The Concierge (Blog)

Most Club Ed students are moving to story editing (also known as book editing or developmental editing) from other careers. Right now, I’m seeing a lot of teachers making the transition – they’ve either quit their jobs and are looking for the next thing or they’re planning to quit their jobs soon. And I don’t…

One of the challenges older workers face when shifting into a second act career is time pressure. People in their forties, fifties, and sixties can have children or grandchildren at home, parents or other loved ones who need help, a regular full-time job, and multiple obligations, including doing the laundry at least now and then….

Freelance editing can be an excellent career choice for people who love books and are interested in changing jobs, are seeking more flexibility in their work, or are looking for retirement income. Who chooses editing as a second act career? Most of the students who come to Club Ed to explore editing as a career…

Many of the freelance editors I know love running their own businesses … except for the marketing part. They love editing, they love their clients, they love the freedom and flexibility of freelancing. But then … they have to get clients. They have to market. And many (probably most) of them hate it. So they…

Noticing a developmental problem is only the first step in the editing process. The next step is to explain why it’s a problem for this manuscript. This second step is one that most editors skip at first (and many editors skip forever) but it’s crucial for doing an effective developmental edit. Often, we use generic…

As a member of several expat groups on Facebook, I see versions of this question all the time: “how does a US citizen get sponsorship to relocate to live and work in other countries these days?” There are, ahem, obvious reasons why someone might want to do this, but the problem is that this is…

One of the easier ways to break into fiction editing is to offer a lower-priced, lower-skill service, such as proofreading. (Beta reading is another good possibility for a lower-priced, lower-skill service and actually the one I would recommend, since it can lead to developmental editing, a more lucrative and sustainable business.) The reason I don’t…

More than twenty years ago, when my daughter was born with significant disabilities, I couldn’t keep a staff job because companies weren’t flexible enough. More than twenty years later, and the workforce is still pushing mothers out because companies are not flexible enough. I admire people who push for change but I also understand that…

Discovery drafts are typically the first draft of a novel that an author uses to explore the story they’re writing, whether the story has been prompted by a situation, a setting, a character, or a theme. The discovery draft typically includes stops and starts, directions the story could take but doesn’t, characters that fade in…