What It Takes to Be a Freelance Editor

Image: wooden stick with a carrot hanging from the tip.

Today’s post is by Allison K Williams (@GuerillaMemoir).


You should be an editor.

Perhaps someone’s said it to you. Perhaps, after volunteering to critique a friend’s book, reading for hours, and writing 2,000 words of feedback (more than you both bargained for), you’ve said to yourself:

I should be an editor.

You love reading, right? And you’re really good with grammar and spelling. Maybe you even have an English degree or an MFA. What else do you need?

Curiosity, education, and ruthlessness.

An editor’s number-one asset is curiosity.

Not just double-checking facts or looking up info for the manuscript they’re working on right now, but a constant, lifelong level of I need to know.

I recently edited an essay that quoted King Lear’s Cordelia. It was a great line—“I cannot heave my heart into my mouth”—but it didn’t mean what the author thought it did. The quote did not support her point. I didn’t have time to reread King Lear and perform textual analysis, as I’d budgeted 30 minutes for this edit. I already knew it, because I’ve seen Lear four times. Fact-checking wasn’t even officially part of this job, but the essay was fundamentally flawed without that existing knowledge.

I’ve always been curious about Shakespeare. And law school. And the oceanic geology of East Asia. And the workflow of commercial kitchens. And dressage. And, and, and. I’ve never met a fact I didn’t want to know. Eventually, most of them come in handy.

Editing successfully requires constant education.

Not just retaining facts, but following trends in genres and in publishing. Even ten years ago, self-publishing was a sucker’s game. Now it can be a legit way to publish, maybe even make money. But it’s not right for every author, and they need someone to tell them why it will or won’t work. An editor must be able to say, “Your teen vampire novel is well-written but there’s nothing fresh. How can you stand out from the crowd? Let’s brainstorm.” Or, “Your category romance needs a Happily-Ever-After or Happy-For-Now ending. Your book will disappoint readers unless you fix that.”

Editors must stay current on tools, too. Grammarly is a toy scooter to PerfectIt!’s Mercedes. Word has hidden tricks to double your editing speed. You’ve got to make sure your work always, always saves itself.

Most of all, educate yourself about writing. What makes a sentence sing on the page? Look at a favorite moment of your favorite book. Can you describe what mechanically makes it powerful? Here’s mine, from Laurie Halse Anderson’s Wintergirls:

We tilt our heads back and open wide. The snow drifts into our zombie mouths crawling with grease and curses and tobacco flakes and cavities and boyfriend/girlfriend juice, the stain of lies. For one moment we are not failed tests and broken condoms and cheating on essays; we are crayons and lunch boxes and swinging so high our sneakers punch holes in the clouds. For one breath everything feels better.

Then it melts.

The bus drivers rev their engines and the ice cloud shatters. Everyone shuffles forward. They don’t know what just happened. They can’t remember.

Gorgeous. First, bad thing, bad thing, bad thing that most readers personally, viscerally understand, and are immediately present for the protagonist. In the same sentence, good thing, good thing, good thing that is also a good feeling. We’re connected to those, too. Anderson’s rhythm pairs three and three, sustaining that last phrase just a little longer. Our sneakers punch holes in the clouds is aspirational. A dream we’ve all had. Anderson lets us rest for a moment in the beauty of aspiration with a paragraph break; lets us—and the narrator—feel better. Then three tight syllables take it all away.

Editors must be ruthless.

What makes that sentence above true to the narrator’s voice?

Is this the right place in the book to show her desperate to return to the simplicity of childhood, and to tear the reader’s heart that she can’t?

Because no matter how beautiful the writing is, if a sentence doesn’t fit the character or the story, it’s gotta go.

Many early-career authors use their elevated Special Writer Voice, and their editors must challenge them not to make their words “better” or “more polished,” but more truthful to the author’s own voice.

Purely nurturing feedback is unhelpful. Straight criticism is discouraging. An editor must identify what’s wrong, clarify why it must be fixed, and excite the author to do the work. Editors must inflict the pain of “It’s not good enough, yet.” I’ve told more than one author to cut their first 50 pages. That’s painful! What I say about their work must ring so true that they trust me enough to endure that pain, for the sake of a better next draft.

One more thing …

Lifelong curiosity. Persistent self-education. Ruthless support.

But to make even a part-time living as an editor, you’ve must be able to do all this quickly.

Editing is expensive. (Yes, Fiverr editors are charging $50 to “edit” a whole book, and authors most assuredly get what they pay for.) Billing in four figures looks amazing, but your hourly rate depends on how fast you can (effectively) work. If a $3,000 developmental edit takes 50 hours, that’s barely enough for a freelancer to pay themselves and their health insurance, taxes and overhead, and at $1,000 you might as well work in an office where at least they pay for the coffee.

You should be an editor.

If it still sounds appealing, give it a shot. Practice on your friends for free; start cultivating authors whose manuscripts will be ready when your skills are. I took three years to hit my editorial stride. If you’d like a bit of a shortcut, this fall I’m teaching the framework of a developmental editing business: what, exactly, you do; how to do it faster; and getting people to pay you fairly for your curiosity, education, and ruthlessness.

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Karen Sullivan

Allison, thanks, this is good advice. I’ve edited other writers’ chapters, scientific papers, magazine articles, and one book, often for free, to see if editing is where I want to go. I write up a summary of the edits for the client and keep it constructive, but even when the comments are positively phrased, it can still become a negotiation, with at times prickly resistance that later melts away once the authors have had time to reflect on it. How do you deal with that initial pushback and occasional prickliness?

Allison K Williams

Ahh, this is so common, it’s not just you! For me, it’s really key to recognize that resistance before the writer even experiences it. So I say right up front in the cover letter that they should take some time to think through the edits and see how they feel, and that there will be stuff they disagree with and stuff I’m flat-out wrong about! And that when they experience pushing back/feeling defensive, that’s a great time to think through “Well, WHY do I think it should be this other way? And is what I want coming across on the page?”

I find this recognition up front helps them channel their defensiveness into thinking about their material, and lets them evaluate “did I mean Red here? Why Red when the editor suggests Blue? Maybe what I actually need is Pink and that’s why Red’s not working?”

Great question! And I’ll be diving into this more in the class, too, if you’re there 🙂

desertphile@gmail.com

Thank you. The thought of me being a freelance editor terrifies me: not because I am a poor editor— because I would have to talk to humans. *SHUDDER!*

Also, I have noticed in the various on-line critique forums at least 90% of people who asked from helpful criticism become enraged when they receive helpful criticism. They do not want helpful criticism— they want ego stroking. I stopped trying to help poor writers six years ago when I observed they do not want help.

Allison K Williams

I notice a real difference between authors in online forums and those who have contracted and paid for my help. I haven’t had anyone get mad in years, mostly because we are both going in with our eyes open. They’ve had a sample edit, so they know what the feedback will be like, and I know they can take it and want to improve their work. There’s a real difference between “Hey stranger on the internet, what do you think?” and “Hey expert I’ve paid four figures to, how can I improve?”

Desertphile

Thank you. You have, I believe, stated the issue clearly: people tend to value what they have paid for. Unfortunately this is why people tend to not complain when they have been defrauded: the more they were “taken” for, the more they convince themselves that they were not defrauded. 🙁 We see this among writers who wish to be authors, and pay thousands of dollars to have a vanity press stroke their egos.

When I look at a sample someone has asked me to critique, I see the problems immediately— they are blatantly obvious. Perhaps people get upset at me when I show them the problems of their texts because I am blunt when I do so (I am autistic, and I presume that is why). .

For example, I was asked to critique an unreadable MS that started with a dangling participle, where a gun could hear and see, and not the old man who held it. I mentioned this to the writer and he replied that it was his “style,” and anyhow “readers will know what I mean.”

And another MS that started with a horn slamming through the main character’s head, and he lived. Argh.

Allison K Williams

Good grief! Yes, part of what I’m talking about in the course will be how to communicate with clients in a way that they can hear and use the feedback. It might be helpful for you to figure out “standard phrasing” for problems you see a lot, that you could copy-paste and you know they’re phrased in a way the author is able to receive.

You could also adjust expectations by saying when you agree to critique, “My style is very blunt, because I think that will help you clearly see challenges and fix them. Please make sure you’re up for direct, specific feedback before we move forward.” And some authors welcome that! I am the “Unkind Editor” because authors serious about improving their work do value a certain level of directness.

Desertphile

Thank you for the advice, re: copy and paste. That did not occur to me. Ugh. My brain is onion dip.

A question for you, if I may: do you give free advice online for writers? If so, my question is— do you think it is worth your time and effort?

When I see someone write several thousand word in a MS that is so poor that no one will read it, I feel sad for their sake. They spend time on their unreadable MSs that could be spent doing other things such as learning how to write. I suppose writing a MS that will never be read is a good exercise for writers who wish to be published, if it helps them learn.

I have read many writer’s first chapters from people who asked for my opinion, and some of them were so poor that it makes me wonder if the writers have ever read a book. 🙁 It is silly, but I feel the need to help beginning writers.

During the past two years I have been considering making a series of Youtube videos under the “Reality for Writers” banner. I dunno if it is worth my time.

Allison K Williams

I do not offer editing feedback on writers’ creative work. But I do write blogs and participate in FB groups, and that way writers see the quality of the information I can offer. And seeing the same problems over and over is why I wrote a book about self-editing!

Tricia

Thanks, Allison, for this very helpful information. I’m a freelance editor also. How many pages (or chapters) do you edit for your sample edit?

By the way, your bio is the most surprising bio I’ve ever read! From circus aerialist to editor is a very unusual career path. Hmm…there could be an idea for a story there–not exactly the same, of course.

Allison K Williams

I do 10 pages, with line edits on about 1 1/2 of those and comments throughout. And I charge for samples, though many editors don’t. And thanks! Weirdly, I’ve just met two other editors in the past 3 days who were circus people! So there’s a story there for sure 🙂 Happy writing!

Desertphile

Circus? LOL. That probably is good preparation for being a freelance editor. 🙂

Tiffany Yates Martin

Terrific advice, Allison. Thanks for sharing.