Will I succeed as a freelance editor?

Join the Club!
New to story editing? Begin at the beginning.
One of the first things that acquisitions editors and literary agents learn in their jobs is to use the query letter to evaluate a manuscript. AEs and lit agents are looking for cues that a project is or isn’t right for them. In my career, I’ve worked as both an AE and a lit agent….
I’m often asked the meaning of abbreviations used when we’re talking about editing books. These are some of the more common: Abbreviations Used in Editing AE = acquisitions editor (usually your contact person when working for publishers) CE = copy editor/copyediting DE = developmental editor/developmental editing, sometimes referred to as “dev” ms = manuscript mss…
If you’re new to editing, you may not be familiar with the various roles different types of editors play. If you’re planning to work as a freelancer, it pays to understand who does what at a publishing company. This list is intended to help you figure that out. The Different Types of Editors The acquisitions/assigning…
You probably landed here because you like books. Maybe you’ve always wanted to be an editor or maybe you think it would be a good side gig to get into. But you don’t know exactly what being a good editor means or how one would go about acquiring the necessary skills to do it well….
What is the difference between a developmental edit, a critique, and a copyedit? It’s important to distinguish between an edit that is largely intended to deal with big-picture problems (the developmental edit) and one that is meant to catch the sentence-level problems (a copyedit). It’s common, especially when working with independent authors who can’t afford…
The Importance of Separate Developmental Editing and Copyediting Rounds As I mentioned in my previous blog post, indie authors often want editors to combine DE and CE in one round of editing. I mentioned that one problem with doing this is the likelihood of overwhelming the author. Another problem is the complexity. There’s no point…
Get a free report on the Top 10 Questions about Freelance Story Editing!