in deep water further down the road. If one of those clients were to merge with another, you might fall off the freelance list during the transition. If your other client were to go bust, you’d be scuppered.

Having a larger bank of publishers means you have a safety net.

It’s likely your publisher client base will grow exponentially; each time you acquire a new client you’ll be more likely to impress another. It’s a small world, and many of the in-house staff know each other. That will work in your favour.

Taking academic publishers’ tests
Some publishers will ask you to take a test. There are two articles in the Further reading section that offer excellent overviews of how to approach these: ‘The Business of Editing: Editing Tests’ by Rich Adin, and ‘Test Taking Tips For Editors’ by Cassie Armstrong.
​
Asking for testimonials and building a portfolio
Are you able to ask current academic clients for testimonials? If so, do so – however embarrassing you find it! This kind of social proof won’t on its own get you work, but it’s one way of demonstrating that you’re capable of fulfilling a client’s brief.

I mentioned your portfolio above. If you’ve been in business for five years, chances are you have an amazing project portfolio. Make sure your CV, LinkedIn profile and website reflect your body of completed works. Publishers love to see experience!

I hope that brings you a little clarity, Abigail. Good luck with building your new client base!

Further reading

• ‘Does Training Matter? What Publishers Say about Proofreading & Editing Courses’ (Louise Harnby; The Proofreader’s Parlour)
• ‘Not all proofreading is the same, Part 1’ (Louise Harnby; The Proofreader’s Parlour)
• ‘Not all proofreading is the same, Part 2’ (Louise Harnby; The Proofreader’s Parlour)
• ‘Test Taking Tips For Editors’ (Cassie Armstrong; Morning Star Editing)
• ‘The Business of Editing: Editing Tests’ (Rich Adin; An American Editor)
• ‘The economics of working with publishers’ (Liz Jones; Eat, Sleep, Edit, Repeat)
• ‘The Proofreader’s Corner: Page Proofs and the Domino Effect’ (Louise Harnby; An American Editor)
• ‘Undercover editor: Selecting new editorial freelancers’ (Philip Stirups; The Proofreader’s Parlour)

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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.

​Amanda is a UK-based primary-school teacher.

She says: ‘I have zero experience in publishing. However, I have a first-class degree in Education Studies and enjoy reading and grammar. I've been reading your blog recently and have thought of qualifying as a proofreader but appreciate how competitive it is. What is the likelihood of me obtaining work based on my background?’

Many thanks for your question, Amanda!

So, the short answer is, there’s a strong likelihood if you get your marketing head on.

Because, essentially, this is a marketing issue.

Here’s my current favourite mantra:
We have two jobs: the work we do, and the work we do to get the work we do.

In your email to me you talked in terms of ‘qualifying’ so you’re clearly prepared to embark on professional training – a wise decision. It tells me you’re prepared to make yourself fit for practice – the work we do.

Now let’s look at what you could do to get that work.

1st-stage marketing (pre-qualification)

• Start working on your editorial website
• Create an editorial Facebook page
• Create an editorial Twitter account
• Create an editorial LinkedIn page
• Join the Society for Editors and Proofreaders and introduce yourself in the forums there
• Think about your target clients

These are the basics, but they’re enough to give you a solid set of standard online profiles that represent you and your proofreading business, and that will enable you to connect with like-minded professionals – old hands and new.

In reality, your potential client base is rather wide, but I believe that in the start-up phase, when you’re building a proofreading business, it makes sense to target publishers. That’s because:

• They already have their hands in the air – the want your services. You don’t have to persuade a publisher that hiring a proofreader is a good idea!
• Their definitions of proofreading match what you’ll be taught when you train. Outside the publishing world, things become more tangled. Many indie authors call proofreading what a publisher would call copyediting.
• They’re easy to locate and contact. You’ll need to find out the name of the person in charge of the freelance pool – it’ll probably be someone in the production department.

2nd-stage marketing (post-qualification)
So why would a publisher be interested in you, Amanda? Here are some reasons:

• By stage 2, you have a professional proofreading qualification (perhaps from the Society for Editors and Proofreaders or The Publishing Training Centre, since both of these are known and respected bodies in the mainstream publishing industry).
• You have teaching experience, so you’re used to working to fixed lesson timetables (think production schedules), following curricula to the tee (think editorial briefs), are good at working with people – albeit small ones – who need careful handling (think sensitive authors), and are used to working to rigorous educational key-stage standards (think publishing industry).
• You understand the language of academia (your degree) and the language of learning (education), so you’re already primed for academic publishing.
• You’re (naturally!) prepared to take a proofreading test to demonstrate the skills you’ve learned and prove that you’re ready to hit the ground running.
• Your education degree and career experience mean you know the language of education theory and practice. That means that for education publishers you have a USP that I don’t (with my Politics degree).

And who are those education publishers?
Google is your friend here, but here’s a short list of publishers in the UK who have education lists or imprints. In your position, I’d start by getting in touch with every single publisher you can find in the UK who publishes education content.

• Bloomsbury
• Cambridge University Press
• Collins
• Edward Elgar
• Heinemann
• Hodder Education
• Macmillan Education
• McGraw-Hill Education
• Out of House Publishing (packager)
• Pearson Higher Education and Professional
• Policy Press
• SAGE Publications
• Scholastic

My bet is that most (many, certainly) academic or scholarly publishers in the UK will have books, journals and electronic products in the field of education at some level.

​Find out who’s in charge of hiring editorial freelancers. Email or post a cover letter and CV. Be sure to emphasize your training, background, society membership and subject specialisms.

In the early stages, education will be your core specialism but, honestly, if you can proofread an educational research book, you can proofread a politics book or a social theory book, so you might decide to expand your list of interests to education, social sciences and humanities.

Or you might talk in terms of education teaching, theory, practice, governance, and research, and other key related terms.

It’s something to think about. When you start looking at what else all those publishers with education books are putting out to market, you’ll get a sense of how you might customize each contact letter/email so that you really engage with each press’s list.

3rd-stage marketing
As you build up your publisher list, your portfolio of completed works, and your testimonials from all those satisfied in-house production editors, you can really start to make your online presence stand out.

Perhaps you now meet the criteria to advertise in the SfEP’s online Directory of Editorial Services.

This is one way of making yourself visible to clients outside the publishing industry – I’m thinking here of master’s and PhD students preparing dissertations and theses in the field of education and beyond; academics (particularly those whose first language isn’t English) preparing articles for journal submission); independent non-fiction authors, and so on.

For a broader look at different marketing approaches, check out the Marketing archive here on the Parlour, or my book Marketing Your Editing & Proofreading Business.

If accessing a market outside the mainstream publishing industry is something you’re serious about, start your content marketing as soon as possible. I have a wee primer that will give you the basics.

If you want to get serious, visit the Andrew and Pete website. I bang on about these two all the time, but they know their stuff.

I wish I’d known them 10 years ago. Unfortunately for me, they’re a fair bit younger so were probably doing their GCSEs when I started my editorial business! But I’m using them now to help me get the very best I can from my marketing.

Summing up
So, yes, I think you can obtain work if you are practice-fit and ready to plant a big marketing hat on your head and really commit to it!

The fact is, it’s noisy out here, and getting noisier. But the market is bigger too – global, in fact – so there’s more competition, but more opportunities too.

Another mantra – be interesting and be discoverable.

• It doesn’t matter how well-qualified you are if no one knows how to find you.
• And it doesn’t matter how visible you are if you can’t do the job.

Get your training and your marketing licked and there’s no reason why you can’t create a successful proofreading business. It will take time and hard graft, but it’s perfectly doable for those with the right mindset.

Hope that helps! If you have additional questions, just pop them in the comments below.

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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.

Georgia got in touch with a training query. She’s asked to remain anonymous in order to not jeopardize her existing client relationships. I’ve therefore changed her name and removed all the details from her email that might enable colleagues or clients to identify her.

She’s based outside the UK. She has only two clients, both of which I believe are exploiting her. One pays months late on a regular basis, though it expects its freelancers to meet its tight deadlines; the other (more recent) expects her to wear far too many editorial hats given what she’s being paid for each project.

Although Georgia has several years’ copyediting experience, she has no formal training and feels that scope creep has exposed gaps in her professional knowledge. These are proving to be a challenge in her current roles.

Georgia’s budget is limited (not a surprise given that she’s not being paid in a timely manner).

She asks: ‘Could you suggest further steps for me? Are there any reputable online training courses you would recommend that would advance my skills and that would not be too expensive?’

So, what should she do?

Training and beyond
So, Georgia, first of all, I’m really impressed that you’ve focused on upskilling rather than complaining. Few editors and proofreaders know everything about everything; there’s always more to learn!

Of particular interest to me, though, was the fact that you framed your query purely in terms of skills gaps and training solutions. Actually, I think there’s a bigger issue at stake: your limited choice.

Your current clients expect you to be able to carry out more levels of editing than you feel capable of. And yet there are plenty of clients in the world who would benefit from – and be glad to hire you for – your existing capabilities. However, they can’t find you.

With that in mind, I’m going to break down my answer into several parts:

• online training
• book training
• mentoring
• other types of work, and how to be visible

And if that sounds like I’m looking for an excuse to bang my marketing drum yet again, I won’t apologize! The fact is that the work we do and the work we do to get the work we do are connected.

Having appropriate skills is of course the foundation of good practice, but it’s next to useless if we’re still rendered vulnerable to clients who expect the earth, and believe they can ask us for it, because we have nowhere else to turn.

But let’s deal with the training issue first, since that’s what you asked me to address ...

Online training
So the bottom line is that, as far as I’m aware, there are no ‘cheap’ distance-learning courses that will provide you with the baseline skills that mainstream publishing houses and university presses will expect from a copyeditor or proofreader. You get what you pay for when it comes to professional training.

Of course, what’s cheap to you might seem pricey to me, or vice versa. Given that the pound is rather weak as I write in June 2017, perhaps some of the UK online training courses I’m about to recommend might be well within your budget today even if they wouldn’t have been three years ago!

The two institutions I’ve worked with, and so can vouch for with confidence, are as follows:

• The Publishing Training Centre
• Society for Editors and Proofreaders

Bear in mind that if you decide to do proofreading training, the proof-correction markup language taught (BS 5261C: 2005) on UK distance-learning courses will differ a little from that used where you live, so there’ll be some tweaking to do when you apply the training to your practice.

Below, in the comments, my colleague Corina Koch MacLeod kindly posted some additional links to online courses (see Professional Studies at Queen's University, Canada). They're open to anyone, anywhere.

• Fundamentals of Editing Standards
• Copyediting Standards
• Stylistic Editing Standards
• Proofreading Standards
• Structural Editing Standards

Books
Online proofreading and copyediting courses are superb options because of the flexibility they offer and, in some cases, the available feedback from a tutor (that's one of the reasons why they're not the lowest-cost option).

Given that you’re on a budget, though, you might want to consider books, too. Here are seven to think about:

• Basic Editing: A Practical Course (Nicola Harris)
• Basic Editing: A Practical Course: The Exercises (Nicola Harris)
• Butcher's Copy-editing: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-editors and Proofreaders, 4th ed. (Judith Butcher)
• Copyediting: A Practical Guide (Karen Judd)
• Copy-editing: With Exercises and Model Answers (Barbara Horn)
• Proofreading Practice: Exercises with model answers and commentary, 2nd ed. (contact Margaret Aherne direct)
• The Effective Editor's Handbook (Barbara Horn)

These books most definitely aren't up-to-date in terms of technology (the on-what issue), but the best-practice elements are still spot on.

The fourth edition of Butcher's is also pricey. Second-hand versions of the third edition are going for a song on Amazon, though.

If you find that some of these books are out of print, ask in editorial forums if anyone has copies they’d be happy to pass on.

​Mentoring: formal and informal
Another option is to seek either formal or informal mentoring.

I don’t think you should feel embarrassed about explaining to colleagues in editorial forums that you’re looking to raise your skills to meet publishing-industry standards, and asking whether anyone would be prepared to mentor you. I'm impressed when even the most experienced editor or proofreader asks about CPD.

Some may expect a fee, others will do it for free, though there might well be a wait list.

Moving beyond mainstream publishers
Mainstream publishers, as you know, tend to have rather rigid definitions of what a copyediting or proofreading job entails. Editorial freelancers who specialize in working for these clients do have a smoother ride if they’ve formally trained because that training accords with industry expectations.

Things take a different (though not always easier!) turn when working with independent authors, students, businesses, and so on.

I would not be at all surprised if the experience you’ve already acquired with your two mainstream clients means that you're more than capable of working with many non-publishers effectively.

So let’s say you offer copyediting. While a publisher might expect you to edit the index or the bibliography as standard, you could decide to exclude these from your service for non-publishers.

And perhaps you won’t be surprised to hear that many non-publisher clients come to me, and thousands of my colleagues, looking for so-called proofreading services. What they’re actually asking for frequently falls under the rubric of what we'd call copyediting (correcting the raw-text files) rather than annotating final page proofs.

You're in a position to support this market given that you’ve already demonstrated your capabilities with several years of successful practice.

See the following for more on the tangled world of non-publisher proofreading and copyediting:

• Not all proofreading is the same: Part I – Working with page proofs
• Not all proofreading is the same: Part II – Working directly in Word
• Should a proofreader work for self-publishing clients who haven’t hired a copyeditor?
• The Proofreader’s Corner: Untangling Proofreading

A key issue for you to consider is therefore how you are going to make yourself discoverable to those types of clients.

Make sure your website, social media profiles and directory entries are bang up to date and presenting you as a compelling prospect for potential clients.

If you’re not advertising in the key industry directories, then that’s something you can fix immediately (whereas making your website visible is a more complex and slower-burn solution).

Think internationally. If you can access key industry directories, do so. You’re not a member of the SfEP, so you wouldn’t qualify for entry in its Directory of Editorial Services, but you might be eligible for other national societies listings (see this list of national editorial societies).

Then there’s findaproofreader.com, which is very reasonable. Consider other online business directories in your region, too. If their advertising rates are affordable, test them for a fixed period so you can evaluate whether they’re working for you.

One channel is rarely enough for any of us. Make yourself visible on multiple platforms so you can see what drives clients your way most effectively.

​To make your editorial more visible to clients searching online, I’d recommended a content-marketing strategy. This requires consistency, creativity and commitment, but it is an effective strategy if you're prepared to work hard at it.

I won’t use this Q&A session to delve into the issue because there’s far too much to say. If you want a taster, read my Content Marketing Primer for Editors and Proofreaders. (I also have a more general book on marketing an editorial business that might be of interest: Marketing Your Editing & Proofreading Business.)
​
But, first, head over to the Andrew and Pete blog (they’re my content-marketing coaches, and my top recommendation for anyone wanting to dig deep and do it properly) and watch this short video: WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING? (IN 15 GIFS). Honestly, no one makes the task as fun as these two do!

Summing up
So, Georgia, there you have it – 2 online proofreading and copyediting training options, 7 paperback alternatives, 1 brief mention of mentoring, and my thoughts on promoting yourself into a position whereby you get to define the scope of your services rather than being forced into wearing hats that aren’t made to measure!

Good luck with the next steps!

Louise

​Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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.

Why word of mouth (WOM) is often misunderstood
‘But my colleague said that all her work is via word of mouth.’

I don’t doubt it. But if she’s been running her business for 20 years and has a portfolio and client list as long as your arm, she’s not in the same position as the new entrant to the field.

She’s benefiting from 1, 2 and 3 because she invested in A, B and C.

New starters should indeed commit to WOM marketing. What they shouldn’t do is assume that it’s a passive approach that requires no effort. Nor will there be short-term results. Top-notch WOM marketing requires an intense level of commitment to action and an acceptance of slow-burn impact.

Awareness and trust aren’t built overnight, especially in our field. Editorial freelancers aren’t selling a product that promises something that swathes of people have wanted forever – an anti-aging cream, a painless leg-waxing treatment, a broadband connection that never, ever buffers even if you live out in the sticks and there’s more chance of getting a wi-fi signal on Mars. Our services have to prove their worth.

For the editorial business owner, WOM marketing is like creating a garden from scratch. If you’re proactive, it will take many months to knock it into shape. If you hold back, it’ll take years. If you’re passive, the garden will remain barren.

WOM and colleagues
There are a lot of us, and many have already developed niche networks of friends and colleagues to whom we refer work.

When an editor or proofreader ends up on my radar, it’s because they’ve instilled trust in me.

• Perhaps they blog regularly about, offer training on, or deliver presentations about specific aspects of editorial work that I don’t offer.
• Perhaps they’re visible on social media and professional forums, often sharing valuable knowledge that answers questions, solves problems, and demonstrates their skills, experience and expertise.
• Perhaps they’ve helped me solve a problem.

Only then am I likely to add them to my referral network.

WOM and clients
As for client A telling client B about you, you’ll need a lot of mouths to share the good news if you want to have a full schedule! That’s not where you’ll be if you’re a new entrant to the field, not because you’re not an effective editor or proofreader but because you don’t yet have a large enough bank of clients.

Effective WOM
Find out which networks (online and offline) your clients and colleagues recommend and join in the discussion. There’s nothing wrong with asking questions but be prepared to offer solutions too. Even new editorial freelancers have specialist skills and background experience that are relevant and valuable to the debate.

In 'Why word of mouth marketing is the most important social media', Kimberly A. Whitler, Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, breaks down WOM marketing into the three Es:

• Engage – talk to your colleagues and clients via social media, online forums and local networking groups.
• Equip – give your colleagues and clients a reason to engage with you and your business – advice, knowledge, tools, support, great-quality proofreading ... whatever helps them and solves their problems.
• Empower – enable your colleagues and clients to engage with you in ways that work for them. What’s useful for one person will not be useful to another. Not all of my colleagues want to trawl through a dense blog with hundreds of articles about editorial business planning and marketing, so I offer them books, too. Not all of my potential clients want to fill in a contact form on my website, so I provide my phone number, too. Not all of my readers want to read long articles, so I sometimes produce infographics, booklets, checklists, podcasts and videos (though, admittedly, the latter is a work in progress!).

​Action first, passivity later
Clients can come via active and passive marketing strategies. It’s not a case of the right strategy but the right order.

If you’re a new starter, make active editorial business promotion a standard part of your working life, just like copyediting or proofreading, invoicing and updating your software. Assign space for it every week so that it becomes commonplace rather than a chore or, worse, something to be feared.

Be active. Be committed. Be the ham!

Once your business is established, you’ll be able to take advantage of the passive benefits that result from your effort. Just take care not to hand over the chill space to your Labrador!

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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.

In my latest guest article for the BookMachine blog, I take a look at how publishing professionals, from the freelance editor to the mainstream publishing house, can stretch their marketing budgets by repurposing one in-depth piece of amazing content.

The fabulous Gordon Graham, otherwise known as That White Paper Guy, was my inspiration, and I'd recommend you take a look at his guidance on ways to create brilliant resources to make your clients' lives easier.

​Click on the stretchy guy to read the article in full!

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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.

Maya has a PhD in social anthropology, and is an experienced editor and proofreader. She’s in the process of expanding her editorial business while continuing to publish academic research.
 
To date, she’s focused on acquiring work through a freelancing website, but the work flow is unpredictable and she’s not convinced it will supply her with a viable income stream in the long term.
 
She’s created a website but recognizes that it’ll take time to become visible to potential clients, and to earn their trust.
 
She asks: ‘There are a couple of other freelancing websites that look promising, as well as academic editing agencies. Does it make sense to try to sign up to those as well, or is it better to focus on one thing at a time? I'm planning to blog and make YouTube videos about academic writing on top of these things. But is this a case of "less is more" or "more is more"? I’m an experienced editor but completely new to marketing!’
 
Great questions, Maya.
 
Two things to consider
There are two different elements to your strategy here:

• agency and directory marketing, where you wait to be selected
• content marketing, where you build trust and engagement by creating compelling content that makes you appear delicious to potential clients!

 
Both approaches are important in the editorial industry, so hats off to you for recognizing that even though you’re new to marketing. You’re doing brilliantly!
 
The reason why both approaches are important is because directories and agencies have already done the online visibility work on your behalf. By using them to make your business visible now, you’re freeing up your marketing hours to focus on the longer-burn stuff – your blog and videos.
 
Broadly speaking,

• freelancing directories and agencies: more is more
• content marketing: less is more (sort of – see below)

 
I’ll explain why further down, but first I wanted to ask you whether you’ve considered approaching publishers too. You didn’t mention it in your email so I think it’s worth my taking the time to discuss it here.

Publishers and freelance editors – a gift
Directories, agencies and content creation are all great ways to acquire clients, albeit over different time frames.

The biggest problem the editor faces, however, is getting the client to raise their hand in the first place. ‘I’m interested in you, Maya!’ is what your directory entry, agency listing, blog article or YouTube video needs to make your audience member feel compelled to say.

That means working hard to create stand-out information that sets you apart from the competition surrounding you. Furthermore, in the directory and agency fields, there will always be a group of clients looking for cheap rather than brilliant. And in the marketplace more generally, there are potential clients who don’t even realize they need you, or, if they do, which of the different levels of service will be the most appropriate.

But here come the publishers! (Sing it, like the Boots ad!) We’re in a rather privileged field of having a core client group who understands exactly what we do, why we’re necessary, and the value we bring to the table. We don’t have to get them to raise their hands; their hands are already in the air!

Some publishers will take the time to scour the SfEP’s Directory of Editorial Services, but to my knowledge the single best way to get noticed by a production manager is still to go direct. Email, letter, phone call – whatever you prefer.

I worked almost exclusively for publishers for the first half of my freelance career. I had about 10 publisher clients who kept my schedule as full as I needed it to be. Feast and famine? Nope, just feast.

Like you, I have a background in the social sciences, so that’s where I focused my initial wave of inquiries. You mentioned in your original email that you’d 'bought my marketing books', so you’ll find more information on how to tackle that in Marketing Your Editing & Proofreading Business.

Take a look, too, at the SOS Marketing Strategy PDF below. You’re not in an emergency situation but the basic principles about how to proceed still stand.
​
Publishers, like agencies, will give you regular work, and that means you can focus all your marketing juice on creating compelling blog posts and irresistible YouTube vids.

Publishers are a bit of a gift like that – while their rates aren’t always top-notch, the time they free up for you by handing you a steady supply of work certainly is. And creating valuable, usable, accessible content does take time.

Directories and agencies: more is more
Perhaps that’s a bit of an exaggeration! By more is more, I’m not saying you should sign up with 20 directories and agencies; you’ll spend more time being busy creating the entries than you will being productive finding the work!

I do think, though, that you needn’t limit oneself to one. If you identify a group of, say, four or five that are used by your core clients to find people like you, I’d recommend you sign up. More is more, as long as you’re selective.

There are SEO benefits, too. For certain medium-tail keyword searches, I rank first on page one of Google – but it’s not my website showing up. It’s my SfEP directory entry.

And, anyway, you’re in control. You get to accept work, or decline it – whatever suits your needs.

The key thing to remember is that if you get too many requests to quote from the directories and agencies, you can always trim and focus on those that deliver the best-quality clients to you. Plus, you’ll never know what’s working if you don’t test in the first place.

Testing is something else you’ll see me bang on about in my books, but only because it’s the foundation of any solid marketing strategy. It doesn’t matter if you try something, and that something doesn’t work. You’ll still have learned something, and having learned it you can make an informed decision about what to do next. Otherwise your marketing is just guesswork – which is exhausting at best!

So, yes, go ahead. Sign up for a few more and find out what works for you. Evaluate in a few months’ time. Then leave behind the ones that don’t work out and try something else instead.

Now let’s deal with the content strategy.

Creating delectable content! Less is more (sort of)
When I say less is more, I’m talking about platforms, not the actual content itself.

This isn’t just me banging my drum. The professionals emphasize this. My own content marketing coaches Andrew and Pete recommend focusing on one or two platforms, and really honing them. Plus, I’m halfway through the online conference Summit on Content Marketing, and speakers Rand Fishkin, Ilise Benun, Dave Jackson, and Stoney deGeyter agree: concentrate on what your core clients are using – in other words, choose the platforms your customers prefer, rather than the ones you prefer.

So, you’re planning to use a blog and YouTube to deliver your advice on academic writing. If those are platforms that your core clients like using, then go ahead. And stick to those two – really craft them into something special, something compelling.

Some quick tips (you might know the following already but other readers might not, so bear with me!) …

Quality
Make sure your content is really useful so that it offers solutions for your potential clients. Don’t sell – just solve. I used to call content marketing ‘value-added marketing’ (see the marketing book you’ve bought). Seriously, I didn’t know ‘content’ marketing was a thing until a year ago! I still think it’s an oddly bland name for such an exciting strategy.

Anyway, I don’t get to make the rules, so content marketing it is!

Focus on value above all else. Value trumps everything (unless your great writing is so blurred as to be unreadable, or the audio quality of your video so poor as to make it unwatchable).

If you create a beautiful video, or a blog post with loads of fancy pictures, but the story you’re telling your viewers or readers is of no use to them and doesn’t help them, you won’t grow that audience.

But if your video is a little flawed, or your blog post a little ugly, you’ll still grow your audience and build trust and relationships if you’ve made someone’s life easier. It’s no different to friendship. I don’t pick my mates because they look gorgeous – it’s all about the relationship and how we make each other feel. Content marketing’s no different.

I’ve tried hard to make my blog look prettier this year. But you know what? Some of my most popular posts are still those I wrote years ago – posts with really long paragraphs of dense narrative – 1,500 words of me telling people what publishers think about proofreading training courses, and another 1,500 of me on how to upload custom stamps of PDF markup symbols. No pictures. No clever SEO titles. Just loads of text. But it’s text that answers the questions that (some) people are asking.

Consistency
Be consistent with how often you deliver your blogs and videos. The expert view is this: whether you post twice a week, once a week or once a month is less important than choosing one of those and committing to it. That way your readers and viewers get into the routine of engaging with you.

Furthermore, if you commit to once a week, but you don’t have enough content to fill that schedule, you’re more likely to feel deflated and stop. Which would be a huge shame! It's better to excite an audience by raising your game than disappointing them by going backwards.

Quantity
If you write great blogs that are 400 words long, perfect. If you need 2,000 words, perfect.

If your videos need to be 5 minutes long to solve your client’s problems, make them 5 minutes long. If they need to be longer, and that’s what your audience wants, make them longer.

Just make sure that every word and every minute is full of value. I know I’m a right old rambler so I struggle to make every word count. Let’s just call me chatty!

Delivery
Think about how you’ll direct people to your blog and YT channel. I post to Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ to make editors and writers aware of what’s new on my blog.

​I’ve also recently created a mailing list for writers to enable me to alert them when new self-publishing resources are available.

And, these days, Google Search is working wonders for me. In time, it’ll work for you to if you commit to creating all that delicious stuff for your potential clients!

If academic writers are also using Twitter, FB and LI to get their updates, those are the channels you should use to direct them to your blog and video platforms. If they’re using some other channel to get their news, that’s where you should be.

Again, it’s about what your listeners and readers want, rather than your own preferences. (I really, really hope authors aren’t big Snapchatters! If they are, I might just have to break my own rule and say, ‘Stuff what my clients are doing!’)

If one of the books you told me you’d bought was my content marketing primer, you’ll get a good overview of the basic principles. You can always post another question if you want to dig deeper.

Hope that’s helped, Maya. Thanks so much for asking two great questions. I hope my response has told you what you wanted to know. 

Cheers!

​Louise

P.S. Click on the image below to access the PDF.

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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.

​One of the Parlour’s UK readers contacted me with some questions. I’m answering them here because they’re the kinds of things that are often asked by those who are thinking entering the field of editorial freelancing.

Out of respect for my reader's privacy, I’ve masked his identity. Let’s call him Charlie (after my Labrador!).

So what did Charlie want to know?

• How will clients pay me?
• How do I register with HMRC?
• How do I keep track of the hours I spend working?
• How much should I charge?
• How do I acquire assignments?
• Can I use prior career experience?
• Do you accept volunteers or offer apprenticeships?

​Phew! That’s a lot of questions, Charlie, so I’ll only be able to scratch the surface, but I’m confident I can point you in the right direction.

First things – going deeper
Here are four resources that dig deeper into all your queries , though you’ll have to cough up a few quid for them!

• Going Solo: Creating your freelance editorial business (Sue Littleford).
• Pricing a Project: How to prepare a professional quotation (Melanie Thompson).
• Business Planning for Editorial Freelancers (Louise Harnby)
• Marketing Your Editing & Proofreading Business (Louise Harnby)

​

​
They’ll tell you pretty much everything you need to know about starting out and keeping going.

Might I also suggest you join the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP), the UK’s national editorial society? The forums provide a warm and supportive environment for old hands and newbies alike.

How will clients pay me?
A better question might be how would you like to be paid? For example, I accept cheques (reluctantly!), PayPal (convenient for international clients), and direct bank transfer (easy-peasy). Other options include Stripe and CurrencyFair.

I send an invoice as soon as a project’s complete, but some of my colleagues prefer to do all their invoicing for the month in one fell swoop. It’s a matter of personal choice and what works for each business owner in terms of efficiency. You can download an invoice template from my Other Resources page.

How do I register with HMRC and what do I need to tell them?
Quite honestly, the easiest way to deal with HMRC is to give them a call. I found them incredibly helpful when I first started my editorial business. Believe me, they’ll put your mind at rest.

Sue’s book (mentioned above) has lots of information about dealing with HMRC. My primary piece of advice is to keep a record of what you spend and what you earn in relation to your business. There’s an accounting template on the Other Resources page that shows you what I record for each project.

How do I keep track of the hours I spend working?
I record my hours in the accounting template. That way, everything’s in one place. I keep track of time the old-fashioned way – with a pen and a piece of paper! Other colleagues use various time-tracking tools and widgets, e.g. Toggl.

Keeping track of how much time you spend on a project is important for gauging how efficient you are. Bear in mind, though, that not all clients will be prepared to pay you for the hours you work. Rather, they’ll pay you for the hours they think the job should take you. This is often the case with publishers and packagers.

When you’re in control of the setting the price of a project (e.g. with independent writers, students, businesses etc.), you’ll need to assess how long the project will take and how much you want to earn from it. This comes with experience; it’s likely you won’t hit the mark in the start-up phase of your proofreading business.
​
Don’t fret about this, though. You’ll get better at estimating over time. And by tracking how long each project takes to complete, and what you earned, you’ll get a sense of what’s possible in an hour or per 1,000 words.

How much should I charge?
Take a look at the following articles here on the Proofreader’s Parlour:

• The highs and lows of editorial fees (or how not to trip up during rate talk)
• The rates debate: Looking at the value beyond the fee
• Increasing editing income – raising fees and declining lower-paid work

What you charge will be determined by your particular needs, your ability to access clients who’ll meet those needs, whom you’re working for, and what you’re doing.

If you work for publishers and packagers, they’ll control the price – you’ll be a price-accepter.
If you work for businesses, independent authors, academics, and students, you’ll offer a price in the hope that they’ll accept – you’ll be a price-setter.

If the second option sounds a better financial option, bear in mind that, even if it is, it’s harder work! Publishers and packagers do all the client-acquisition work on your behalf, while acquiring clients for whom you’re a price setter means you need to actively promote your business on a regular basis so that you’re interesting and discoverable to clients across the platforms they’re using to find people like us (e.g. Google).

How do I acquire assignments?
My line on this is: when you set up your own business you’ll have two jobs:

• The work you do – proofreading in your case.
• And the work you do to get the work you do – marketing your proofreading business.

​I’ve shared all my experience of editorial business promotion in these three resources:

• Marketing Your Editing & Proofreading Business (Louise Harnby)
• Content Marketing for Editors & Proofreaders (Louise Harnby)
• Proofreader’s Parlour: Marketing Tips

​

What I’ll say here is that there’s no single way to go about it, not least because different client types use different platforms to find their proofreaders and editors.

For example, content marketing is not the most efficient way to go about acquiring publisher clients – honestly, just get on the phone or write a letter/email instead. If you want to work for independent authors, though, it’s one of the most powerful methods of being discoverable.

Conversely, phone calls to publishers will reap results (if you make enough of them), but for indie authors this method will take you into Ghostbusters territory – who you gonna call?!

My advice is to put yourself in your customer’s shoes and ask:

• Who are your target clients?
• What are their problems?
• How will you solve those problems?
• How will you demonstrate your ability to solve them?
• How will you find the clients?
• Or, if they need to find you, where will they look, and how will you make yourself visible in those places?

Can I use my prior career experience?
Absolutely – it will be one of your unique selling points. For example, I’d worked for a social science publisher for many years prior to starting my business, This, along with my politics degree, helped to make me an interesting prospect for social science publishers with politics lists.

Wordsmith Janet MacMillan is a former lawyer – now her client base includes legal publishers, legal students, academics and law firms.
​
Both of us understand the language our respective disciplines, and that means we’re more likely to spot errors in related texts than someone with, say, a nursing background.

My advice to new starters is: always specialize first in what you know. Later, if you wish, you can diversify, or transition to another specialism (I’m now a  fiction copyeditor and proofreader).

So, in the start-up phase, use your career experience to help you determine which core clients you’re going to target. Then think about how you'll communicate with them in a way that makes them want to consider you as their proofreader.

Here are two resources to help you think about how to create a stand-out brand identity using a client-centric approach: 

• Pen portraits (free article by technical editor and writer John Espirian)
• The Hippo Campus (book by content marketing pros Andrew and Pete)

​Do you accept volunteers or offer apprenticeships?
I don’t, Charlie – sorry. I’m a one-woman show. That’s critical to my business model. My clients hire me and only me to work on their books.

That doesn’t mean that mentoring programs aren’t a superb option. Time to think about training!

I’d strongly recommend you do some professional proofreading training to prepare yourself for market. It’ll show you where your strengths are, and help you fix your weaknesses.

Training has three core benefits:

• It instils trust in your clients – you’re demonstrating professionalism. Trust is critical in an unregulated market where anyone can set up as a proofreader.
• It instils confidence in you when you take the initial client-acquisition steps, e.g. calling publishers, creating directory listings, publishing blog posts, etc.
• It increases client-retention rates – you’re more likely to do a fantastic job if you approach it like a professional.

The SfEP and The Publishing Training Centre are my recommendations … purely because I have personal experience of their courses on which to base an opinion. There are other options available, though. 

The SfEP runs a mentoring programme, too, though you must have completed some initial training beforehand.

Last things
That’s it, Charlie – a whirlwind tour of how to set up a proofreading business! I hope you find the guidance useful. I realize there’s a lot to think about.

If you decide to join the club, you’ll find a supportive community awaiting you, one that stretches well beyond the geographical boundaries of the UK.

Good luck!

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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 at the beginning stages of your writing career, you’ll still be navigating your way through the world of publishing. And you probably have a ton of questions.

One of those will likely be: What kind of editor do I need to help me get my book ready? The natural follow-up to that is: How do I find that person?

I offered guidance on what kind of editor to hire and when in ‘​The different levels of editing. Proofreading and beyond’. Today, I’m focusing on how you should source that person.
​
​So as not to muddy the waters, I’m assuming you’ve already decided what kind of help you want: developmental, copy/line editing or final prepublication proofreading. If you’re still not sure, I’ve included a PDF that summarizes the different levels of editing at the bottom of this article.

Now let’s look at how to find the right person. My recommendations fall into two categories:

• the initial search
• the refinement process

Search (1): Professional associations
Your national editorial society is a great place to start, for four reasons:

1. Most have membership directories.
2. Those membership directories are a great deal smaller and easier to navigate than the internet, which means you can concentrate your search.
3. You can often search on key words. So if you’re a crime writer looking for a proofreader, you’ll be able to narrow your search to specialists with experience in both proofreading and crime fiction.
4. Some professional associations require members to meet certain criteria in exchange for the right to be listed in their directories. This means you’re able to access editors and proofreaders who are fit for purpose. I don’t need to tell you why that’s good news for you!

Being able to target your search means higher-quality results for less of your valuable time. Woo hoo!

The UK’s professional editorial association is the Society for Editors and Proofreaders and there’s a global list here: Professional societies and associations.

A limitation of national professional editorial societies is that they’re national. There’s absolutely no reason why you should source editorial help from someone in your own backyard. Many editorial pros work with clients from all over the world.

Search (2): The internet
The internet is the biggest and most amazing directory on the planet so it’s a brilliant place to search. Your perfect-fit editorial pro is out there, just waiting for you to touch base.

There’s a problem, though: the internet is the biggest and most amazing directory on the planet so it’s a terrible place to search. Your perfect-fit editorial pro is buried, waiting for you to dig her out.

Go too broad with your keywords and you might miss her. Go too narrow and … yep, you might miss her. Of course, you might find her, too. As Google sometimes prompts us: are you feeling lucky?

And there’s something else to bear in mind – and I say this as someone with page-one Google rankings for the term ‘proofreader’, so it’s not a case of sour grapes – being high up in Google doesn’t mean the proofreader or editor is necessarily the best fit for you; it means they’re an effective marketer.

And, conversely, just because someone’s website is ranked highly for niche long-tail keyword searches doesn’t mean that another person who didn’t pepper their website with those particular terms isn’t worth considering, too.

That means you need to do a lot of Google legwork to find the best fit and to get a really good batch of potential people to work with.

I’m not saying don’t use the internet. Its global nature is an appealing feature, one that the national editorial societies can’t compete with. I’m saying recognize its limitations. It’s amazing but it’s crowded, so you’ll need to invest some time to make it work for you. And that’s why I’ve given professional associations the number-one slot in this list of search options.

Search (3): Your network
If you’ve developed a solid network of fellow writers, that could be a super resource from which to get recommendations. Bear in mind, however, that the best fit for your writer pal is not necessarily the best fit for you. It’s a small resource given the size of the decision.

You might be writing in a different genre, or you might need help with a different level of editing. Some professional editors specialize in one or two levels (e.g. proofreading and copyediting; or developmental editing and manuscript evaluation). Others offer all of the levels but still feel most comfortable in one or two.

So tap your network for advice, but back it up with other searches.

Search (4): Social media
Social media platforms can be useful. They’re global but they have their limitations:

• Editors use social media platforms in different ways. For example, some are active primarily on Twitter, and have a LinkedIn profile but only use Facebook for personal use. Where you go will determine whom you find and whom you miss.
• Most social media profiles are restrictive in terms of what can be included, so you might not get the best sense of fit from the information provided.
• Some platforms are noisy, which makes effective targeted searching problematic.

Again, back up with other searches.

Here's a summary of the tools you might use to search for an editor or proofreader:

Now let’s take a look at how you might refine your initial searches.

You’ve found 37 developmental editors or copyeditors or proofreaders … whatever you need. All of them look great – they all have experience; can spell properly; are well educated and professional; and have a keen eye for detail and the appropriate training and qualifications.

How are you going to narrow that down to something manageable?

Refine (1): Genre experience
One way is to look at their portfolios, which tell you whether they’re used to working with books in your genre.

• At the final prepublication proofreading stage (which takes place after all the previous rounds of self- and professional editing are complete), genre experience may not matter as much.
• At copyediting, line editing or developmental editing stages, though, specialist genre experience could be a relevant factor. For example, line/copyediting crime fiction requires a different touch to line/copyediting historical romance. The styles of writing, the characters’ language, the length of sentences, even the punctuation used, are often very different.
• At developmental editing stage, genre will affect how the likes of pace, plot and characterization are handled such that reader engagement is maximized.

A portfolio does not an editor make, and it shouldn’t be the sole determiner of whom you choose by any means. It will, though, give you a feel for who’s used to working with writing like yours.

Refine (2): Best versus best fit – samples
Best versus best fit is worth considering when it comes to choosing third-party editorial help. At proofreading stage, you need precision; it’s all about quality control. At the earlier stages of editing (e.g. copy/line) emotional engagement will come into play.

It’s therefore a good idea to ask for a sample (either free or paid for). A sample will allow you to see who ‘gets’ your writing. Sentence-level tweaking is subjective to a degree (when it comes to suggesting minor recasts, for example) and it may be that five editors all spot the same typos and grammar errors but handle the wordiness rather differently.

It’s not about right or wrong, but rather about responsiveness.

Refine (3): Endorsements
A third narrowing-down technique is to look at what other writers say about a proofreader or editor. Take a look at their testimonials. Have other writers been prepared to publicly endorse the editorial pro? Have mainstream publishers stuck their necks out and praised the work?

Testimonials aren’t a foolproof way of determining excellence; like portfolios, they give you a glimpse of what the editors have done, whom they’ve worked with and the impressions they’ve made. They’re just one way of evaluating what’s on offer.

So that’s it – a potted guide to finding a proofreader, copyeditor or developmental editor. I wish you luck with your search and with your writing journey!

Here’s the information on the different levels of editing I promised. Just click on the image to download.

For more self-publishing resources, visit the library on my Self-publishers page. Or join the library to get monthly updates.

​Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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.

How do mainstream publishers produce books?
A lot of my self-publishing clients tell me they don’t understand what happens in the mainstream publishing industry’s editorial process. So when I advise them that – if they have the budget – they should do their best to mimic it, they’re in the dark.

Today’s post aims to switch on the lights by offering you an overview of the editorial production chain. It should give you a sense of why books take so long to get to market and what some of the costs are (to the publisher and even to the author!).

Every press’s editorial production chain is slightly different but the broad principles apply.

A note on scheduling … and marketing
In the mainstream publishing industry, books are commissioned and scheduled for publication often up to a year and a half in advance, sometimes longer!

That time frame isn’t down to the publisher being busy with other stuff; rather, it’s about giving the relevant team members the necessary time to take the book through a rigorous editing process and carry out a staged prepublication marketing campaign.

TOP TIP: When self-publishing, instead of promoting your book at the eleventh hour, plan and implement your marketing campaign well ahead of launch. That way, you can create a fan base and generate excitement about your novel before it goes to market, even pulling in some pre-order sales.

​3. ​Design #1
When the key members have agreed that the correction stage is complete, the raw-text files are handed over to a typesetter (if the book is to be printed). This is where the first proofs are created.

The typesetter formats the book so that the layout conforms to the agreed house style and is designed so that maximum use of the page space is made. Printing is very expensive so minimizing wasted white space is a key factor in the process. The typesetter needs to balance costs against aesthetics.

4. Proofreading
The production manager sends the first proofs (perhaps a chunk of paper but increasingly a PDF) to the author and the proofreader (usually a freelancer).

Both will check them carefully. The proofreader may be asked to proofread blind or against the original raw-text files worked on by the copyeditor (the latter is much slower). The proofreader’s job is not to make extensive changes, but rather to draw attention to any final spelling, punctuation, grammar, consistency or logic problems missed at earlier rounds of editing or introduced during the typesetting stage.

Every change the proofreader makes or suggests needs to be handled carefully in case it has a knock-on effect on the design, the page count and, consequently, the printing costs.
​
It’s demanding work that requires experience and judgement about when to change and when to leave well enough alone. Some publishers even pass some of these costs back to the author – eek!

5. Final revision: Design #2
Now the proofreader’s corrected file and the author’s version go back to the production manager, who has to collate all the final amendments and instruct the typesetter to make the necessary corrections.

The typesetter creates a revised file and returns it to the production manager for sign-off. 

6. File creation and distribution (print, digital or both)
The final countdown! The production manager works with the typesetter and printer to create the final print book that will be delivered to the relevant distribution channels.

​In the case of e-books, the production manager will commission a digital formatter to create e-Pub files that are compatible with the market’s major e-readers and other digital devices. 

The elusive publishing deal and the editorial process
As you can see, there are a lot of stages and a lot of people involved. And that’s why it takes so long and why it’s so expensive to publish.

It also explains, in part, why writers can find it so hard to get a mainstream publishing deal; if the book bombs, there’s no return on all that investment. 

For publishers, novels that need a lot of work, or that don’t fit neatly into an obvious and currently popular genre, are difficult to sell (the high-street bookshops don’t know where to place them to grab readers’ attention).

Should you mimic the mainstream publishing industry's editorial process?
Mimicry will bring you quality – there’s no doubt about that. It’ll also require a major investment in time and money.

We all have to make difficult choices about what we do to make the things we create the best they can be. But there are limitations. I’m passionate about the independent author’s right to write, and I know that your pockets aren’t bottomless.

I hope this has shed some light on the mainstream publishing process! Until next time …

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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.

Gagen recommends discussing the issue before the project starts. It may be that a writer will prefer you to just go ahead and make a substantive edit to the text. Others may want a nudge. Others will prefer a more detailed explanation in the comments.

And given that we’re trying to help our authors avoid reader disengagement, it would be a shame if, through hitting the wrong tone, we ended up disengaging our clients.

Adrienne Montgomerie offers further food for thought: ‘When you’re worn out, incredulous, and exasperated, it can show in your queries.’

Eek! To think that, despite our best efforts at advocacy, we might have made our author feel we’re no longer on their side, is unthinkable, and yet it can happen. She offers a handy list of different phrases you might consider when querying to keep your author engaged and your tone on track (‘10 Ways to Word a Sensitive Query’).

I hope you’ve found these tips useful. Here’s your PDF mini-booklet if you fancy downloading the post to your device. Just click on the image to get your copy.

​Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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.

Can you proofread your own book?

Truly, nothing beats a second pair of eyes on a piece of text, short or long. I know this all too well because I’m a professional proofreader and copyeditor, but I also write – books (yup, I've self-published four times), guides, booklets and blog posts.

​And I miss stuff – not because I have a problem with grammar, punctuation or spelling, but because I’m too close to the text. I see my own writing in terms of the ideas I want to convey rather than the text in front of my eyes.

That’s why I hire fellow proofreaders and editors to help make my written materials the best they can be. I don't expect those people to guarantee perfection but I do expect to them to ramp up the quality (and they've never failed me).

Here’s another thing I know – the better shape the file's in, the better the price. Editors and proofreaders are professionals and, though we love what we do, we have bills and mortgages too. So, very broadly speaking, the more intervention needed, the higher the fee.

There are things every writer can do to tidy up a piece of text by themselves, though. I’ve compiled them in one handy resource: The Author’s Proofreading Companion.

The steps in this toolkit won’t replace a rigorous professional developmental edit, line edit/copyedit and final prepublication proofread, but they will help rid your file of some of the nasties!

Here’s what the Companion shows you how to do:

• Remove double spaces
• Remove all rogue spaces at the beginning and end of paragraphs
• Remove double line returns
• Change hyphens used as parentheses to dashes
• Change tabbed paragraph indents to proper line indents (using Word’s ‘Styles’)
• Change a hyphen in a number span
• Find lower-case letters at the beginning of paragraphs
• Find a paragraph that ends with no punctuation
• Find a full point followed by a lower-case letter
• ​Change date styles with wildcard searches
• Run a confusables macro
• Remove unnecessary spaces before or after punctuation

Just click on the image below to get your FREE copy!

Hope it helps! And come back soon for more handy tips and advice designed especially for beginner writers.

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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.

Using Word more efficiently
In the past 18 months, two editorial colleagues have written blogs that have had a significant impact on how I use Word.

• Hazel Bird taught me how to create drop-down boxes in Word (read ‘Using combo boxes in style sheets’ if you want to take advantage of her excellent advice). I used this information to redesign my style sheets so that I don’t have to retype recurring options every time I create a sheet for a new client (e.g. -is- or -iz- spelling; full points or not after Mr, Mrs, etc.). Invoice elements (e.g. settlement terms and repeat-client names and addresses) could benefit from the same treatment.
• Adrienne Montgomerie taught me how to customize Word’s ribbon so that it works more efficiently for me (see ‘Make a custom tab on Word’s ribbon’). I used this to easily run the new macro I’d learned from Gordon (see above).

​

Quoting mechanisms and publicizing rates
Pricing issues affect every editorial freelancer, and although fee setting needs to be done using a deeper level of analysis than just following what colleagues are doing, there’s still a lot a colleague can bring to the table.

• I’d long used a per-hour method to determine my prices, but I was open to new ideas. Kate Haigh talked with me at length about her preferred approach (quoting per 1,000 words) on several occasions over a two-year period (including a camping weekend where we met face-to-face for the first time despite being professional buddies for years!) and encouraged me to test it. It had a dramatic effect on my business. Not only did it become quicker to quote, I also boosted my earnings, increasing my average hourly rate by £8 per hour.
• John Espirian blogged about being transparent about prices (see ‘Pricing: a question of trust’). His article convinced me that a test was in order, where I would publish my prices on my website. I wasn’t entirely happy with the results of my test and unpublished my prices (though I don’t yet have enough data to be sure that transparency was actually the wrong decision for my business). Regardless, what’s important is not the result. What’s important is that I tried something new. I consider the test a success because I have confidence in my current decision to not publish my prices online.

These two examples proved to be excellent reminders that testing is essential for the editorial freelancer who wants to learn whether a colleague’s way of doing things is appropriate for their own business.

Making friends
My colleagues can do something a book or a course can’t. They can become friends. I’ve made so many edi-buddies that I can't even begin to list them all.

​What I can say is that Kate Haigh's campsite spag bol borders on legendary; the AFEPI crew at last year's SfEP meeting almost made me want to emigrate.​ I wish Sophie Playle still lived in Norwich because I miss having coffee with her. I wish Rich Adin lived in the same country so that I could have just one coffee with him. Nick Jones has made me laugh via Facebook Messenger too many times. Janet MacMillan's soup ... 

You get the point.

Sourcing professional help
I decided to hire a couple of proofreaders for my blog in 2016. When I’m writing, I don’t behave like a proofreader. I have my authorial head on. That means I’m too close to my own words to spot all my errors.

I bit the bullet and decided to work with some fellow professional proofreaders. Whom to pick though? I needed some recommendations. John Espirian, in his capacity as guardian of the SfEP directory, had a couple of names up his sleeve and they haven’t disappointed.

Cally Worden and Anna Black are my go-tos. They’ve done a fantastic job for me and I wish I’d sourced them years ago. Of course, I still have to upload their gently edited work to the Parlour, and, I’ll be honest, sometimes I just can’t help making a little tweak here and there, post proofreading (I know, I know!). So if a typo has slipped through, it’s my fault.

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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.

Changing famine into feast ... quickly
I discussed some of the problems of relying on one editorial client back in 2013. The issues I raised then are as valid today as they were four years ago, perhaps even more so given the current economic and political climate (both here in the UK, and elsewhere).

This article revisits the problem and includes an emergency business-promotion plan.

The booklet, SOS editorial marketing strategy: Quick fixes for big emergencies, is free to download. I sincerely hope it helps you if you need some inspiration during tough times.

Why one client isn’t enough 
Having only one client when you’re an editorial business owner is problematic for two reasons:

• you might lose that client
• your reliance on that client’s supply of work could lead to your neglecting what’s in your business’s best interests

The client-losing editor
You can lose clients for reasons completely beyond your control, including:

• they no longer need your services 
• they can no longer afford your services
• your contact moves to pastures new
  It happened to me. One of my primary contacts in a publishing house went on maternity leave in 2012. I noticed her absence – I didn’t work for that press for a year. Fortunately, I had plenty of other clients in my portfolio to ensure this didn’t affect my workflow. It was great when my contact returned to work 12 months later and offered me three novels in one hit, but I’m glad my business wasn’t dependent on her.
• they merge with other organizations
  My first job in publishing was for the UK arm of Williams & Wilkins, a Baltimore-based STM publisher. Prior to 1990, Wolters Kluwer, Lippincott, Raven Press, the medical division of Little Brown, and Plenum were competitors. Over the next decade these would all be subsumed under the WK umbrella – six potential clients gradually became one.

​The client-reliant editor
There are several reasons why you might become reliant on a client:

• you enjoy the work
• you value the experience and portfolio-building opportunities
• the client has a lot of work to offer and is able to keep you busy. That means you don’t have to spend time on marketing – your client is doing all the project-acquisition graft on your behalf. In other words, you’re benefiting from the client’s marketing efforts. This can be appealing to inexperienced marketers.

On paper, those are good reasons to work for a client. However, if it’s your only client, and things turn sour, you have a problem:

• perhaps the work has become more demanding
• maybe the rate of pay, which seemed good enough several years ago, hasn’t risen in line with your own cost of living
• your own circumstances have changed, meaning you need to work fewer hours for the same income

​If you have only one client, you have no choice – nowhere else to shift your focus, no one else with whom to negotiate, no one else from whom you can accept improved pay or working conditions, and no opportunity to phase out the one (now problematic) client on whom you rely.

Emergency marketing strategy
Whether you’ve lost your only supply of work or you’ve fallen into the trap of reliance on a now unsatisfactory client, there is action you can take immediately.

Here’s the free SOS editorial marketing plan I promised. Just click on the image to download.

The work you do … and the work you do to get the work you do
If you’re a freelance editorial pro, you’ll always have two jobs:

1. the work you do
2. the work you do to get the work you do

Pay attention to the latter so that you’re not at the mercy of the former.

It’s essential to protect your future interests by building a portfolio of several clients rather than focusing all your energies on one. If you put all your eggs in one basket and things go pear-shaped, the impact on your editorial business, never mind your emotional wellbeing, could be devastating.

If you’re not facing an emergency, you can afford to spread your business promotion over a longer period and focus on slower-burn activities such as content (value-adding) marketing. But if you are in crisis mode, there is action you can take right now that, with commitment, will generate positive responses.

You’re not a newbie – you have experience and you’ve already proven your ability to acquire a client. That’s a great position to be in, so use it to your advantage!

Good luck!

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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.

Part of my mission with this blog is to help new entrants to the field understand the challenges and benefits of editorial freelancing, and to assist them as they navigate the early stages of their careers. There's no one way to build a business and one's background and preferences will influence the path taken. That's why, from time to time, I like to feature colleagues, particularly those who have a different skill set or career background to mine.

With this in mind, I'm delighted to welcome technical editor Peter Haigh to the Parlour. Peter discusses how he took a strategic approach to developing his editorial business, using his career specialism as a springboard ...

Hello. For those who don’t know me, I’m Peter Haigh and I used to be an electrical power systems engineer. Since November 2015 though, I’ve been a freelance copy-editor and proofreader.

This article is a little bit of a retrospective of how I went from being an engineer to being a proofreader and copy-editor and how I used my specialism to help with this.

First, a little background and then I’d like to explore a few truths and myths about 'specialist proofreading' and share my experiences of getting started and then beginning to mature in the world of freelance proofreading/copy-editing.

Why the move into proofreading and copy-editing?
So, there I was, happily playing with spreadsheets and algorithms (specifying harmonic filter requirements for offshore windfarms) and one day I thought, 'I know, I want to be a proofreader.'

Really?

No, not really.

Then why?

It was all part of a deliberate plan to adopt a location-independent lifestyle. I work from apartments near beaches, forests and cities around the world and when I get bored I (along with my companion, Kate of kateproof) simply move somewhere else. That, coupled with the joys of setting my own work hours and leaving corporate quirks behind, was more than enough reason for a complete change of direction. Further details available here.

What did I do to get started?
Well, I kind of cheated.

Having a wife that is now seven years into her freelance career – her empire is now established: an Advanced Professional Member of the SfEP with plenty of queries coming in – was a massive help. The Proofreader's Parlour (thanks, Louise) was also a mine of helpful resources and advice on a breadth of topics, marketing in particular.

I did some basic online training and read some books and did their exercises, but I also benefited greatly from having a live-in mentor and trainer.

How did it all evolve?
The basic flow was: launch a website, do some training, practise on badly written work, build a web presence, do more marketing, develop confidence in my skills, win some good clients, keep them and then look for more!

I confess: I still get about 50% of my work in the form of referrals from my wife. The other 50%
comes from my website or from an agency that I signed up with last year.

How did I market myself as a specialist proofreader/copy-editor?
The first steps were made before I left my engineering job. I gathered together all of the business cards I’d collected throughout my career and I connected to as many people as I could on LinkedIn.

I told my colleagues about my plans. I hoped that it might lead to work. So far it has led to copy-editing a colleague’s PhD thesis and I continue to edit for a CIGRE working group on a pro bono basis. Maybe one day it’ll pay off, most likely via word of mouth: I left on good terms.

How did the client base evolve?
To begin with, I sought out power system engineers and power engineering consultancies to scout for work.

From this approach, I got one repeat client but on mates’ rates so it paid quite badly. Then, I spanned out via LinkedIn to say hello to various consultancies from all sorts of fields: environmental management, mechanical engineering, pretty much anything where I could connect with someone at a suitable level and very briefly introduce myself and my services. I think it was this that led to me winning what is still one of my best clients: an engineering consultancy, though nothing to do with windfarms or electricity. Another great client I found this way is a financial algorithm developer.

How much does the specialism help me?
This is something I ask myself sometimes, particularly when clients contact me specifically because of my specialism. With the advantage of hindsight, I sit on the fence a little and say, 'it depends'.

When getting started
When I set out, I was confident that I could find work in my specialist niche. I guess I did find a little bit of work, but then it’s a highly specialized niche and so naturally the opportunities are limited.

I also discovered that large companies have well-defined processes for recruiting freelancers and tend to prefer dealing with large agencies or subcontractors. I remember battling with procurement restrictions from my days of engineering: it doesn’t matter if you are the best proofreader in the world, or how cheap you might be; if you’re not Achilles-registered then you will struggle to work for a utility. (And you don’t even want to know how hard – and expensive – it is to get registered.)

To sum it up, I’d say that it helped a little bit. It gave me focus for my marketing, somewhere to start, and in an area where I had a clue about what made the clients tick and what the fancy technical words meant. It felt like I had a USP. 

Nowadays
These days I have ditched my low-paying client from within my niche and continue to look for clients from a far broader range of fields.

Most importantly, I have redefined what I think my specialism is.

I am no longer a specialist in proofreading/copy-editing power system engineering documents. I’m not even an engineering specialist. I am someone who specializes in improving technical, numerical and scientific documents.

Does my specialism help the client?
My honest answer: my specialist power systems knowledge does not help them at all.
However, at the more general level of being comfortable working with equations, tables, graphs, variables, and other forms of scientific text, I would say that this helps with a wide range of clients.

From financial algorithms to social science surveys, knowing your natural log from your base 10 and spotting an unbalanced equation can earn some brownie points at times but, the thing is, that really isn’t proofreading as I know it.

I’d say that as you move up the scale towards developmental editing, it becomes more important that you have some appreciation of the subject being worked on. For proofreading it doesn’t help much at all.
​
In fact, here’s a geeky graph to illustrate this:

*Note: I made the numbers up.

Do qualifications and experience help?
I think that at any stage in a career, it is possible to rest on one’s laurels. When starting out, they may be the only support available, so I’d recommend using them as a springboard, along with any specialisms, and growing from there. I certainly set out to build on my specialist experience at first, then sought ways to hone my skills, grow capability and branch out into new fields of experience.
​
Hang on, I can feel a pie chart coming on!

Let’s take a look at each slice of pie.
​
Degree qualifications
I am yet to work on anything related to my philosophy degree (past life) – other than a blog article on the philosophy of proofreading – but it did expose me to lots of books, and I wrote lots of academic essays, dissertations etc. I’d say this helped me a little bit.

My engineering degrees exposed me to lots of technical documents, maths and other science stuff, as well as helping my confidence when setting up as a proofreader/editor by giving me a USP.

Specialist experience
My work experience as an engineer helped expose me to writing, editing and reading lots of technical academic journal papers. This is now something that I edit a lot of, and feel that I am good at, so I guess that helped quite a bit.

Formal training
I did a basic grammar course (Gpuss), read Barbara Horn’s Copy-editing book and did the exercises and also had access to Kate’s PTC course notes. All of this helped me quite a bit, but was not as helpful as seeing some of Kate’s work (with her clients’ permission, of course) and asking her 'why?' all the time, not to mention Kate checking my first few projects before they were returned to clients.

Training on the job
My editing and proofreading experience is 60% of the pie for me. Learning on the job was what helped me most and, to begin with, it was a case of working for mates’ rates to get experience. It also helped me to start off by working on, dare I say, badly written non-native English documents. The end product would be unrecognizably better, even if some of the finer points were not 100%. Then I kept looking for ways to learn and improve.

Editing for an agency helped because, particularly when I first started, their quality control editors reviewed and critiqued my work. This was great because they showed me where I had missed something and made helpful suggestions. They also gave me positive feedback when the quality controllers were happy and now don’t seem to check my work much at all.

Summary
Hopefully I have given a bit of an insight into what it was like for me transitioning from an engineering specialist to a proofreader/copy-editor and how my specialism has helped me to make that transition.

I’ll attempt to leave with some wisdom from my experiences of making the transition:

1. Get experience and get feedback on your work to improve and grow your capability.
2. Use your specialism to win clients, then use your general capability to keep them.
3. Use your marketing skills (Louise has tons of wisdom on marketing and starting out) to grow your business in the direction you want.
4. Don’t be stifled by your specialism: opportunities can come from all sorts of directions, so be open to them.

One of the first potential trip-ups occurs when the conversation takes place between colleagues from different countries. This issue is one of currency, particularly fluctuations in the exchange rate.

Proofreader A lives in Oxnard, CA, USA. She tells her colleagues in an online forum that she’s accepted an offer from an agency to proofread 4,000 words for US$25.

​The job is budgeted to take one hour. Some of her US colleagues say that the rate is unacceptably low; some even believe that she’s encouraging a race to the bottom by accepting such a fee from an organization whose rates are clearly unfair.

Meanwhile, Proofreader B, who lives in Manchester, UK, is reading the forum thread.

• It’s January 2017 and the exchange rate is 1 GBP = 1.22735 USD, which means that US$25 converts to £20.36.
• Roll back to early 2016, some months before the UK’s referendum on membership of the European Union. The exchange rate is 1 GBP = 1.468570 USD, which means that US$25 converts to £17.02.
• Let’s roll back one year earlier to 2015. The exchange rate is 1 GBP = 1.532750 USD, which means that US$25 converts to £16.31.
• Now let’s imagine instead we’re in January 2018. The pound has collapsed beyond even the worst expectations: 1 GBP = 0.8 USD, which means that US$25 converts to £31.25.

Proofreader B needs to earn a minimum of £20 an hour to meet her needs.

• If it’s January 2017, she thinks the agency’s rate is okay, but she already has enough clients filling her schedule who are paying that fee so she doesn’t feel compelled to jump through the hoops to get on board.
• If it’s January 2015 or 2016, she thinks the agency’s rate looks low because she has enough clients filling her schedule who’re paying a fee of a little over £20 per hour. The agency work therefore holds no appeal for her and she dismisses any thoughts of working with them.
• If it’s 2018, she’s already working out how she’ll word her email to the agency before she’s finished reading the thread. She thinks it’s a fantastic opportunity! £31.25 per hour? Nice!

Conversations that include blanket terms such as high and low therefore don’t help Proofreader B. Because the exchange rate fluctuates, so do her perceptions of whether a price is good or bad.

It’s not just currency fluctuations that affect our perceptions of good, high, fair, low, poor and predatory in relation to editorial rates. Circumstances muddy the waters too.

Proofreader C lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She tells her colleagues in an online forum that she’s accepted an offer from an agency to proofread 4,000 words for £16.

The job is budgeted to take one hour. Some of her colleagues say that the rate is unacceptably low; some even believe that she’s encouraging a race to the bottom by accepting such a fee from an organization whose rates are clearly unfair.

Meanwhile, Proofreader D, who lives just down the road from C, is reading the forum thread.

• She’s been working for a local supermarket, earning the UK’s legal national minimum wage of £7.50 per hour for people over 25 years of age. She lives at home with her parents so she’s able to survive on this.
• When not working, she’s used her spare time to take an intensive distance-learning proofreading course. She’s passed with distinction. Now she needs to find clients, acquire practical experience, build her portfolio, get some glowing testimonials – all valuable stuff that she’ll be able to sell on later to even better-paying clients.
• From her perspective, every hour she spends working for that agency she’ll be earning 113% more than if she was working in the supermarket. To her, the rate looks high.
• The agency is worth getting in contact with because it will offer her the opportunity to acquire some of that value-adding stuff mentioned above. She appreciates that it might not be a viable solution in the longer term, but her marketing is currently non-existent, which means her visibility to potential clients is non-existent. The agency will ameliorate the problem while she attends to making herself discoverable.

Proofreader E lives to the west in Strabane.

• She’s been professionally proofreading for eight years so her business is mature. She’s a marketing monster. Her website is highly visible on Google. She’s a member of the SfEP, EPANI and AFEPI, and advertises in their directories. Her portfolio’s stunning, her testimonials glowing. Anyone visiting those directories or her website will be in no doubt that she’s an experienced professional who can solve their problems.
• Her business has grown from strength to strength. She remembers what it was like to be in D’s shoes, but that’s not where she is any longer. These days, all her academic and business clients contact her direct or via her professional society directories. She no longer works for agencies, packagers or publishers, though she gladly took work from them in the early days of her business’s growth. Now, though, her own marketing strategy brings clients directly to her.
• Her average hourly rate is £32 and this supplements her partner’s income. The partner annually brings in 40% more than her, so her contribution means they have a comfortable lifestyle.
• From her perspective, every hour she spends working for that agency she’ll be earning 50% less than her current average. To her, the rate looks low.
• The agency is not worth a glance because she doesn’t need the client-acquisition value that it offers Proofreader D, and she can earn more from the large pot of clients who regularly get in contact and ask her to quote.

Proofreader F lives next door to E. 

• She’s in the same boat as E except her partner was made redundant four months ago.
• The agency’s £16 won’t cut it. Proofreader E’s £32 won’t cut it. She needs £115.
• From her perspective, anything under £115 per hour is low because that’s what she requires to avoid moving to a smaller apartment, cancelling the pet insurance, junking the gym membership, throwing her Sky box into the trash, and selling the BMW. If things don't get better soon, she might have to give the pet away, or maybe the partner. She hasn't decided which yet, but the partner's food bills are higher! Seriously, though, if she's prepared to make some changes to her lifestyle, she can tweak her minimum hourly requirement accordingly.

So, conversations that include blanket terms such as high and low don’t help Proofreaders D, E and F either because although they’re all operating within the same geographical region and the same currency market, their circumstances are all very different.

Deciding what rate works for you
If you want to work out whether Agency X, Publisher Y or Packager Z’s rates are acceptable, you need to know what good, high, fair, low, poor and predatory mean to you based on your situation – not anyone else’s. The same thing applies to deciding what price to set with clients who come directly to you.

Consider the following:

• What’s the current exchange rate (if you’re dealing with a client from another country)?
• How fast can you proofread straightforward, middling and complex files? Are there efficiencies you can introduce to speed up the process? If you proofread straightforward work at 3,000 words per hour, a 6,000-word file with a fee attached to it of £30 will earn you £15 per hour. If you proofread straightforward work at 6,000 words per hour, a 6,000-word file with a fee attached to it of £30 will earn you £30 per hour.
• What are your outgoings? (Knowing this will help you calculate the minimum you need to earn to live.) If you are regularly offered a whopping £300 an hour, but your outgoings mean you need to earn £350 an hour, that fee is still too low for you (though most of your colleagues will be chomping at the bit for it!).
• How many hours do you have available for work? If you need to earn £600 per week, and you have 25 hours available, you’ll need to earn at least £24 per hour. If you only have 10 hours available, you’ll need to earn at least £60 per hour. Even if you have 50 hours available (meaning you could drop your minimum hourly rate to £12 per hour), could you sustain it? Only you know the answer to that.
• Are you in a position to source, or be found by, alternative clients who will pay you higher fees than those on offer by the agency, publisher or packager?
• If you are, is the volume of work on offer enough to ensure that your gross earnings from this work replace the income you would have earned from the agency, publisher or packager?
• Even if you have some lower-paying clients, do you have other better-paying clients who can offset the lower fees? I have some clients who pay premium rates for my services but the volume of work doesn’t fill my schedule. I could, however, choose to accept some work that pays less than my minimum requirements because the higher-paying clients’ fees would offset the deficit, rendering my average hourly rate one that’s still profitable for my business.

​That data – as it applies to you, not your colleagues – will give you a useful initial benchmark with which to evaluate whether a fee is low or high.

Your colleagues’ opinions are interesting but your colleagues are not responsible for running your business or your home, so their opinions should not be used to determine whether you accept or decline work at a given price.

***
​
While I don’t believe that colleagues should be the sole determiners of the fees we accept or offer, I do think they’re the go-to people for many, many more types of information. See this post on the value of networking – both online and offline.

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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.

Creating high-quality images for online promotion can be tricky if you’re not a design guru and don’t have access to expensive, top-notch software. I’d played around with Word, Publisher and PowerPoint because they’re already on my desktop, but the output was okayish at best. Then I found Canva and was converted.

Still, I wasn’t getting the best out of this excellent tool, mainly because I’m a fiction proofreader and copyeditor, not a designer.

Andrew and Pete to the rescue … I did exactly what they told me to do. And it worked! I was really chuffed with my first attempt – a really high-quality image that I’ll use as a booklet pic for my April article on client loss and emergency marketing. I reckon it’s my best pic ever and it gave me confidence. So then I updated my Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook banners using the same method. And I've also played around with the idea in this blog post. Sky's the limit, I reckon! I recommend you have a go.

​​Get it here: How to Create Social Media Graphics ​(video and blog)​

If, like me, you’re committed to creating blogs posts with substance (no soundbites and clickbait for us!) then you, too, might end up with a lot of text.

The audience for The Proofreader’s Parlour expects that substantive content, but could I make it more interesting without compromising on tone and detail?

Andrew and Pete's post made me think about not only how I might use images more creatively (see 1 above) but also how I might complement, rather than change, what I’m already doing with multimedia. I’ve still some way to go before I make full use of their advice but I’ve started (see 1 above) and plan to develop this aspect so that I can make much more of my content accessible to multiple readers with multiple preferences.

What really grabbed me is the concept of taking the key points of a written message and delivering them in alternative formats. Many of us aren’t new to embedding templates, screencasts and instructional videos into our blog posts, but Andrew and Pete have inspired me to expand the ways in which my readers can access the core textual content in my blogs, too.

If you have substantive text-based posts that your visitors return to often and your editorial blog’s heavy with content, some inconvenient trawling might be required by your readers to locate that information. Repurposing sections of the material in, say, booklet form turns a post into a tool, because the valuable stuff you’ve created can be downloaded onto your readers’ chosen devices and accessed at their convenience.
​
​​Get it here: How to Write Better-Looking Blog Posts (blog, video and booklet)

​I overhauled my home page after reading this post.

• I updated my Weebly theme (it didn’t cost me anything but time) to a cleaner, more modern design that I felt better represented my business (while retaining my branded colourway).
• I added call-to-action buttons right at the top to help my visitors better understand what I want them to do (what the duo call Most Wanted Action).
• And, to increase engagement with my primary target audience of independent authors, I gave my mission statement the prominence it deserves. Previously it had been buried elsewhere on my site.

The post includes a free booklet, Home Page Chemistry: A Checklist for Getting Your Visitors to Fall in Love with Your Business (it's a great example of these two content marketers practising what they preach).

​​Get it here: Home Page Design | Making Your Home Page a Knockout (blog, video and checklist)

... So those are my top tips to introduce you to the world of Andrew and Pete. I love their full-on and fun style of sharing their wisdom. It’s engaging and inspiring.

The biggest pull, though, is their handholding approach. They assume no prior knowledge, so even if you’re a newbie marketer you, too, can follow their step-by-step guidance.

I hope you’ll find ways to incorporate their advice into your own marketing journey. If you’re nervous about business promotion, just remember that you don’t have to do everything in the zany way they do it! Take the core learning points and decide how you might use them in a way that feels comfortable for you, works with your brand, reflects your business goals, and engages with your clients.

There’s plenty more on offer via the Andrew and Pete website. And you can find them on Twitter at @AndrewAndPete.

Enjoy!

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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.

Why entitlement won't work for the self-employed
It's true. Just becoming editors doesn’t bestow special privileges upon us that are not available to other types of working people. Being editors doesn’t mean we’re entitled to be commissioned. Nor does it mean that we’re entitled to earn what we’d like to earn.

​Entitlements are the domain of employees. Freelance editorial pros aren't employees of businesses; they're the owners of those businesses.

​Work has to be found, which means clients have to be found. We don't live in command economies where the State hands out jobs and you take what you get. We've chosen to run businesses so we have to find a way to make them function successfully. The alternative is unpalatable.
 
In a global market, where clients come from all over, and have different budgets, requirements and expectations, what those clients will be able or prepared to pay will vary enormously.
 
Consequently, of all the clients we find via our extensive marketing efforts, only some will be a price match for us. For that reason, we need to be visible to as many as possible, because the bigger the pot the greater the chance of a conversion.
 
To recap, just being an editor in itself will provide us with neither work nor the money we expect to be paid for the value we believe we bring to the table. Doing visibility is the key to cracking the problem.
 
Imagine being a teacher ...
Do you know a teacher? Does that person have a paying teaching job? How did they get that teaching job? Are they happy with their salary? If not, ask them what they would have to do to solve the problem.
 
I know a teacher. She trained for the role. After her training was complete, she didn't have a job. So she had to find a job. She didn't sit there and say, ‘I'm a teacher. Where's the work?’ She went and searched for the work.
 
She did loads of research, applied for tons of jobs, reviewed the packages on offer, prepared for a stack of interviews, attended them (which was stressful), filled in her spare time with voluntary work in the education sector to make her CV sing, and finally found a school who wanted her and for whom she wanted to work.
 
For a few years the package worked for her, and then it didn't. She didn't say, ‘This school is predatory.’ She said, ‘I need to find a new job.’
 
So she did a lot more work. Now that she was more experienced and had higher expectations, it was tricky to find a good match. It took a lot of time, a lot of hard graft, a lot of research, but I never heard her moan. I'd ask how the job search was going. ‘Ticking along. No news yet but I'll know when I find it. The current post isn't perfect but it's better than being unemployed. You hear about Si? He’s been made redundant. Nightmare. He's really down in the dumps.’
 
My friend did secure a better teaching post. She worked her backside off to find that job. It would've been nice if it had landed in her lap, but that’s not how the teaching sector works.
 
And it's not how the freelance editing sector works either. We have to work our backsides off to find the work we want to do and that pays the fees we want to earn.
 
Feeling ripped off?
If you're feeling ripped off, that's okay. We’ve all done work that made us feel undervalued and underpaid. That's kind of how my teacher friend was feeling. Time to replace that rip-off work with a better package.

Be aware, though – this won't happen overnight. If you're not visible to those offering better-paying work, you'll have to make yourself visible, which takes a lot of hard graft. It took my teacher pal a couple of years to replace her employer with one offering the package she wanted. It might take you a couple of years to make yourself visible to the clients you want to work with. This could mean you have to stick with the current client while you're working your backside off to find a new and better-paying replacement.
 
The client under the microscope
In the meantime, take a good hard look at the client. If you're feeling ripped off, it can be useful to examine not just the deficiencies but also the benefits. This kind of exercise can shine a light on some of the value you might have overlooked, value that you may not have costed into your analysis.
 
Turnover
So the work isn't paying you what you'd like to earn, but is there a lot of it on offer? Every time you receive an email that offers you work on a plate, you get to fill your schedule with absolutely no effort on your part whatsoever.

Some people have a few regular clients who provide 90% of their work. Others have a few regular clients who provide only 20% of their work; the other 80% is new business.

New business needs to be found and converted into a working relationship. Which leads us to marketing …
 
Marketing
If you fill your schedule with a lot of work from one agency (or publisher or packager), and you think said agency is ripping you off, ask yourself how come they've got so much work that they can fill 80% of your schedule and the same percentage of many of your colleagues’ schedules. Is it because they’re marketing their backsides off?

Then ask yourself whether you're prepared to make the same investment, because that's what you'll have to do. You'll have to do all the hard graft yourself. Marketing an editorial business isn't just a cute little hobby you dip your toes into a couple of times a year. Well, actually, it can be if you get someone else, like the agency, to do the graft for you (and there’s nothing wrong with that), but there'll be a cost to it because they'll take a cut of every penny you earn.

And that's fair enough because there is a cost to finding clients. Marketing takes time, and time is money. So if you don't want to lose a cut, you have to fork out for the marketing investment.
 
In other words, we don't get to have it both ways. We can't expect someone else to find our clients for us and expect to earn as much as if those clients were coming direct. If we did expect that, who'd be ripping off whom?
 
Still want an exit?
Fair enough. Start actively promoting so that you can phase out the lower-paying client(s) and replace them with new customers who'll pay what you want to earn. Plan for this to take time and a lot of work.

If you don't fancy the transitional approach, you can wave goodbye to the work immediately. If that's the case, you either live with someone who can pay all your bills (quite possible, and good for you), you have a trust fund (less likely, but wow), or you're happy to be partially unemployed for a while.
 
As you can probably tell, I favour the transition method! That's because my family situation means my income, although the secondary one in our family, is essential. When I was starting out, I couldn't afford to turn down work on principle while I was finding better-paying alternatives. I had to use a phasing-out approach (if negotiation wasn't on the table).
 
Of course, it may be that you already have enough higher-paying clients to cover the lost income from the existing customer, but if that's the case you probably nailed your marketing strategy years ago and stopped reading this article at ‘There, I said it.’
 
We're responsible
No one else is responsible for the rates we earn, the clients we find (or whom we enable to find us), the tools we use to make ourselves visible, the equipment we buy, the tax returns we file, the colleagues we talk to, the meetings we attend. It's all down to us.
 
We're not entitled to have anything land in our lap. As business owners, we reap all the benefits, but we have to do all the work. Every time we hand over some of that graft to another entity (finance to the accountant; client-finding to an agency; fee-handling to a money-transfer organisation), we see a cut in profits. That's not being ripped off; it's a cost of business. If you don't want to bear the cost, you have to do it yourself.
 
Being an editor isn't enough when we're freelance. If we're not wearing the many hats required for business ownership (or we resent bearing the cost of someone else wearing them for us), we need to take a step back and consider whether it’s time to make some changes.
 
What we are entitled to
What we are entitled to do is to make our own decisions. We’re entitled to choose the clients, the rates, and the types of work that suit our needs.
 
So if you want to work for a packager or an agency that pays less than a colleague thinks is acceptable, but there’s value in it for you and your business, that’s fine. If you want to decline the work and source your own clients direct, that’s fine too. Me? I’ve done both in my time because it was right for me. You’re entitled to the same choice. Good luck!

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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.

What's a fair price for proofreading or editing?
One of my concerns when discussing rates is that the value of a particular client to the freelance editor or proofreader’s business is sometimes overlooked.
​
Deciding not to accept a particular editing rate might be the right choice for me but the wrong choice for you, or vice versa. That’s because our circumstances are different and because businesses aren’t static.

​Terms such as ‘too low’ or ‘race to the bottom’ can be problematic because they’re used as if editorial business ownership is taking place in the now – as if the business, and the fees which that business owner accepts, are absolutes and somehow unrelated to what’s gone before or what will happen in the future.

I believe that business ownership is a journey – that the work I do, and the marketing I carry out to acquire that work, is fluid. The decisions I made and the actions I took three years ago affected the work I was doing and the fees I was charging/accepting at that time; but they ALSO affected the work I’m doing and the fees I’m charging/accepting now.

This fluidity means that the way we find value in a client extends beyond the rate.

Time for a case study to nail things down …

Case study: The packager and the proofreader
2012
Ellie’s a proofreader.

Work: She’s completed her training and become a member of her national editorial society. She’s technically excellent at her job, but she has no clients and very little experience of paid work.

Marketing: She has a website but the portfolio and testimonials pages are sparse. And, anyway, her SEO is, as yet, so undeveloped that she’s barely discoverable online. She gets in touch with a packager who regularly hires proofreaders who are members of her national professional society.

Clients: To the packager, she’s a great fit. She has the skills they want and she has the space in her schedule. To academics, students, businesses and independent authors searching for a proofreader, she’s invisible. Even if she were visible, she appears less experienced (less interesting, we might say) than other proofreaders touting their services.

Rates: The agency offers regular work, and the rate is £13.50 per hour. ‘That rate is woeful,’ says one of the more experienced colleagues in her network. ‘That’s so low it’s an insult,’ says another. ‘Accepting that is encouraging a race to the bottom,’ says yet another.

Action: Ellie accepts the work anyway – she has a cunning plan!

2014
Ellie’s still a proofreader.

Work: In the past two years, she’s done a book a month for that packager. Now, from that packager alone, she has 24 academic book titles in her portfolio – all of them published by international scholarly publishers, and some of them authored by big names in the academic community. She’s also contacted several academic presses whose rates are a little higher than the packager’s, but only by a few pounds.

Marketing: She’s been busy over the past two years.

• She published a smart portfolio on her website. Each of those titles, with their corresponding authors, contains rich keywords that in the longer term will make her website more discoverable to academics searching for editorial assistance in a particular field.
• She contacted several academic publishers (who don’t use the packager). They were impressed by her training and her experience – those 24 academic titles match their own publishing lists. They added her to their editorial freelancing lists and she now receives work from each of them every few months. Over the course of two years, she’s been able to add a further 27 titles to her portfolio.
• She requested testimonials from the packager and the publishers.
• She counted up her hours of experience, noted her professional training, and asked her referees if they’d support her application to upgrade her professional society membership. They said, ‘Of course!’ In two months’ time, she’ll meet the criteria to upgrade to a level of membership that entitles her to advertise in her professional society’s online directory – that’s more visibility. The directory enables her to link to her website – a superb SEO opportunity.
• She developed a number of value-adding tools for her website (checklists, advice, guidance, etc.). They’re targeted at clients to whom she’d like to be more visible in the future and with whom she’ll be able to command higher rates than she’s earning from the publishers and packager. She regularly shares this information using her social media platforms and professional networks – more SEO benefits, more visibility.

Clients: Two years ago, Ellie wasn’t discoverable to anyone but the packager and the publishers. Things have changed, though. It’s been a slow burn, but her down-the-road thinking has led to a larger number of direct hits on her website. There’s still a long way to go, but when clients visit her website now, they see the following:

• Experience – her portfolio page lists 51 books
• Trustworthiness – the pithy quotes from big-name presses inspire the viewer’s confidence in her ability

Rates: A few of the clients who’ve found her direct have accepted the rates she offered. These are sometimes as much as double the rate she’s earning from the publishers and packager. This inspires her to continue her marketing activities and increase her visibility to these client types so that she might shift her customer base as her business develops.
​
Ellie’s still not visible enough to fill her schedule with these better-paying clients. She continues to accept work from the publishers and the packagers. ‘Those rates are an insult to someone with your experience,’ cry some of her colleagues.

Action: Ellie accepts the work anyway – she’s not phasing out the publishers and the packager until she’s phased in enough higher-paying clients to replace the workflow and the income it provides.

2016
Ellie’s still a proofreader.

Work: Over the past two years, she gradually reduced the work for the packager, finally stopping it altogether at the end of 2015. She’s still taking some work from her early publisher clients, though much less than in 2012–14. That’s because she’s been working for four better-paying presses whose rates are what she’d define as ‘middle-of-the-road’, though nowhere near as high as the fees she can set when she works directly for authors and students.

Her increasing visibility has put her in a position where she receives several direct requests to quote per week. She’s noticed that some academic publishers are even asking their authors to source and pay for their own proofreading, so she’s glad she’s focused on making herself discoverable to these clients.

Marketing: Even though Ellie’s had a full schedule for several years, she’s continued to focus on what she wants down the road in terms of client types and income. The bread-and-butter work provided by the publishers and the packager have enabled her to concentrate large chunks of her marketing time on what she wants in the future without having to worry excessively about where today’s work will come from.

• Her portfolio is impressive. She’s added each new title and author to the page when she’s completed a project. That’s more rich keywords, plus her website is continually benefiting from having fresh content added (good for SEO).
• She’s advertised in several paid-for directories to increase her discoverability to businesses, students and independent academics.
• Her content marketing has continued – she’s added more resources that she believes will be of interest to her target clients.
• She’s upgraded her professional society membership status. Now her profile is visible via the organization’s website, which links to her own site. That’s more inbound/outbound links for her website, which is great SEO.
• She’s attended various workshops and conferences, and continues to network online. This relationship building has led to several referrals of work from colleagues whose own schedules were too full.

Clients: Ellie appears to clients as an experienced proofreader with professional qualifications. They think she’s on their wavelength because of the valuable resources she provides for free. The fact that she’s worked for international academic publishing houses gives them confidence that she knows how to follow a brief and work on complex materials to a high standard. If she wasn’t capable, those presses wouldn’t have hired her repeatedly, would they?

Rates: Ellie no longer accepts work below £20 per hour, although she aims to earn an average hourly rate of £28. She can afford to make this decision because of the balance between her later-acquired, medium-paying publisher clients (who provide her with a stable workflow) and the higher-paying independent clients who contact her direct.

On an online forum, a new entrant to the field posts that she’s been offered proofreading work from a packager at a rate of £15 an hour. Does Ellie say, ‘That rate’s woeful. It’s an insult. Accepting it would be encouraging a race to the bottom’? Nope. She says, ‘Is there value in this work beyond the fee being offered?’ She goes further:

• Is the minimum you need to earn £15 or below? If it is …
• Will accepting work from that packager provide you with regular work so that you don’t have to spend as much time finding clients now?
• Because the packager is doing some of your project-acquisition on your behalf now, how much time will this free up for you to do marketing that will help you find better-paying clients later?
• Will accepting work from that packager provide you with projects that you can list on your website, thus providing rich keyword search terms that will make you visible to better-paying clients now and later?
• Will the work from that packager provide you with experience that you can sell on to better-paying clients now and later?

The business journey
Ellie’s business in 2012 looks different to Ellie’s business in 2016. Her client base has shifted, her income has shifted, the base price she’ll accept has shifted, her work stream has shifted and her visibility has shifted.

It’s not just that the decisions she made in 2016 are different to those she made in 2012. Rather, the decisions she made in 2016 are founded on those she made in 2012. If she’d decided in 2012 that she wanted 2016’s offerings at the start of her career, she’d have struggled. It’s not that she wasn’t worth £X per hour back in 2012, but that she wasn’t in a position to be discoverable (or perhaps attractive) to those clients who were prepared to pay that price. Because she took a down-the-road approach – one that viewed her business as something that was moveable, something that could develop, grow and change – she was able to see opportunity and value in what was on offer back then.

There is value beyond the rate. Whether you take advantage of that value will depend on your particular circumstances, of course.

​My advice to new starters is to be cautious when listening to the rates debate. It’s easy for seasoned professional editorial freelancers to advise against accepting this or that fee simply because they’re in a position to command better fees. In fact, offering advice on what’s an acceptable price is almost impossible unless we understand an individual freelancer’s circumstances, requirements and access points to the industry.

Fees, like any other aspect of a business, need to be considered in the context of an overall business plan, and over a time frame that extends beyond the now.

Louise Harnby is a professional proofreader and copyeditor. 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.

How to increase editing and proofreading income
Taking annual action to increase income from freelance editorial work is simply good business practice.

​Earnings need to keep up with cost-of-living increases else our editorial businesses could fail. Even if they don't fail, the decline in profitability could have a significant impact on our or lifestyle and well-being.

In this article, I consider a several approaches to increasing editing income and declining lower-paid work. These respect editors' differing circumstances, client bases and business goals.

What we earn is determined by the following:​​

• The fee we consent to when we’re in the position of being made an offer (from, say, a publisher, packager or agency). Here, we’re price-accepters.
• The fee we charge when we’re in the position of making an offer (to, say, an independent author, student or business). Here, we’re price-setters.

Increasing our earnings is not always straightforward, though. You or I might think our desired rate increase is entirely justified (for example, because of inflation). However, what you or I think is not the issue. Any change to a pricing model must consider the client’s response for the simple reason that the client might not be prepared to pay. Remember:

• When we’re price-setters, we’re within our rights to increase our fees. On the flip side, our clients are within their rights to decline the new price and walk away.
• When we’re price-accepters, our clients are within their rights to maintain their current fees (or even decrease them), while we’re within our rights to negotiate or decline the work and walk away.

Decisions about what to set or accept therefore need to be carefully planned.

Avoiding knee-jerk thinking
If a colleague states that they’ve decided to no longer edit for ‘low’ rates, by all means congratulate them on their business decision. Don’t assume, though, that their decision is the same one you should be making. Before you impulsively follow their lead, ask yourself the following questions:

• What do they mean by ‘low’ rates? Is your definition of ‘low’ the same as theirs? You may think £25 an hour for editing is great but your colleague may think it’s unacceptable.
• Do they have a supporting income that enables them to implement their decision immediately with no harm to their lifestyle? Perhaps they have a partner who is the primary breadwinner, or maybe they’re lucky enough to have an independent income from a generous trust fund (we can all dream!). Put another way, your colleague might be able to afford to immediately decline £25 per hour on principle, whereas you’re responsible for all your monthly outgoings and aren’t in a position to bear the risk of earning zero pounds per hour until you have acquired a replacement client.
• Do they have a large and established client base in a sector that is known to be less price-sensitive than the sectors you work in? Perhaps their knowledge and specialist skills put them in the rare position of being able to name their price. You, on the other hand, might work in a more competitive generalist market where you’re easy to replace.
• Is their visibility so high that they’re confident they can replace lost clients with new customers who’ll pay their desired prices? Their marketing strategy is mature, whereas you’re still building your visibility and juggling feast and famine.

In other words, don’t feel compelled to decline work just because your colleagues deem what’s on offer as a bum deal. Their current circumstances might be very different from yours. Not everyone can afford to be unemployed, and the choices available to a mature freelance-business owner may be very different from those on offer to the beginner.

Case study – the price-accepter
When you’re a price-accepter, the process for managing rates is usually one of the following:

1. The flat refusal: the client offers work at a price you deem too low. You decline and walk away. Either you’ve acquired a better-paying replacement or you now have a gap in your schedule and are earning less.
2. The negotiation: the client offers work at a price you deem too low. You negotiate. The outcome could be the rate you want, a rate that’s in the middle ground and that will do until you have alternative work lined up, or a no-budge. If you get the rate you want, great. If you end up in the middle ground or with a no-budge, you’ll have to decide whether to walk away or move to phase-out mode.
3. The phase-out: the client offers work at a price you deem too low. You accept the fee but commit to find a better-paying replacement, at which point you’ll phase out this customer.

In the first five years of owning my editorial business, I was almost exclusively a price-accepter. My main clients were publishers and packagers. Returning to the knee-jerk-avoidance issues:

• I didn’t think in terms of ‘low’ and ‘high’. I thought in terms of experience, testimonials and portfolio generation, all of which I believed would make me more interesting and discoverable further down the line. Price comparisons were interesting but nothing more. They didn’t determine whether I accepted or declined work.
• During this period, my partner earned 60% more than me. We relied on his salary to live – food, mortgage, bills, clothes. My earnings paid for the nice stuff.
• I was completely replaceable in the eyes of my publisher and packager clients. They knew exactly where to go to find equally experienced editorial pros if I declined to work for them.
• My marketing strategy was growing, but I wasn’t so visible that I could decline work from a publisher, safe in the knowledge that the gap in my schedule would be filled with a better-paying client. Saying no meant risking earning zero pounds per hour, which in turn meant less nice stuff!

During that phase, I was a negotiator and a phase-outer. I’d take the work to ensure a full schedule. I gained experience and testimonials, and I expanded my portfolio – all great marketing tools. As I acquired better-paying clients, I phased out the 15-pounder, then the 18-pounder, then the 20-pounder, and so on. It was a gradual process.
​
In 2017, my marketing strategy has paid off. I’m highly visible. I’ve got the experience, the testimonials and the portfolio to make me interesting to enough non-publisher clients that I can decline a price and walk away. I’ve moved from negotiation and phasing-out to responding with a flat refusal.

Case study – the price-setter
When you’re a price-setter, the process for managing rates is usually one of the following:

1. The flat increase: you offer the client a price. If they accept, you do the work. If they decline, you walk. You’re confident you can fill the gap in your schedule, but if you can’t it doesn’t matter because of your particular financial circumstances.
2. The negotiation: you offer the client a price. The client wants to work with you but tries to bring the fee down. If you need to fill the space in your schedule and aren’t confident that you’ll acquire a replacement, you’ll negotiate. The outcome could be a rate you’re still more than happy with, a rate that’s in the middle ground and that will do until you have alternative work lined up, or a no-budge. If you get the rate you want, great. If you end up in the middle ground or with a no-budge, you’ll have to decide whether to walk away or buckle.
3. The phase-in: this is an approach that my colleague Janet MacMillan wisely suggests using for established clients. The fee increase is staggered so that the client has time to adjust. It can be presented as an extended discount that respects the pre-existing relationship. The client views it as valuable because they’re getting a special benefit.

In the first five years of owning my editorial business, I had few clients for whom I set the price, and I was still developing my visibility. If there was space in my schedule, I’d try to fill it by negotiating and offering phased-in fee increases for regular clients.

In 2017, things have changed. I’m a flat-increaser. If the client doesn’t like the fee on offer, no problem. I thank them for their interest and wish them luck. Returning to the knee-jerk-avoidance issues:

• My Proofreading Standard and Proofreading Plus services are particular to my business. The definitions of service provision were created by me and may or may not mirror my colleagues’ services. ‘Low’ and ‘high’ therefore don’t mean much to anyone other than me and my client.
• I still have a partner with a backup income.
• The replaceability issue is sticky. I have a couple of business clients for whom price is not the issue. However, the work is sporadic – certainly not enough to fill my schedule. New indie-author enquirers can easily get comparative quotes so I’m definitely operating in a very competitive environment. With repeat indie clients, there’s an existing relationship based on trust, and satisfaction with my previous work. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I’m irreplaceable, but I have a value-based advantage when it comes to discussing increased prices.
• I’m highly visible. I get a lot of offers to quote and I turn down a lot of work. If my set price isn’t acceptable to the client, I can walk away, confident that the slot in my schedule will be filled.

As I hope the two examples above show, the approaches we take can vary over time and depend on individual circumstances. There’s no one-size-fits-all response.

Some additional thoughts

• Consider the impact: Taking a flat-refusal or a flat-increase approach might have unpalatable consequences. What will be the impact on your income if you or the client walk away? Can you afford it? If not, a gentler transition will be in order – one that includes negotiation, phasing in or out, and taking a longer-term view of one’s business goals.
• Have a replacement strategy: Rate increases should be founded on a plan for how to replace what you might lose. I prefer to assume the worst – that if I increase the rate there’s a very real chance the client will walk. Being pessimistic means you prepare yourself well ahead via regular marketing that puts you top of mind (or top of Google) for the types of client who’ll pay what you want to earn. We must be visible to those clients who won’t quibble over the price we want to charge or be offered.
• Be analytical: Flat refusals and flat increases should be based on a realistic assessments of the potential financial loss rather than on impulsive reactions to feeling undervalued. For some of us, at certain stages of our careers, it’s better to be underpaid and overwhelmed with work than overpaid but underwhelmed. We all want to be overpaid and overwhelmed but that doesn’t happen just because we decide that’s what we want!
• Be realistic: Don’t underestimate your value, but don’t overestimate it either. Even if you think you put the oo into proofreader, your client might decide they can afford to lose you. That’s not to say you should buckle. Rather, you need to have a plan B – a replacement client who wants a bit of your oo!
• Don’t be a sheep: You’re an independent business owner. Ultimately, you need to work out what to charge, what to accept, when to say yes or no, who to work for and how to be found. Your colleagues can’t do this for you, so they shouldn’t be the primary determiners of whether you take a phased approach or a flat one.
• Don’t take it personally: If you lose a client because you can’t find a mutually acceptable price point, it’s not a slur on your character or your abilities. It’s just business. You have to look after yours, and your clients have to look after theirs. Sometimes a fit just can’t be found.

Managing rates is a journey
Increasing earnings isn’t about knee-jerk reactions. Rather, it’s a journey. Depending on your circumstances, you might handle things one way now, and another way further down the road.

Whether you buckle, negotiate, phase in/out, or make flat-out decisions will be based on your circumstances. There’s no one, true way to do it and there’s no shame in any of those choices as long as they’re done in relation to an analysis of your business needs and goals.

Louise Harnby is a professional fiction proofreader and copyeditor. 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.