The Skills Freelance Editors Need

If you’re interested in learning how to become a freelance book editor, you’re probably wondering what kind of person thrives in the environment—what kind of skills freelance editors need.

Training for Fiction Editors

First, you have to have training (and that’s where Club Ed comes in). Without a specific understanding of editing methodology – whether for developmental editing, line editing, or copyediting – you won’t be able to deliver quality editorial services to clients. Editing is not an entry-level position. Having transferrable skills is great – for example, a lot of teachers have moved into editing over the last few years – but you do need to understand how analyzing and commenting on a client’s novel manuscript is different from grading a student paper.

Other Skills Fiction Editors Need

Freelance editors have some other characteristics in common. For one thing, they’re self-starters: no one is going to be watching over your shoulder to see whether you’re marketing or just watching YouTube videos. And it helps if you’re organized and have the ability to focus for long periods of time.

You have to love words and stories but you can’t be wedded to being “right.” In editing, especially developmental editing, there is very little that is right or wrong. We can make recommendations that will help authors get closer to telling the story they want to tell, but these are never more than that: recommendations. You have to be comfortable with having your advice rejected as often as not.

This is not a job where you get to indulge your pet peeves about writers who use “different than” instead of “different from.”

We are not gate-keepers: as freelancers we are partners in our clients’ journeys, supporters and cheerleaders, but we are not the ones who make a final judgment about what gets published and what does not, or what succeeds and what fails.

You have to enjoy nurturing other people’s creativity and staying out of the limelight yourself.