The key to a successful freelance business is a steady supply of projects. First, decide how many hours a week you’d like to work — 20, 40 billable hours? — and then set out to achieve your goal. Your professional life and income will become almost predictable. Here are some …
Cynics call it science fiction — the planned research that is described in applications for scientific grants. But I love good science fiction, and I love reading the amazing research stories of these scientists. Luckily, more researchers are appreciating good editing in the increasingly fierce competition for research funding. What …
What do you do when a clearly weird and off-balance writer asks for your professional services? “Run!” is the response I got from several editor colleagues, and that has been my gut reaction, too. Such projects can often feel particularly intriguing. And sometimes there’s a sense that good money is …
The little knot forming in your chest isn’t a reaction to the cold weather. It’s the freelance editor’s anxiety kicking in right on schedule, just before the holidays. When projects disappear in other months, the freelance editor adjusts her schedule and cash flow projections and stoically reminds herself that this …
Editors may spurn thesis (or dissertation) work for graduate students, but that shuts off fascinating pathways. Students become academics who need editors for journal articles, monographs, textbooks and grant applications. Those who become non-academics need business reports, web pages, novels and [insert the types of documents you edit here ] edited. …
I make my living as a freelancer, which means I work pretty much every single day, all year long. My only breaks are brief visits to out-of-town family. Real holidays are rare — perhaps once every five years. Sound familiar? I suspect many of you are like me. We never …
Freelance editors are a mousy, introverted, cat-loving lot. They’re pale creatures who are often confined to mouldy basement offices where they stare with glazed eyes at glowing computer monitors, barricaded from the world by stacks upon stacks of dusty tomes. Right? Ha! If that’s what you think, you’ve never been …
With Editing Goes Global mere months away, now is the perfect time to get better acquainted with our conference speakers. This week, Tanya Procyshyn from the Editors’ Weekly caught up with “word sorceress” Vanessa Ricci-Thode by email to chat about her upcoming sessions in Toronto and the world of self-publishing. Tanya …
For a creative professional or craftsperson, the business side of freelancing can be challenging. “I don’t want to run a business. I just want to write!” Or edit, or photograph, or paint or sing. Yet by selling your services or products, you are running a business. Why not run it …
Cold calling. I’ve heard arguments against it — it doesn’t generate work, it’s better to network in person, only word-of-mouth referrals reliably lead to jobs. But I haven’t yet discovered a downside. I can pick and choose all the companies I’d like to work for and start calling them. A …