Month: July 2026

Virtually pounding the pavement

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One of the biggest challenges of working at home as a freelance editor is finding clients without physically pounding the pavement. How does one pound it virtually?

When you launch your editing business, tell as many friends and as much family about it as possible. If they have ideas or leads, they will let you know and hook you up with a potential client quickly. This is how I got started. As soon as I decided to launch my business, I let many people in my personal network know about it, and one of my good friends suggested that I edit her researcher husband’s latest manuscript. I did, and some time later, my friend suggested that I edit her company’s annual catalog. The rest is history.

Don’t be afraid to reach into your past, either. One thing I did was to contact a faculty member from the university at which I received my MS degree. Although it had been some twenty years since I had talked to that faculty member, she remembered me and hooked me up with the people at the university medical school who provide editors for researchers.

You can also get business by joining editing organizations, such as Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) and American Copy Editors Society (ACES), both of which I am a member and would recommend. (There are several others, as well.) Soon after I joined EFA, I reached out to my fellow members who live in my state via cold email, and several wrote back and I eventually developed a professional relationship with them. One of them then referred me to an editor she knew, and I got a couple of interesting editing assignments.

Using social media is also a possibility, but it can be tricky. I found out the hard way that Facebook forbids promoting your business; I no longer am on that platform. I use LinkedIn and post regularly and have gathered many connections, but I have yet to see an editing job come from it.

If you are a freelance editor, what methods do you use to find clients?

Expanding my services

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This is probably the most radical blog post I’ve written in a very long time.

I have decided to expand my editing services into commercial websites and retail catalogs.

Don’t be alarmed. I am still going to edit scientific manuscripts, grant proposals, and capstone papers. I love science and I could never leave it.

It’s just that scientists, in the last year and a half, have not had the money to do their research, much less hire editors for their written work. (We all know why this is, but I will keep the rest of my political opinions to myself for now.) And without clients, I cannot make money. I am trusting that this will get better a few years from now, but I cannot wait a few years.

Editing commercial websites and retail catalogs is not new to me. I have been editing the web pages for a furniture company for which a good friend of mine works. In 2019, she introduced me to her company and I began editing the retail and trade catalogs that it mails to its customers every spring. I have edited the catalogs every year since then.

At first, I was unfamiliar with Acrobat, so I compiled a list of issues for every section and page on a Word document. Now, however, I have basic Acrobat skills, and I can edit directly on the PDF of the catalogs. (I can thank a wonderful EFA webinar for teaching me this valuable skill.)

For the webpages, I still compile a list of issues for each section, but I believe that makes it easier for everyone involved.

When I edit a word or sentence, I use the word “Please” liberally. (“Please delete the comma after ‘and.’”) (“Please avoid using the passive voice.”) Using “please” makes me sound like I am working with the client rather than being the client’s ninth-grade English teacher.

If you work for a company that could use its webpages or catalogs edited by an outstanding copyeditor, please find me on LinkedIn and drop me a message.