The Good, the Bad & the Ugly of Freelance Editing
By: Tina Morlock
Tags: Startup, Editing, Entrepreneurship, Success, Freelancing

Don’t get me wrong. I love editing, and I love being an editor. My work as a freelance editor has gifted me with a career I love and surrounded me with another love: books. But—especially in the beginning—it can be slightly chaotic when you put all the pieces together. I’m constantly balancing all the good, bad, and ugly parts that come along with the career. If you’re thinking about becoming an editor, I’m going to lay all my cards on the table for you.

The Good: if you love books, you will fall in love with being a book editor.

Photo by Aung Soe Min on Unsplash

When I first started editing, I didn’t realize how big of a role it would soon play in my future. At first, I really fell in love with using my skills as a writer to help another writer—and to make some extra money in the process. It wasn’t until I landed my first five-figure contract that I realized being a freelance editor would become a lucrative career for me. While I built my freelance editing business, I still worked a day job, which kept me immersed in the love fest I felt working with books. Here are the top ten things I learned about editing during that period of time:

The earning potential for editors is high. Most of the editing contracts I sign fall between the $1,000 and $2,000 range. With a healthy cycle of incoming clients/projects, a book editor can easily earn six-figures if they can manage five to six new clients each month. And on those joyful months that editors sign a contract amounting to $4,000 or more of work, it becomes much easier to hit that six-figure income.

Authors are looking for good editors all the time. Just pop into a writing group on Facebook, and you’ll find several self-publishing authors looking for referrals to skilled editors who won’t trash their voice in the process.

You can space your deadlines out enough so you aren’t looking at manuscripts for eight hours a day. I think this is one of the things that makes editing unique. Because your brain needs to be in top form to do your best work, it demands that you only edit a book for an hour or two every day to make progress on the project.

As an editor, you’ll get to read a variety of books in many different genres. Of course, you won’t fall in love with every single one of them, but as book lovers, we still love immersing ourselves in others’ words.

You don’t need a fancy advanced degree to be a book editor. In fact, just because someone has a degree in English or creative writing doesn’t mean they automatically have the skills to edit. I honestly didn’t begin to learn a thing until I jumped in and started editing with the guidance of an amazing mentor.

If you already have a decent computer and access to Microsoft Word, you don’t have to invest in any expensive equipment or software. You already have everything you need to get started!

New editors who have a passion for learning and growing will be the most successful freelance editors. The quality you offer your writers will evolve over time, and you will get more and more skilled with each project you complete.

If you get stuck on a grammar, spelling, or punctuation rule, Google is your best friend. There are so many resources online to give you quick and easy answers. And if you’d like to go a bit further, you can subscribe to Chicago Manual of Style’s searchable database for a low monthly fee.

There are several editorial associations out there that will support you throughout your career. Two of the ones I love are ACES and EFA.

You will find tons of opportunities for new gigs on freelancing websites, like Upwork or Freelancer.

The Bad: many self-publishing authors can’t afford high-quality edits.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

There are a lot of book editors offering their services on Fiverr, which built their business model on the $5 freelance gig. But who really wants to edit a book for such a low cost? This is one of the main reasons why I stay away from Fiverr. Of course, you can charge much more for your services there, but you’ll get a lot of potential clients wanting to downgrade your quality so they only have to pay $50 or $100 to edit their full-length book. It’s simply not sustainable.

And this is an epidemic for freelance book editors in other places as well. I see complaints all over the web and social media that editors charge way too much. And some editors have capitalized on that complaint by offering their services at dirt-cheap prices. And when they do this, some authors think, Finally, an editor I can afford!

But can they really? I personally feel it’s better for authors to learn how to self-edit rather than hiring low-quality editors. Obviously, they won’t get the same level of service if they had hired a high-quality editor, but they’ll experience a similar effect if they hire an inexperienced editor. So, they are really better off saving that money for advertising, marketing, software, or cover design.

I don’t say these things to attack authors on a low budget or to shame inexperienced editors for their cheaper offerings. But my point is this: there are better ways to capitalize on that pricing divide between book editors and authors.

In my business, I do this in one of two ways: I either offer them an extended deadline for a lower investment, or I set them up on a yearly subscription plan that allows them to get a high-quality edit for a lower monthly payment plan. (They range from $25/month to $225/month for 12 payments, depending on what editing services they want or need.)

The Ugly: there is so much false or misleading information floating around online about editing.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

This can lead to some heated arguments between book editors and their potential clients. This is what happened to me . . .

So, I had this [what I thought was an] amazing idea to get new clients: I created a profile on Freelancer and submitted bids for several editing gigs. On one of my proposals, I tried to clear up some misinformation the client had put in their project about the type of editing they needed. I tried to point out the differences between line editing and copy editing. Bad idea.

This person tried to engage me in an argument, telling me I had gotten my facts wrong about editing. And on top of that, he found several unprofessional websites to back up his expertise on the subject. I stopped the conversation right there because I knew it was a lost cause. Inside, I was screaming, If you know so much more than me about editing, it sounds like you have it all figured out and don’t need an editor anyway. But I wanted to remain professional, so I just walked away.

These interactions aren’t always this aggressive, though. Some authors simply don’t understand the differences between developmental editing, line editing, copy editing, and proofreading—and that’s okay. Why would they? They are not book editors. This will rear its ugly head a lot when an author thinks proofreading is synonymous with editing. It is not. Many professionals don’t think proofreading is even a form of editing, but I digress.

We’re up against a wall sometimes. But is it worth fighting that battle to make a living? I think so. In my frustration over that aggressive interaction on Freelancer, I actually wrote a book that attempted to explain it all. It’s not been very popular, but that’s okay. I didn’t write it to make money—it was more of a form of therapy for me.

At the end of the day, I still love being a freelance book editor. It’s improved my quality of life tremendously, and I always love things that challenge me to do something different. For me, that led me to an alternative business structure and a book I might not have written otherwise. If you’re an aspiring freelance editor, it might mean something different for you—and I hope you take that as a creative challenge rather than a stop sign. Those ten good things I mentioned at the beginning of this article? They still hold true, and they cover the challenges like a warm and toasty blanket, leading me to continue the fight for both authors and editors alike.