Freelance Copy Editor

The professional written material we read everyday, whether it’s a novel or business advertisement has been checked and often reworded by a copy editor. A copy editor ensures written materials in their semi-processed from reach the printers with perfect spelling, grammar and flowing sentences. If you love writing but don’t necessarily want to write your own material this could be your new work from home job.

Before The Start-Up – Let’s Not Get Ahead Of Ourselves

As a copy editor you’ll be expected to take partly finished writings and turn them into smooth and error free final publications. You’ll need great writing, grammar and communications skills. Great writing skills go beyond simply being able to write well, you’ll need to understand the goals of your client and ensure they are being correctly communicated in the text. A qualification in copywriting is not required but experience is essential.

The Start-Up

You won’t be editing the new Harry Potter manuscript just yet, aim your skills at the small business community in your area. To do your job effectively you’ll need a work space, desk, computer, printer and high speed internet connection.

The internet provides awesome opportunities for offering your copy editing services to a global audience. We suggest you start with a combination of offline and online services. Hire a web designer to build you a website, your site should be professional and easy to use. Trust is always hard to gain online so include a full biography of yourself, including your resume pertaining to writing. Your prospective clients will be judging you on your past work so include a portfolio of your best published works. Testimonials are also another way to gain trust online, have at least one testimonial on every page, constantly reminding visitors that you offer reputable service.

How you price your services will decide how competitive your service is. Give your customers as much choice as possible by offer various writing packages for different publications of different lengths. This will give your clients an easy way to pick out what’s most suited to their needs.

Making It Work

How you price your services will decide how competitive your business is. Give your customers as much choice as possible by offer various writing packages for different publications types and lengths. This will give your clients an easy way to pick out what’s most suited to their needs.

Marketing

Market your website through a small pay per click campaign with Google’s AdWords or Yahoo’s Overture, such a campaign will drive traffic to your site with the highest possible return on investment. For your offline marketing efforts target local newspaper classifieds and business publications.

Don’t Forget

This industry is deadline driven, work out how long an average job takes and carefully plan your schedule. Equally so, turning down business because your too busy can cost you return customers. Develop a good working relationship with other high calibre copy editors and pass work on to them if you get too busy.