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 recommend that you begin by asking yourself the following:
- How much variety do you need in your work life (a balance between habit and novelty)?
- How much certainty do you need in your work life (a balance between risk and reward)?
I like a fair amount of novelty in my life: I like to read about different things, interact with different people, and try new ideas. I like the challenge of adapting. At the same time, I value the habitual nature of developing deep client relationships. My tolerance for risk isn’t what it used to be. I have three kids and a giant cat who depend on me, so I try to stick to what I know I’m good at and really focus on relationship building with my clients.
Once you’ve addressed these preliminary questions, you can ask deeper questions to help drive decisions about how to diversify your client base.
What do you edit?
How niche of an editor are you currently? This is a question that gets at your preferred balance of habit and novelty.
If you get bored easily, you may prefer to diversify the content you edit. If you prefer to work within a narrow band of your expertise, then that is important to know as well.
I am somewhere in the middle. I feel very comfortable editing within the social sciences and humanities, somewhat comfortable in adjacent academic or popular non-fiction fields, and not particularly comfortable editing fiction (for now — my dream is to one day edit mysteries!).
Remember that the more specialized you are, the more you have to worry about finding work within that specialty. If you are only doing worldbuilding for high-concept paranormal romances, that sounds amazing, but you need to make sure that enough authors know about you to build your client base.
Who is your clientele?
How diverse is your client base? Having a niche client base makes it easier to market yourself and encourage people to refer their friends to you, but having a smaller potential pool of clients can also increase risk. Similarly, if all of your work comes from one publisher, and they go out of business, this can significantly impair your ability to make a living.
I edit exclusively for academics — I don’t work for universities or publishers. Whenever I see an in-house publishing job, I ask myself whether it would be worth giving up the vast majority of my independent clients. So far, the answer has been no — primarily because of my close relationship with my clients, but also because I enjoy not having all of my financial eggs in one basket.
What services do you offer?
What kind of editing do you do? Developmental? Stylistic? Copy editing? Proofreading?
If I had my druthers, most of my editing would be developmental edits of books. Since it’s been difficult to find a broad enough client base to support that, I also do developmental and stylistic editing of journal articles, job materials, etc. But I don’t copy edit or proofread (or check references!).
As you grow your client base and work becomes steadier, you may have a new problem: there are only so many hours in the day when you can be actively editing. Often, solving this problem involves offering higher-value services or figuring out ways to earn money outside of editing, including things like generating materials, hosting webinars, etc. — some of which can accrue money even without active labor. I enjoy offering workshops and writing retreats.
Homework
Spend some time creating a two-year and a five-year plan that maps out areas for growth. Using the questions above as a guide, plot where you are now, where you’d like to be and what you would need to do to accomplish those goals. This might mean that you need more professional development, to market yourself differently or to brainstorm where new clients might come from.
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Kelly Clancy
Kelly Clancy is the owner of Epilogue Editing. She is an academic developmental editor, a book coach and a writing retreat host. She is also a contributing editor for Edutopia. Kelly holds a PhD in political science and was previously a tenured professor. She is the author of two books, most recently the critically acclaimed Democracy: A Love Letter (and a guide for everyone fighting to save it). She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her spouse, her three adventurous kids and her giant orange cat named Sherbert.
Follow her on Bluesky at @kellyclancy.bsky.social.