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What skills do you need to be a copyeditor or proofreader?
I can’t count how often I’ve heard someone say ‘Proofreading is easy. You just need to be able to spot typos’. If only that were true!
That got me thinking about all the skills you really need to be an editor or proofreader, and I’ve made a list of thirteen of them here. If you’re thinking about becoming a copyeditor or proofreader, which of these skills do you have?
- A love of reading and the written word. This is essential! Reading a wide range of books, articles, magazines, newspapers, blogs and so on will improve your knowledge of spelling, grammar, punctuation and style conventions. It will also broaden your general knowledge. Which leads on to …
- Great general knowledge. Knowing about the topic you’re working on could help you to spot an error and saves the author’s blushes.
- Knowing when – and how – to raise an author query. A copyeditor might raise a query if a sentence is unclear or ambiguous, if they spot an inconsistency, if some text needs more explanation, if a figure is cited in the text but is missing, or if they don’t know what the author is trying to say. An editorial professional needs to be able to raise queries that are clear, concise, tactful and appropriate.
- Judgement – knowing what to change and what you should leave. This is a topic of a blog post all on its own! A copyeditor will focus on the five Cs of copyediting to make the text as clear, consistent, correct, concise and comprehensiveas possible. Basically, you should change all errors – of fact, SPaG, consistency, etc. If you’re not sure if the author has made an error, it’s best to check with them instead of going ahead and changing their text.
- Great English skills. This means a deep knowledge of punctuation, grammar and spelling (that you keep updated by reading style guides and taking training, not by sticking to zombie rules you learned fifty years ago and have clung to ever since).
- The ability to look things up. This is a really important one. An editor or proofreader spends most of their life looking things up (even things they think they know!). To help them, they will have several reference books and style guides. My favourites are New Hart’s Rules (the style guide I use most often for British English), John Seely’s Oxford A-Z of Grammar and Punctation and Amy Schneider’s The Chicago Guide to Copyediting Fiction.
- Communication skills. You can be the best editor in the world, but if you dread communicating with a client or if you lack the ability to be diplomatic and tactful, then you will find it hard to sustain a career as an editor.
- Knowledge of style sheets. Remember the 5 Cs of copyediting? A copyeditor needs to ensure that a text is clear, consistent, correct, concise and comprehensive, and they do this by following style guides and creating a comprehensive style sheet for each job.(Here’s my blog post about creating a style sheet for a work of fiction.) A proofreader must also be able to understand, digest and stick to a style sheet, and add to the copyeditor’s style sheet when necessary.
- The confidence to say no if a project is not for you or you don’t have the skill set to do it well …
- … and the confidence to say yes to a job that is outside your comfort zone, if you’re prepared to take the relevant training first or find out in another way how to do the job. Sometimes it pays to be brave, to take on a job that will expand your skill set.
- The ability to spot flaky clients, tyre-kickers and other clients you don’t want. Experience has taught me that if a client starts off being difficult, they will stay that way. An editor needs to know when a client is being unreasonable – and how to deal with it when it happens.
- Motivation. You will probably be working by yourself at home. Can you focus well enough to do this without getting distracted? (‘I’ll just watch that episode of MasterChef before I start work … And I’ll pop a wash on. Ooh, I need to check Instagram …’.)
- Marketing skills. You might think that being a freelance editor means sitting in your home office all day, editing, but it doesn’t. Where does the work come from? You have to put yourself out there and find clients. How you do this will look different depending on who your clients are and where they hang out, but this might mean having a website, having an entry in the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) Directory or the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) Directory, and being active on social media such as LinkedIn or BookTok.
These are thirteen of the skills you need to be an editor. Do you think you have what it takes? If you’re missing some of these skills, where could you go to learn them?
And what hasn’t been mentioned so far? That’s right – editorial training! If you want to offer proofreading or editing services, you will need good-quality editorial training first. Why? Because, without it, you don’t know what you don’t know.
If you’re in the UK, contact the CIEP or the Institute of Publishing (formerly the Publishing Training Centre) to find out about their training. If you’re based outside the UK, contact the editorial association in your country.
What I love about editing and proofreading
There are so many things I love about my job, and what better day to celebrate my love for editing and proofreading than St Valentine’s day?
I love … turning chaos into clarity
Editing lets me gently guide a text toward clarity: smoothing out rough edges, simplifying garden-path sentences, making sure every paragraph is in the right place and has a purpose.
I love … hunting for tiny errors
Proofreading is the last stage in the publishing process, so in a proofread I’m simply looking for errors (typos, inconsistencies, any factual errors that have slipped through the net) and layout problems (upside-down photos, widows, orphans, incorrect or missing running heads). Proofreading is not about being nitpicky – it’s about care.
I love … helping writers sound like themselves – only better
Editing is not about changing the author’s voice and superimposing the editor’s voice. Editing is about protecting and polishing the author’s voice.
I love … the focus involved in deep editing
Editing and proofreading demand focus, care and attention. When I’m deep in a text, I can completely forget about the outside world. All I think about is the words, the plot, the task I’m doing at that moment.
I love … the variety
I’m never bored! One day I could be doing a MS appraisal on a middle-grade adventure, then the next I could be editing a romance or writing a blog post for a marketing company. I work with independent authors, publishers, charities and businesses so every day is different and life is never dull.
I love … finding out so many fascinating things about the world!
I learn something on every job. On one recent job I learned some great tricks for incorporating movement into our everyday lives (especially important when you have a desk job); on another I learned about how humans have moulded the world around us and changed the natural landscape.
I love … the flexibility
Sure, sometimes I have to burn the midnight oil or work long days, but I have the freedom to take time off when I want to. Or I can take my laptop with me and work on holiday!
I love … the job satisfaction
Knowing that I have done a job well and that an author is delighted with my edits and feels that I have helped to improve their book – that’s a wonderful feeling.
I love … seeing books I’ve edited or proofread in the wild
I love to see my books sitting proudly on the shelf in a high-street bookshop. (And yes, I move them so they’re more prominent…)
I love … the people I meet
When you’re a freelancer, it’s important to make sure you build a network so you don’t feel alone. I can count on my lovely editor colleagues to be there for me if I have a question about editing or want to run something past them, and I’m there for them too.
I love … my authors
And finally – my lovely authors. Without you, there would be no texts to edit, so thank you all, and I wish you a very happy Valentine’s day.
To me, editing and proofreading aren’t just skills; they’re something I genuinely love. So if you’re an author who’s looking for an editor who loves their job, then please get in touch!
Some editorial horror stories…
On Halloween, when the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest, come with me into the haunted manor of editorial disasters and discover some of the worst things that can happen when copyediting – and how to avoid them.
Beware: this blog post is not for the faint-hearted!
The hideous, heart-stopping mistake
You think you’re safe – you’ve run spellcheck twice and sworn upon New Hart’s Rules. But suddenly, there it is: ‘pubic’ instead of ‘public’, in the middle of an annual report.
Spellcheck didn’t catch it. You didn’t catch it. But your client did. The shame!
So, what could you do to avoid this happening? I have a list of words that I always check for when editing. ‘Pubic’ is one of them. Another is ‘lean’ when I’m working on a book that has lots of ‘learning’ in it (one ‘lean’ always sneaks in). PerfectIt also helpfully checks for swear words. (‘Did you mean to write “shit”?’ Why, yes, PerfectIt, I did.)
The vanishing Word file
You’ve been editing a tricky file all day, and you’re delighted when the clock strikes five and you can click save and leave your desk. That evening you open Word to check something in the file. But – where is it? Frantically, you look everywhere. It’s not in the list of Word files you opened today, it’s not in the folder where you thought you had saved it… It has vanished.
What could you do to avoid this? I always email myself a copy of the file I’m working on at the end of each day. That way, I can open it anywhere, on any device. That has saved me a couple of times … and it could save you too. I also save files regularly to my portable hard drive.
The Word F&R disaster…
Halfway through writing their book, your author realised they had two characters called Tom, so they decided to change one to Chris. They then changed all instances of ‘Tom’ to ‘Chris’ using a global F&R. ‘Perfect!’ you think. But now, when you’re editing the MS, you realise that it’s peppered with oddities such as schrisp, chrisatoes, botchris, chrisbs…
What could you do to avoid this? Instead of doing a global F&R, step through it so you see each word choice before you change it. That way, your stomp, tomatoes, bottom and tombs will all remain undisturbed!
‘I’ve written my book in Pages’
Eek! No! Grab the garlic! Apple’s free word-processing software Pages and Word do not play nicely. An edited Word file will mysteriously – and annoyingly – lose all its edits and formatting when it’s opened in Pages. (Ask me how I know…)
What could you do in this situation? The best idea is to ask the author to purchase Word.
‘Oh, my text just needs a quick look…’
My heart sinks when I hear the words ‘It only needs a quick look. My friend who loves reading has already proofread it.’
That’s fine, but the likelihood is that your text will need more than ‘a quick look’ if no other editorial professional has seen it. The author’s friend may love reading, but do they know all the elements of style to look out for, can they check the document’s structure and ensure that everything is in the correct order, and do they know the ins and outs of gruesome grammar? Can they check that the text is complete, coherent, clear, consistent, correct and credible?
What could you do in this situation? I’d do a timed sample edit, then explain to the author how long an edit will take, what I will check during my edit, and how their book will benefit from being edited.
Being asked to copyedit a PDF
If you are ever asked to do this, grab your garlic and run! PDFs are not for copyediting. Copyediting should be done in Word, where you can use all the tools that help copyeditors, such as macros and Find and Replace. Most importantly, you can make all the changes to the Word file that need to be made.
PDFS are not designed to be heavily marked up; if they are, they can get slow and laggy. If you’re asked to edit a PDF, always ask for the Word doc from which the PDF was created, so you can work on that instead. If the client doesn’t have this, then ask why.
What could you do to avoid this? Know what a PDF is and what it’s used for – and what it’s not used for.
NDAs and indie authors
I tremble when I hear the words ‘Could you sign an NDA? I don’t want anyone to steal my book.’
It’s understandable for a publishing company or a business to ask an editorial freelancer to sign an NDA. They may want to keep a book by a celebrity or a world-famous subject expert under wraps until it’s published.
But if a self-publishing author asks me to sign an NDA, it’s often a red flag. This is because it shows they don’t understand what editors do – and they don’t trust editors. There has to be trust between an author and an editor – that’s the foundation that working together successfully is built on.
What could you do if this happens to you? I explain that I’m a member of the CIEP and I adhere to the CIEP’s General Code of Conduct, which means I behave professionally at all times with clients (i.e. I won’t steal their work).
Zombie rules
No, not the zombies that come out at Halloween. I’m talking about the grammatical ‘rules’ that people were taught at school years ago, such as ‘Never start a sentence with “and”’ and ‘Always add a comma where you’d pause when reading the sentence out loud’.
What could you do in this situation? Slay these zombie rules by educating your client on up-to-date grammar use.
How to avoid being a cursed copyeditor
- Keep your editing garlic close to ward off ghosts and zombies: your favourite dictionary and style guide, the CIEP forums (in case you need to ask your colleagues any editorial questions), and a mug of tea (or glass of wine).
- Save every five minutes, and back up religiously.
- Don’t edit in the dark. Typos breed in the shadows.
So, these are some of the copyediting horror stories I’ve come across. Editors, can you add any of your own?
And authors, if you’re looking for an editor who can fight off ghosts and ghouls, then please get in touch. Happy Halloween!
Eight reasons for self-publishing authors to hire an editor
In 2021, 200,000 books were published in the UK. In 2023, self-published authors made up over 50% of Kindle’s top 400 books, and today indie authors account for 30–34% of e-book sales in English language markets.
Business is booming, and it’s never been easier to self-publish. This is good news, as clearly there is a huge market out there, but readers are discerning – and with such a lot of choice, they can afford to be. So, if you are a self-publishing author, why should you hire an editor?
Here are eight reasons.
- If a book comes across as amateurish because it contains spelling mistakes or factual errors or is badly designed, then readers won’t come back for more.
- You have invested a lot of time and effort in your book. You want your work to be praised, and to be seen as competent and professional. Your pride and self-confidence are on the line. Editors know this. Our job is to weed out any embarrassing errors, help you choose the right words, and make you look even more professional and credible.
- Self-publishing authors don’t have the support system that traditionally published authors do. In traditional publishing, so many people see a book before it’s published that they should manage to catch most mistakes. If you’re self-pubbing, though, you don’t have this safety net, and that means that, apart from beta readers and family and friends, nobody else might see your book before it’s published. And beta readers and family and friends, however good they are, are not editorial professionals. They won’t know the difference between en rules and em rules, or be able to spot head-hopping (and suggest ways to resolve it), and they won’t create a character list to ensure that your characters are consistent throughout (in description, back story and personality).
- While it’s possible for authors to learn to do many production and marketing tasks themselves, the one thing they can’t do is see their own work through another’s eyes, and that’s where an editor comes in. An editor is not as emotionally invested in your book as you are; they are more objective, and can more easily see if something needs to be changed.
- It’s impossible to edit your own work. You are so familiar with the text, you see what you expect to see, not what is actually there. An editor provides a fresh pair of eyes to catch errors, wrongly used words, and repetition (all authors have their favourite words and phrases!).
- A copyeditor should spot errors in plot, character or setting and flag them for the author’s attention before readers find them and give bad reviews. Mistakes that have cropped up in books I’ve edited include a character whose eyes are blue in Chapter 1 but green in Chapter 5, and characters’ names changing halfway through a book. Factual errors can also creep in, such as the river Nile flowing east, instead of north, or penguins living in the Arctic.
- Editors have professional editorial training, so they are up to date on grammar, punctuation and language use. They will spot any outdated terms or words that are likely to offend readers, and suggest rewording. They will also ensure that your book is consistent – in spelling, language and grammar.
- An editor will act as your cheerleader. Writing can be a lonely task, and a good editor is on your team. They will encourage you when you’re doubting yourself.
So, to give yourself and your book the best possible chance of success, invest in professional copyediting. Click here to find out about the editing services I offer.
Where can I find an editor or proofreader I can trust?
So, you have worked really hard and finished your book. Hurrah! You have put it in a drawer for a while then gone back to it and edited it. You have self-edited as much as you can, and now you’re ready to find a copyeditor. But where will you find one? It seems that the internet is full of people saying they can edit your precious book, but how do you know they will do a good job?
You could search using Google or use another search engine, but the internet is a big place, and finding an editor on Google doesn’t necessarily mean that they are the best editor for you. It just means that they’re the best at SEO!
So here are some ideas for where to find qualified, experienced editorial professionals…
- Search the CIEP’s free-to-use Find an Editor or Proofreader service: https://www.ciep.uk/directory.html. Editors and proofreaders have to be Professional Members or Advanced Professional Members to appear here: they are qualified, experienced end vetted.
- Other editing organisations also have directories of editors and proofreaders – but do your due diligence. Some organisations allow all members to appear in their directory, no matter their level of experience or training.
- The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) has a directory of vetted Partner Members who offer everything from developmental editing to proofreading to cover design: https://selfpublishingadvice.org/alli-self-publishing-services-directory/ The directory also includes great tips on self publishing.
- Ask fellow authors to recommend editors and proofreaders they have worked with.
- Check the acknowledgements of books you’ve enjoyed. If the editor is listed there, check them out.
- Follow editors on social media. Choose one whose content you like and whose opinion you trust, then check their website and credentials.
In other blog posts I’ve covered how to find an editor who’s the best fit for you and the best questions to ask an editor, so once you have found an editor, why not ask them these questions?
Good luck on the next step of your self publishing journey!
How to create a style sheet for a work of fiction
All copyeditors need to know how to create a style sheet, no matter what they are editing. But what should an editor include in their style sheet? That depends on what kind of text you’re editing. Here are some of the topics to consider if you’re working on fiction.
It’s easy to get carried away and create a style sheet that’s several pages long, but this might not be helpful for the client. Always keep your client in mind: how will they benefit from the style sheet you are lovingly compiling for their work?
Why compile a style sheet?
A style sheet is useful to the author – it shows them the spellings and style conventions you have used, and it ensures that their novel is consistent, so James is not allergic to gluten in Chapter 1 but in Chapter 2 he’s happily eating a sandwich. Consistency helps the reader to enjoy the reading experience more – and reduces the risk of negative reviews for authors.
A style sheet is also useful to other editorial professionals who see the text after you, such as a proofreader. If they have a query, they should be able to search your style sheet and find an answer.
It will help the typesetter (TS): your style sheet should include a list of any silent changes you have made to the manuscript (i.e. those made without tracked changes switched on), a list of text features (see the list below), and any instructions you have given the TS in the edited manuscript (such as <TS: set as handwritten letter in magical swirly handwriting>).
What should your style sheet include?
All style sheets should include information about how language and SPaG (spelling, punctuation and grammar) are used in the manuscript, such as:
- the form of English used (British, US, Indian, Canadian …)
- -ise or -ize forms for verbs such as recognise, organise, etc.
- the use (or not) of the serial (Oxford) comma
- single or double quotes
- parentheses: en rules and/or ellipses
- the treatment of numbers in the text
- the use of italic and bold.
Each style sheet should also contain a separate word list – this is essential for every job. If you come across ‘cooperate’ on page 5, will you remember how it was spelled when you come across ‘co-operate’ on page 105 if you don’t make a note of it in your style sheet? Probably not.
As well as consistency in SPaG, a fiction editor has to keep an eye on the following:
- Tense: is the book written in first-person present or third-person past tense, for example?
- Point of view (POV) (the subject of many blogs posts all by itself): who has POV? One character or more? Is this consistent?
- Timeline: with all fiction, a timeline is important, but it’s especially important if you’re working on a text that is not linear: for example, a text that contains flashbacks or that jumps around in time.
- Plot: keeping a note of what happens in each chapter is really useful – for the author as well as you!
- Plot threads: are they all tied off by the end of the book, in a way that will please the reader?
- A story’s characters (and descriptions of them): you might find it helpful to keep a list of all characters, with a brief note of how they relate to each other. A character description might look like:
Skye: age 14 at end of Book 1, born May 2009.
Appearance: short dark brown hair, 5 foot 4, scar over right eye, brown eyes.
Character: feisty, brave, adventurous.
Background: born in London; her parents are divorced.
Family: Alana (mother), Cameron (father), Isla (sister).
You might decide to list all these things in one style sheet, or you might prefer to create a separate document for each.
If you’re working on a specialist genre, there will be other things to consider. For example, in science fiction and fantasy worldbuilding is important, so you will need to include details about the fictional world the author has created, and a list of the words the author has invented for this world. This could include rules (‘Only certain characters can time travel. The time-travel portal is hidden in London’s Waterloo Station’). It could also include geography: you might find it useful to make notes about the setting, especially when this differs from the real world. You could also include a list of place names, road names and building names.
Some text features to look out for
How should you style all the text features you might come across in a work of fiction? Style guides such as New Hart’s Rules cover how to deal with text features such as figures and tables, but are often silent on how to handle many of the features that crop up in fiction, such as:
- characters’ thoughts
- text messages
- telepathic communication
- words remembered or imagined
- words spoken by an alien/non-human character
- inscriptions or lettering on signs
- flashbacks
- emojis
- handwritten notes
- newspaper headlines and articles.
Should these be displayed? In a different typeface? In italic, or in roman with single quotes? You could spend a lot of time thinking about this.
Letters and extracts from newspaper articles tend to be displayed and in a different typeface:
MP calls for fair wages for editors and proofreaders
while thoughts and words remembered are often in italic, to differentiate them from the narrative:
What are you doing? she wants to scream. Get out of here!
Follow the signs, their leader had said.
You should make a list of text features in your style sheet, and add an example of each from the text. In the text, you should add coding or a Word style to each feature, depending what your brief says to do, so the typesetter can find each feature easily and decide how to style it.
If you have any unanswered questions about style sheets, then please get in touch!
From 1960s ‘cool’ to 2020s ‘cold’ … how teen language changes over time
Back in June I attended the English Grammar Day at the British Library with other some copyeditors from the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading, and was inspired by the talks I heard. Devyani Sharma’s talk on ‘Changing London grammar’ made me think about the way younger people talk and how new words are assimilated into the vernacular and gradually spread.
Since then, I’ve had the idea of writing a blog post on the language teens use today bubbling away at the back of my mind.
My children are 20 and 17. I’ve always enjoyed the creative and lively way they use language, and the new words teens have coined to express themselves. Here’s a quick rundown of some of my favourites… How many are you familiar with?
Rizz (short for ‘charisma’): to be cool, good-looking, smart…
How to use: ‘You’ve got so much rizz!’
Lowkey: to a certain extent, modest or restrained
How to use: ‘We sometimes get on well, but she can be lowkey annoying.’
Don’t deep it: don’t overreact. It’s no big deal. Similarly, ‘deep’ can work alone
How to use: ‘So my room’s a mess? Don’t deep it, Mum.’
‘We argued a bit but it wasn’t deep.’
Yap/yapping: to talk excessively
How to use: ‘What is he yapping about now?’
Salty (from ‘to rub salt into wounds’): angry, upset, resentful
How to use: ‘What’s he so salty about?’
‘You’re only salty because I don’t want to go out with you.’
Cold: cool (Cole ‘Cold’ Palmer made this famous with his shivering goal celebration): to be great or very talented at something (such as scoring goals!)
How to use: ‘That outfit is cold.’
CEO: to be the best at something, the top dog
How to use: ‘You’re the CEO of getting home just when I’m about to put lunch on the table’
Basic: there are a few definitions of this. Someone who follows the crowd/the latest trend, someone not very bright, or someone not very interesting
How to use: ‘Why do you like her? She’s so basic.’
Bouji (or bougie): the opposite of basic – to be classy, middle-class, or pretentious. Derives from the French bourgeoise
How to use: ‘Avo on sourdough? That’s a bouji brunch.’
Situationship: something that’s more than a friendship but not quite as committed as a relationship…
How to use: ‘Leo and I have this situationship going.’
Slay: to boss something, to do something really well
How to use: ‘You have slayed!’
‘That top is such a slay.’
Criminal: to be completely unacceptable or awful
How to use: ‘I can’t believe I have to get up at four for a flight. That’s criminal.’
Lit: brilliant, fabulous
How to use: ‘That club was lit!’
Scran: food, or to eat or to look for food. Derives from an acronym for a dish used in the olden days to prevent scurvy. It consisted of Sultanas, Currants, Raisins And Nuts (SCRAN)
How to use: ‘I’m starving, let’s get some scran.’
‘What can we scran from the kitchen?’
Flex: to show off
How to use: ‘My brother’s always flexing about his new shoes.’
Expanding your vocabulary benefits you, your editing, your writing and the functioning of your brain. And it’s fun!
Go on, what are you waiting for? Why not drop one of these words into conversation today?
Thanks to my children, Becca and Nic, for their help and advice while writing this. You slay!
What skills do you need to be a copyeditor or proofreader?
I wish I had a penny for every time I’ve heard someone say ‘Proofreading is easy – you just need to be able to spot typos’. If only that were true!
That got me thinking about all the skills you really need to be an editor or proofreader. I’ve made a list of them here. Read on…
- A love of reading and the written word. This is essential! Reading a wide range of books, articles, magazines, newspapers, blogs and so on will improve your knowledge of spelling, grammar, punctuation and style conventions. It will also broaden your general knowledge. Which leads on to…
- Great general knowledge. This will enable you to spot errors when you’re working, and raise an author query. This saves an author’s blushes and makes the final text more trustworthy.
- Knowledge of style sheets: being able to read, digest and stick to a style sheet. And being able to craft a great style sheet. (Here’s my blog post about creating a style sheet for a work of fiction.)
- Judgement – knowing what to change and what you should leave. This is a topic of a blog post all on its own! Basically, change all errors – of fact, SPaG, consistency, etc. If you’re not sure that the author has made an error, it’s best to check with them instead of going ahead and changing their text.
- Great English skills – knowledge of punctuation, grammar and spelling (that you keep updated by reading style guides and taking training, not a belief in zombie rules that you learned fifty years ago and have clung to ever since).
- The ability to look things up.
- The ability to look things up. It’s worth repeating, as it’s really important. An editor or proofreader spends most of their life looking things up (even things they think they know! ‘Think’ isn’t good enough), and has several reference books and style guides.
- Communication skills. You can be the best editor in the world, but if you hate communicating with clients or you lack the ability to be diplomatic and tactful, yet clear about what a project needs, then you will find it hard to sustain a career as a freelance editor.
- Being able to say no if a project is not for you or you don’t have the skill set to do it well…
- …and being able to say yes to a job that is outside your comfort zone, if you’re prepared to take more training and learn how to do it well. Sometimes it pays to be brave, to take on a job to expand your skill set.
- The ability to spot tyre-kickers and other clients you don’t want. If a client starts off being a PITA, my experience has told me that they will stay that way. You need to know when a client is being unreasonable – and when to say goodbye.
- Motivation. You will often be working by yourself, at home. Can you focus well enough to do this without getting distracted? (‘I’ll just watch that episode of MasterChef before I start work… And I’ll pop a wash on. Ooh, I need to check Instagram…’)
- Marketing skills. You might think that being a freelance editor means sitting in your home office all day, editing, but it doesn’t. Where does the work come from? You have to put yourself out there and find clients. And this means having a good website, being visible in directories such as the CIEP directory and the ALLi directory, and being active on social media such as LinkedIn.
Phew!
These are just some of the skills you need to be an editor. I’ve spent years honing these skills while running my editorial business. Why not check out my website to find out more about me?
And what haven’t I mentioned yet in this blog post? That’s right – editorial training! If you want to offer proofreading or editing services, you will need good-quality editorial training first. Why? Because, without it, you don’t know what you don’t know. Look out for my blog post on why you need training!
The essential questions an author should ask a copyeditor
My previous blog was about how to find an editor who is experienced, qualified, and a good fit for you. Now you have found an editor you like – their website is professional, they you like their client testimonials, their emails are friendly and professional – what questions do you need to ask them before you trust them with your book?
- What experience do you have of working on books in the genre I write in? This is essential. A fiction editor must be familiar with any genre they are offering to edit. There’s no point sending me your sci-fi masterpiece, for example, as I don’t read sci-fi books, but if you’ve written a crime novel, a thriller or a romance, then yes please! I know the rules around these genres and what’s required.
- What do you think my manuscript needs? Does it need a development edit or a copyedit? You and the editor should agree on what your MS needs. If you’d like the editor to focus on something specific, e.g. setting, story arc, or how to build tension between your two main characters, then say this.
- What is included in a copyedit? It’s important to agree the scope of the job, so that you know exactly what to expect. For example, a copyedit won’t usually deal with ‘bigger picture’ issues such as story arc or plot. The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading has a handy definition of copyediting.
- When can you edit my book? Agree when you will send the MS to the editor, and when they will return it.
- How will you work? If your MS is in Word, the usual way is for an editor to use tracked changes and comments. Are you familiar with tracked changes? If not, you might get a bit of a shock when your MS comes back to you… I suggest you check out a Microsoft tutorial to find out how to work with tracked changes.
- And the million-dollar question (sadly, editors don’t get paid this much, although we’re worth it): how much will the edit cost? Find out when the editor would like to be paid, and how they would like to be paid. Many editors ask for 50% of a job fee up front. This is to protect them against authors who refuse to pay. It also helps to weed out flaky authors from those who are serious about having their work edited.
- What else will you send me along with my edited MS? A good editor will always send you a style sheet along with the edited MS. A style sheet is essential: it shows the decisions an editor has made for consistency during an edit, relating to spelling, grammar, punctuation, hyphenation, how to treat numbers, and so on.
- Would you like me to sign a contract? An editor may send you a contract to sign. This is to protect them as well as you. Alternatively, an email in which you agree terms is also legally binding. (Caveat: I am not a lawyer! Seek legal advice for your jurisdiction if necessary.)
Now you have discussed all these essential issues, you can agree the terms and scope of the job and you both know where you stand. The copyedit should go smoothly, and you can look forward to receiving your edited file from the copyeditor on time.
Happy International Women’s Day
Women are history makers, mums, teachers, activists, sisters, guides, friends, mentors, rule-makers (and rule-breakers), suffragettes, protestors, role models…
‘Invest in women: Accelerate progress’
Unfortunately, globally, women still have a long way to go to reach parity with men. Here are some important – and sobering – facts:
- ‘Globally, over 2.7 billion women are legally restricted from having the same choice of jobs as men. Of 189 economies assessed in 2018, 104 economies still have laws preventing women from working in specific jobs, 59 economies have no laws on sexual harassment in the workplace, and in 18 economies, husbands can legally prevent their wives from working.
- Globally, women are paid less than men. The gender wage gap is estimated to be 23 per cent… Women also face the motherhood wage penalty, which increases as the number of children a woman has increases.
- Women tend to spend around 2.5 times more time on unpaid care and domestic work than men.
- It is estimated that if women’s unpaid work were assigned a monetary value, it would constitute between 10 per cent and 39 per cent of GDP.
- Despite gender inequalities in the labour market and gender wage gaps globally, women migrant workers were responsible for sending half of the estimated $601 billion in remittances worldwide in 2016.’
All facts taken from https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/economic-empowerment/facts-and-figures
But there are some things we can do at an individual level to help women reach equity. Here are some suggestions:
- Celebrate women’s achievements
- Sponsor a girl, e.g. https://www.investingirls.org or https://plan-uk.org/sponsor-a-child/sponsor-a-girl
- Invest in women: https://www.investingwomen.co.uk/ or https://www.womensworldbanking.org/take-action/ways-to-give/
- Stand up for women
- Join an organisation that supports women – there are plenty to choose from
- Call out inequity when we see it
- Hold a fundraising event or donate to Equality Now – https://equalitynow.org/celebrate-international-womens-day-with-equality-now/
Happy International Women’s Day to all the amazing, inspiring women I know, including my editorial friends and colleagues, fellow tutors and my wonderful clients!
#iwd #internationalwomensday #investinwomen #unitednations