What do you need to start an editing practice? Well, the bare essentials are a business name, a website, a registered business name, an understanding of editing services you want to offer, and your set editorial rates. But once you have those things in hand, how do you work towards building a sustainable editing practice that you can grow long-term? 

In this blog, we’re going to cover some steps you can take to give yourself a leg up on building a strong business that will last.

Define (and Refine) Your Parameters

Services

The world of editing is a wide one! Usually, the main levels of editing are developmental editing (also known as substantive editing), copyediting, and proofreading. Technically, there is also a level known as line editing, but it’s not uncommon for many editors to roll that service into their process of copyediting.

There are also lesser-known types of editing, such as technical editing, and editing-adjacent services such as permissions work, indexing, and editorial assessments.

So, you have many options when it comes to what you want your service offerings to be. And, while it might be tempting to offer as many services as you think you can handle, sometimes it’s a better decision to specialize a little—limit your offerings to what you know you can do well, and what you are most passionate about. We’ll talk more about that shortly!

Rates

Setting rates can be intimidating, but luckily there are resources you can refer to that will give you a rough range of rates. The US-based Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) is a great place to start. Each year, it surveys 1,000 of its members to gather data on what real editors are charging for their services. The data is then broken down into categories that are easy to understand, such as what the median rate is per word, per page (and how many pages per hour you should be working at on average dependent on service), and as a flat fee.

Keep in mind that these rates are specific to the United States and are in US dollars, but this can still be a good place to start, as the survey is done annually and updated as needed to make sure that the numbers reflect reality of the industry.

Editors Canada also has a bit of information on editorial rate structures, which you can check out on its website. If you become a member of Editors Canada, you’ll gain access to its annual rate surveys and more detailed information. Generally, rates will range from $45 to $65 per hour, depending on service, timeline, and difficulty.

And of course, there are multiple factors at play, including years of experience, location, and turnaround time. Even so, the EFA editorial rate breakdown is a fantastic resource to reference—when you’re first setting your rates, but also to ensure your rates are keeping up with the market averages throughout your career.

Define Your Niche

Returning to the idea of specializing, defining a niche for yourself can be a great way to ensure your editing practice will last long-term. It sounds counterintuitive at first—how will limiting the types of projects you take on, the genres you work with, or the field you work within lead to more business? However, I assure you that defining a niche for yourself will help you stand out in a crowded market.

Think of it this way: You need to purchase a pair of pants, and you know the perfect pair for you is out there. So, you go online and search “pants.” You’ll probably get millions and millions of results—men’s pants, women’s pants, every size, every colour, every fabric, every style, every inseam. Of all those results, your ideal pair is in there somewhere. And the way to find them is to…be more specific. If you’re looking for a pair of tall women’s flare jeans in a dark wash, try using those keywords, and you’ll find that your search results improve dramatically when you narrow your search terms.

The same concept works when it comes to offering your services! If you brand yourself simply as an “editor,” well, there are a lot of editors out there to compete with. But if you define yourself a little more, perhaps as a “romance copyeditor,” a “medical technical editor,” or a “self-help developmental editor,” you’ll make it much easier for people looking for those specific services to find you.

Think about where your skills lie (and even about which services you don’t enjoy), as well as what kinds of materials you want to work on and types of clients you want to work with, and let that guide how you define your niche. To help you as you define and then refine your niche, consider checking out our blog post, What Is Your Editing Genre? Tips to Help You Identify Your Strengths and Talents!

Finding a niche that feeds your passion and allows you to specialize in the services that you’re not only skilled at but that you also enjoy is the best way to ensure you’ll attract the right clients and the right projects. And it’s the best way to create a practice you can continue to build on in a crowded market. 

Continue Your Professional Development

Editing as a field is always changing, always in flux. For that reason, it’s very important to make sure you stay abreast of new developments in the industry, such as updated style manuals, evolving best practices, and new techniques and tools. You’ve probably completed some kind of editing program as part of your post-secondary education, but don’t let your learning stop once you’ve graduated. As editing evolves, so should you.
One avenue to continue your learning is to take advantage of resources offered by professional organizations.

The EFA has traditional courses led by an instructor, as well as self-paced course options that are a little more flexible. 

Editors Canada has an extensive library of previously recorded webinars you can purchase and watch on your own time, as well as new webinars scheduled every year that you can register for to watch and participate in live!  

For a little more detail on the offerings of both organizations, check out our blog post, Building Your Skillset: A Sampler of Editorial Webinars and Courses.

Making use of these resources can also help you in refining (and strengthening) your niche and the services you offer, as many of the webinars, for example, delve a little deeper into more specialized topics, such as medical copyediting, editing for cookbooks and recipes, or academic editing. 

Manage Your Finances

As your business grows, so too do the many to-do items that fall outside of the actual editing you do. It’s important to pay attention to the balance of the actual editing work versus the other things that come with managing your own business. At some point, you’ll likely find that it simply makes more sense to bring in outside professionals who can help you with these details.

A great place to start (when you’re ready) is to bring in someone to help you with your finances. Whether it’s an accountant who swoops in to help you at tax time or a bookkeeper who gets more involved in the inner workings of your business, outsourcing some of the financial management items to a professional can really help you in the long run.

Think about it: would you rather spend hours wrestling with spreadsheets and pulling your hair out to file your own taxes at tax time, or would you rather hire an accountant to simplify the process, fill out all the paperwork, and file on your behalf?

Provided you keep decent records throughout the year, an accountant would be glad to take that task off your hands, which, in turn, frees you up to spend your valuable time elsewhere—such as editing, amping up your marketing efforts, or doing some professional development! Of course there will be a cost involved in bringing in an outside professional, but this trade-off will benefit you in the long-term, as it allows you to put that newly available time back into your business.

As well, an accountant knows all the ins and outs of their field, meaning they could even find some benefits or write-offs you might not have realized you’re entitled to. Lastly, it’s much less likely that mistakes or errors will be made when an expert is handling things for you—and mistakes are the last thing you want when it comes to dealing with the CRA (or IRS, etc.).

Granted, my business is pretty small—it’s really just me. I don’t need a bookkeeper to handle payroll, or subcontractors, or anything like that. However, outsourcing my taxes to a trusted accountant is a decision I made a few years ago, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I just make sure to stay on top of my record-keeping throughout the year, then my accountant sends over a simple spreadsheet of her own design (specifically for small business owners and freelancers), I fill out the values as needed, send her my records for reference, and she fills everything out and files for me. It’s not exactly cheap, but it’s more than worth getting rid of the stress of struggling through tax forms, as well as the worry that I’ll somehow make a big mistake and end up getting audited by the CRA.

Just make sure you find a trustworthy and experienced professional—there are a lot of accountants out there who are willing to skirt the rules to lower your “taxes owed” amount. I once encountered one who told me confidently that I was entitled to certain deductions that would lower my tax bill by a very, very large percentage. After our consult, however, I was able to disprove his claim in less than 30 seconds with a simple Google search. My dad, a now-retired CPA, also confirmed that the guy was incorrect. 

Now, whether this guy truly didn’t know the tax law or was misrepresenting it, I’m not sure, but either way, that’s not a risk I’m willing to accept. It can be tempting to take the opportunity to pay less by flouting the rules, but I firmly believe that such things always come back to bite you in the end.

Manage Your Marketing Strategy

Another professional that you might want to bring in down the line is a business coach. As your practice expands, it can be tough to figure out what next steps to take, and how to organize a growing pile of business details.

One resource to start with could be a book on marketing strategy—Senior Editor Beth was a fan of See You on the Internet: Building Your Small Business with Digital Marketing by Avery Swartz (Page Two Books, 2020). See her favourable review of the book for more insights and suggestions.

You can also check out the TEC blog for great resources on marketing yourself and your services, such as Stand Out! 7 Ways to Emphasize the Best of What You Have to Offer.

A business coach can also be a great option for bringing in an outside perspective as your business grows. They can provide guidance and expertise and help you parse through your options and figure out what to do next. 

Stay Persistent—and Passionate!

Creating a long-term editing practice takes persistence and passion. Persistence, to keep at it even on the tough days, and passion, to help you want to stay involved in new goings-on in the field and continue working with creators who write content that inspires you. I hope that the advice above helps you maintain that passion, by filtering out the things that don’t inspire you (projects in fields you find boring, services you don’t enjoy providing, or even the aspects of running a business that take you away from the work you enjoy) and allowing you to focus on the things that do.

Ask yourself: Where do you see yourself as an editor six months, a year, or even five years from now? What are some of the steps you need to take to get there? (And if you’re unsure, check out our recent blog on how to set goals and work towards achieving them.)

If you regularly check in with yourself and consider how you can refine and improve your strategy as you keep moving forward, you’re already off to a great start when it comes to building a long-term practice.