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If you’re an editor or proofreader who finds marketing your business overwhelming, here are 6 ideas to help you rethink your mindset and pull you out of the mire.
Recent discussions with colleagues on social media made me realize two things:
It made me sad to think that some of my colleagues could be negatively affected by those of us who find marketing easier or who enjoy it more. If you're one of those who's struggling, this article is for you. It looks at the perceptions that might be triggering your discomfort and offers you new ways of thinking about each problem so that you can move forward. If you want a reminder to pin on your wall, download the infographic at the bottom of the post. Or download the free PDF booklet to your preferred device. Perception 1: It shouldn’t be done unless you can do it perfectly Some editors are suffocated by their perfectionism. Not being able to do marketing perfectly and completely stops them from starting it. And so nothing gets done. Here are five examples that reflect the truth of the matter:
I have been blogging since 2011 and I only just got around to uploading a banner image that reflected the parlour theme of the blog. I’m confident that my audience will forgive me. Those who won’t are likely not my audience. If you’re someone who finds themselves falling into this trap, give yourself a break, please. Everyone else will. Social media profiles can be tweaked, banners can be uploaded, testimonials can be added, and headshots can be updated. In fact, everything about your marketing strategy can be amended, deleted or completely rethought whenever you wish. Ask yourself this: When you edit for a client, do you guarantee perfection? Do you think it’s even possible? I don’t. One reason is that much of what I do depends on brief, style, preference or voice. Editing work isn’t an exact science. I have some good news for you – nor is effective marketing. OVERCOMING OVERWHELM: TIP 1
You don’t have to do it perfectly. You just have to do it.
Perception 2: Everyone else is doing way more than you It might look like that but the reality is probably different. A colleague recently told me: ‘I know how hard you work on marketing. I can tell by how many posts you write and share on LinkedIn each day.’ I tend to share 7 blog articles throughout the day on both LinkedIn and Twitter. That’s 49 social media shares of my blog content every week on each platform. But I write one blog post a week. Just one. I share that new post on a Monday. The other 48 are reshares of older blog articles that I hope my community will be interested in if they missed them the first time around. And people might well have missed them. Tweets and posts on Facebook are more likely to be missed than seen on busy social feeds with ever-changing algorithms. That’s why many editors reshare their older content. Those of us who’ve been blogging for a few years have a lot of content banked, which means we have plenty to share. If you’re starting out on your blogging journey, you’ll have a smaller bank. And that’s absolutely fine! It’s not a numbers game; it’s a content-delivery game. If you have older blog posts, reshare them. If you don’t, wait until you do and then reshare. And if you'd rather write an article every two weeks, or once a month, that's your choice too. It matters not that I’m sharing 49 articles and you’re sharing 2 or 5 or whatever. What matters is that we’re delivering articles that will solve our colleagues’ and clients’ problems, and making our businesses more visible. Don’t waste precious time worrying about my 49. Those are mine and for me to worry about. You need to think only about how to promote your 2 (or 5 or whatever) posts because those are what will drive traffic to your website. OVERCOMING OVERWHELM: TIP 2
Focus on delivery not numerical comparisons.
All that’s relevant is what you do for your business. Perception 3: Some editors don’t do any marketing but have loads of work anyway Marketing has many faces. Remember my 49 blog-post shares? Those are part of a strategy to make me discoverable online and appealing to self-publishing authors of fiction. What I do with my blog is a very visible form of marketing because the international editorial community is active on social media, and I use social media as one delivery tool for my blog content. But what if an editor has a different target client base? Imagine Dan. He’s a copyeditor who specializes in social science books. His primary client base is publishers. Last week he did the following:
None of this marketing activity has been tweeted, liked, shared or commented on. No one knows what Dan was up to last week. However, it’s excellent, targeted promotion, and worth every minute he spent on it. What one editor does to put themselves in front of potential clients will not necessarily mirror what another is doing. An editor whose schedule is full but who doesn’t appear to be busy with marketing is likely promoting their services in less visible but just as powerful ways. None of us is handed work. We have to find it, or enable it to find us. Perhaps the marketing work you need to do is not about blogging, vlogging, tweeting or chatting. Maybe it’s about making a telephone call, attending a networking group, writing an email, sending a letter, or advertising in appropriate spaces. OVERCOMING OVERWHELM: TIP 3
Follow your own path. Marketing doesn’t have to be shiny and out there. Good marketing focuses on your business and clients not your colleagues’.
Perception 4: Unlike everyone else, you don’t have anything to show off about I bet you do! Once a week in my Facebook group, I host a marketing #Carnival. It’s a celebration of wins. Any wins – big or small. And it isn’t just shiny-shiny stuff like winning an award, securing a new client, launching a new product, or publishing a 2,000-word blog post. It could also be completing a test, sending out 10 letters to prospective clients, filling out a LinkedIn profile, uploading a picture to a website, booking a course, securing a testimonial, creating a marketing to-do list, buying a domain name, or applying for a membership upgrade to a professional editorial society. Anything that takes our businesses forward is worth celebrating. I’m good at holding a list of my wins in my head but you might prefer to keep a physical record of your achievements. You don’t need anything fancy – a spreadsheet, a notebook or a space on your wall for Post-it notes. Then, when the overwhelm hits, look at that spreadsheet, notebook or wall, and remind yourself of all that you’ve achieved. That focuses attention on what’s been done rather than what’s left to do. OVERCOMING OVERWHELM: TIP 4
Create your own carnival. Record what you’ve achieved as well as what’s left to do. Busy people's wins deserve to be celebrated.
Perception 5: Editor X is producing a seemingly impossible amount of regular new content Unlikely! I suspect repurposing is what's going on. Bear in mind the following:
I've done the following with some of my older blog posts:
There are even more ways to repurpose content for promotional means but you get the picture. Repurposing is quicker than creating from scratch and therefore great for the time-poor editor. But it also respects the fact that people like to access help in different ways and at different times. Even if an editor appears to produce a lot of visible content, it’s more likely that they’re taking shortcuts to make life easier. And so can you! OVERCOMING OVERWHELM: TIP 5
The busiest marketing editors are not magicians; they’re just good at recycling! You can repurpose your content too.
Perception 6: There’s just way too much to do at once You’ve made a list of all the things you’ve seen others doing and it’s huge. Overwhelming, in fact. Ugh. There’s so much:
You don’t have nearly enough time in your life to get all of it sorted. It would take months and months and months to do all that! Yep, it would. It might even take a couple of years to get up to full speed. And you know what? That’s fine! It’s supposed to be like that because you're a professional editor not a professional marketer. So, if you feel overwhelmed by all that needs to be done, take a breath and think in ones. Even the most visible and active of marketing editors started out with just one blog post, just one tweet, just one small list of publishers, just one directory entry, just one page on a website, just one online group they lurked in. Everyone has to start somewhere. None of us creates a marketing strategy and nails it a month later. And marketing gets easier over time because there comes a point where it starts to work for you instead of being a burden. Take me, for example ...
Some years back, I was still in the process of developing that stuff. I didn’t do it all at once. I did a bit, then a bit more, then a bit more. Over time, the foundational work was completed, leaving me space to focus on the marketing activities that work best for me now. Look at your marketing list. Instead of seeing it as an ocean in which to drown, break it down into cups from which you can sip. Create a doable schedule. Choose a couple of things and an acceptable time frame in which to do them. Then choose a couple more and do those ... small steps that respect and reflect your client base, your personality, and the demands of your work and personal life. OVERCOMING OVERWHELM: TIP 6
Think in ones. Schedule step by step so that your goals are achievable in the long term and suit your business, not mine or anyone else’s.
Beating the overwhelm: A downloadable checklist There’s more than one way to do marketing. Your way might look different to mine. It might be less visible. It might involve targeting different clients. It might require a different pace. That's all fine. Download the infographic below and pin it on your wall. It'll remind you that marketing is not about catching up with colleagues. It's a journey, a building process. It does require your time, but you get to choose the methods and the schedule. If you feel the paralysis setting in, join my Facebook group, tell me what's holding you back, and we'll work out some steps to get you moving in a way that works for you. 
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in helping self-publishing writers prepare their novels for market.
She is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors, and runs online courses from within the Craft Your Editorial Fingerprint series. She is also an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. Louise loves books, coffee and craft gin, though not always in that order. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're an author, take a look at Louise’s Writing Library and access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.
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How do you get fiction editing and proofreading work? This post offers some pointers for newbie freelancers, and experienced editors looking to shift specialisms.
1. Start with baseline training
To be fit for working in any editing discipline, fiction or otherwise, training is the foundation. Even if you’ve been devouring your favourite genres for years, you need to understand publishing-industry standards. This isn’t about snobbery. It’s about serving the client honestly and well, especially the self-publisher, who might not have enough mainstream publishing knowledge to assess whether you’re capable of amending in a way that respects industry conventions. It’s about the reader too. Readers are canny, and often wedded to particular genres. They’re used to browsing in bookshops and bingeing on their favourite authors. They have their own standards and expectations. One of our jobs as editorial professionals is to ensure we have the skills to push the book forward, make it the best it can be, so that it’s ready for those readers and meets their expectations. And so if you want to proofread or edit for fiction publishers and independent authors, high-quality editorial training isn’t a luxury: it’s the baseline. What kind of training you need will depend on what services you plan to offer. 
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Courses
I recommend the Publishing Training Centre and the Society for Editors and Proofreaders for foundational copyediting and proofreading training. I’m based in the UK, and those are the two training suppliers I have experience of so I’m in a position to recommend them. That doesn’t mean that other suppliers aren’t worth exploring. Rather, I don’t recommend what I haven’t tested. Keep an open mind. Check a range of suppliers and their course curricula. Then choose what suits your needs.
If you want more information about how the PTC and SfEP courses compare, talk to the organizations’ training directors. 2. Decide which fiction editing services you want to offer Some beginner self-publishers don’t understand the differences between the different levels of editing, which means they might ask for something that’s not in their best interests (e.g. a quick proofread even though the book hasn’t been critiqued, structurally edited, line- and copyedited). It’s essential that the professional fiction editor is able to communicate which levels of editing they provide, and recommend what’s appropriate for the author. That doesn’t mean the author will take the advice, but the editor must be able to articulate her recommendations so that independent authors can make informed decisions. 
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3. Invest in appropriate specialist fiction training
The next step is to gain skills and confidence with fiction editing and proofreading work. As with any type of editing, the kinds of things the editor will be amending, querying and checking will depend on whether the work is structural, sentence-based or pre-publication quality control. When deciding what specialist fiction editing courses to invest in, bear in mind the following:
Courses and reading Explore the following to assess whether they will fill the gaps in your knowledge. Check the curricula carefully to ensure that the modules focus on the types of fiction editing you wish to offer and provide you with the depth required to push you forward.
This isn’t a definitive list but it’ll set you on the right track. 
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4. Get in the right mindset
Fiction editing requires a particular mindset for several reasons: Style and voice We’re not only respecting the author, but the POV character(s) too. The fiction editor who doesn’t respect the voices in a novel is at risk of butchery. Being able to immerse oneself in the world the writer’s built is essential so that we can get under the skin of the writing. If we don’t feel it, we can’t edit it elegantly and sensitively. Intimacy Non-fiction is born from the author’s knowledge. Fiction is born from the author’s heart and soul. If that sounds a little cheesy, I’ll not apologize. Many of the writers with whom I work are anxious about working with an editor because they’ve put their own life, love and fear into the world they’ve built. A good fiction editor needs to respect the intimacy of being trusted with a novel. If that doesn’t sound like your bag, this probably isn’t for you. Unreliable rules At the recent fiction roundtable hosted by the Norfolk group of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders, guest Sian Evans – an experienced playwright and screenwriter – talked about how punctuation in screenplays is as much about ‘the breaths’ the actor is being directed to take as about sentence clarity. These ‘breaths’ exist in prose. They help the reader make sense of a sentence ... not just grammatically, but emotionally. And so the addition or removal of just one comma for the sake of pedantry can make a sentence ‘correct’, or standard, but shift tone and tension dramatically. The fiction editor needs to be able to move beyond prescriptivism and read the scene for its emotionality, so that the author’s intention is intact but the reader can move fluidly through the world on the page and relish it. All of which is a rather long-winded way of saying that if you want to get fiction editing work, and keep on getting it, you’ll need to embrace rule-breaking with artistry! Fiction work requires us to respect both readability and style. The two can sometimes clash so gentle diplomacy and a kind hand will need to be in your toolbox. 5. Read fiction If you don’t love reading fiction, don’t edit it. And if you don’t love reading a particular genre, don’t edit it. Editing the type of fiction you love to read is a joy, and an advantage. If you read a lot of romance fiction, you’ll already be aware of some of the narrative conventions that readers expect and enjoy. I started reading crime fiction, mysteries and thrillers before I’d hit my teens. I turned 51 in March and my passion for those genres hasn’t waned. That stuff makes up over eighty per cent of my work schedule too. Here’s the thing though – my pleasure-reading has supported my business. I get to see first-hand how different authors handle plot, how they build and release tension, how they play with punctuation, idiomatic phrasing, and sentence length such that the reader experiences emotion, immediacy and immersion. And that helps me edit responsively. Honestly, reading fiction is training for editing fiction. In itself, it’s not enough. But professional training isn’t enough either. Love it and learn it. 
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6. Learn from writers
If you want to understand the problems facing the self-publishing author community, listen and learn. Join the Alliance of Independent Authors. Even lurking in the forum will give you important insights into what self-publishers struggle with an how you might help. Take advantage of online workshops aimed at beginner writers. Penguin Random House offers regular free online webinars via The Writers' Academy. Experienced writers and instructors take you on whistle-stop tours of setting, dialogue, characterization, point of view, crime fiction writing, children's books and a whole lot more. Listen to published novelists’ stories. My local Waterstones hosts regular author readings/signings. I’ve seen Garth Nix, Jonathan Pinnock and Alison Moore speak. In April 2018, Harry Brett is chairing a session on how to write crime with Julia Heaberlin and Sophie Hannah. In May, fellow editor Sophie Playle and I are attending 'Why Writing Matters', an event hosted by the Writers' Centre Norwich in association with the Norwich & Norfolk Festival. And Jeffery Deaver's coming to town too. Ticket booked! These workshops cost from nothing to £12. That's a tiny investment for any fiction editor wanting to better themselves. 
7. Get in front of publishers
The best way to get publisher eyes on your editing skills is to go direct. Experienced fiction editors are sometimes contacted direct but sitting around waiting to be offered work never got the independent business owner very far and never will. Experienced ... but not in fiction If you’re an experienced editor or proofreader who already has publisher clients but they’re in a different discipline (e.g. social sciences, humanities) you’ll likely have built some strong relationships with in-house editors. Publishing is a small world – in-house staff move presses and meet each other at publishing events. It might well be that one of your contacts knows someone who works in fiction and, more importantly, will be happy to vouch for your skills. With specialist fiction training, you’ll be able to leverage that referral to the max. So, if you have a good relationship with an in-house academic editor, tell them you’d like to explore fiction editing and ask them if they’d be prepared to share a name and email and give you a recommendation. Newbie If you’re a new entrant to the field, it’s unlikely that a cold call to HarperCollins or Penguin will be fruitful. The larger presses tend to hire experienced editors with a track record of hitting the ground running. There are two options:
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8. Be visible online
There’s no excuse for any twenty-first-century professional editor to be invisible. There’s no one way to visibility – take a multipronged approach. Directories If you’re a member of a national editorial society, and they have a directory, advertise in it as a specialist fiction editor/proofreader. If you’re not a member, become one. It won’t be free, but running a business has costs attached to it. If we want to succeed, we need to be seen. That doesn’t land on our plates; we must invest. If your society doesn’t have an online directory, lobby for one to be set up and promoted. I’d go as far as to argue that a professional editorial society that isn’t prioritizing the visibility of its members isn’t doing its job properly.
Create content for indie fiction authors Any self-publishing fiction writer looking for editorial assistance is more likely to think you’re wowser if you help them before they’ve asked for it. Create resources that offer your potential clients value and you’ll stand out. It makes your website about them rather than you. And it demonstrates your knowledge and experience. Doing this might require you to do a lot of research, but what a great way to learn. Don’t think of it as cutting into your personal time but as professional development that makes you a better editor. And think about it like this: Who would you rather buy shoes from? The shop where the sales assistant tells you all about her, or the shop where the sales assistant helps you find shoes that fit? It's no different for authors choosing editors. I have an entire Self-publishers page dedicated to resources for fiction authors. I’m not alone. These fiction editors have resource hubs too: Beth Hill, Sophie Playle, Lisa Poisso, Kia Thomas and Katherine Trail. There are others but I’m already over the 2,000-word mark! 
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Shout out your fiction specialism
Shout your fiction specialism from your website’s rooftop. Why would a fiction writer hire someone who doesn’t specialize in fiction when there are so many people dedicated to it? 
Related reading
Here are some additional articles that you might find useful if you're considering moving into the field of fiction.
Good luck with your fiction editing journey! And one final thing ... here’s a PDF booklet you can download. That way, you can review the guidance on getting fiction editing and proofreading work at your leisure, and on your preferred device. 
Over to you. What advice would you offer to someone looking to move into fiction editing and proofreading work?
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in helping self-publishing writers prepare their novels for market.
She is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors, and runs online courses from within the Craft Your Editorial Fingerprint series. She is also an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. Louise loves books, coffee and craft gin, though not always in that order. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're an author, take a look at Louise’s Writing Library and access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.
Blogging for Business Growth is open for registration now! Learn how to build an editorial business blog in 13 steps.
About the course
In 13-steps, Blogging for Business Growth shows you how to build a discoverable, captivating and memorable blog-based content platform that drives traffic to your website, makes you visible in the search engines, and compels clients to get in touch. It doesn't matter where you live. The principles underlying the teaching are relevant to you as a global editor with a potential global client base. And there are no time restrictions on the training. Once you've bought a course you can access the materials whenever you wish ... for as long as you wish. What's included?
Course curriculum
The course is designed so that you can build a purposeful blog step by step. Topics include:
The webinar and written materials
The webinar takes you through the key steps to building a blooming blog that will drive visibility and offer compelling value to potential clients. The complementary ebook includes the core written content and links to all the tools and resources I cite in the webinar.
Additional PDF booklets help you with the following:
Plus, I've created a sample for you so you can see how you might summarize key learning points and drive your editorial business blog forward. I use the example of an editor who specializes in working with writers of children's books.
Additional video tutorials
Each course comes with additional tutorials available exclusively to Fingerprint students ... videos that show you how to use some of the tools I refer to in the training. However, the content will expand over time. If there's something extra you need directly related to the course, just ask me. I'll create a custom walk-through ... but you won't pay a penny more. Scroll through the slideshow below to see what's on offer.
Early-bird registration is open!
Registering your interest doesn’t oblige you to buy the course. It just means you’ll be contacted when the course goes live in mid-April and given the option to order at the reduced price. And if you’ve already bought my social media course, you’ll be able to use the additional voucher on the course page that gives you even more money off! Early-bird registration closes on 20 April 2018. Register now to save 20%!
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in helping self-publishing writers prepare their novels for market.
She is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors, and runs online courses from within the Craft Your Editorial Fingerprint series. She is also an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. Louise loves books, coffee and craft gin, though not always in that order. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're an author, take a look at Louise’s Writing Library and access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.
Some blogs are poorly right from the get-go. If yours is feeling under the weather, here are 6 treatments that will turn it, and your website, into a vibrant resource centre that drives your business forward.
I’ve been blogging since 2011 and my blog is the single biggest driver of traffic to my website – around 36,000 page views per month. Given that 99% all of my clients come to me via Google and two online directories, having a strong web presence is the difference between being booked up six months in advance and being unemployed.
Those visitors end up on my blog for three reasons:
Big-picture focus This article doesn’t focus on the technical minutiae of whether to use Wordpress or Weebly, filling in metadata, writing great headlines, breaking up text with pictures, adding in calls to action, SEO keywords, paragraph length and so on and so forth. That’s not because all the micro stuff isn’t important, but because none of it will amount to anything if the macro issues aren’t in order. Instead, I focus on six big-picture reasons why blogs become poorly, and offer some medicine that will turn them, and the websites hosting them, into vibrant resource centres that drive our businesses forward. 
Problem 1: The blog doesn’t solve problems
Some of the blogs I wrote between 2011 and 2015 are a technical disgrace but they worked – and still work – because the content is helpful and shareable. A blog that doesn’t solve problems is a written exercise in self-indulgence and won’t make us the go-to professionals for anything. At best, we’ll be instantly forgettable; at worst, people will talk about us for all the wrong reasons. A colleague recently told me about a piece of video content he’d watched: ‘After 10 minutes I’d lost the will to live. After 20, I’d lost the will for the vlogger to live.’ I trust my colleague, whereas I don’t know or trust that vlogger. Consequently, I didn’t watch the video. There are a ton of online examples of desperate business owners employing attention-seeking methods to get eyes on their content. It can work once, maybe twice. But if we rely on shock, surprise, upset or gaining sympathy with our audience, and no solution, our content-marketing successes will be short-lived. Don’t puke over the reader We all have problems – that doesn’t mean we have to vomit over our audience with our content. Plus, shock and controversy have a short shelf-life. Today’s audiences are easily desensitized and quickly bored, so high-quality problem-solving content will trump the shock factor every time. Nothing should appear on our blogs that doesn’t help the reader move forward in some way. And if we can’t solve a problem, we should hold off, research and rewrite. Only once we have a solution should we publish. When we do solve problems, we make ourselves valuable. People are more likely to talk about, share, like and comment on our blog content. And that has huge SEO benefits over time because the search engines love seeing evidence of a great user experience. Focus on solving the audience’s problems from the get-go and we are well on the way to building a platform that puts us top of mind and discoverable in the search engines. 
Problem 2: The blog is published irregularly
Lack of regularity is probably the most common reason for blog failure. We do it for a bit, then run out of ideas, or time, or passion. This is how a reader perceives a blog that publishes content irregularly:
Those feelings don’t inspire trust. If your window cleaner couldn’t be bothered to clean your windows on a regular basis how quickly would you try to find a replacement? It’s the same with blogging. No one’s going to talk about or share our content if we can’t be bothered to create it regularly. Earning the rankings and referrals We have to earn the right to be top of mind for referrals and benefit from our colleagues’ and clients’ SEO-driving activity. And without those likes and shares, Google won’t recognize us as business owners who are actively engaging. That will impact negatively on our rankings. Build a blog plan If you don’t have the time or commitment for blogging, that’s absolutely fine. Don’t do it – focus on making your business visible in other ways. Blogging is just one option. However, if you do want your blog to be your primary content platform, the solution is to build a blog plan beforehand. Here are four initial steps for your plan:
Here are four ideas for how to generate content:
Here are four ideas for how to save time:
Problem 3: The blog is unnavigable
No one searches online for a blog. They search online for solutions. If they click through to our websites, the first place they’ll head for is unlikely to be the blog tab. And even if is, will our visitor find the answer to their problems in the content that’s visible on the first page of the blog? If we only have 10 pieces of content, yes. What if we have 40? How about 500? Second homes The solution is to create second homes for our blog content – libraries, hubs, resource centres ... call them what you will. I have two on my website – a self-publishers page and an editor resources page. There is not one single piece of fresh content on those pages. They’re libraries of titled images that depict what problem I’m solving. However, if you click on the images you’ll end up reading the full articles on the blog. These libraries help my audience find my very best content – the stuff that’s most likely to be talked about, get me known, and make my visitors think I’m helpful and knowledgeable. I only started creating content for one of those libraries in May; it’s already the fourth most popular page on my site ... and that’s because it’s obvious what’s on offer and whom it’s for. Few business bloggers funnel their content through to other pages, and it’s the biggest lost opportunity I can think of. Do this and you will stand out from your competitors for very little additional effort. Here, we’re using our blog content to turn our websites into resource centres rather than all-about-me-and-how-great-I-am sites. 
Problem 4: The blog is shallow
My marketing coaches Andrew and Pete preach the art of creating content that makes people fall in love with you. I love this idea because it focuses on emotion – of getting under people’s skin, making them feel something. This sits nicely with the problem-solving principle discussed above. When we solve problems we make people feel something – happy, grateful, relieved, empowered. Emotion born from solutions Just to be clear, those emotions should be evoked as a result of our solving a problem. For example, our funnies alone won’t be enough to make anyone subscribe to and share our content in the long term. No one will waste time reading a funny photographer’s blog if he or she doesn’t solve photography problems too. That’s because if all we want is a laugh, Dara Ó Briain and Rich Hall will do it better. Tone on top of solutions Even if our content is technically good, we have competition. Readers need to hear our voices and our personalities in our posts so that we stand out. I tend to go for warm and friendly. Other tone options might include cheeky, funny, blunt, sweary or ranty. All of that stuff is great but bear in mind that it’s just dressing at the end of the day. It should always hang on a body of solutions. Going deeper with solutions There are already a bajillion blogs with the basics just, about everything. Repeating the same old stuff is boring, and boring blogs are a killer. We need to bring our blog posts alive with case studies (made-up ones if necessary), and stories based on our own experiences, so that our readers have gravy on the meat and two veg. That kind of deeper detail draws people in, makes them feel like we’re really talking to them, not just stuffing our websites with keywords. That is not to say we shouldn’t aim our content at beginners or focus on the basics – far from it. Rather, our content needs to have personality and detail. When we go deep we make an old subject sound fresh because it’s rich with our voices and our experiences. 
Problem 5: The blog doesn’t fulfil audience expectations
I don’t visit a dentist’s website expecting to find a treatment for the verruca on my foot. I’m there to sort out my teeth. A blog needs to have a recognizable and understandable raison d’être too. We’re busy and none of us has time to read everything, join every group, watch every vlog, listen to every podcast, do our jobs, and have a life. Blogs that don’t give people a very good reason to be there are doomed. They won’t be bookmarked, subscribed to or shared. If a reader doesn’t understand why they should bother, they’ll quickly lose patience and go elsewhere. There are two reasons why an audience could become confused and disengage: The content is coherent but isn’t aligned with the business creating it. This happens when the blogger has misunderstood the audience’s expectations even though there are myriad specialist solutions that could be offered. The content is incoherent and there are too many audiences. This can happen when a business – usually a product-based one – can’t sustain long-term content creation around the product alone. To compensate, the blogger covers multiple topics for multiple audiences whose problems are already being solved in depth by relevant specialist bloggers elsewhere. Here are two examples where those problems have been solved. Coherent and aligned: The pro presenter There’s plenty one can write about presenting, and that content can be targeted at non-presenters who need to tackle the process, and those who want to run a presentations business. Relevant content might cover the following: dealing with stress, introversion, lack of confidence, speech impediments, organization and planning, which software to use, which venues are best, managing acoustics, scheduling, equipment, payment terms, contract problems, learning resources, apps and plugins to aid preparation, training opportunities, marketing a presentations business, getting published, creating engaging slides, finding and retaining clients, and so on. The presenter is blogging about topics aligned to their core service and targeting an audience with problems related directly to it. The blog is therefore coherent and aligned. Coherent and side-aligned: The condom company There’s only so much one can write about condoms. Durex knows that it will not be able to sustain its audience’s interest in latex and lube, and there are only so many flavours and colours. However, it also knows that its audience is interested in sex, otherwise people wouldn’t need condoms. Durex has created a blog called Love Sex that offers all sorts of tips about perfect massages, advice on STDs, relationships, other forms of contraception, orgasms, positions ... you name it, it’s there. It’s a very clever way of creating content about a related but more interesting issue. If you can’t sustain long-term content creation around your product or service, shift your thinking sideways but make sure it’s focused on your audience’s problems. Durex isn’t blogging about condoms, but it’s still focusing on content that’s related sideways to its core product. Its blog is therefore coherent and side-aligned. Nudging with a name Naming our blogs can help signal purpose. Mine’s called The Proofreader’s Parlour, which should be an indication that my focus is on words. I also publish a lot of content about marketing, but it’s marketing for editors and proofreaders. And I offer content about training, but it’s training for editors and proofreaders. It’s not as interesting as the Durex blog but it solves my clients’ and colleagues’ problems and that’s all that matters! 
Problem 6: The blog is invisible
Blogging without blog promotion is a supreme waste of time. It matters little that we’ve nailed all of the above if our blog’s invisible. We could spend hours crafting beautiful content for our target audience, but if we don’t invest the time or effort in making it visible it will have no purposeful business or economic value. Superhero delivery There are numerous ways to promote a blog, and what works for you might not work for me. One thing’s for sure though – social media is the superhero when it comes to content delivery. Three huge platforms – LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook – offer a superb suite of tools to help us get seen out there. What clear is that it’s about more than just posting links and pretty pictures, now more than ever. Indeed, we have to work increasingly hard on these busy platforms with their ever-shifting algorithms. However, persistence pays and there is no faster way to get your blog content, and your business, in front of people than by embracing social media. Automating to make space for crafting Content should be scheduled regularly because on some platforms, Twitter especially, the feed moves so fast that your blog-post links are more likely to be missed than seen. I post on Twitter ten times a day, seven days a week. Automate your evergreen posts where you can (full automation will shortly not be possible on Twitter via the likes of Recurpost). That will free up time for posting manually on your core platforms. Manual posting allows us to craft our posts with the algorithms in mind. An example: Crafting for Facebook Here are some of the ways in which you might promote your blog content on Facebook:
Six-tip summary
Good luck building a healthy blog! Here's a free ebook (for those of you who missed it the first time round). Just click on the image to download your copy. And if you're ready to dig deep, take a look below at my new Blogging for Business Growth course. 
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in helping self-publishing writers prepare their novels for market.
She is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors, and runs online courses from within the Craft Your Editorial Fingerprint series. She is also an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. Louise loves books, coffee and craft gin, though not always in that order. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're an author, take a look at Louise’s Writing Library and access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.
If you’re feeling the pinch because publishers, packagers and agencies aren’t offering your desired fees, think about the issue from a marketing perspective.
The fees on offer from publishers and packagers are a perennial topic of conversation for professional editors and proofreaders. Some feel frustrated and anxious about the rates; others enjoy the security afforded by a stable workflow that requires no client-acquisition effort.
It’s important to remember that not everyone’s lowest-paying clients are publishers. If yours are, it might be that you need to switch clients not types of client. Here’s my wise friend and fellow editor Liz Jones: ‘It’s often said that publishers don’t pay as well as non-publishers. In my experience, this isn’t necessarily true. There isn’t much difference in the mid-range, and fewer of my non-publishers feature at the low end, but my highest payers in 2016 were still publishers.’ Crunching the Numbers
Here are a couple of made-up case studies. The numbers are inevitably loose – editorial earnings vary hugely depending on subject area, type of editing, country of residence, and individual experience so it’s impossible to generalize. And global comparisons are problematic because of currency fluctuations and cost-of-living variances.
Just think of these examples as glimpses rather than universal statements of how the market is! 
Case study 1: Working with publishers
Joe Word-King is a professional proofreader specializing in the social sciences. He works exclusively for publishers. In the past 12 months he’s been commissioned by 5 publishers to proofread 32 books by 32 authors. Joe’s working day Joe starts at 9 a.m. and finishes at 4.30 p.m. He takes an hour for lunch and 15-minute breaks every 90 minutes to give his eyes a rest. This means he has a total of 6 hours per day available for proofreading. During the breaks he does stuff like checking his emails, grabbing cups of tea and something to eat, and taking a little fresh air. How he acquired those publisher clients One found him in the Society for Editors and Proofreaders’ Directory of Editorial Services. Four added him to their freelance list after he emailed them and asked if he could take their proofreading test (which he passed). How the work offers come in The publishers do the author-acquisition work. The book production managers from those presses email him to ask if he’s free to take on a project of A pages, B words, with a budget of C hours and a total fee of £D. Joe decides whether he will accept or decline the work. 
Case study 2: Working with self-publishers
Alicia Sentence-Queen is a professional copyeditor. She works exclusively for independent fiction authors. In the past 12 months she’s been directly commissioned by 19 authors to copyedit 19 books. Alicia’s working day Alicia starts at 9 a.m. and finishes at 4.30 p.m. She takes an hour for lunch and 15-minute breaks every 90 minutes to give her eyes a break. She also spends an average of 75 minutes per day writing blog articles and sharing her content online so that her website is visible in the search engines. This means she has a total of 4 hours and 45 minutes available per day for copyediting. During the breaks she does stuff like checking her emails and social media accounts, grabbing cups of tea and something to eat, and taking a little fresh air. How she acquired those self-publisher clients Fourteen came directly from Google, three from the SfEP’s Directory of Editorial Services, and two from Reedsy. How the work offers come in Alicia does the author-acquisition work. She makes herself visible online so that her clients can find her. They then get in touch directly. A process of evaluation, sampling and quoting begins. Alicia offers a price for the project and waits to see whether the author will accept or decline. Most of the enquiries that Alicia receives don’t turn into paid work – perhaps the author doesn’t like the price, the time frame doesn’t work, or Alicia doesn’t feel she’s the right fit for the job. For that reason, Alicia needs to attract enough people for whom the price, the time frame and the fit will work. 
Alicia has a change of heart!
Alicia’s heart is in copyediting and she figures that if she had a bunch of publisher clients doing all the author-acquisition work she wouldn’t have to devote 75 minutes per day to making herself visible. She earns a minimum of £35 per hour. Given that she spends 6 hours and 15 minutes each week marketing, that time costs her £218.75. That works out at nearly a grand a month! She and Joe are good mates so she gets in touch with him and tells him that she’s thinking about working for publishers. They chat about fees – Joe says he earns an average of £23 per hour, which is two thirds of what she’s getting from her indie authors. Given that Joe proofreads for academic presses, Alicia does a little more digging. She talks to a few fiction specialists. The fees for trade publishers seem to be lower still, such that she could end up averaging around £18 an hour, half of what she’s earning now.
What could Alicia do? If Alicia loathes marketing and can meet her weekly needs with £540, she could take the hit and switch to working with publishers, who will do all her author-acquisition work for her and let her concentrate on doing what she loves best. Yes, she’ll earn less but she’ll be happier. If Alicia loathes marketing but needs to earn at least £750 a week to meet her needs, the switch won’t work. She can’t not do the marketing because the reason why she’s able to attract the clients who are prepared to pay her £35/hr fee is because she’s visible, and being visible means doing marketing. If Alicia’s determined to switch solely to publishers, she’ll have to make up a shortfall of £210. That means reducing her monthly spend or increasing the hours she spends on copyediting. She’ll need to decide whether either option would add a level of stress into her life that exceeds her hatred of marketing. If it does, she’d be better off maintaining the status quo! Joe has a change of heart too! After chatting with Alicia, Joe feels a little strung out. Thirty-five quid an hour? He’d love to earn that. Joe’s not averse to putting in the marketing work, not if he can earn the money that Alicia’s on, but it’s not going to happen overnight – Alicia told him that it took a few years for her marketing strategy to kick in so that’s she’s never without work. At the moment, Joe doesn’t have to do anything to find his authors; the publishers do all the grind for him. Sure, he had to get those publisher clients, and he put in a lot of effort – he contacted 70+ presses initially, most of whom weren’t taking on new indie proofreaders. Nevertheless, having now secured a strong publisher base, he sits back and lets the work come to him. There’s a cost to this, of course – someone else is finding the authors and so they get to control the price. His only control over the rate is his right to accept or decline the work. What could Joe do? If Joe can introduce efficiencies into the proofreading process he’ll be able to improve his hourly rate. If he’s already as efficient as he can be, he’ll need get his marketing hat on now and start building his visibility. Over time, he’ll be able to slide out his lower-paying publishers, confident that he’ll attract enough good-fit clients to provide him with the same income stability that the publishers currently afford him. If he needs to maintain his current earnings, he’ll have to do the additional marketing work outside of his normal office hours. In the longer term, as the visibility strategy kicks in, he’ll be able to mimic Alicia’s model and build this marketing activity into his business day. Joe needs to decide whether the impact on his work/life balance is something he’s prepared for. He needs to set the pressure of the additional work against the anxiety born from the publisher fees, and decide whether the change is the right move for him. 
Different markets, different benefits, different burdens
On the surface, it might seem like the Alicias of this world have a better deal than the Joes. But there’s more to running a business than just numbers. We have to take into account not just what we need to earn but also what we have to do for what we earn. If you’re happy to be an editor and a marketer, you’ll be able to reap the benefits from wearing those two hats purposefully. If your heart lies in editing only, you have some choices:
I worked exclusively for publishers for a good few years and at the time it suited my life very well. I had a toddler to look after and preschool trumped business promotion. Now I have a teenager and marketing trumps Minecraft! Plus, I happen to love marketing my editorial business so it's not a stress point for me. But that might not be the same for you. Furthermore, the editorial market isn’t binary. Joe and Alicia might look nothing like you. You might sit somewhere in between. You might earn more than them or less than them, and have a ton of demands in your life that J&A will never experience. There’s no one size fits all. Just don’t forget that if you’re not finding your own clients, but your schedule is full, someone else is doing the job for you. There’s a cost to that, and it’s fair that there should be. Further reading
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in helping self-publishing writers prepare their novels for market.
She is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors, and runs online courses from within the Craft Your Editorial Fingerprint series. She is also an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. Louise loves books, coffee and craft gin, though not always in that order. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're an author, take a look at Louise’s Writing Library and access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.
Here are 5 ways to use audio to promote your book and create engagement with your readers.
This post featured in Joel Friedlander's Carnival of the Indies #88
‘Listening is active. At its most basic level, it’s about focus, paying attention.’ Simon Sinek
Does sound still engage? It does – audiences still absolutely love sound because they can do something else at the same time. Food for the time-hungry!
I’ve deliberately not included audio books or podcasting. They’re both valuable ways of delivering your book and the story of your publishing journey, but need scaled-up levels of expertise, planning, equipment, time and money. I’ve also excluded options that involve video – we’ll look at them in other dedicated resources (e.g. video book trailers, and online video launches). Today is all about sound! 1. Narrate your own sample chapter Narrating a chapter of your book is a lovely way to offer your fans the personal touch – for no other reason than they get to hear your voice. It’s a phonic version of Amazon’s ‘Look Inside’! And it’s a totally different kettle of fish from a full audio book … In Audio Book Production: A Primer for Indie Authors from an Audio-Book Producer, Ray Greenley, a professional voice narrator, explains how easy it isn’t to create a high-quality audio book yourself – one that’s fit for market and done to the highest standards. The equipment, the noise dampening, the time, the fluency, the editing – the author who takes on all of that has a will of iron and more than just a talent for writing. Narrating is, after all, a very different skill to writing. With a sample chapter, though, you don’t need to worry about any of that. It’s a taster, a way for your audience to enter the world you’ve created via the sound of your voice. And because you – the author – are providing all the emphasis and tone of voice, listeners know they’re experiencing the world you created exactly the way you intended it. They’ll even forgive you if you stammer, or mispronounce a word, or stumble halfway through a sentence and have to go back to the beginning. They’ll forgive you if the dog barks, or a siren wails, or your office chair squeaks … because you’re engaging with them, speaking to them. Don’t get me wrong, it has to be listenable. If it’s such poor quality that the sirens, dogs, and stumbles are so frequent that the sample is painful to engage with, you’ll do yourself no favours. But a little blip here and there is fine. Audio samples, like written ones, are gifts from you to your reader. They’re charming, and generous, and your fans will love the fact that you’ve taken the time to record one for them. I asked my own marketing coaches and some of my colleagues what they use to upload audio to their websites. SoundCloud got an overwhelming thumbs-up. There’s a free option, too. A YouTube video with a thumbnail picture would be another option. If you’re uploading natively to your website this could slow down load times so, instead, embed a link and host the content on your YouTube channel. In case your audience clicks through to YouTube, make sure you include all the relevant book-buy links under the video on your channel. Be sure to include captions for those who choose to engage with the sound muted (it happens … a lot!). You don’t need an expensive mic either. I have a Blue Snowball, which works brilliantly, looks charming, and came in at under fifty quid. I chose it because I wanted something decent that would allow me to create video without being encumbered with a headset. However, if you’re just doing audio, you can probably get away with a headset/mic system for under £25. Try different options and see what gives the best results. 
2. Giveaways – usable audio content
For non-fiction, you could take the audio sample to the next level. Give away an audio version of one chapter of valuable, usable content – something your listener can actually solve a problem with. This is a powerful offering and goes well beyond the plot taster of a novel. For example, imagine you’ve self-published a marketing book for small businesses. One of the chapters is dedicated to Pay Per Click (PPC). The chapter outlines the principles behind PPC advertising, and offers guidance on which businesses would or wouldn’t benefit from this strategy, and why. You create an audio version of this chapter – and because it’s something that your target audience can listen to and use to make informed decisions about an aspect of their digital promotion strategy, they’re compelled to buy the written version and extract all your words of wisdom! In this case, you’ve repurposed valuable business content but in a deeply personalized way. 
3. Host a live sound event
Readers love live author events. The Norwich branch of Waterstones has hosted a stack of live author readings. I’ve been to see Garth Nix, Jonathon Pinnock, and Alison Moore. With an audio-only version, you’re recreating the feel of a radio author event because the audience gets to talk to you afterwards and ask questions. Ideally, you’ll want the stream to be recorded so that it’s available as archive content afterwards. Daniel J Lewis, in ‘New live streaming options for podcasters’, says, ‘Maybe you want all the interaction and accountability of live-streaming, but you don't have the technology or bravery for video. That's when an audio-only live stream can be a great choice. It also makes a good option for those with lower bandwidth.’ So what are the options? Mixlr and Spreaker are Lewis’s recommendations for those looking for lower-cost solutions. Another option is using the audio-only option of Facebook Live. This has slightly less flexibility in that all the engagement with your listeners will take place in the comments below. Still, this could have some advantages in that you have a record of what people are asking, and if you don’t have time to handle all the questions, you can join in the written discussion later. Live audio streaming is public and, obviously, live. You don’t get to edit if things go wrong … which is great because it adds emotion and excitement to the event, but requires a little courage. Make sure you have some friends in on the gig who have your back if you’re new to this type of engagement. One of the best things about reader-facing author events is that fans can get a signed copy of the book. In the digital world, this is tricky. How about this as an alternative? Get some promo postcards printed; the front will feature your book’s cover. At the end of the show, invite people to email you with their postal addresses if they’d like to receive a signed postcard with a personal message or dedication. You could team this up with an invitation to join your mailing list so that they don’t miss out on future events. 
4. Broadcast an interview
This requires more effort but it’s worth it because it allows you to talk about the journey of your book and your journey as a writer. You’ll need an interviewer and a script. It’s tempting for the inexperienced sound eventer to think that a script will detract from the flow and authenticity of the broadcast. It won’t. A script ensures everything stays on track, that the questions and answers are remembered, that neither of you ramble off on a tangent or fall off a pregnantly paused cliff. You could do a swap with a fellow author, perhaps someone from your writing group – you interview them and they return the favour. That way you both get to promote your books and share your thoughts on the challenges and joys of writing and self-publishing. Again, SoundCloud is a good option here (or YouTube). 
5. Audio sign-up requests
In ‘9 ways to use audio’, digital marketer Steve Cartwright asks: ‘When your target audience clicks to get more information for your products and services, do you think it would make a difference if you were actually talking to them with your voice to explain what you have to offer?’ Most of you are probably already building your mailing list. Perhaps you include links at the end of your written books, blog articles and website book pages that encourage people to sign up to your newsletter. This is the perfect place to test whether you can increase your sign-rates by using your voice to ask your readers to join the party. If you’re not building a mailing list, consider these wise words of experience from full-time, self-published crime writer Jeff Carson: ‘I have a newsletter email list. This is one of those things I heard people preaching but never did anything about. It took me four freaking books to finally put my email list in place. But I finally did, and that’s when I was finally able to write full time. It only took two days to write and publish a short story, which I give away on my blog as a thank-you if somebody signs up for the new-release newsletter. Now, when I have a new release, I launch the book to thousands of people, versus dropping it into a field of crickets.’ How about doing the same thing, but asking people to join that newsletter with your voice? Other things to consider with audio
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in helping self-publishing writers prepare their novels for market.
She is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors, and runs online courses from within the Craft Your Editorial Fingerprint series. She is also an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. Louise loves books, coffee and craft gin, though not always in that order. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're an author, take a look at Louise’s Writing Library and access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.
Available now!
Social Media for Business Growth shows you how to use social media platforms to increase your visibility, expand your audience, reinforce your brand and generate leads ... without falling into a rabbit hole and without spending any money. 
This is the first course in the Craft Your Editorial Fingerprint series ... online marketing classes that enable editors, proofreaders, indexers, translators and other wordy folk to develop a compelling and recognizable business presence.
The social media kit You'll receive access to a social media fingerprint kit comprising:
No limits on access Some online courses restrict the period of access to the materials. I think you should be able to choose when you study. After you've bought Social Media for Business Growth you can access the class whenever you wish ... whether that's immediately after you've created your login or 8 months down the road. And for your convenience, you can download the supporting PDFs to multiple devices, multiple times ... whatever works best for you. Just log in, watch, click and grab whenever you like. On-demand tutorials ... at no extra cost My training approach is dynamic. Here's how it works ... Each course comes with additional tutorials available exclusively to Fingerprint students ... videos that show you how to use some of the tools I refer to in the training. However, the content will expand over time. So if there's something else you need that's directly related to the course, I'll create a custom walk-through, visible to you and any other student who's bought the class ... but none of you will pay a penny more. And because there are no time restrictions, you'll have lifetime access to an ever-expanding library in which to achieve your goals. For more details about the class content, or to sign up, go to Social Media for Business Growth.
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in helping self-publishing writers prepare their novels for market.
She is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors, and runs online courses from within the Craft Your Editorial Fingerprint series. She is also an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. Louise loves books, coffee and craft gin, though not always in that order. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're an author, take a look at Louise’s Writing Library and access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.
The topic of editing and proofreading rates is always hot in our community. And the 'race to the bottom' especially has been known to garner more attention than an Olympic 100-metre final. So what should we do about it?
Competing with cheap
Here in Norwich there’s a mall. In that mall is a discount store selling techie stuff ... phones, tablets and whatnot. You go into that shop expecting a deal. It’s where people go when they’re price-shopping. Not because they’re terrible people who are always looking for cheap but because the coffers are low. Maybe the car failed its MOT and they had to find an extra seven hundred quid that month. Or they recently lost their job. Or something. In that mall on the floor above is an Apple store selling shiny things for shiny people. You don’t go into that shop expecting a deal. You go in expecting to pay what you have to pay to get the shiny thing you want. It’s where people go when they’re product- or service-shopping. The coffers are flush. The car passed its MOT and the job is secure. Or something. 
All clients are not the same
Now, Apple could decide not to have a store in that mall. It could say, ‘This is ridiculous. No one’s going to buy our stuff when they can get similar products from the shop on the floor below for one fifth of the price. Being in that mall is a race to the bottom.’ But Apple doesn’t say that. Why? Because it knows that the customers who come into the mall aren’t all the same. Some won’t come near its store because the prices are too high. But others – those who are looking specifically for an Apple product, those who are Apple fans, those whose cars passed their MOTs – might pay Apple a visit. If it doesn’t have a store in the mall, Apple knows it will lose the custom of all the people who’d like to buy there but can’t because it’s decided not to set up shop ... and all because it got the hump about the race-to-the-bottom store on the floor below. In fact, Apple doesn’t focus on the store below. It doesn’t care what that store is charging. That store can service the price-shoppers – those customers whose budgets are limited – because those customers are NOT Apple’s customers. Instead, Apple invests its energy in making the service-shoppers – its fans – have an amazing experience ... lots of knowledgeable, passionate staff on hand, a Genius Bar, technicians out back who’ll fix or replace a product in-store or replace it, and lots of lovely shiny stuff to play with while we wait. Apple knows that there’s room in the mall for both types of store and both types of customer. And it’s the same for editors and proofreaders. 
Standing up for the market or hiding behind a curtain?
If you decide not to make yourself visible in particular directories or other online spaces because you know there are colleagues charging what you consider to be unacceptably low rates, and you think no one will hire you because you’re charging more, you’re assuming that all clients are the same. But they’re not. Some clients will have low incomes or busted cars that need expensive repairs, and they will be attracted to the discount editors. Some will have more flexible budgets and will be focused on finding the right-fit editor first and foremost. Price will not be the clincher for the latter group. However, clients can only commission services from an editor whom they know exists. If you have the hump about the race to the bottom and have decided not to join the party, you’re not standing up for the editorial market. All you’re doing is hiding behind the curtain, making yourself invisible to those clients who would have liked to work with you if they’d been able to find you. And don’t forget that Google is the biggest directory of all. There’s no other online space with more editors in it. Some of them are cheap as chips. Has that stopped you having a website? No. The same logic should apply elsewhere. How to be the Apple editor Of course, we can’t have it both ways. If we don’t want to compete with discount editors then we need to get attention in a way that shifts the client’s focus away from price. Expecting to benefit from the same footfall as the discount editor without offering a compelling alternative is just wanting to have our cake and eat it. We need to stand out for some other reason. We need to make the client think: That editor looks perfect for me, seems to get me, is really generous and knowledgeable. I hope she’s available and that if I save up I can afford her. Sure, the price-focused clients aren’t going to touch us with a barge pole. But that’s fine because we’re not targeting them; we’re targeting the service-focused clients. To be the Apple editor we need to present potential clients with an amazing experience – a story that says we have solutions, that we have their backs, that we can help them achieve their goals ... a story that persuades them we’re worth waiting for and worth paying for. It’s about the words we use to convey our understanding of our clients’ problems. It’s about the images we use to convey our professional values. Blurry headshots with our mates or kids in them won’t do. It’s about how we instil trust. Telling them that we know our stuff – that we have the skills, the knowledge and the experience – is one thing. Showing them with free resources and a knowledge base that helps them more easily walk the publication path ... that’s quite another. 
Time well spent on standing out
Every minute we spend worrying about what other editors are charging is a minute in which we could be building our own compelling brand identity and creating our own valuable resources, stuff that helps our potential clients feel we’re the right fit. Every directory that we don’t advertise in because we think it’s a race to the bottom is another tick on our invisibility list. If you’re invisible, it doesn’t matter how high your prices are. No one will hire you. Not because your prices are too high but because you can’t be seen. Being invisible is of no economic value to any editor or proofreader. So charge what you want to charge. If you want to compete on price, go ahead. If you want to compete on compulsion, go ahead. The compulsion route isn’t easy. It means investing time and effort in standing out – all that content marketing stuff I bang on about! It means thinking deeply about how every word of your directory entries and every page of your website helps a potential client and makes them feel that you’re just too wowser to ignore. All that hard graft pays off though. You can sit beside the cheaper editors without fear. You can let them have the price-shoppers while you work with those who can afford you. Just like Apple and the discount store, we’re dealing with two different markets. The idea that your business could be undermined by a colleague charging way lower that what you deem to be acceptable is, says Jake Poinier, ‘nonsense. Creative freelancing is a market, and only you can establish the value you bring to it. I don’t view the low end of the freelance rate scale as my competition’ (Stop worrying about freelancers who undercharge). I agree with Jake. Honestly, there’s room for everyone. Don’t waste your valuable time on the issue. Instead, build your business, your brand identity, your visibility and your value. Therein lies success.
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in helping self-publishing writers prepare their novels for market.
She is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors, and runs online courses from within the Craft Your Editorial Fingerprint series. She is also an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. Louise loves books, coffee and craft gin, though not always in that order. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're an author, take a look at Louise’s Writing Library and access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.
Yolanda is a self-published author who wants to build a fiction proofreading and copyediting business. In this Q&A I consider the steps she should take to get her editorial business off the ground and fit for purpose.
Says Yolanda:
I am a fiction author located in U.S. and I've been self-publishing for almost 6 years under various pen names. I still work full-time (over 20 years in the administrative field), however I would like to start a freelance career as a fiction proofreader/copy-editor. I am a certified legal proofreader but outside of my day job & my own books I don't have experience proofing. I intend to use freelance job sites & my connections with self-published authors to build my portfolio. As far as blogging, I'm not sure what I would discuss since my focus is fiction & I'm not an expert yet to give other proofreaders advice. What would be my next steps to transition from fiction author to fiction proofreader/ copy-editor for self-published authors as far as getting my business up & running, classes (if any), pricing, etc? Hi, Yolanda! Thanks for your question. I’ve broken down my advice as follows:
Training I think you’re wise to consider training. It’s essential that your knowledge of grammar, spelling and punctuation conventions is top-notch. If it’s not, you won’t be able to correct your clients’ files to industry standards. I'd recommend that you search for a grammar brush-up course as a first step. That will enable you to discover whether your technical knowledge is on point and if there are any weaknesses that you need to attend to. Here are a couple of options for you to consider:
Fiction work does require an empathetic hand because editors and proofreaders are often faced with the dilemma of how to amend such that we remove errors and improve readability but respect narrative voice and flow. However, it’s only when you know what a problem is that you can decide whether to fix it! Training is absolutely the right place to discover your weak points. Better that than via a disgruntled client. Your second step should be to undertake professional editorial skills training. This will be of particular use to you because it'll move you into the editing mindset and away from the authorial one that you're used to. I appreciate that you've self-edited, but editing one's own work is a very different proposition to offering professional services to paying customers, as you clearly realize. Professional training will also enable you to determine the level of intervention that each type of editing requires. In turn, that will help you avoid scope-creep and undercharging. Especially when proofreading, knowing when to leave well enough alone is an art in itself! Here are some reputable US-based programmes to consider:
Services
You’ll need to develop a service model that differentiates between the different levels of editing. Many self-publishing authors don’t know the differences between proofreading, copyediting, line editing, and developmental editing. Many editors' definitions vary too. And so while the lines are often blurred, especially when we compare different independent editors’ service descriptions, professional training will help you clarify how you'll describe your services so that your clients understand exactly what’s on offer. You can see some examples of how I’ve tackled definitional issues here:
I’d advise taking a look at a range of editors’ websites to familiarize yourself with the breadth of services on offer and the way your future colleagues describe these. There’s no right or wrong. Rather, it’s all about clear communication and helping the client understand how you can solve their problems. 
Visibility
Blogging needn't necessarily be your primary content platform, though I think it works well for editors and proofreaders because our wordy clients are comfortable with wordy information! Even if you don't concentrate on vlogging or podcasting, at least think about how you can introduce audio-visual material into your marketing mix in order to stand out and offer your audience alternative ways to get what you're offering. You don’t need to focus on colleagues either. Far from it. Fifty per cent of my content is created for beginner authors. I’d recommend you consider using your experience as a self-published author of fiction to guide potential clients on how to navigate their own publishing journeys. Think about what their problems and questions might be. Think about what your own problems and questions were! For example, you mentioned having used a pen name; that would be an interesting topic to any beginner author wondering whether they should publish under their own name. Great content marketing solves problems. If you decide to blog, offer fantastic value by helping other writers solve their conundruns using all your knowledge and experience ... the rough and the smooth. Everything you’ve learned on your own journey has the potential to help others. Don’t forget that your experience of self-publishing can be used as a unique selling point that makes you stand out. Combine that with high-quality training and you’ll be on the way to building a compelling online presence. Consider how you might make your content visible beyond the blog (or vlog or podcast) by creating a resource hub that makes what you’ve created accessible via different pages on your website. It’s my belief that having an individual, standout online fingerprint is essential for those entering the editorial freelancing market. There’s too much competition out there to create a website that looks just like everyone else’s. So do focus on your marketing so that over time you can be as discoverable as possible. Here are a few examples:
Pricing
Many national editorial societies have guidelines or suggested minimums for what editors should charge. I look at these but don’t use them to determine my own rates because they distract me from the important things than any pricing model needs to take account of. These are:
In relation to your needs, it matters little if the Editorial Freelancers Association thinks that $30–50 per hour is a common and acceptable rate for copyediting if you need $70 per hour to keep the bailiffs from the door. With that in mind, when you start to think about pricing, work out first what you need to earn as a minimum to make your business viable. That’s your baseline. From there you can work upwards to what you want to earn and what your clients will bear. Self-publishing authors aren’t a homogeneous market when it comes to writing skill, genre or budget. Some will be shopping for an editor whose fees are lower than that which you need to earn. Others will be prepared to pay more than you want to earn. Yet others will sit somewhere in the middle. It’s not only the budget that will vary; your authors' locations will too. And so if your potential client is based in Sweden, it’s likely that what $40 will buy in Sweden is not the same as what it will buy in the US. Since the cost of living varies from country to country, what an American client thinks is a high rate might seem an absolute steal to the Swede. And that’s another problem with professional association pricing tables – they focus on the domestic market whereas your potential market lies well beyond the sovereign state in which you reside. That’s why it makes more sense to build your pricing model on your own needs rather than some notion that there’s one universally applicable rate (or range) for editing or proofreading. There isn’t. There’s some excellent detailed guidance on editorial rate-setting from Rich Adin on the American Editor blog. Start with the following: Sign-off I hope all that gives you a few ideas for how to move forward, Yolanda, and I wish you well on your editorial business-building journey! There’s plenty more information on my blog in the following archives: Money Matters, Marketing, Starting Out and Training. Dig into that and start connecting with other editorial pros online. There are lots of us on Facebook (the Editors’ Association of Earth is a good place to start), Twitter and LinkedIn ... and beyond! See you there!
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in helping self-publishing writers prepare their novels for market.
She is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors, and runs online courses from within the Craft Your Editorial Fingerprint series. She is also an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. Louise loves books, coffee and craft gin, though not always in that order. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're an author, take a look at Louise’s Writing Library and access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.
One of my author clients asked me how to set up automatic blog-post delivery to her subscribers via MailChimp. Here's a video walk-through.
MailChimp frequently updates its settings. If you find this video no longer works for you, feel free to give me a nudge so I can create a revised tutorial. If you prefer to read the instructions, here they are: Assumptions
Step 1 (as of December 2017)
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That's it! You're done!
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.
Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're an author, take a look at Louise’s Writing Library and access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly. Q&A with Louise: Is blogging dead or can I still use it to make my editing business visible?11/12/2017
This latest Q&A is for Eloise, who is right at the beginning of her proofreading and editing business journey and is keen to get her content marketing underway. Here's her conundrum: should she blog, vlog or podcast?
Hi, Louise! I’m based in the US and am in the process of setting up a new proofreading and editing business. I’ve been reading your blog and searching online elsewhere for guidance on getting seen.
A lot of people are talking about how video and podcasting are the big things. Would I be better off carving my niche with one of those, or is a blog still viable? I’ve read articles saying that blogging is on the way out but it’s still my preferred option. Your advice, please!
Hi, Eloise. That’s a great question! And congratulations on embracing a content marketing strategy early on. The sooner you start, the quicker you’ll see results.
I’m going to break down your question into three sections.
What does your audience prefer? I think this is the key issue. How you and I would prefer to carve out a niche is less important than what our target audiences want. I know a lot of pro marketers who have podcasts and vlogs and blogs. However, they still tend to focus on one channel and repurpose the content for others because: (a) they need to appeal to broad audiences with multiple preferences, but (b) they still only have 24 hours in a day. The situation for the editor is, I think, less demanding. I’m not for a minute suggesting that authors, students, charities, businesses and academics don’t consume audio-visual content. They do. I’m suggesting that since they’re looking for editors and proofreaders to help them with their writing, our providing content in written form makes sense. Blogging is therefore a good fit – a natural solution – because people with wordy problems are more likely to feel at home on wordy platforms. Think, too, about search. An academic looking for guidance on how to style her citations according to Chicago is more likely to search on Google than on YouTube, and unlikely to search on Pinterest. Now, of course, the search engines don’t link only to written content – not at all – and the more audio-visual content there is, the more it will show up in the search engines. However, highly ranked content holds its position because the search engine algorithms have deemed it interesting and valuable, based on the extent to which it’s linked to, shared, liked, commented on, and for how long people are engaging with it. We’re more likely to get positive responses to our content if we’re using channels that are suitable. And this is where I worry that the podcast and the vlog are not ideal primary platforms for editorial content ... Which channel best communicates what you’re offering? What works best will be determined by the nature of your content and what your audience wants to do with it. Here are a couple of examples:
Creating great content is about value, but also about accessibility. We need to ensure that our audience can get the help they need as quickly as possible and in a way that makes it usable. Otherwise they’ll become frustrated and go elsewhere. The beauty of the blog is that our audience can scan, grab, like and share quickly. That’s what marketers call a ‘good user experience’. I call it making people happy. Why blogging isn’t dead I’ve read those articles too. I’m flummoxed by them. They seem to assume that there’s only one market and that it’s full of people with the same problems, and that those people want to access solutions in the same format. That’s not the case. It can’t possibly be so for the reasons I’ve already discussed. I have evidence too. In 2017, my website received 343,302 page views (green column below). Google Analytics tells me that my blog content was the primary driver. I create content not only for authors but also for proofreaders and editors (it’s how you found me) and it shows that I’m ranking in the search engines for the questions people are asking and that I’m providing answers for. 
Of course, that didn’t happen overnight; it’s taken me seven years to generate that level of discoverability. I believe that the increase this year's page views can be accounted for by a more purposeful approach to branding, scheduling, social media sharing, and content scope.
And while most of those visitors are colleagues (or people thinking about entering the industry), my being discoverable in Google for keyword search terms such as proofreading drives clients my way. You might also be interested in technical writer John Espirian's recent analysis. John started posting regularly on his blog only two years ago and he's been purposeful about branding, scheduling, sharing and scope right from the get-go. He's found a significant correlation between his page views and his blogging. I think his results are superb and demonstrate how powerful blogging still is in terms of visitors to one's website.
You can see the full discussion on LinkedIn here.
Some of the objections raised in regard to blogging are as follows:
I believe there are solutions to these potential problems and I’d therefore recommend paying attention to the following: Mobile-friendly Make sure your website is responsive. That way, all the content – from your blog to your home page – will be readable on a mobile device. (See also Checking your website’s mobile display: Lessons from a proofreader.) Try to keep your paragraphs short – anything more than two to three sentences on your laptop or desktop screen will appear as a wall of text on a smart phone. Multiple formats There’s nothing to stop you repurposing your blog content and introducing other media into the mix. For example, you could include short introductory videos about the blog post that could be used on social media to drive readers to your site. You could also introduce video tutorials into the mix, if and when they're relevant. I've done this with the installation instructions for my digital proofreading marks. Some of my colleagues have created excellent tutorials on macros and using Word's styles function. Or you might also create PDF versions of your blog posts so that readers can download the content to their preferred devices and read it at their leisure. Here’s an example of something I created to alongside my article Should a writer hire a freelance editor before submitting to an agent? And should editors accept the work? 
Subscription numbers
Just because people aren’t subscribing doesn’t mean they aren’t reading, sharing, liking, commenting and linking to a blog. I began building my subscription list only a few months ago so it currently stands at 673. Compare that with 343,302 page views this year and it becomes clear that readership doesn’t equal sign-up. 
It’s lovely to see people subscribing and visiting our sites but there’s a limit to how much we should dwell on the numbers. Someone else might have a website with much lower page-view numbers than mine but be targeting their core clients just as effectively and achieving their business goals.
The big issue is whether we’re discoverable by those who need our help and want to commission our services or buy our books, training courses and other products. Do we have a visible online fingerprint? Does that help our potential clients to find us? And are we securing the kind of work we want at the fee we desire? Those are the questions we should be focusing on. Density Current evidence suggests that longer blog posts get more likes and shares (see The Ideal Length for Blog Posts, Tweets, and Everything Else in Your Marketing). That can mean that our content is text-heavy. Two thousand words of waffle won’t do the blogger any favours so quality is always paramount. Focus on solving people’s problems and you won’t go far wrong. And if that means walls of text, break them up – not only with paragraph breaks and headers but also boxes, quotes images (Canva is your friend!), and bites of video or audio. Emotional connection There’s no doubt that when it comes to hearing someone’s voice and seeing their smile audio and video have the edge. That’s another reason why you might decide to add these media into the mix. But written content can be emotive too. When we solve people’s problems we make them feel something – relief, appreciation, a sense that they’re not alone, that they’re being listened to. I’m hoping you feel I’ve listened to you by dedicating this Q&A to your question and that you feel happy as a result. And I hope that you’ll share this post and visit again. That’s a win for both of us. And if you publish consistently useful, emotive stuff on your blog on a regular basis, you’ll build trust. When we’re trusted, our content is more likely to be shared and linked to ... sometimes even before the reader has had time to look at it. You can enhance those trust levels by making your blog posts recognizable, for example by incorporating images with a consistent design and your brand colours. Delivery Getting eyes on your blog is tricky at the beginning. Social media is the most powerful delivery tool available and should be incorporated into any content marketing strategy. Invisible content is of no value to you or your audience so build your network and use it to share what you’re publishing. Even if your blog content is solely focused on clients’ problems, other editors and proofreaders will also be interested because their clients might have similar concerns. Plus, colleagues are advocates. The international editorial community is beyond generous ... unusually so, I think. Engage with it, share your blog content with it, and give back what you get through reciprocation. If you create high-quality posts, your editorial friends will support you, I promise. What should you do? If your target audience wants to receive your content in written format, and that’s something you want to embrace, you should blog. Blogging isn’t on the way out. It’s as vibrant as ever ... as long as the content is giving people what they need, discoverable by those who need it, and readable on the devices they’re using. And to answer the final part of your question, I am absolutely going to continue blogging – I think that for our audience nothing beats it. I’m excited (and nervous!) about incorporating audio and video but the blog will remain my primary channel until further notice! Let me know when yours is live!
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.
Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're an author, take a look at Louise’s Writing Library and access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly. How to market your book and build your author platform using a chatbot: Part 1 – Facebook comments13/11/2017
In this series, I’ll show you several ways to use a chatbot to engage with your readers, expand your fan base and put a smile on people’s faces! Today, the focus is on building a bot campaign to market a book on Facebook.
Bots are still a massively underused tool so incorporating them into your book-promotion strategy now will help you to stand out. 
This post featured in Joel Friedlander's Carnival of the Indies #86
What’s a chatbot?
In short, a chatbot is a computer program that simulates human conversation. I built my own chatbot in August. Yes, it's a computer program but it's helping me digitally with my business so I wanted it to have a face and a name that I could work into my chatbot marketing campaigns. I called it Lulu and asked my friend, illustrator Rachel Holmes, to create the design. I think she did a great job of putting the art into artificial intelligence ... this is what Lulu looks like! Cute, isn’t she? 
Here are a few things you should know about the chatbot tools I’ll show you:
Building your bot My preferred bot-building platform is ManyChat. It’s straightforward to navigate and I appreciate being able to run four simultaneous live campaigns free of charge. There are restrictions with the free version – for example, you can’t automatically transfer subscribers to your mailing list – but you can still do a huge amount without spending a bean. In this article I’m focusing on how to use the Facebook comments growth tool for book marketing. To follow my lead you'll need to have set up your own ManyChat account and linked it to your Facebook Page. The ManyChat Facebook comments campaign Where to find it: Growth tools > New growth tool > Other growth tools > Facebook comments. Potential goals: Pre-launch promotion, fan-base engagement, mailing-list growth, sample-chapter delivery, conversation, landing-page link, and bookstore pre-order. Here’s an image of the fake book I've knocked up for demonstration purposes. In my sample promotion campaign, I’m offering fans the opportunity to enter a free draw. The winner will have their name assigned to a key supporting character. 
Let's see how we can use a chatbot and a Facebook Page to deliver this campaign and achieve the goals outlined above.
The strategy Here's how it works. Facebook wants to keep people on Facebook – the longer people stick around, the more likely they are to click on paid ads. And if advertisers generate leads with their ads, they’re likely to buy more. That means more money for Facebook. Facebook also wants to provide a good user experience because that will encourage more people use the platform. Users who are having a good time will feel informed, engaged, entertained and helped. Facebook's algorithm identifies content that ticks those boxes and prioritizes it. Key indicators are likes, shares, comments and time spent engaging with a post (e.g. when watching a video). The more engagement you create on a Page post, the more Facebook will reward you for your neighbourly behaviour by pushing your content beyond your existing community (friends, followers and likers). Comments are the powerhouse behind this campaign tool. A great way to generate a comment is to offer something in return. I've given away free ebooklets and checklists that help writers with self-editing, and fellow editors and proofreaders with professional development. If you promote your book on Facebook by posting a nice piccy and a link to your website where there’s, say, a free sample chapter, you’re pushing people off Facebook. But if you offer that same sample right there on Facebook, you’re keeping your visitors on Facebook’s land. And so you’ll be rewarded with increased audience reach. ManyChat’s Facebook comments growth tool allows you to do exactly this: a trigger word in the comments tells your bot to deliver your freebie to the commenter via Facebook Messenger. Your fan doesn't have to leave the platform to get the goodies. The offer – ideas for you to steal Your offer must be strong enough to compel someone to comment. Here are some ideas for you to try:
The build There are two core elements to the build – the onboard ManyChat tool and the Facebook post. 1. ManyChat I recommend starting with ManyChat. Here's how to create a campaign:
2. Facebook Page
Now go to your Facebook Page. Create a new post that tells your audience about your promotion and the trigger word they need to write in the comments to get the offer. Including a picture or native video is also a great way to draw attention to your post. Here's a mock-up design of my sample campaign. 
Goal achievement The mock-up I’ve created here is just the tip of the iceberg. You can be far more adventurous if you wish – it all depends on where you want to direct your visitors, the kind of conversation you want to have, and how many levels you add to the messaging sequence. Here are two more ideas:
Here are some additional tactics to consider:
Summary ManyChat’s Facebook comments growth tool is a fun, friendly and effective way to build Page awareness, increase organic reach beyond your existing Facebook community, and generate excitement about your book. In future articles in this series, I’ll walk you through how to use a chatbot to build your mailing list, help people navigate their way around your website, and take action on a landing page. I’ll also delve deeper into how you might use these tools creatively to build your fanbase and get people talking about your books. Until then, it’s goodbye from me and Lulu! P.S. From 1–24 December, Lulu and I will be having a little festive fun on my own Facebook Page. Do drop in to see what’s going on!
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.
Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're an author, you might like to visit Louise’s Writing Library to access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.
So you have a great blog post in mind, or a resource you want to create for your core client group. The problem is, one of your proofreading or editing colleagues has already tackled the issue. What do you do?
For clarity, let’s think of one piece of content that would be a good contender for a blog post and downloadable PDF cheat sheet. Lots of editors and proofreaders work with academics – students, teachers and researchers – and these clients’ publishers.
Many of those academics will be dab hands at citations and referencing. Their subject’s preferred style manual will be like an old friend. But what about the beginner – like the student submitting to a journal for the first time – or the experienced scholar who’s asked to create references according to an unfamiliar style guide? Some of the best-known academic style manuals are overwhelming. And that’s why people turn to the search engines for solutions – summary cheat sheets that break the guidance down into accessible chunks. I put the phrase ‘APA style summary’ into Google. There were just under 15 million results. Who got there first? Probably not the American Psychological Association. So, if nearly 15 million people have already created this content, including some of your colleagues, why should you? 
Demonstrating your knowledge – and upping your value
Let’s consider a PhD student. She’s submitting a Master’s dissertation in three months’ time and she has two problems:
First, she heads for a professional editorial directory. From it, she selects ten proofreaders and visits their websites. They all have similar experience and training. All ten proofreaders therefore solve the first problem. Right now, her problem is whom to choose. Next, she heads to Google to solve the second problem. The sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association costs just over £22 in 2017 and stretches to 272 pages. She is up to her neck in student-loan debt as it is … and 272 pages? Surely there’s some free guidance online. Remember those 15 million results I mentioned above? Now she has to sift through just a teeny-tiny bit of that. Let’s go back to her first search. Imagine you’re one of those ten proofreaders, but you can solve both of her problems. If you’re the person who can proofread for her and provide her with an accessible summary of APA, you’ve just achieved the following:
Now her problem is not whom to choose but whether you’re available. That in itself is a good enough reason to get yourself a copy of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (or any other style manual that your target clients use) and get busy creating blog posts and complementary summary resources. That someone else has done it already is not the issue. That you’re solving the problems of people who’ve bothered to visit your website is. It’s likely you’re being compared with others, so demonstrating wider knowledge and being helpful adds value to what you bring to the table and makes you stand out. 
Multiple problems, and keeping clients on your website
If a potential client is on your website looking for solutions to problems, two things can happen:
Most of our clients don’t have one problem (say, finding an editor). They have a stack of problems. The more you can solve, the longer they’ll stay. I’m told that Google gives brownie points to websites that are lingered on, but even if it didn’t, every minute a potential client is on your website is a minute they’re not on your competitor’s. That’s another minute of engagement, another minute’s worth of trust, another minute where they might visit the Get a Quote or Contact page. Of course, there’s an alternative. Back to our Master’s student. You’re one of the ten proofreaders she selected. She also needs help with APA citation and referencing. Your website tells her all about what a brilliant proofreader you are. You want to help her with APA styling. But you don’t want to create a summary because your lovely colleague Josie Proofreader has already done something similar. Instead, you kindly put in a big fat link to Josie’s website so that your potential client can access this fabulous resource. The client skips over to Josie, sees that she’s also a brilliant proofreader, and promptly forgets the ten she was previously considering (including you). After all, Josie is so helpful, so knowledgeable – her site’s like a one-stop shop. Now her problem is whether Josie is available. There’s nothing wrong with linking to colleagues’ sites (links to relevant websites are good for SEO) but when it comes to the really helpful, substantive, stand-out, problem-solving stuff, that should be on your site – written by you, in your voice, your style, and with your branding on it. Cite your primary sources, of course, (in this case, the APA). We, as editors, know better than anyone the problems of plagiarism and the etiquette of citation. Here’s the guidance I use for creating content (based on the advice of pro white-paper writer Gordon Graham):
Quality content you can’t create. Calling the guest contributor
There are some types of content that I don’t feel comfortable creating. For example, I’m a specialist sentence-level editor so I’m not the best person to give advice on developmental editing conundrums. That doesn’t mean I don’t want that content on my website, though – for all the reasons outlined above. Guest posts are the solution. Not just any old guests – friends and colleagues who have in-depth, specialist knowledge that I think will be of benefit to my readers. Here are just a few examples:
Their content helps to keep my readers on my website – that’s a win for me. My readers are made aware of my contributors’ expertise – that’s a win for them. And I and my contributors get high-quality inbound/outbound links to our websites – that’s a win for all of us. If your editorial blog is new and you’re looking for some guidance on what to expect from your guests, here are my rules for contributor content:
Every time we host a guest we have the potential to enrich the quality of the content on our own sites. 
Writing for others, and how to bring it back
I’ve written for other people too: The Publishing Training Centre, the Society for Editors and Proofreaders, BookMachine, Society of English-language professionals in the Netherlands, An American Editor, and several editor colleagues. Every time we write for others we expand our audience reach via theirs. This may appear to contradict my earlier advice about keeping your own content on your own site. My approach is me-first, me-most. Most of the content on my site has been created by me and demonstrates my skills and my willingness to be helpful. However, curation and reciprocity have their roles – you give a little, you take a little. It’s editorial content backscratching! Repurposing is one way of bringing quality content you’ve published elsewhere back onto your own turf. Just duplicating the text isn't advisable because it can affect your website's rankings in the search engines. Instead, try these three ideas:
Summing up
Happy halloween!
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.
Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're an author, you might like to visit Louise’s Writing Library to access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly. How do I turn my literature and creative-writing teaching background into an editorial business?25/10/2017
This week’s reader question is from a teacher of English language, literature and creative writing. She’s looking for a new direction – something beyond the school environment that will allow her to use her educational experience and existing knowledge base.
Here’s what Noella had to say:
Dear Louise, I'm a UK-based secondary-school English teacher of language, literature and creative writing, and am looking to move into editing or publishing. I feel that I already have some of the skills required but I'm also on a budget and would like to know how someone like me could perhaps sneak into this area of work via a recognized route that isn't too costly. Essentially, I want a better work/life balance and to feel more in control of my career. Hope you can advise me. Hi, Noella! Thanks so much for your question. Work/life balance Given that flexibility is important, I’m inclined to recommend the path of independent editor (freelancer), rather than working in-house. Running your own business will give you control. Setting up on your own will require a lot of hard graft at the outset (as I’m sure you realize). However, it will provide you with the freedom to choose your own hours, set your own rates, and decide which projects you wish to take on. The different levels of editing I think it’s worth summarizing the different levels of editing as this will show you where your current skills might slot in.
There’s more information in the following articles:
What would suit you? Given that you’re already immersed in teaching creative writing – albeit to a younger audience – you might do well to focus your training on big-picture work because you could utilize an already-developed skill set. Another route to consider is offering private writing tuition. Many first-time authors want to develop their craft, and if you enhance your existing knowledge base with specialist professional training and professional society membership, you'd have a powerful key selling point not only to local writers but those searching online too. And if you enjoy working with secondary-school students, there’s nothing to stop you offering private tuition to them too. You’ve already proven yourself within the school sector, but this option would allow you to continue teaching while achieving control and flexibility over your working hours. Training I’ve covered the issue of training in previous Q&As so take a look at the following articles for information about high-quality courses that focus on the broader practice of editorial work:
If you do decide to focus on big-picture editing, I’d recommend specialist training. Perhaps you’ll discover nothing new, but that will be a huge confidence booster. And if there are gaps in your skill set, you’ll find out where they are and be able to rectify the problem before you begin working with clients. Sophie Playle of Liminal Pages is an experienced developmental editor who runs two relevant courses: Also take a look at the Society for Editors and Proofreaders’ Introduction to Fiction Editing. Note that the SfEP assumes basic copyediting knowledge for this course. Getting noticed One of the biggest challenges for any new editorial business owner is getting noticed. Again, I’ve discussed marketing in previous Q&As, so you might like to review the following:
If you were to go down the route of offering creative writing courses for beginners, consider researching local writing groups; and talk to local bookshops to see if you might publicize the courses through them. How about your local chamber of commerce? Is there support there – perhaps local contacts who are involved in self-publishing? You might collaborate with the chamber to provide a beta course or seminar series that would help you learn what works and what doesn’t. This would enable you to mine your existing teaching skill set while expanding your local network. And, of course, self-publishers aren’t the only market. Mainstream publishers are a superb client base with whom to build your portfolio once you’ve completed your training because they already understand the value that professional editors bring to the table. It’s worth bearing in mind, too, that there are fewer specialist developmental editors than copyeditors and proofreaders. Moving in this direction would mean you have less competition once you begin actively marketing your new business. Budget One thing I can’t advise on is whether my suggestions are ‘too costly’! Price is always relative in any case. My recommendations are based on quality rather than affordability because I see no sense in suggesting training that won’t help you achieve career independence and fitness for purpose. Your career background will offer you a strong foundation on which to build your editorial business, and if you’re prepared to combine those skills with additional professional development and a commitment to marketing, I believe you could do very well indeed. Good luck, Noella!
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in helping self-publishing writers prepare their novels for market.
She is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors, and runs online courses from within the Craft Your Editorial Fingerprint series. She is also an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. Louise loves books, coffee and craft gin, though not always in that order. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're an author, take a look at Louise’s Writing Library and access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly. How to make your proofreading and editing business stand out If you're a new proofreader or editor and you're wondering whether you should specialize, here's my advice, all packed up into a 13-page PDF booklet. 
I believe that being a specialist makes sense in a global editorial market, and in this free mini ebook, I discuss how using the language of specialism
To get your free copy, just click on the lemon and limes below! 
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.
Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, 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 week’s reader question is from Pritti, who’s already secured publishing work but wants to move out of her science commissioning role. Lack of practical experience and relevant qualifications are holding her back.
Pritti says:
Thanks so much for allowing this to be a open forum/platform for beginners like me to ask questions! I am a 23-year-old law graduate who currently works as a commissioning editor for a online science publishing company. However, even though this has been a 'foot in the door' type of position, my heart is really set on going into trade publishing and becoming a freelance editor. Not only that, my position here as a commissioning editor isn't what it actually says on the tin – it's more on the commissioning side of things rather than editing. In fact, I do no editing whatsoever, in my opinion! So I feel like I'm not gaining the necessary skills I need for the industry. I was thinking that obtaining a well-recognized qualification would help get me noticed, as my ultimate goal is to become a freelance editor – but without gaining the necessary experience in my current role, and without the qualifications, I do feel like I'm at loss here. I've also applied for a number of roles but been unsuccessful owing to my lack of experience. Freelance agencies have also rejected my application for the same reasons – not having enough experience. Furthermore, there's also no way of acquiring clients where I work. Please help! Thanks so much for your question, Pritti! I accept that your current role won’t give you the practical experience you require because you’re in a commissioning rather than production role. However, I don’t think that needs to stand in your way of embarking on training that will prepare you for developmental editing, line editing, copyediting or proofreading in a freelance capacity. No training provider will turn you away because you don’t already have the experience! The UK’s Society for Editors and Proofreaders, for example, offers a suite of online training courses designed for novices and experienced professionals alike. I wonder whether because you’re working in-house you’ve got yourself into a mindset of thinking like an employee. If want to work as an independent editor, you need to start thinking like an employer (of yourself). That means sorting out everything for your business from your training to marketing to administration. Getting qualifications My first piece of advice is therefore to sort out the qualifications issue. I’ve covered this in several previous Q&As, so take a look at the articles and the list of national editorial societies below. You haven’t told me where you live but there are several distance-learning options available (in Canada, the US and the UK, for example).
Getting work Freelance agencies are certainly one option, but that’s a narrow approach to take given the many others worthy of exploration. Here are some additional ideas:
Your subject specialism You told me that you’d like to work in the trade publishing sector. The term ‘trade’ refers to the publishing of materials for a general audience. If you want to be found by, for example, independent thriller writers, you’re going to need to be visible, and that may take time while you build your portfolio and your SEO. If you want to do freelance work for trade publishers (for example, Pan Macmillan or Little, Brown) you’ll might well struggle until you have more experience under your belt (unless you get lucky). I think this is something you should set your sights on further down the road. In the meantime, focus your efforts on building your freelance business – marketing yourself and practising your post-qualification craft. I always recommend that new entrants to the field focus attention on the market where they’re most likely to stand out. Specialize in what you know first; diversify later. You have a law degree. I don’t. That’s why I’d never copyedit for a law student or an academic submitting an article to a legal journal. And while I have proofread law books for academic publishers, those clients never asked me to copyedit. Your law degree means you speak a language and have a knowledge base that I don’t (and many other experienced editors don’t). You can use that to differentiate yourself. When I began my editorial business journey, I had professional training, a politics degree and experience of working in-house for a social science publisher. I didn’t spend valuable time trying to get my business off the ground by asking Gollancz if I could proofread their SF Masterworks series (much as I would have loved to do that!). Instead, I went and knocked on the door of social science publishers and spent several years honing my craft with politics, sociology, philosophy, economics and media studies books. Over time, new opportunities arose as I became more visible and my marketing efforts began to bear fruit. But it did take time, and while that happened I concentrated on where my strengths lay so that I could gain experience. I believe that you need to do the same. I think you should focus on the following client groups to begin with:
Some academic publishers also have trade divisions/imprints and so the academic work can deliver trade opportunities to the independent editor. Summing up I hope that helps you get your thoughts in order, Pritti. If you take things one step at a time, I’m confident you can get to a point where you’re immersed in the trade sector. But I’d recommend building up to it by playing to your market strengths. Good luck!
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in helping self-publishing writers prepare their novels for market.
She is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors, and runs online courses from within the Craft Your Editorial Fingerprint series. She is also an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. Louise loves books, coffee and craft gin, though not always in that order. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're an author, take a look at Louise’s Writing Library and access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.
Should you edit or proofread pornography? What if it’s erotica? Is there even a difference?
Does sexually explicit written material deserve to be edited? What is it exactly, and what is it not? And if you want to edit it, how do you make yourself visible to its authors? Perhaps you have strict criteria for the types or subgenres of pornography or erotica that you’ll edit. In that case, how can you communicate these to potential clients? Here’s my take. And it is only my take. Some of my colleagues won’t touch the stuff with a bargepole. And those of us who will? Well, we all have our individual boundaries. What is pornography? And what is it not? If only there were a universally accepted definition of pornography. There isn’t, alas. What you consider porn may not be what I consider porn. Or one of us might think a written work is more erotic than pornographic. Others might not even bother making a distinction. And that’s the first thing any editor needs to recognize. The term ‘pornography’ is loaded with subjectivism and preconceptions, many of them heteronormative, so what you’re expecting and what actually ends up in your editing studio could be two very different things. ‘Pornography is notoriously difficult to define, and overburdened with assumptions concerning – at the very least – gender, sexuality, power, globalization, desire, affect, and labour,’ say Rebecca Sullivan and Alan McKee. Oxford offers the following broad definition: ‘Printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate sexual excitement.’ And broad it is. Too broad, in my opinion, because it doesn’t exclude materials with descriptions or displays of non-consenting performers and minors, which are illegal. What we can say is that definitions are contested – in society, in the courts, and in academic literature. That makes it difficult for the editor who’s asked, ‘Do you copyedit pornography?’ because even if you think you don’t, others might think you do because they have different opinions on what constitutes porn. So what do we do? I think custom guidelines are the answer, particularly if you decide to publicize the fact that you’re happy to edit sexually explicit material. Before we discuss these, let’s consider erotica. 
Is there a difference between pornography and erotica?
If there is a difference, it’s unlikely that the lines of distinction so clearly drawn in your own head will be shared by everyone else you consult on the matter. Echoing Sullivan and McKee, Leon F Seltzer notes the degree to which ‘the criteria used for distinguishing between the erotic and pornographic [are] … steeped in personal moral, aesthetic, and religious values’. And he goes on to say that the erotic ‘doesn’t appeal exclusively to our senses or carnal appetites. It also engages our aesthetic sense.’ Tracy Cooper-Posey’s distinction draws specifically on novel-craft: erotica isn’t ‘only about sex, unlike its gutter-cousin, pornography. At its purest, the new erotic novel is a brilliantly-written story with super-nova sex that compliments the caliber of the writing, and is fundamental to the plot and characters. In other words, if you remove the sex, the story can’t be told.’ And so it may be that if you, the editor, decide a manuscript’s sexually explicit content contains enough celebration of the human form and is written to a high enough standard, or has a good enough plot, then it’s erotica. If not, it’s porn. It seems to me that getting bogged down in the definitions will get us nowhere fast. The terminology is as tangled as that used to describe editorial services (well, maybe not that bad!). If the author’s struggling to write well, but is trying to create erotica, who am I to say it’s porn? And if it’s just sex that aims for nothing but titillation, but it’s written beautifully, artfully, does that mean it’s no longer porn? If your decision is down to the art-versus-smut argument, one thing’s for sure: you’re going to need to see a sample. And if you want to work on only certain types of material, you’ll do well to create some guidelines. 
Creating guidelines to keep you comfortable
Guidelines don’t just help you and the writer decide whether you’re a good fit. They’re also a great way of demonstrating your engagement with the subject and your willingness to have a conversation with a nervous or embarrassed author. What should you include? There’s no one way of going about this; include whatever’s important to you and what you want the author to know. Here are just a few ideas:
Are pornography and erotica worth editing?
‘Even filth needs editing,’ said my colleague Louise Bolotin when she wrote about the issue on my blog back in 2012, and I agree. The porn and erotica writers for whom I’ve worked are as committed to their writing as any crime fiction, thriller or literary fiction author. A client recently told me, ‘I love my writing and with your help I hope it can lead to something else. If we don’t dream, then we don’t create. I’m proud of my stories but this is a whole new world for me, and like anybody who writes, there’s insecurity.’ What was I dealing with? Not plot, no. Seltzer’s and Cooper-Posey’s definitions chimed here. But my client needed a lot of help with punctuation to make the narrative readable. He’d omitted all speech marks, so the dialogue was invisible. There were repetition and syntax problems. But the writing was strong – imaginative, funny, clever, sexy – and in this book at least, I think he had a great turn of phrase (almost poetic at times). The pace was good, the language potent, and the sex appropriately disgraceful. All in all, I think he did an excellent job! Even so, prior to editing, the book wasn’t publishable because it didn’t conform to recognizable standards of spelling, punctuation and grammar. The reader would have struggled to enjoy the story because they’d have been pulled out of it with every missing full point and speech mark. And that’s my job (and yours) – to help the author help the reader. So, yes, I think pornography and erotica are absolutely worthy of being edited. 
A word on the market
We know there’s a market for pornography and erotica. There are readers with an appetite for these genres, and writers ready to feed it. Those writers need editors to make those stories as good as they can be. If you’re comfortable working on adult material, then you’d do well to make this clear because there seems to be a dearth of professional editors advertising the fact. Here are some numbers generated by searching the UK’s Society for Editors and Proofreaders’ Directory of Editorial Services and the Editors Canada Online Directory of Editors using the following key words: 
In both countries, you’ll have the least competition in these directories if you’re prepared to edit porn and erotica (unless your author hyphenates science-fiction!).
Being visible – getting work
If pornography and erotica are genres you want to edit or proofread, approach the issue as you would any other subject specialism. The political science professor will be drawn to editors and proofreaders who make it explicit that they welcome this type of work, have experience of editing the subject matter, and provide resources and guidance that demonstrates that expertise. Pornography and erotica authors are no different. And so:
Anxiety – yours and the author’s
Some editors are keen to take on the work but anxious that it might reflect badly on them. Does being public about your willingness to edit pornography and erotica damage your reputation? I don’t believe so. Pornography and erotica are recognized genres. As long as we present our willingness to edit them with the same professionalism as we’d approach politics or philosophy, science fiction or romance, I see no problem. I and several of my editor friends are open about the fact that we work on adult material and none of us has suffered problems acquiring work. I think that’s down to the fact that we’re all committed to marketing our editorial businesses, and focusing on the value we can bring to the table. That’s what clients concentrate on, not the things that are of no interest to them. The thriller writer cares that I work on thrillers, not that I also copyedit erotica and historical fiction. Editors aren’t the only Nervous Nellies. Some of the writers who’ve contacted me about editing porn and erotica are anxious too. The emails usually start with something on the lines of ‘I feel a little embarrassed about this but …’ or ‘I hope you don’t mind me asking but …’ Again, guidelines and resources can help to reassure an author before they send the email. Summing up If you’re happy to edit porn and erotica, go for it. If you aren't, that's fine too. As independent business owners we can choose what material we want to work on and what we don’t. Wanting to edit a particular genre isn’t enough. Make sure your willingness to edit porn and erotica is visible – on your website and in the editorial directories you advertise in. If you don’t say it, you won’t be heard. Further reading
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.
Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're an author, you might like to visit Louise’s Writing Library to access my latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly. How to use social media with intention If you're an editor, proofreader, translator or indexer, you're probably already using social media. If that's the case, but you feel like you're struggling to keep it under control, this training course could be just what you need. Social media is great for chattering – updates about our kid’s first day at school, little notes about how badly we need coffee, pics of our cats sitting on our keyboards. It’s all great fun and long may it continue. But when it comes to using social media for business, we need to think about intention. Otherwise the dreaded rabbit hole will beckon. Laura Poole and Erin Brenner of Copyeditng kindly invited me to present an online masterclass for editors and proofreaders on social media marketing and engagement. I'll be your instructor for Social Media with Purpose on Tuesday, December 19, 2017, 11 am–12:30 pm Eastern Time. Key learning points In this 90-minute masterclass, we'll cover the following:
Registrants will also receive a free 53-page, 10,700-word ebook that addresses all the learning points, plus a list of links to recommended resources to help make your social media engagement persuasive, emotive and productive. 
I do hope you'll join me for the class. Details of registration fees and how to sign up are available on the Copyediting training page.
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.
Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, 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.
Lisa got in touch to ask for help with getting her proofreading career off the ground. She’s feels as if she’s between a rock and a hard place because of a lack of academic qualifications, career experience and time.
Lisa asks:
Hello, Louise! It seems that a lot of future editors have great educational experience. They can build on that to start with as a marketing tool. What can I do if I have spent 25 years raising children, and I don't have more than an associate's degree in General Studies, no experience, and not a lot of time to spend on learning marketing? I am a dog-walker and pet-sitter during the day, and I want to start marketing myself as a proofreader. Help! Hi, Lisa! Thanks so much for your question. I can appreciate that you probably feel like you’re banging your head against a brick wall at the moment. I do have two books that take you through the steps of editorial marketing, and one free booklet. I’ve posted links to those at the bottom of the article. They’ll give you the detail; here on the blog, I’m going to focus on the basics and try to get you in the right mindset. Time constraints Time management is a tough one, but it’s something that everyone who’s set up their own freelancing business has experienced. The challenges don’t go away once we’re established either. Take me for example. I have to find time to work on my business, too – time for marketing, time for administration, time for advanced training, time to train others! I, too, have a family and a business to run (my fiction editing work) during the day. Time for the business of running my business has to be found, and it’s tough. That’s why I’m writing a blog post now, at 9.30 p.m. on a Monday evening on my laptop in front of the TV. The dog’s to my left, the girl’s in her room, the hubbie’s on the other sofa! My life is all about multitasking and there’s no way around it. I know a lot of people who do their marketing out of hours, or chunks of it at least. We all have the same 24 hours in a day and we all juggle our backsides off to make it work. It’s just the way it goes. There’s no way of cheating it, no shortcut for any of us!
So, MINDSET TIP #1: Instead of thinking about how much time you don’t have, think instead of where you might borrow time from.
Here are some ideas:
Do you work 7 days a week, 365 days a year? For some people in the world, that’s a reality not a horror story, and if that’s you, you have my genuine sympathy. But if you do take weekends off (or one or two other days during the week), and if you do take some annual leave, might you consider using it as a busman’s holiday – devoting it to your business (marketing, training, etc.)? This isn’t most people’s idea of fun; it’s certainly a sacrifice. But if it gave you that 50 hours of professional training that you need to get off the starting blocks, it would be a sacrifice worth making, an investment for your future. Training Once you’ve borrowed some time, you need to decide what to do with it. I mentioned training briefly above but let’s dig a little deeper. You didn’t tell me what pro training you’ve completed, so for safety’s sake I’m going to assume it’s limited. Professional training is, I think, a requirement for anyone wanting to be taken seriously in today’s editorial freelancing market. It gives you confidence, ensures you’re fit for purpose and puts you on a par with the thousands of trained colleagues with whom you’ll be competing. Having pro training is no longer stand-out, it’s stand-ard. You might be worried that you don’t have time to do in-depth professional classes – you’re at work all day so can’t attend on-site training.
So, MINDSET TIP #2: Think online. This is the way to go because you can train at your convenience in your own borrowed time.
Above, I talked about Laura Poole and Erin Brenner’s online classes via Copyediting. The Society for Editors and Proofreaders and the Publishing Training Centre in the UK both offer outstanding distance-learning courses for copyediting and proofreading, too. Those are just a few examples, but nailing the classes means you can demonstrate on your website that you’re a professional – with pro training, a pro attitude and pro commitment. I believe that our marketing messages should focus on our clients’ problems first and foremost, but backing that up with training is a no-brainer. So let’s talk about marketing. Marketing The thing about marketing is that you can get right on it – start doing it while you’re learning it. Perhaps there are some editorial freelancers who have client lists as long as their arms and can rely completely on word of mouth. Or they have lots of publisher clients who offer repeat work (I’ll talk about that below). But the new starter in today’s market has to think bigger.
So, MINDSET TIP #3: Be visible. The invisible proofreader (or editor) is an unemployed proofreader (or editor). Even pro proofreaders and editors need to market themselves consistently.
Some types of marketing are slow burn; some can have a much quicker impact. Here are some ideas that fit into both categories:
And that final point leads us onto something else worth considering … Client focus When it comes to marketing, every editorial business owner needs to think about which clients they’re going to target. For you, this may feel trickier because you don’t have a career background that lends itself to a particular subject specialism.
So, MINDSET TIP #4: Instead of thinking about what you don’t have in terms of education and career experience, think about what clients want and what their problems are.
Here are just a few examples that will help you develop your marketing message:
Focusing your message on solutions to your clients’ problems means they see you concentrating on them rather than on you. Imagine this … you walk into two shops, intent on buying a new pair of shoes from one or other. In store A, the assistant spends half an hour telling you about her feet. In store B, the assistant asks you about your own. Where do you want to buy your Jimmy Choos – A or B? All of us need to make our clients want to buy editorial services from us, so we need to focus our message on their problems and their needs, not how brilliant we are. And in fact, though, we can demonstrate our brilliance precisely by being focused on them. It comes down to good old-fashioned customer service. Hope that helps. I wish you well on your editorial business-building journey, Lisa! Resources
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in helping self-publishing writers prepare their novels for market.
She is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors, and runs online courses from within the Craft Your Editorial Fingerprint series. She is also an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. Louise loves books, coffee and craft gin, though not always in that order. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're an author, take a look at Louise’s Writing Library and access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.
One of the main reasons why blogs (and vlogs or podcasts) die is because the creator finds it difficult to maintain the momentum. ‘What am I going to write about?’ ‘What if it’s already been covered elsewhere?’
Invite questions … Inviting people to email me with questions is my top tip for generating blog ideas that are right on target. Questions are how your readers frame their problems. And when you solve those problems, you help people – make life easier for them. And that’s one of the most powerful ways of engaging with someone … just like in real life. All you need for one blog post is one question from one person. That’s because even though only one person has asked, there’s a good chance that many more people have wondered the same thing. Solve that one person’s problem and you’ve probably solved a hundred people’s problems. 
Customize and personalize
My Q&A series is built on precisely this premise. When someone emails me with a question, I tell them that I’ll write a detailed answer for them on the blog. The answer won’t be generic, but specifically for them. My articles are often quite broad-based – they aim to talk to lots of people at once: how to create a resource hub, which proofreading courses I recommend, grammar rules and preferences, online writing courses, how to price proofreading and copyediting projects, and so on. But there’s nothing generic about how I handled Rachel’s question: ‘I have multiple sclerosis and severely reduced manual dexterity – can I become a professional proofreader?’ The blog post I created in response to that was written just for her. And, yet, two people emailed me after I published that post to thank me for it because they, too, had conditions that affected their fine motor skills and wanted some guidance on how that might impact on their ability to build a freelance editorial business. So that’s one question, and three people’s problems solved that I know of. I reckon there are plenty of other people out there who didn’t contact me, and never will, but who might have the exact same question. I make sure I stamp each Q&A blog post with a banner that identifies it clearly as part of this series. And at the end, I always include an invitation to get in touch. 
Respect privacy
I think it’s a good idea to offer to mask a person’s identity. Some readers feel uncomfortable about asking questions in public. The reasons are varied but include worries about being judged or appearing to lack knowledge and experience. The reality is that none of us knows everything. We’re all learning … and always learning. I have plenty of answers up my sleeve, but I have a ton of questions, too. Sometimes I’m happy to ask them in public; other times I choose a more intimate space. At all times, trust is essential, so if you offer a Q&A-style service on your blog, take care to ensure that all parties are on the same page about what personal information will be included before you go live. I now have a dedicated form that Q&A participants fill in. This includes a section where the questioner can tell me whether they’re happy for me to use their first name, or if they want this and other identification markers masked. The gifts from all the beginners Don’t be afraid to tackle issues that you think are ‘easy’ or ‘simple’ or ‘basic’. Anything’s easy when you know the answer; when you don’t, the solution seems unreachable. Here’s a story from my own backyard ... I’ve been adding video into my marketing mix – shorties that introduce blog posts and resources I’ve created for self-publishing authors. I posted one of those videos into a marketing forum to get some feedback. My pal Mark Orr, an expert in smartphone video creation (Pocket Video School), told me that the resolution and head-positioning were off. There are, it turns out, fixes to both these problems, but they’re only straightforward when you know them. I didn’t, and it wasn’t until Mark and I had a proper chat on Skype that we worked out where I’d been going wrong. Something we discovered during that conversation is that there were about 20 more questions that I didn’t know the answer to but which were a doddle for him. He helped with all of them, but he told me I’d helped him, too, because I’d given him a few ideas of what to vlog about. He made me feel that my lack of knowledge was both welcome and an opportunity. And because he helped me, I now trust him. More on that later … Here’s an example of when the beginner question isn’t welcomed. In May 2017, Steven Pressfield posted about ‘Clueless Asks’, in which he states that when beginners ask ‘clueless’ questions, ‘they have not done their due diligence. Don’t ask a writer how to get an agent. Find out yourself. There are ten thousand sources online and a hundred books in the Writing section of a book store.’ Now, Pressfield has a point. There are no doubt thousands of online resources that will answer the question, and if you’re not interested in building an online platform that gets heard over the cacophony that is the internet, then you’ll sympathize with him. But – and it’s a huge but – if your blog is foundational to your visibility and you see it as a valuable tool for communicating and sharing with your colleagues and clients, then a ‘clueless ask’ is NOT a frustration. It’s a gift – and a precious one at that. It’s precious because it helps me publish articles that I know at least one person wants to read, articles that will help someone, and make their life easier. 
The privilege of being asked and trusted
Every time someone asks me something that I think is easy, or obvious, or simple, or has already been answered elsewhere, I am reminded that my questioner asked me. Which means they came to my website, took the time to engage with me, chose to trust me (just like I came to trust Mark). That’s amazing, especially since we’re usually strangers to each other. And since they’ve privileged me with a visit, I’d like them to stay rather than nipping off somewhere else … and talking to someone whom they deem more helpful than me. A good blog is a helpful blog. And even if the content I post has been answered by someone else, somewhere else, the questioner couldn’t find it or didn’t go looking for it. They asked me. That means it’s worth having on my blog. And if they ask you, it’s worth having on your platform, too. Plus, each of us will answer in our own unique ways – with our own voices and experiences. Each of our approaches might differ a little or a lot. Either way, the internet is big enough for a multitude of voices and approaches. All of us can be part of the conversation, so my advice is to see the question (however basic) as a giant opportunity. Being audience-focused In ‘How to build a web presence that outsmarts, outperforms and outlasts the search engines’, Stoney deGeyter discusses how back in 1998 it was relatively easy to get the attention of the search engines. Good Google rankings could be found with the right keywords and links. These days, that’s not enough. Now, it’s about ‘creating a web presence that people love’. That means gearing it towards the audience, not the search engines. What better way to gear a blog towards an audience than answering the questions your audience has? Other ways to find the questions Inviting questions is one way of working out what problems need solving. But there are others, too. The key is to be clear about whom your intended audience is and where they’re hanging out. Once you know that, lurk and listen. Who’s asking what? Some options to consider include:
I hope this has given you some ideas about how to generate blog content that’s of genuine use to your readers. Inviting questions isn’t the only way, but it’s one I love because it personalizes my blog space and puts me in direct conversation with my readers. And in the spirit of the subject, don’t forget … You ask. I'll answer
I'm more than happy to tackle questions, especially from beginners. If there's something you want advice about, drop me a line and I'll post a solution to your problem here. The more focused your question, the more in-depth my answer will be! And if you want me to mask your identity, no problem.
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.
Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, 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.
Can you proofread and copyedit professionally without being mouse-dependent? And what if you don't have a degree? Does it matter? A reader asked me. Here's my take.
Andrew says:
I am considering taking introductory courses in proofreading and copyediting; firstly, please could I ask you about the software used. Usually I prefer to use the keyboard to move around the menus, because I find repeatedly using a mouse tiring on my hands and arms. Does (at least some of) the software used in your industry allow keyboard use as an alternative to mouse work? Secondly, would my lack of a degree hold me back? I have many years' experience in IT system development and programming; would this experience be attractive to publishers? However, I was hoping to not just to work on IT-related material! Thanks for your question, Andrew. Let’s deal with the software issue first. Software Text editing When editing raw text, most editors use Microsoft Word. There are several excellent complementary add-on programs. These increase the editor’s productivity because they allow us to do complex tasks more quickly. One example is PerfectIt, an outstanding consistency checker that can be customized to find and fix problems including hyphenation, capitalization, spelling variance, number style, italics, super/subscript, bullet punctuation, and wildcard searches. In addition, there are hundreds of free macros available to editors, all of which are designed to complement the editor’s eye. Examples include spell-checkers, proper-noun analysis tools, homonym and homophone identifiers, Then there are onboard tools in Word such as wildcard search and find/replace to name but two. And let’s not forget Word’s ribbon, which provides quick access to a range of tools, including the Styles palette. To work efficiently, you’ll need to access these tools. As long as you know (or can learn) how to access the relevant menus via your keyboard, and assign keyboard shortcuts, I see no reason why you should be dependent on a mouse. Page-proof annotation If you’re hired to proofread designed page proofs, you’ll likely be working on PDF in Acrobat Pro, PDF-XChange, Adobe Reader or similar. You’ll need to be able to use the onboard comment-and-markup tools and possibly the stamps palette. Again, providing you can learn the keyboard shortcuts, you can minimize your mouse usage. There’s a helpful list of Acrobat shortcuts on the Adobe website: A note of caution: my concern is the impact on your speed. One of the keys to being a successful independent editor is efficiency. If you’re already a seasoned mouse-independent Word and Acrobat user, and are introducing new keyboard shortcuts into your existing knowledge base, I suspect the transition will be comfortable and the impact on your speed minimal. If you’re not familiar with these programs, the tools within them, and the access keys, you’ll need practice to build your speed. In general, though, given your extensive experience in systems development and programming, I can’t see these issues being obstacles for you, Andrew. You’ve probably forgotten more about how to navigate a computer screen than I’ve ever known! Is a degree necessary? If you want to copyedit for specialist scientific editing agencies, you’ll likely need at least a Master’s in a related discipline, even a doctorate. If you plan to work for publishers or packagers (project-management agencies) with book lists in the social sciences, arts, humanities and technology, they’ll be more interested in your professional editorial training, and your ability to perform successfully in an editorial assessment. If you wish to copyedit and proofread reports, books, journal articles, theses and dissertations for self-publishers, businesses, academics and students, focus on what you can do to solve their problems. These days, I work exclusively for self-publishing fiction writers. They’re preparing their novels for a crowded market full of discerning readers with the ability to leave critical reviews on Amazon. My job is to help them overcome some of the problems they’ll encounter on that journey, and my website focuses on that rather than on my politics degree. Did my politics degree help me when I worked exclusively for social science publishers? Perhaps. But I think my years of in-house publishing experience, marketing social science journals, helped more. When some years later I was proofreading a book for a well-known university press and Loïc Wacquant came up in the references but the diacritic in his first name had been omitted, I spotted it. It was my career experience that showed me the way, not my degree. You, too, can use your IT background to demonstrate your knowledge and experience to clients. But it will only be part of the story. Ultimately, your message will need to be about them – their problems, their concerns, their challenges … and how you are part of the solution. If you tell that story in a compelling way, you’ll build a brand identity that inspires trust and engagement, one that makes you stand out against your competitors, regardless what subject you didn’t read at university. And though you don’t want to work exclusively on IT-related material, don’t shy away from using that as your springboard. It’s what you know, what makes you special. No one’s going to hire me to edit an IT book. Why would they when they can hire someone who speaks the language and knows the subject like the back of his hand – someone like you? Specialize in what you know first. Diversify as the opportunities arise, and develop your brand identity as required. That way you’re playing to your strengths in the start-up phase. I hope that helps you on your journey. Good luck!
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in helping self-publishing writers prepare their novels for market.
She is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors, and runs online courses from within the Craft Your Editorial Fingerprint series. She is also an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. Louise loves books, coffee and craft gin, though not always in that order. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're an author, take a look at Louise’s Writing Library and access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.
Content marketing gives a lot of editors and proofreaders the willies. Too little time, too much work, don’t have enough ideas, can’t work out what to blog about, don’t even know what it is … those are statements I’ve heard aplenty.
So when John Espirian and I agreed to lead a 2-hour workshop on content marketing at the 2017 Society for Editors and Proofreaders annual conference in Wyboston Lakes, we assumed we’d have our work cut out for us.
How were we going to convince a room full of wordsmiths that content marketing is valuable, doable and enjoyable? To cut a long story short, we asked them to throw their split infinitives, comma splices, dangling modifiers and restrictive clauses out of the window for 120 minutes and have a bit of fun with us. Did they rise to the challenge? You bet! 
The problem with marketing
Every business owner needs to do marketing. And if you love it (like I do, like John does) that’s great. But what if you find it a bore? What if you’re someone who prefers the work you do to the work you do to get the work you do? Still with me? Editors and proofreaders are just as time-poor as anyone else. Marketing takes time and effort. And content marketing requires commitment because you won't see the impact overnight. One of the best things about content marketing, though, is that it’s ripe for playfulness. And that’s the case whether you’re doing it or learning to do it. That playfulness must be on-brand, of course, but creating useful, helpful, valuable content that solves clients’ problems needn’t be a dull process if you keep an open mind. John and I asked our colleagues to open their minds and go a little bonkers. And if you think you can’t do content marketing, perhaps you can try this exercise too. 
The Whacky-business Workshop (or how to develop a content marketing mindset)
We spent the first hour on the why and what of content marketing so that our friends understood the principles that underpin the approach. And just in case you don’t know, content marketing is basically about creating and delivering useful stuff that inspires people to trust you, engage with you, even buy from you. Next, we asked them to get into groups of two or three. Then we handed them a list of businesses and asked them to choose one. And so began the Whacky-business Workshop. There were no businesses related to editing and proofreading, mind you. None of the jobs in that list is something any of us has ever done; some of them aren’t even real, though not many. Instead, we gave them a list of whacky businesses – that way, our delegates would be forced away from their existing editorial business focus, and free to embrace a content marketing mindset. Here’s what they had to play with:
20 minutes to think, 1 minute to present We asked them to think about what problems those companies’ potential customers or colleagues would have – what they might ask before they decided to engage with or buy from one of those businesses – then generate as many content ideas as they could in 20 minutes. There were 2 rules:
Those who made our bellies ache the most would receive a chunk of content marketing goodies – well, books; we are editors, after all – written by industry experts. 
Why does being silly help?
If you can take everything you’ve learned in an hour, apply it in 20 minutes, and generate a framework of solutions in 60 seconds – and with a company and customers you know nothing about – what might you do if:
Believe me, if you can generate 10 questions that a client might ask before hiring a human scarecrow, 3 videos about the benefit of fart-reduction underpants, or 6 reasons to hire a professional mermaid – in the time it takes to bake a cake – coming up with ideas for a year’s worth of content for your editorial blog, vlog or podcast will be a walk in the park. And our session proved it. Our colleagues were amazing. Some were content marketing novices when they walked into the room, others were looking to hone their skills, but all of these perfect punctuators, grand grammarians and artful amenders slipped easily into the shoes of their new businesses … and their audience. Of course, there can only be one winner … well, two in this case: our friends and fellow pro editors Kate Haigh and Kia Thomas. If you’re seriously thinking about setting up as a human scarecrow and you need help with your marketing strategy, just call them. 
Some might think it’s difficult to make straw interesting, but Kate and Kia know different. Here's the content marketing magic they came up with in only 20 minutes:
Company name Outstanding in the Field – Human Scarecrows! Content aim To make our website a valuable resource for other human-scarecrow professionals Content ideas – solving potential clients' and colleagues' problems
Editors are born content marketers
It's true. Editors and proofreaders are problem solvers by nature. We spend our working days finding problems and working out how to fix them … not with blunt force but with elegance, with respect, with our writers in mind. We query kindly, we tweak tenderly, and we never forget that if our clients don’t have problems, we don’t have jobs. And that’s pretty much what content marketing is all about – identifying problems, offering solutions, and doing so in a way that makes the potential client trust you. So if you think you can’t do it, that it will be too hard, will take too much time, that you won’t have enough ideas, that you’re an editor not a marketer, then try being silly. Pick one of those whacky companies and ask yourself what you’d want to know before buying from them. Turn those queries into a list of ideas for blog posts, videos, PDFs, infographics, booklets or podcasts. There are no rules – you’re just having fun. When you’re done, think about your editorial business and your clients. What are their problems? And how might you create and deliver the solutions? No problem is too small, and no question too basic. If you’ve thought of it, chances are there’s a potential client who’s thought of it too. Why not be the one to fix it and have that solution on your website? If you have a question about content marketing for an editorial business, drop me a line or leave a comment. I’ll do my best to help … unless it’s about human scarecrows. In which case, you know who to call.
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in helping self-publishing writers prepare their novels for market.
She is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors, and runs online courses from within the Craft Your Editorial Fingerprint series. She is also an Advanced Professional Member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. Louise loves books, coffee and craft gin, though not always in that order. Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're an author, take a look at Louise’s Writing Library and access her latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.
The Begin Self-Publishing Podcast is dedicated to sharing tools, tips, advice and ideas about self-publishing from industry specialists.
The BSP host, Tim Lewis, kindly invited me onto the show to talk about fiction editing. Tim and I discuss the following:
You can listen to the full episode here: Fiction Editing with Louise Harnby Previous episodes have addressed non-fiction editing (with my friend and colleague Denise Cowle), business tips, marketing advice, social media promotion, cover design, interior formatting and publishing services. For more information, or to subscribe, go to the Begin Self-Publishing Podcast.
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.
Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're an author, you might like to visit Louise’s Writing Library to access my latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly.
Are you fed up with your 404 page? Worried that your clients are too? Broken links are broken conversations. Here’s a wee idea I came up with to fix the disappointment and get you and your visitors talking again … using a chatbot.
What is a 404 page? A 404 page is where your visitor ends up if they’ve clicked on a link to your website and one of the following has occurred:
Google’s recommendations for a high-quality 404 page
404 frustrations
When you hit a 404 page on a website, you feel frustrated. You’ve gone to that site for a reason – you’re trying to solve a problem, or learn something new, perhaps even buy a service or product. And if the page you’re searching for has been moved, or if the link you’ve clicked is incorrect, you end up in a place you don’t want to be. It’s a dead end. If the website’s owner has been thoughtful, there’ll be a search box or menu to help you, perhaps a list of links that might be useful. Still, you’re the one who has to do the work to get back on the right path because, usually, there isn’t is a way of talking to the owner, a way of saying, ‘I wanted X but I’m stuck. Can you help?’ And since you’re already in a grumpy mood, you’re more likely to disengage and leave the site. After all, someone else is probably solving your problem, and maybe if you head back to Google Search, you’ll find a fix rather than a 404. 
A beautiful bot! Introducing Lulu …
I’m a fiction copyeditor and proofreader and I love marketing my business! I regularly publish free booklets, PDFs, checklists and templates for fellow editors and proofreaders, and self-publishing authors. I share news about that content via social media and on my blog. A few weeks ago, I set up a free account with ManyChat. I created Lulu, my Messenger bot. She’s my digital assistant and she’s great – most of the time! We’ve had a few glitches … some digital napping on the job … but in the main she’s successfully helped me deliver my resources to my Facebook network. Instantly. I learned how to build Lulu from my two favourite pro content marketers Andrew and Pete. August was their ‘Build Your Bot Month’ and four in-depth tutorials taught me everything I needed to know to get going. If you want a taster, hop over to YouTube and watch ‘Get Started Using Messenger Bots in Your Marketing with Andrew and Pete’. All well and good. But was there other ways I could use Lulu to help me engage with my community of editors and authors meaningfully? Recently, I was looking for something online. It took a while to find what I wanted, but find it I did. Or nearly. The link looked good but landing was a disappointment – a 404. The site was busy and I had no clue where to start. So I did what a lot of people do online. I gave up and went somewhere more interesting instead. That’s not what I want people doing on my site. I want my authors and colleagues to feel that I’m there for them, ready to help, ready to engage. Could Lulu help? 
The ManyChat webpage widget
I decided to get Lulu on the case of my 404 page. I have a lot of content on my website, and even more external links to that content. I’ve been blogging regularly since 2011, and I’ve changed things around on my site more times than I care to mention. And while I do my best to set up 301 redirects when I make changes, there’s no doubt that there are external broken links about which I can do little. ManyChat has a bunch of growth tools including two embeddable widgets. One is an opt-in box that can be placed anywhere on a website. I’ve used this widget to provide a more interactive experience for my 404 arrivals, one that enables them to make choices with the click of a button, but ultimately to say, ‘Louise, I wanted X but I’m stuck. Can you help?’ Because they’re contacting me via Messenger, they can get in touch instantly. Which means I can help them quickly. And the quicker I help, the less likely they are to get the hump and go somewhere more interesting instead. What’s great about this widget is the customization element. You can choose colours, images and messages that reflect your clients’ needs and your solutions. It matters not whether you're an editor like me, or an author, or another type of business owner ... the widget will work for anyone with a website. 
Case study: the visitor journey on my 404 page
Now that I’ve set up Lulu, the visitor who lands on my 404 page can take a journey, one that involves the ability to interact directly with me quickly. Here’s what it looks like ... This is what the visitor sees when they land: 
Clicking on the button takes them to a new page:
Now the conversation beings in Messenger. First, Lulu introduces herself and asks the visitor to provide some information that will determine how the interaction proceeds:
In this example, the visitor has selected ‘Author’. This generates a new set of choices, including the option to have a conversation with me:
If the visitor chooses to ask for a quote or get some free resources, they’re taken directly to the relevant pages on my website. If they wish to talk to me, Lulu acknowledges the request with a message:
In the Messages section of my Facebook page I receive a notification that someone wishes to chat. Lulu steps aside and the real conversation with me can begin:
Summing up
The ManyChat widget allows us to work with Google’s recommendations: apologetic, friendly language that acknowledges the problem; colours, language and images that are on-brand; clickable links to key pages and core content; and the ability to report the problem directly via an instant conversation. Landing on a 404 page is a negative experience for the visitor. A chatbot turns that negative experience into an opportunity, one that offers a series of calls to action. By including a discussion in the mix, we can offer one-to-one engagement. And it’s fun! We’re putting a smile back on a frustrated client’s face, and that can only be a good thing! Have you used a chatbot for your own 404 page, or as a way of engaging with your clients and colleagues? Let me know in the comments!
Louise Harnby is a fiction copyeditor and proofreader. She curates The Proofreader's Parlour and is the author of several books on business planning and marketing for editors and proofreaders.
Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Proofreader & Copyeditor, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn. If you're an author, you might like to visit Louise’s Writing Library to access my latest self-publishing resources, all of which are free and available instantly. How to get 10 blogs posts from 1 booklet. Stretching exercises for proofreaders and editors7/8/2017
Why marketing is sometimes a struggle Here are two reasons why a lot of proofreaders and editors struggle with marketing:
Here’s an option that will solve both problems. I’m talking about something I bet all of you do rather well, and how you can get some efficiencies from it that will stretch your marketing budget (no Lycra required!).
What do you do really, really well? I’ve not yet met one of my peers who couldn’t have a decent conversation with me about editing and proofreading – whether it be a technical or stylistic issue, or a business-development matter. You're all great at it. And if you can talk about it, you can write about it. And if you can write about it, you can offer that information to colleagues and potential clients. And that’s marketing. So, for those of you sitting in the too-difficult camp, you’ve no excuse! And here’s a tip – solving problems is always good fodder for marketing. If you’ve read Marketing Your Editing & Proofreading Business, you’ll recall my discussion of Kevin Daum’s Differentiation–Empathy–Solution framework. The empathy part of the framework is where you identify the problems. The solution part of the framework is … well, it’s pretty obvious! If you’ve read my Content Marketing Primer for Editors & Proofreaders, you’ll recall that I bang on non-stop about solving customers’ problems. So write about all the problems you’ve ever been asked to solve and you’ll not go far wrong in terms of engaging with the audience who asked the questions in the first place. Now we’ve got that out of the way, let’s look at one way you can save yourself time in the long run … Recycling This year I landed a free ticket for the Summit on Content Marketing via content marketing masters Andrew and Pete. One hundred speakers in twelve days. No, I didn’t listen to all of the webinars. And I was up until 1 a.m. frequently, just to catch what I could. But it was worth it because one of the sessions was by Gordon Graham, aka That White Paper Guy. In ‘One White Paper, Five Ways: Stretch Your Content Marketing Budget by Repurposing’, Graham demonstrated how after creating one large, in-depth piece of writing (which can be used as a marketing tool in its own right) you can create additional promo pieces from it by slicing and dicing. More on that later. Now, Graham specializes in the white paper – ‘A persuasive essay that uses facts and logic to promote a better way to solve a business problem’ – but we editorial pros can take the basic principles and use them to create our own problem-solving materials too. Let’s put aside the term white paper and think in terms of booklets instead – ebooklets specifically, since we can post them on a blog and pages of a website, send them out to our mailing list or blog subscribers, email them to colleagues or clients who are looking for answers contained in that booklet, link to them in our social media posts, upload them to our membership forums, and so on. What makes a great booklet? Graham has some wonderful advice on how to approach a white paper, but I think these points are well worth bearing in mind for booklets too. I’m paraphrasing here but it boils down to this:
We’re editors and proofreaders. That’s mostly nuts-and-bolts stuff that editors are paid to look out for, so I’m confident every one of us can do this. Upside-down thinking In the past, I’ve tended to think of my writing upside down. I might create several blog articles and then wonder whether, because they’re related (say, by topic), I can merge them into something more substantive. My first two books emerged, in part, from that mode of thinking. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that approach. However, it’s not always the most efficient way of doing things; I tend to limit myself in terms of word count and perhaps omit information that I’d like to explore in more depth but choose not to because I don’t want to overload the reader. And then, when I want to create something more substantive, I have to go back and rewrite large chunks of material to ensure the detail’s there. By switching things round and creating the big piece first, I don’t limit myself or my ideas. I can put everything into the booklet, and then decide how best to slice and dice later. Examples of white papers and booklets Here are five examples of in-depth pieces – three from the publishing industry, and two from my own stable:
The slice and dice – a case study
To show you how the process works, and why I think it’s effective, I’m using How to write great sex scenes as a case study, because it’s something that’s on the go at the moment and the process is fresh in my mind. Why am I writing it? Because I’m asked about it A LOT, and it’s something that many beginner authors struggle with. That means it solves a problem. And when we solve problems we’re more likely to be trusted. There are tens of thousands of people in the world offering editing and proofreading services. For the beginner author, with no prior experience of self-publishing, trying to find help can be terrifying. Is X trustworthy? Does Y know what she’s doing? Is Z worth the money he’s asking? When we show we’re engaged with our clients’ problems, we begin to earn their trust, and they’re more likely to ask us to quote. So I’m not only helping my clients, but also helping my business. What do I get out of it? I’m learning. This is the realm of writer coaching and developmental editing. That I’m neither of those things is neither here nor there. The fact is that lots of my clients choose not to hire developmental editors or writing coaches before they come to me. So if I learn, at least I can articulate what their problems are, how they might solve them in their future writing projects, and direct them to expert guidance that I’ve discovered on my own journey. Why don’t I just refer them to existing articles? Because there’s tons of the stuff. And that doesn’t help a beginner author who’s in the very early stages of developing their novel-craft and navigating the self-publishing process. Like all of you, I pride myself on being helpful and solving authors’ problems rather than creating more for them! Besides, I want that content on my website. I want my authors to see that I’m engaged with their problems rather than just sending them to someone else – someone they’ll think is more helpful than me. How am I handling the research? I’m reading a lot (research like a think tank). The advice is always wise, and sometimes hilarious, so it’s a joy to do. And this way I get to summarize the advice of expert writing coaches who know how to write about sex well, and the resources they’ve created. There are entire books about this stuff, you know! And I’ll cite like a scholar. Well, perhaps I won’t be using the full author–date system (I do, after all, want to write more like a journalist and communicate like a human being) but all my sources will be attributed fully in a reference section at the end. What about the format? It’ll be a PDF, but I’ll create a hardcopy-style booklet image for marketing purposes – a bit like this one for the audio-book primer. 
I like a landscape format for my booklets because they work well on tablets and laptop screens. But, really, it’s a personal choice.
I’ll create the cover image in Canva (using the principles outlined in an excellent and free Canva Copy Special video and template by Andrew and Pete) using my brand colours and fonts. Then I’ll use that to create a 3D booklet picture with BoxShot 3D (there’s a newer version but I prefer the older one; you can still access it though it’s not supported technically). How long will it be and how long will it take to write? I reckon about 10,000 words max. in total – maybe 9 or 10 sections covering different aspects of the problem. I don’t know how long it will take, to be honest. I tend to write my blog posts and booklets in front of the TV. That way, I’m relaxed and don’t feel like it’s cutting into my spare time. Reading time is something I don’t have trouble fitting into my life – it’s just something that happens, and it’s a pleasure, even when I’m learning. My approach to my marketing and writing is: it takes as long as it takes. It’ll be ready when it’s ready. It might take a week, or a month, or more. It depends what else is going on. My only rule is that I make sure I’m ahead of myself by a couple of months so that I can market my business regularly and consistently with my writing. The thing is, once it’s done, I get to kick back and break out the chopping board! The slice-and-dice-stage Once I have the booklet written and the image produced, I can use it as it is – a substantive, useful and compelling resource that will help current and future clients. But I can also chop it up. If I have 10 different sections, and each one’s around 1,000 words, I can easily create a series of 10 blog posts, each with its own core theme. That’s a lot of useful content to offer potential clients, and I can stagger the publication in whatever way suits me best. Does that detract from the value of the booklet? I don’t think so. It’s about visibility and choice. Regarding visibility, different people find answers to problems in different ways. So they might see my tweet about this booklet and think, ‘That’s useful. I’ll download that.’ But they might also place a longer question into Google, such as ‘How long should a sex scene be in a novel?’ My booklet’s unlikely to show up because its title doesn’t answer that question. But a blog post that looks specifically at that question might well end up in the results. It’s certainly far more likely to than the booklet title alone. As for choice, the thing to remember is that not everyone can be bothered to root around on a blog for Parts 1 to whatever. Blog posts work really well when everything’s in one place, but once you start asking people to jump here, there and everywhere there’s a risk they’ll switch off. What I like to do is slice up the content into several posts but give the reader the option of downloading the full booklet at every stage. Graham also suggests using some of the sliced-off articles as guest posts. This is a great idea because, again, you’re putting your resource in front of a new audience that might otherwise not have seen it. Repurpose and relax Any editor or proofreader can stretch their marketing budget using this recycling method. When we create an in-depth, research-based resource, we help our clients and we teach ourselves. That’s a win–win all round. As long as it’s dripping with value, you should feel free to carve it up in whatever way suits you. Your clients aren’t homogeneous when it comes to finding solutions to their problems, which means you don’t have to be homogeneous when it comes to delivering them. When you slice and dice, and deliver according to your audience’s preferences, you increase engagement, build trust and expand the life cycle of the story you’re telling. What’s not to like? – that’s how I rounded up the discussion of how publishers can stretch their marketing budgets on BookMachine’s blog. I think it stands just the same for the freelance editorial pro. Go on! Write yourself a booklet! Also mentioned
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. If you're an author, you might like to join Louise’s Writing Library. Members receive monthly updates featuring self-publishing news and resources. |
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