New Editor Success – Lee Hornbrook

When you’re a newer editor, success – that is, booking clients regularly enough to pay your bills – can feel elusive. And when people who’ve been working as editors for twenty years give advice, it can feel as if their gems of wisdom aren’t especially pertinent to the current year. So, I asked some students who have begun working as editors only in the past few years to share how they’ve achieved their success.

The first person I asked was Lee Hornbrook, someone I went to grad school with long years ago and who recently decided to shift careers to editing.

1. Tell us a little about your background and what made you decide to train as an editor.

I come to editing by way of classroom college English teaching. I initially sought a career as an English professor. I have a Master’s degree in English and studied for a Ph.D. in English and then a second Master’s degree in Linguistics. Once I figured out being a graduate student wasn’t a career unto itself, I switched gears but stayed in academia. I mostly did communications work (making and maintaining websites, writing website copy, editing printed collateral for conferences and grant renewals) for high-level grants in educational technology and in neuroscience/electron microscopy. 

But my love was always teaching. I kept my hand in teaching with a class or two as an adjunct through community colleges and then became a full-time adjunct English professor, or freeway flyers, as we were called in Southern California, traveling from school to school on part-time contracts. Before I knew it, I had amassed almost 25 years as a teacher, writer, and editor, wrangling other people’s prose.

After leaving teaching and while seeking meaningful work, I started writing (no more grading!). I wrote on Medium and started a publication – The Writing Prof – and started working seriously on a memoir. The pandemic freed up more time to dive into my memoir, which led me to Club Ed’s memoir editing class. That class, along with a rediscovered Kansas connection with Jennifer, led to my taking more classes. I saw editing as another way to help writers, something I dearly missed from my teaching days, and I began pursuing the Club Ed developmental editing certificate program.

2. When did you start working as a freelance editor? What type of work do you do?

I attracted my first job in 2022 through participating in a Substack community. I earned my Club Ed certificate in Developmental Editing of Fiction in July 2023. I officially launched my business with a business license in January 2024, and The Writing Prof Editorial Services was born.

3. What steps did you initially take to spread the word about your business?

Initially, I followed Jennifer’s advice to go where the writers were. 

• I attended open mics at Hugo House in Seattle and passed out business cards. (I also read my own work for the first time at an open mic.) 
• I attended the AWP 2023 conference in Seattle, which led me to the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) and the Northwest Editors Guild (NWEG), both of which I joined.
• I went to the NWEG Red Pencil conference in the Fall 2023. Unlike the agents/editors at AWP who said “don’t call or write us for advice, we’re too busy,” I met editors at the Red Pencil Conference who said, “if you have questions in getting your freelance editing business started, call me. I will answer your question.” That inspired me.  
• I mentioned my business in my Substack posts and in the Substack communities I participated in, when it was natural to do so. 
• I sent emails to close friends and relatives telling them that I had started an editing business. 
• I created editor profiles at EFA and NWEG and reconfigured my LinkedIn profile. 
• I set up a simple website.

4. I know you felt a little frustrated early on about not gaining traction, and then you started filling up your schedule. What did you do to stick with it even when you did feel frustrated?

Somewhere along the line I learned the power of saying “yes” to new experiences when trying something new or when something makes me nervous or fearful. I can be shy and am not a natural salesperson, so my initial marketing efforts were tentative.

Participating in the Club Ed accountability group and marketing challenges were instrumental in helping me experiment with marketing approaches, setting up a blog, starting my Substack, participating on LinkedIn and growing my network. There was always something to do, especially writing blog posts and networking.

I frequently had Zoom meetings with colleagues I met on LinkedIn. In Spring 2024, I discovered the NWEG’s Zoom meetings for all facets of editing (dev editing, copy editing and proofreading, scholarly editing, PNW editor socials, editors helping editors). These meetings led to me volunteering to start a Memoir Editors Group, which I continue to co-host and has proved to be very popular.  Along the way, I built a website, took Club Ed classes to increase my knowledge and skill in editing, and read writing craft books.

Networking with other editors and interacting in writing and editing communities on LinkedIn and Substack brought me the most joy and helped to grow my network. It has never really felt like work, and in the lean days, when I was taking more walks than editing, imposter syndrome hit pretty hard. But that network interaction, I see now, was essential to building my business.

5. In terms of marketing, what worked best to bring clients to you?

Putting myself out there daily brings clients to me. No one method has proved better than others. Clients have come to me through my EFA and NWEG profiles, from personal connections on LinkedIn, and responses to ads for editors from the EFA website. 

Developing a Letter of Interest (LOI) for publishers helped me create partially pre-written responses to ads for editors. At first, I was not getting replies when pitching to an ad. I experimented with different approaches until I started getting nibbles. Then I experimented with responding to those nibbles to get conversations on Zoom to discuss writers’ projects. Then I found ways to be myself with quiet confidence that led potential clients to become paying clients. Now I have confidence that I can get a potential client’s attention with a cold job pitch more than 50% of the time.

Networking boosted my confidence. I have learned a great deal about my highly competent editing colleagues, who continue to impress me with their deep skill sets. But I also learned that, in comparison, my own skills have uniquely positioned me to excel. There is plenty of work to go around. While it may seem that freelancers are in competition with each other, I have a network of professional colleagues who are helping each other succeed. The power of referrals is one of the strongest of all marketing tools.

I set up Calendly recently on my website and saw an immediate growth in video meetings.

6. What didn’t work well?

Upwork – fail!  During the scary not-even-salad-days days, I tried many approaches to attract work. A colleague suggested I try Upwork. I studied videos of how to get started. I talked with my colleague who has enormous success on Upwork. I gave it the good ol’ college try. I’ve only had two interactions for potential jobs, neither of which I got, from 30 to 40 pitches. It’s the land of crickets. So much time writing pitches. So much silence. I still haven’t cracked the code to getting jobs on Upwork. I laugh in the face of my defeat.

While I do not have much hope of landing any work there, I keep Upwork in my back pocket as a potential source of jobs for when (not if) the lean times return. But it feels like bicycling up hill in low gear. My legs go around and around fast and I get nowhere.

7. What type of marketing do you continue to do?

Writing on LinkedIn, networking with other editors through Zoom meetings and 1-on-1 sessions, leading a monthly Memoir Editors group, and pitching to job ads are part of my weekly and daily marketing efforts. 

I also keep in touch with former clients. I’ve developed good working relationships with almost every client I had, with talk for future work. Several have returned to me. One client sent a second manuscript that is not part of a series, which I take as a good sign. Doing good work pays off.

Final words of wisdom?  

Say “yes” to opportunities. Connect with writers and your editing colleagues. Do something, anything, daily to promote your business, even if it’s merely correcting a typo on your website, to keep your head in the game. Be confident in your own abilities – you have strengths that are unique to you. Keep learning. Take a good walk daily or sit in the sunshine.

I don’t have all the answers, but I’ll share with you what I know.  And if I don’t know the answer to your question, I’ll help find someone for you who does. 

Feel free to reach out for a get-to-know-you colleague session. I can be reached at [email protected] or make an appointment at my Calendly.

Thanks! And thanks again to Jennifer and everyone at Club Ed Freelancers.