Tag: freelancing

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Kelly Clancy

A Proactive Approach to Diversifying Your Editing Business

April 10, 2025 by Kelly Clancy | Leave a Comment

The great thing about being a freelance editor is that you get to decide the scope of your work. This can also feel overwhelming: How do you know what work portfolio will feel right to you? I recently delivered a webinar for Editors Canada where I explored different methods for diversifying your editing business.  I […]

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Alex Benarzi Holly Vestad

Free (or Cheap) Tools for Freelance Editors: Part 3

August 15, 2024 by Alex Benarzi | 2 Comments on Free (or Cheap) Tools for Freelance Editors: Part 3

Back in April, Editors Canada released the revised edition of Professional Editorial Standards, and we noticed the addition of IDEA (inclusivity, diversity, equity and accessibility) concepts. Understanding how language can be biased, coded, inaccessible, harmful or careless is foundational to the work we do as editors.  In this final article of our series on free […]

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James Harbeck

Don’t Look Busy

March 23, 2021 by James Harbeck | 1 Comment on Don’t Look Busy

It’s a good thing I’m not working in-house anymore. I’ve been far too busy lately to look busy. Those of you who have worked in corporate environments know what I’m talking about: You can spend an awful lot of time and effort looking busy instead of getting things done. There are a few reasons for […]

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Letitia Henville

How I’m Hiring a Student to Support My Freelance Editing Business

December 8, 2020 by Letitia Henville | Leave a Comment

I’ve never been happy with the look of my website, shortishard.ca. Yet, I’ve never needed to update it, because I get all my work through referrals, word of mouth or my monthly column, Ask Dr Editor. In 2021, though, things are going to change: I’m hiring an undergraduate student to make my website finally look […]

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Marion Soubliere

Social Procurement to Woo Female-Led Firms, Among Others

May 28, 2019 by Marion Soublière | 2 Comments on Social Procurement to Woo Female-Led Firms, Among Others

There’s a short paragraph in Budget 2018 that didn’t garner much buzz last year. But it holds hope for women-owned companies that want a bigger piece of the roughly $20 billion annual federal market. As part of boosting the overall number of female-run firms in this country, the Government of Canada pledged to make sure […]

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Anita Jenkins

Getting Paid a Living Wage: The Editor’s Constant Challenge

April 16, 2019 by Anita Jenkins | 3 Comments on Getting Paid a Living Wage: The Editor’s Constant Challenge

I have been retired, or semi-retired, for almost a decade now. My career as a freelance writer and editor has gradually given way to new and different pursuits. But recently, a couple of projects for pay showed up in my inbox, and I succumbed. One was related to local history, a lifelong passion of mine. […]

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Brendan O’Brien

My Network

February 12, 2019 by Brendan O'Brien | Leave a Comment

I went freelance at the start of 1993, working from my house in Dublin. I didn’t have a computer till midway through that year — work arrived at first by courier or in the mail, on paper. I had some reference books and, if I was lucky, a publisher’s style guide to consult. For many […]

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Brendan O’Brien

Winning in the Freelance Game

November 13, 2018 by Brendan O'Brien | 6 Comments on Winning in the Freelance Game

Being a freelancer is hard. When clients don’t have work for you, you cease to exist for them even though your livelihood depends on them or on people like them. You need to be a team player, but often you will be dropped from the team abruptly when a project ends. This demands resilience. Here […]

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Brendan O’Brien

Is It All About the Author?

August 21, 2018 by Brendan O'Brien | 23 Comments on Is It All About the Author?

The prevailing orthodoxy in online editors’ groups, I have noticed, is one of huge respect for, and empathy with, the author. The author is king/queen. We, as editors, primarily serve the author’s vision, the author’s voice. However, in my own work (both in-house and freelance, primarily as a copyeditor of non-fiction), the emphasis has generally […]

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Christina Vasilevski

How Joining an Editorial Association Kickstarted My Career

June 5, 2018 by Christina Vasilevski | 4 Comments on How Joining an Editorial Association Kickstarted My Career

It’s 2008. After graduating from university the year before, I have a soul-sucking job with a company of dubious morals. However, it’s the Great Recession and beggars can’t be choosers. I feel stuck, sad and like I’m drowning. Maybe I should get back into writing, I think. Online, I find out about Ryerson University’s publishing […]

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Virginia Durksen

The Inner Editor: Please Allow Me To … Interrupt You

February 6, 2018 by Virginia Durksen | 12 Comments on The Inner Editor: Please Allow Me To … Interrupt You

On Facebook recently, a colleague reported being the victim of a phone hijacking. You might recognize the feeling. A potential client calls to ask about editing services and then spends the better part of an hour telling her story with barely a breath between sentences, leaving you with no room to speak. There it is. […]

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Brendan O’Brien

The Perils of Not Knowing

January 16, 2018 by Brendan O'Brien | 10 Comments on The Perils of Not Knowing

One of the downsides of freelance editing is that you’re not there (wherever “there” may be) to explain your thinking on occasions when it might be appropriate to do so. Furthermore, you’re probably unaware that such occasions have even arisen. When I had in-house jobs, I learned a lot from bosses and colleagues. In my […]

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Virginia Durksen

Revisiting the Inner Editor: December Is the Cruellest Month

November 28, 2017 by Virginia Durksen | 4 Comments on Revisiting the Inner Editor: December Is the Cruellest Month

Last year, we published this post on the freelancer’s holiday blues. This year, we’re following up with our readers. Have you implemented any of these ideas? Do you have other tips for avoiding the holiday lull? When projects disappear in other months, the freelance editor adjusts her schedule and cash flow projections and stoically reminds […]

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Brendan O’Brien

The Reluctant Editor

November 7, 2017 by Brendan O'Brien | 15 Comments on The Reluctant Editor

I started editing in 1988, when I was 28, with a free Dublin newspaper that never got off the ground. A stint in London followed, working first on metallurgy journals and then on civil engineering books and journals. In these two jobs I learned a great deal about editorial and production work, often under pressure. […]

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Rosemary Shipton

Succeeding as a Freelancer

March 14, 2017 by Rosemary Shipton | 7 Comments on Succeeding as a Freelancer

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 suggestions. Develop a strong client […]

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Cathy McPhalen

Editing Niches: Grant Applications in Scientific Research

January 31, 2017 by Cathy McPhalen | 4 Comments on Editing Niches: Grant Applications in Scientific Research

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 kinds of editing do researchers […]

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Margaret Sadler

The Weird and the Wonderful: The Art of Selecting Clients

January 24, 2017 by Margaret Sadler | 3 Comments on The Weird and the Wonderful: The Art of Selecting Clients

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 there. But then the warning […]

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Virginia Durksen

The Inner Editor: December Is the Cruellest — and Shortest — Month

December 20, 2016 by Virginia Durksen | 11 Comments on The Inner Editor: December Is the Cruellest — and Shortest — Month

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 month’s famine may well be […]

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Cathy McPhalen

Editing Niches: Back to School With Thesis Editing

September 20, 2016 by Cathy McPhalen | 2 Comments on Editing Niches: Back to School With Thesis Editing

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. Catching them young can forge […]

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Susan Glickman

Time to Put the “Free” Back in “Freelance”

July 26, 2016 by Susan Glickman | 7 Comments on Time to Put the “Free” Back in “Freelance”

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 know when the next job […]

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Paul Cipywnyk

Tips for Dealing with Freelance Isolation

October 6, 2015 by Paul Cipywnyk | 7 Comments on Tips for Dealing with Freelance Isolation

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 to an Editors Canada conference. […]

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Tanya Procyshyn

Editing Goes Global Speaker Profile: Vanessa Ricci-Thode

April 21, 2015 by Tanya Procyshyn | Leave a Comment

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 Procyshyn: It seems you’ve had […]

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Paul Cipywnyk

Time, Money and the Freelance Life

March 24, 2015 by Paul Cipywnyk | 5 Comments on Time, Money and the Freelance Life

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 well? So well that the […]

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Anna Williams

Cold Call Case Files

May 13, 2014 by Anna Williams | 1 Comment on Cold Call Case Files

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 phone call only takes a […]

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