By Lehua Parker
You are ready.
You passed your final university exam with twenty minutes to spare. Commas, parallelism, metaphor, story structure—all down cold. Chicago calls you with esoteric grammar questions.
Your first freelance client! It’s for a quirky contemporary romance, the second novel of an indie author who’s looking for something between a developmental and a copyedit. You top off your Diet Coke and dive in, keeping your secret disappointments to yourself. Using track changes isn’t the same as your special red pen. You miss that printer paper smell.
Days later, you resurface, slurping the last watery dregs of your tepid Diet Coke. You know you’ve nailed it. Every misplaced modifier, stereotypical character, and historical inaccuracy is meticulously identified and annotated. Your backup research detailing which wildflowers are actually in season for an August New Hampshire wedding is particularly stellar. You send off the edited manuscript and wait with bated breath for the accolades that will surely come.
Crickets.
You send a follow-up email.
“Thanks,” writes the author. “You were very thorough. I won’t be needing you to take another look.”
Another client, another manuscript. This time you’re not letting anything slip past!
Rinse and repeat dozens of times, always with a different author. You see press releases about new books from previous clients, books that you’ve never even had a chance to perfect. Curious, you pick one up. Just as you thought! Five mistakes in the first one hundred pages, five mistakes that never would have gotten past you.
You are the best!
So why are previous clients going elsewhere? Most likely, it’s not skill, but your client approach that needs a little polishing.
Building an active client list is crucial to thriving as a freelance editor, and nothing beats word of mouth. Happy and successful clients are quick to return and to point others in your direction.
As a new editor offering both developmental and copyediting services, a lack of repeat business often lies in your editorial mindset and initial training. Throughout your college career you were probably rewarded for identifying everything wrong in a manuscripts. Exams were often about how well you applied style guides, grammar rules, or specific story genre conventions. These skills are foundational, akin to a surgeon learning anatomy and proper stitching techniques. But at a certain professional point, what sets exceptional doctors apart from the pack becomes less about skill and more about engendering a potent mixture of mutual respect, trust, and common goals.
In other words, it’s not your diagnostics skills that are lacking; it’s your bedside manner. Do your authors believe you’re rooting for them to succeed or do the relationships feel a bit adversarial? Are you creating long-term partnerships with your authors or simply circling improper apostrophes?
We won’t mention the red pen.
When starting out, it’s easy to get caught up in an editor’s version of imposter syndrome. You feel like you’re justifying fees by pointing out everything wrong with a manuscript. But before authors will listen to your advice, you have to gain their trust. Here are six tips to help you align your goals with your clients’ and keep them coming back for more.
- Create a respectful and supportive environment by listening, adapting, and showing genuine excitement for the project. Keep the focus on collaboratively removing barriers so that the author’s voice and story shine.
- Remember whose name will be on the cover. In most situations, your role is coach, not literary critic. Authors need to feel their work is their own and not yours because of how much you’ve rewritten or the directions you’ve pushed. As a freelancer, it’s ultimately your client’s story to tell.
- Be aware of your tone and word choice. A good gut check is to consider how you would feel if you got this edit, comment, or recommendation. Can it be framed softer, more positively, more clearly? Make sure your recommendations are couched in ways that are kind and collaborative and framed with the underlying expectation that your author will succeed.
- Go beyond simply pointing out things the author did well or that need work; be sure to highlight why these elements are strong or weak. The why is more powerful than the what because it increases trust in two ways. Writers feel validated when you include brief comments about why specific elements in their manuscripts are particularly fine. Secondly, when writers believe you understand their vision, they are naturally more open to your recommendations. If you’re getting substantial pushback on what you consider critical components, be sure you’re not simply pointing out flaws, but also explaining why revising in this specific area is in the best interest of the manuscript.
- Be aware of your own biases and preferences. Collaboration doesn’t mean agreeing on everything. If on second or third look you realize what you thought was critical really isn’t or if the author gets entrenched with keeping an awkward turn of phrase or pointless scene, move on. Everyone loses in this kind of tug-of-war. Like some hills, some editorial recommendations are not worth dying on.
- Above all, set clear expectations and measurable goals with your authors. Many authors are unaware of the different kinds of editing services and how they flow in a logical progression to publication. You and your author may be using the same terminology, but meaning entirely different things. For example, clarify that developmental edits only focus on big story issues, not word choice, grammar, or typos. Similarly, copyedits assume the story structure is as the author intends it and focuses on eliminating errors in continuity and text. And never, ever, offer a single pass developmental/copyedit no matter how a client begs. It’s never a win-win and is, frankly, a waste of everyone’s time, talent, and cash.
Remember, your goal as a freelance editor is to build a long-term, repeat, and mutually beneficial client list—not a revolving door. With a polished bedside manner and collaborative mindset, you’ll worry less about your red pen. You’ll focus on clarifying clients’ needs and exceeding expectations.
Because now you’re really ready.
For more tips on client relationships, check out our best-advice post “How to Build Client Relationships.”
LEHUA PARKER writes speculative fiction for kids and adults, often set in her native Hawai‘i. Her award-winning published works include the Niuhi Shark Saga trilogy and many other plays, poems, short stories, novels, and essays. An advocate of indigenous voices and a graduate of The Kamehameha Schools, she presents at conferences, schools, and symposiums, and mentors through the Lehua Writing Academy. She occasionally consults as a freelance editor, usually when avoiding her own writing deadlines. Connect with her at www.LehuaParker.com.