Not long ago, I came across this question (paraphrased) on a site for freelance editors: “A potential client has written a science fiction novel (350,000 words) and is asking me to proofread the manuscript, offer inline fact-checking on the scientific accuracy, and provide overall feedback about the project. How should I price a project like…
It’s important for editors to recognize that authors have different stages of ability: Most of our author clients are at Stage 1, 2, or 3, and how we shape the edit will depend on which it is. If we expect an author at Stage 1 to be able to spot their own errors, we aren’t…
A question I’m often asked is, “Authors can be confused by what kind of editing their manuscript needs. How do you handle that?” Pre-Editing Questions When an author reaches out to me for more information about my editing services, I ask them a bit about their past experience: have they published before, and if so,…
I encounter a lot of novelists and fiction editors who use movies as examples of various storytelling techniques they want to discuss. I understand this impulse: it is easier to assume that everyone has seen The Matrix or can easily find the two hours to sit through it than it is to assume that everyone…
When I was living in Málaga, after more than a year of working hard to learn Spanish, I still didn’t understand a lot of what I overheard around me. This used to discourage me. I felt like I should be a lot further along, given the effort. Then one day I asked myself, “Is my…
If you’re interested in becoming an editor, you may wonder what kind of work editors can do other than editing the words on a page. Or you may worry that being an editor would constrain you to only a certain kind of work: developing book manuscripts or copyediting journal articles. But once you have grown…
In the interest of full disclosure, I have to point out that I’m the kind of person who has an optimistic view of the nature of risk, which is why I’m not a financial advisor and you wouldn’t want me to be. But I also think we are too certain that some actions are “safe”…
A couple of years ago at the ophthalmologist’s office, I got the “Do you need a doctor’s excuse for work?” question again. I’m always shocked at this question. There are jobs where a GROWN ADULT has to provide a permission slip from Mommy? I mean the doctor? Are you kidding me? No, I don’t need…
AI is going to kill routine jobs. But it won’t kill jobs that require expertise and human judgment. That’s why it’s important for editors to move beyond basic skills like proofreading. It’s not enough to say, “But homophones!” Most people will accept a small error rate if it means they can save three thousand dollars….
Many students at Club Ed have an English or journalism background, and it makes logical sense that editing is a potential career path for them. But I do have students with a variety of other backgrounds: some are (or were) lawyers, or psychology majors, or history majors. And they sometimes wonder if this is a…