by Sharon Cozens
Do you need help starting your freelance business, but don’t know where to go to for sound advice? Or maybe you already have an established freelance business, but feel like it could use a boost? Many higher learning institutions and professional organizations offer courses and/or provide information on being an entrepreneur. However, not many of them address the unique needs of editors. Thankfully, Suzy Bills has written The Freelance Editor’s Handbook: A Complete Guide to Making Your Business Thrive specifically to help editors meet the various challenges that go with being a freelancer.
Bills has impressive credentials and the real-world experience needed to write the definitive guide on the subject. She has been running her own editing and writing business since 2006. She is also the assistant teaching professor of editing and publishing at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
Bills begins the book by asking a thought-provoking but important question: “Do you really want to be a freelance (versus in-house) editor?” She wants readers to know and be ready to face the reality of what it means to be a freelance editor, versus the dream some may have of what it might be like. Therefore, she shares the downsides as well as the benefits of freelancing. Bills points out that being your own boss can bring with it many perks, but it is also a lot of hard work and is unlikely to bring you a life of ease or glamour. Despite this rather gloomy-sounding observation, she is firm in her belief that, with the right mindset and tools, as well as some perseverance, editors can create a thriving business without losing track of the other important things in their lives.
She wants people to be able to make a living while they pursue their passion. However, she reminds us that, while editing is first and foremost a profession, we’re still human beings, with all that that entails. Therefore, Bills wants editors to consider what real success means to them, both personally and professionally. She challenges us to decide what a work-life balance looks like and reminds us to allow time for family and friends, hobbies, and spiritual pursuits. All this, so that not only our businesses can grow, but so that we as individuals can, too.
The book serves as an effective step-by-step guide. It is divided into 13 easy-to-read chapters and is set out in chronological order, from preparation to launching and then to operating a successful business. Bills covers important topics, such as how to start a business, get clients, market yourself, use LinkedIn, and price your services. Later chapters help editors deal with issues that can arise once their business is up and running, such as preparing for and managing personal and family crises, addressing imposter syndrome, and contending with perfectionism and negative client feedback.
The end of each chapter includes a section called “Key Takeaways,” which serves as a quick summary of the chapter’s key points. These sections also serve as a call to action, reminding readers what steps they should be taking along the way to create and run their own freelance business.
The only downside of the book, from a Canadian perspective, comes with the second-last chapter, “Overcoming the Fear of Taxes.” This chapter is focused on how to charge and file taxes as an American citizen. Bills acknowledges that most freelance editors hate having to decide how, when, and what taxes to charge clients, as well as figuring out how to file a tax return. She demystifies and clarifies these processes. (The Canada Revenue Agency’s website provides a lot of detailed tax information for Canadian freelancers.)
Overall, The Freelance Editor’s Handbook is like having a freelance-editor mentor on your bookshelf. Inexpensive (C$32 ) compared to taking a course, it is a comprehensive and reasonably up-to-date (2021) guide. Editors at various stages of their career, whether they’re freelancers or in-house, wilI find the book helpful, since it is full of practical and easily actionable information and advice.
Sharon Cozens, the secretary of Editors Toronto, is a Toronto-based copy editor and writer whose focus is on non-fiction, with a particular interest in histories, memoirs, biographies, autobiographies, and craft books. She believes that clear, plain, and mindful language can be a powerful tool for bringing people together.
This article was copy edited by Jennifer D. Foster, who is a Toronto-based freelance editor, writer, and mentor, and her company is Planet Word.
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