The Concierge (Blog)

After I posted my thoughts on setting boundaries with clients, an editor asked me to describe how I set expectations ahead of time. Mostly this is part of my project quote, which you can see below. I use slightly different wording for publisher clients to account for the differences in working with them—they aren’t the author,…

One of the most important things freelancers can do is set clear expectations for their work. You give a project fee, describe what it includes, communicate deadlines, and so on. These expectations are necessary because otherwise a project can turn into a zombie that keeps coming back for more, sapping your will to live. If…

Back when I was active in martial arts, I used to teach a class or two a week for my instructor. He (and I) knew that one of the best ways to get better at a skill is to try to teach it. This is a humbling process because it points out all the things…

I was turned down for an ongoing editing project recently, which hasn’t happened in a while. I’ve been focused on building Club Ed for the last year or two, so I haven’t been pursuing other projects. And most of my editing work has always come by referral and word-of-mouth, so potential clients tend to already…

When you first begin freelancing, it’s like being parachuted, blindfolded, into a ten-acre field you’ve never seen before and your job is to grow a crop. You have no idea where you are or what the soil is like or what the seasons will bring or what grows here. You’ve got a plow, or maybe…

You probably landed on Club Ed because you enjoy reading novels and wonder what it would be like to be a book editor. Either that or you already are a book editor, in which case most of what I’m going to say here will be information you already know. (But you might enjoy our intermediate-…

A few years ago, my daughter Jessica had several consultations with her neurosurgeon. One day, as the nurse made an appointment for a follow-up visit in six months, she asked, “Do you need a written excuse for work?” And for one mad moment I couldn’t make any sense of what she was saying. I heard…

Recently I read a LinkedIn post from a proofreader who is interested in becoming a developmental editor (DE). They said something along the lines of, “I’ve been studying classic works of literature and although I can’t practice development on them because they can’t be improved, they do teach a lot about effective writing.” And while…

It’s common for newer developmental editors to focus on critiquing rather than editing an author’s work. Developmental editing (also called story editing or content editing) does contain elements of critique but it is more than that. To do a good developmental edit, I have to immerse myself in the story world, to try to understand…