Editing as a Second Act Career
Who chooses editing as a second act career?
Most of the students who come to Club Ed to explore editing as a career are leaving other careers so are choosing editing as a second act career.
Some of them are teachers who are burned out from low budgets, unhelpful administrators, and parents and school boards turning ordinary decisions into culture wars.
Several are librarians who are leaving the field for very similar reasons.
Others are nurses and other health professionals, burned out by the pandemic and wanting to find another way to pay their bills.
A handful of them have been laid off from media and communications jobs (some of them two or three times in a single year) and want more stable work.
A lot of them are retirees or nearing retirement, and they want a flexible career they can do from home that will provide them with some additional income in retirement.
Who succeeds at editing as a second act career
There are no hard-and-fast rules of experience for those choosing editing as a second act career.
While it is helpful to have a background in writing, teaching, librarianship, or anything to do with words and stories, it’s not required. I don’t expect people to know the terminology and methodology even before they take a class! If they do already know some of this, it makes the learning process a little easier, but it’s not a barometer of success.
Those who are most successful tend to be the ones who are highly motivated to work with words, books, and writers, versus just trying to find an alternative to what they’re doing now. If “anything but this” will do, the fairly steep learning curve for editing can be offputting, especially since it’s also coupled with the uncertainties of freelancing.
But if you’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that you might be good at helping authors make their stories better, or if you’ve often thought working with manuscripts would be a wonderful way to make a living, or if your idea of the perfect vacation is a cup of tea and a stack of books, then editing might just be the second act career you’re looking for.
Other Helpful Content
-
Accident-Proof Your Business
A close call on the highway got me thinking about all the ways freelance editors can accident-proof your business. How to Accident-Proof Your Business A couple of weeks ago, the steering column on my car broke as I was driving down the highway! Fortunately, it was the 405, so I was only going about two…
-
What is Story Arc?
If you’re struggling with keeping a story flowing, you may need to focus on the story arc. But what is story arc? It’s what happens in a story and why it happens. The Details: What is Story Arc Exactly? Of course, the what and the why are interconnected, but they can also be examined separately…
-
Excuse-Busting Marketing
My excuse-busting marketing method has been highly successful in helping potential author clients decide whether to get their books edited and published. Excuse-Busting Marketing: How to Help Authors Get Ready for Editing If you’ve hung around here for a while, you know that I’m a big fan of finding clients who already know they want…
