Get Started Now as a Freelance Editor

In my years of teaching editing to aspiring editors, I’ve noticed that taking the step between training and actually asking for pay is the hardest one for many people. In fact, a lot of people put it off for years, thinking there are just a few more things they need to do to get ready.

But as long as you have some training and can do the work, you’re ready! The thing is, with editing – especially developmental editing – you can only get better at it if you do it. You have to wrestle with the problems that crop up in the real world, work out your own editorial methodology, and figure out where your strongest skills lie.

So you have to just…get started now.

How to Start Your Editing Business

I’m going to be a little simplistic here and say: just tell one person you know that you’ve started your freelance editing business.

That’s it. One person. Do it right now.

There you go. Now tell another person. It really is as simple as that.

But Don’t I Need…

A website, a logo, an accountant?

What you need to get started is a way for people to find out more about you and a way to get paid. That can be a free LinkedIn profile and PayPal.

It can and probably eventually should be a bit more complicated than that, but it’s really all you need to get started, and you can set that up this afternoon.

Look, seven years ago, Club Ed started this way:

And yet look at Club Ed now!

Of course, eventually you will also need to pay taxes and so on, but until you’re actually making some money, all of that is purely theoretical. Get someone to pay you $100 and then figure out the simplest way possible to keep track of what you earned and what you’ve spent on business needs.

But get someone to pay you $100 first. The rest is just details.