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Pricing models for freelancing
By Jeannette De Beauvoir As I mentioned last week, there are different pricing models for invoicing your work as a freelance editor. The most frequently encountered pricing models include: By the hour. You’re probably the most familiar with this model, and it has the advantage of clarity: you work x hours, you get y pay.…
Read MoreHow to get paid: Three freelancing tips
By The Editors at Copyediting You love editing. You love your freelance work and your freelance life. That’s all lovely, but let’s face it: until you get paid, it’s a hobby, not a business. So let’s talk turkey about dollars—and how to make them. One of the most difficult aspects of freelancing is the money…
Read MoreFreelancing and Boundaries: An Essential Partnership
By Jeannette De Beauvoir When you work in cubicle-land, boundaries are pretty clear. You start work, for example, at 8am, and you finish at 5pm. When you’re at your office, you’re at work; when you go home, you’re off work. Friends know not to call you to chat when you’re at your work site. Medical…
Read MoreLanding that first client: Building a portfolio and acquiring testimonials
By The Editors at Copyediting As I think I’ve said in the past, I’m not a great fan of doing work for free. Your mileage may vary on this topic: certainly the venerated Mashable feels otherwise. My sense is that you weren’t an ironworker who woke up one morning and decided to do freelance editing;…
Read MoreGetting new clients: Your sales pitch
By Jeannette De Beauvoir Okay. I could have called it a query letter. I could have called it a sample response letter. But let’s be clear about what we’re doing: we’re looking at a sales pitch. You want someone to hire you—i.e., to sell your services. How do you do it? I suggest that you…
Read MoreHow wrong everyone is about exclamatives!
By Jonathon Owen Last year, I was writing some grammar lessons for some online high-school courses and, strangely, I found that nearly every website I consulted on a particular point of grammar was wrong. Normally, if you think everyone but you is wrong about something, you probably want to rethink your position, because chances are…
Read MoreFour reasons to work as an in-house editor
By Gael Spivak There are scores of blog posts about the benefits of being a freelance editor, but not many people talk about being an in-house editor. It’s not for everyone, but it has lots of perks. Benefits Depending on the employer, an in-house editor can have great benefits. I have medical and dental coverage.…
Read MoreError rates in editing
By Erin Brenner Last year, I created a series of copyeditor commandments called the Typographic Oath. The commandments are designed to help copyeditors juggle the many demands of editing while doing the best job possible. In brief, they are: Do no harm. Respect the writer. Respect the reader. Don’t be a search-and-replace editor. Look it…
Read More10 specific words for ‘road’
By Dawn McIlvain Stahl American poet and novelist Jack Kerouac’s travelogue novel On the Road, was published in 1957 and was either entirely unedited or was beneficially edited by Malcolm “crafty” Cowley, Kerouac’s Viking Press editor. Gothamist has more on that story. And here we have more on roadways and words to describe them. Ten…
Read MoreExit the comfort zone: When to take on edits in unfamiliar subject areas
By Adrienne Montgomerie A publisher asked if I would edit a math textbook. “Oh, I’m not good at math. I’ll pass,” I said. I said that the next three times they called about that project too. “I’m just not comfortable with math,” I told them. The fifth time they called, I agreed to help them…
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