Freelance editors are professionals who perform editorial services for writers, publishers, and businesses on a freelance basis. Services offered by freelance editors include critiques, revision, ghostwriting, copy editing, proofreading, marketing assistance, and even help with the process of planning and writing a manuscript. Publishing houses hire freelance editors when they need help with their workloads, or if they are too small to keep full-time editors on payrolls. Businesses hire freelance editors for the same reasons, for projects like editing documentation, press releases, newsletters, and marketing and advertising copy.
Writers hire freelance editors for a variety of reasons.
Sometimes writers are unsure if their works are marketable, so they ask freelance editors for critiques. A freelance editor can analyze a manuscript s marketability and suggest ways to improve it. A freelance editor can assist a writer with the process of marketing a manuscript, including finding appropriate markets for the manuscript, putting it into standard manuscript format, and preparing cover letters, queries, and complete book proposals. Some freelance editors will even study a client s rejection letters and manuscript to find out why publishers or agencies have rejected it and suggest ways to make the manuscript more marketable. Some freelance editors not only work to improve a specific manuscript, but also teach writing techniques that will make their clients better writers.