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    Business Planning for Editorial Freelancers: A Guide for New Starters
    Business Planning for Editorial Freelancers: A Guide for New Starters
    Business Planning for Editorial Freelancers: A Guide for New Starters
    Ebook155 pages1 hour

    Business Planning for Editorial Freelancers: A Guide for New Starters

    By Louise Harnby

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    About this ebook

    Are you thinking about starting a new editing or proofreading business? Written for those with no prior publishing or editorial experience, this practical guide takes new editorial freelancers, step by step, through the basics of planning their career. Chapters focus on why a business plan is necessary, the different aspects of editorial freelancing, training, client focus, getting experience, financial assessment, promotion, networking, tools for the job, and real-world case studies featuring new starters. Additional material includes tips from experienced practitioners that illustrate the tasks and learning goals discussed, as well as useful tools and resources. Published in association with The Publishing Training Centre.

    'This is exactly the book that would-be editorial freelancers need to read before setting up their businesses.' (Katharine O'Moore-Klopf, ELS; KOK Edit)

    'If you’re thinking of setting out on the journey to becoming a freelance editorial professional, make sure this is the first book you read.' (Hazel Harris, Wordstitch)

    '[E]ssential reading for anyone thinking of setting themselves up as a freelance editor.'
    (Jen Hamilton-Emery, Salt Publishing)

    'Helpful, hopeful, yet realistic about the challenges ahead, this book will leave its readers better informed, and therefore better prepared, for their entry into this highly competitive field.' (Madhubanti Bhattacharyya, Edward Elgar Publishing)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLouise Harnby
    Release dateMar 27, 2013
    ISBN9781301414116
    Business Planning for Editorial Freelancers: A Guide for New Starters
    Author

    Louise Harnby

    Louise Harnby (1967–) is an editor, writer, speaker and podcaster with thirty years of experience in the publishing industry. She writes about line craft for authors and editors; marketing and business planning for editors; and fiction for lovers of crime and speculative fiction and thrillers.She was a finalist in the Noirwich Crime Writing Festival flash fiction competition (2018), the Bookseller/FutureBook Future Fiction short-story competition (2018), and the Crime Writers' Association's Margery Allingham short-mystery competition (2019).Harnby specializes in working with independent authors of commercial fiction. She is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP; UK), a Member of ACES (Society of Editors; US), and a Partner Member of the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi).She speaks regularly at international editing conferences, was a keynoter at the Editorial Freelancers Association convention in Chicago (2019), and has been shortlisted for/ won several awards including the UK Blog Awards (finalist, 2018), Content Marketing Academy Awards (finalist, Podcast of the Year, 2019), Content Marketing Academy Awards (winner, Blog of the Year, 2019), the Judith Butcher Award (winner, SfEP, 2017), and the Karen Virag Award (nominee, Editors Canada, 2017).

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      Book preview

      Business Planning for Editorial Freelancers - Louise Harnby

      Business Planning for Editorial Freelancers:

      A Guide for New Starters

      Louise Harnby

      in association with The Publishing Training Centre

      Copyright © 2013 by Louise Harnby

      Smashwords edition

      Licence Statement

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the work of this author.

      CONTENTS

      RECENT REVIEWS

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      ABOUT THE PUBLISHING TRAINING CENTRE

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      INTRODUCTION

      CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS A BUSINESS PLAN AND WHY SHOULD YOU CREATE ONE?

      CHAPTER 2: THE MANY WORLDS OF EDITORIAL FREELANCING

      CHAPTER 3: GETTING YOURSELF READY FOR MARKET – TRAINING

      CHAPTER 4: CLIENT FOCUS

      CHAPTER 5: GETTING EXPERIENCE

      CHAPTER 6: FINANCIAL ASSESSMENT

      CHAPTER 7: GETTING NOTICED – PROMOTION

      CHAPTER 8: NETWORKING

      CHAPTER 9: PRACTICALITIES AND TOOLS FOR THE JOB

      CHAPTER 10: CASE STUDIES – TALES FROM NEW STARTERS

      CHAPTER 11: THE LAST WORD …

      RESOURCES

      RECENT REVIEWS

      ‘This is exactly the book that would-be editorial freelancers need to read before setting up their businesses. Author Louise Harnby gives practical, straightforward business advice and backs it up with portraits of successful editorial professionals. The case studies are quite instructive and inspiring. I will highly recommend Business Planning for Editorial Freelancers to all of the editors I mentor.’

      (Katharine O'Moore-Klopf, ELS, KOK Edit)

      ‘Louise Harnby’s Business Planning for Editorial Freelancers is a savvy and realistic guide to what, for new entrants, can be a difficult field to enter. Louise combines a business-first approach with a richly informative overview of the profession that will be invaluable to newbies. In addition, the ‘practitioner focus’ sections are an outstanding feature and enable the reader to learn from several other highly respected figures in the industry. If you’re thinking of setting out on the journey to becoming a freelance editorial professional, make sure this is the first book you read.’ (Hazel Harris, Wordstitch)

      ‘This guide is essential reading for anyone thinking of setting themselves up as a freelance editor or, as Louise Harnby emphasizes throughout, an editorial business owner. With Top Tips and Learning Goals, every area of how to plan your new business is covered in practical terms, backed up by case studies of some of the industry’s most successful freelance editors. For those new to publishing, as well as those moving into self-employment with a publishing background, this guide offers everything you need to know to get your business off the ground and moving in the right direction.’ (Jen Hamilton-Emery, Salt Publishing)

      ‘With this e-book, Louise Harnby has created a resource both interesting and useful for editorial freelancers embarking on their businesses. Helpful, hopeful, yet realistic about the challenges ahead, this book will leave its readers better informed, and therefore better prepared, for their entry into this highly competitive field.

      I feel sure that I can speak for production editors in other publishing houses too when I say that despite a well-populated database to choose from, a qualified, trusted freelance colleague is always sure to find themselves inundated with offers of work. Louise has, so far, declined to look into the possibility of cloning her professional self; this book is a valuable enough resource that I take the liberty of predicting that newer colleagues using it to chart their own trajectories will ensure that she does not need to.’ (Madhubanti Bhattacharyya, Edward Elgar Publishing)

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      Louise Harnby owns an editorial business specializing in proofreading for academic and trade publishers. She has worked in the publishing industry for over twenty years, initially with Williams & Wilkins and then for SAGE Publications. The birth of her child and the resulting desire for more flexible working arrangements led her to set up her own company in 2005.

      Louise completed The Publishing Training Centre’s Basic Proofreading by Distance Learning course with distinction in 2006 and is now an advanced member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. As of April 2013, she has over 300 proofreading projects under her belt.

      She is the owner and curator of the Proofreader’s Parlour, a blog for editors and proofreaders, dedicated to providing information, advice, opinion, comment, resources, and knowledge-sharing related to the business of editorial freelancing.

      She lives in the heart of the Norfolk Broads.

      Louise Harnby | Proofreader

      louiseharnbyproofreader.com

      ABOUT THE PUBLISHING TRAINING CENTRE

      The Publishing Training Centre is an educational charity dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in publishing. It grew from a small department at the Publishers Association more than thirty years ago and remains at the heart of the industry.

      The PTC’s courses are focused on providing specific learning outcomes that are designed to thoroughly prepare freelancers for the work they will be asked to do. All the tutors are practitioners first and foremost, which means that they bring their real-world experience with them to the courses they teach, enriching the experience for students and making the training more practical.

      In addition to its distance learning programmes, The Publishing Training Centre also offers a full range of classroom-based courses covering all aspects of publishing.

      Visit its website at www.train4publishing.co.uk for full details.

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      My thanks to my colleagues and friends at SAGE Publications, from whom I learned the language of social science publishing; to the many freelance editors and proofreaders from all over the world who continue to provide me with professional support, friendship and unending wisdom; to the folk at The Publishing Training Centre for their enthusiastic backing of this project; to Kate Haigh, Liz Jones, Nick Jones, Janet MacMillan, Anna Sharman and Marcus Trower for their invaluable contributions; and to Mary McCauley, Johanna Robinson and Grace Wilson, the case-study contributors who shared their recent start-up stories with such honesty and clarity.

      INTRODUCTION

      If you are considering setting up your own editorial freelance business, this guide is for you. It has been written for those with no publishing background or prior editorial experience – the completely new entrant to the field.

      While there are many distinct functions to editorial freelancing – project management, indexing, rewriting, fact checking, language localization, translation, copywriting, editing and proofreading – for simplicity, this guide refers primarily to editing and proofreading, since they are two of the most common points of entry.

      Creating a business plan before you do anything else will help you to make the right decisions. Too often I receive cries for help from people saying they’ve ‘gone freelance’ but desperately need to work out how to acquire clients, or they’re wondering about what training is necessary to get them started. I firmly believe that these issues (and others) need to be addressed before you embark on your business, not after. If you’re not convinced, let me share the words of one of the case study freelancers featured in Chapter 10: ‘If I did it all over again, I’d do all the business planning and courses before … I was doing my editorial training, not after. I think this would have given me more confidence in the beginning and prepared me for the reality.’

      This guide offers one way of thinking about the steps you need to take to build your editorial freelance business. Your business plan may look very different and that’s absolutely fine; after all, people order their thoughts and ideas in different ways. The point, though, is to ask the necessary questions at the beginning, to focus your thoughts strategically, and to think about substantive ways in which you will get your business off the ground. There is too much competition out there to risk not doing so.

      Business owner first, freelancer second

      It’s difficult to imagine a bank, venture capitalist or other financier agreeing to support a business start-up if there’s no business plan. The information in the plan demonstrates that the business owner has researched their market, is qualified to offer the service(s) they’re selling, has developed a set of realistic financial projections, and understands what tools and skills will be required. This information gives the financier confidence that the business owner knows what they are doing before any capital is invested. It helps them assess risk.

      The good news is that setting up an editorial business is unlikely to require external assistance – you will be your own

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