Posts Tagged ‘getting work’
How to hire a freelance editorial project manager
So you need to hire a freelance editorial project manager. Perhaps you have an overspill of work from your in-house editorial team, or perhaps your business needs expert editorial help with a major project (such as the creation of a new website or the ongoing management of a journal). Whatever the case, you may be wondering how best to find a person who will be a good fit for your company and processes.…
Read MoreHow to use bubble charts to get a snapshot of your clients’ value to your business
If you’re like me, you keep meticulous records of all of your projects, including hours worked, hourly rates, speed of work and so on. It’s easy to quickly rack up a lot of data, but data is no good if it’s not put to practical use. I do various ongoing and yearly analyses of my data, and one of those analyses involves creating a bubble chart to give me a snapshot of my clients’ value to me, both monetarily (the volume of work and how much I get paid for it) and in terms of how much I like working with each client.…
Read MoreCapitalising on feedback and embracing fragility
Not long ago, I met up with three old university friends who are all employed by (or have been employed by) large public-sector organisations. Their work environments (the support and demands of a corporate structure; the necessity of wearing shoes with rigid soles) couldn’t be more different from mine (the freedom to improve or damage my business unchecked by rules set by others; an office six metres from my bed).…
Read More#sfep16: reflections on the 2016 Society for Editors and Proofreaders conference
I spent the weekend just gone in Birmingham at the 2016 Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP) conference – my fourth. There were over 30 hours of excellent CPD and networking opportunities, and I’ve emerged re-invigorated and with plenty of new ideas for my business and personal development, if a little brain-weary:
The seven deadly sins of freelance editors
You’re a good editor. You can juggle serial commas and breathe fire at dangling modifiers. Your ninja coding skills can subdue even the most tortuous of manuscripts.
But, however good your editorial skills, they may not be able to save you from losing a client to certain common etiquette pitfalls. I’ve collected seven of these below.…
Read MoreEight thoughts on what makes a great project manager (or, how to make your freelancer love you)
In my previous post I gave some tips for freelance editors, proofreaders and indexers on how to keep getting rehired by clients. A contact subsequently suggested a mirror article on how those clients could improve in their dealings with freelancers.
Given that client relations are a perennial bugbear of freelancers, this seemed an interesting topic to tackle.…
Read MoreHow to get repeat editorial work from publishing clients
Here’s the situation: you’ve got yourself onto a publisher’s or other editorial client’s list of freelancers and, after a few months, you receive an email offering interesting work at a great rate of pay. You accept the job and complete it on deadline and to the best of your abilities, and the client seems happy (or, at least, you don’t receive any negative feedback, which is often the best feedback a busy client has time for).…
Read MoreSeven ways to make your LinkedIn profile more appealing to editorial project managers
Being an editorial project manager (PM) can feel a bit like being a very delicious, but very forbidden, cake. When I tell other freelancers that part of my work involves hiring copy-editors, proofreaders and indexers, I sometimes find myself the object of longing glances from those who seem to feel themselves starved of work. However, I’ve met enough freelancers to know that a person’s talents may not be equal to the amount of work they are receiving – it may be how they are presenting themselves that is to blame.…
Read MoreWhy being on a publisher’s list of freelancers might not be enough to get you editing work
As a copyeditor, proofreader or indexer, you may think that getting yourself onto a publisher’s list of freelancers is the holy grail of freelancing and will be enough to get you hired regularly.
However, it’s often the case that the people on publishers’ lists who receive regular work have done so for years, and always work with the same contacts.…
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