On the Basics: Charging for working on the weekend?

© Ruth E. Thaler-Carter

Owner, An American Editor

© An American Editor. Content may not be recirculated, republished or otherwise used without both the prior permission of the publisher and full credit to the author of a given post and the An American Editor blog, including a live link to the post being referenced. Thank you for respecting our rights to and ownership of our work.

A recent post to a Facebook group asked about managing weekend proofreading requests. The poster wanted to know how much extra colleagues charge for weekend work that is required by the client. My starting point in response was to ask whether the poster was working on the weekends because a client can’t get their act together to send assignments from Monday–Friday, or because the proofreader needed that weekend time to finish assignments.

The short answer is that for the former, I’d increase the rate for weekend hours. For the latter, I’d try to find ways to get more work done during the week (note that I say “try”; I know that family and regular jobs can take up weekday time), but wouldn’t charge more for weekend time.

It turns out that the original agreement with this person’s colleague was that she would receive material on a Thursday and be expected to turn it around in four days — by 9 a.m. the following Monday. By the time I saw that clarification, comments had closed, so I decided to discuss this here, because setting hours and managing expectations comes up often among freelance colleagues.

For the most part, if not always, this situation would depend on the agreement with the client. If you know upfront that a project or client will involve work on the weekend and agree to being available on that kind of schedule, I don’t see a justification for increasing the editor’s or proofreader’s rate. If the client has a regular flow of requests during regular business hours that sometimes includes having to work on the weekend, that might justify a higher fee.

And, of course, some of this depends on the assignments themselves. Most of the editing and proofreading requests I receive can be handled on the same day, or at most by the following day; that is, I can usually complete a Thursday request by Friday and wouldn’t have to work on it over the weekend.

That speedy turnaround is only for fairly small projects. Handling a full-length book, whether copyediting a manuscript or proofreading a PDF, would take longer than a day or so; so would projects like dissertations, lengthy reports, etc. Substantial and developmental editing could take a couple of weeks, if not longer. Such assignments could involve working on the weekend(s), but that wouldn’t necessarily be an expectation.

However, freelance editorial work — writing, editing, proofreading — is my full-time, only profession, and I don’t have family to juggle against work these days.

When Wayne-the-Wonderful came into my life, we talked about how we would balance my freelance life with, initially, his job as a steelworker with a set schedule and again later, his retirement from that job. Since he often worked on weekends, it wasn’t a problem for me to use weekend time for client projects — but I didn’t tell clients that I would be available outside regular business hours. In terms of that Facebook post, if someone asked me to be available beyond 9–5/M–F, I would add something to my usual hourly fee.

Once he retired, we revisited that topic because time together came first. The most important aspect was for me to remember to let Wayne know what my deadlines were and when I planned to interview story sources; I was used to managing my work time without having to inform anyone of my schedule.

If it weren’t just me and the cat, I’d be less likely to accept weekend requests. I don’t really mind them — it gives me something to do. For colleagues with families, whether a partner or kids, it’s probably different. That’s when the work-life balance issue crops up and has to be planned for and managed, and is something to keep in mind when launching an editorial business.

I do accept weekend requests for editing and proofreading work from a couple of long-time regular clients without an additional fee. One is a law firm, and the attorneys are infamous for not sending documents for copyediting or proofreading until the very last minute, which often means after hours on Fridays or during the weekends. One of them is based in California and works primarily for overseas clients, so the time differences make it somewhat understandable that her requests come to me after regular hours and over weekends.

I also usually add to my base fee for weekend requests from all but those clients.

There are a couple of important realities here. One is that starting, and sometimes maintaining, an editorial business often means putting in extra hours outside 9–5/M–F, whether you make those hours officially available or keep that to yourself. The other is that almost everyone has other demands on their time, primarily family or needing “regular” jobs while establishing our writing, editing, proofreading, graphics, etc., businesses. We can’t always do our editorial work when clients want it, or even when we want to. That can mean working after normal business hours to meet a deadline or turning down requests to work on the weekends, which is very hard to do when you need every assignment, and every penny.

One important element of setting our availability limits is that MicrosoftWord and Adobe Acrobat show the times that we work on documents, so clients might notice if you work on something in the middle of the night or on a Saturday or Sunday, and expect such availability whenever they hit a time crunch. I’ve told people that I might use those off hours to keep to a deadline, but that it doesn’t change my availability limits. And if I need those times to meet a deadline due to something at my end, I don’t charge extra.

Setting schedules and expectations for ourselves, clients and families is one of the keys to a successful freelance businesses — and those expectations include phone or e-mail contact. You can use your website, contracts/letters of agreement and early discussions with clients to establish the best way to reach you and when you won’t, or probably won’t, respond to calls or e-mail messages. This is one of those “Never assume” aspects of business management: People don’t know what you don’t tell them, so don’t assume that clients or colleagues won’t try to engage you in work at times when you don’t want to be available.

The same goes for family: Communication is key. We have to let partners and children, and anyone else we live with, know when we should not be disturbed. Family members can’t read our minds. This is especially important if something in your family life changes. If someone in the household suddenly has a new outside job; changes to a home-based business, whether their own or for someone else; retires; or adds to the family, it will affect the life patterns of everyone in the home.

The most important aspect of all this starts with the initial conversation about rates and scheduling. If a client expects you to work on the weekends and you prefer not to but will make an exception for that client, you’re entitled to charge for your time accordingly — most will understand being charged more for weekend or late-night work. If you prefer not to be available at those times, say so, and let the client know what the differential will be if called on to do so — clients don’t like surprises, especially involving higher rates than they expect. If you occasionally work in the wee hours of the night or over a weekend to meet a deadline because aspects of your life interfered with doing the work in regular hours, I wouldn’t charge more than a usual rate.

How have colleagues here handled this aspect of your work lives?

Ruth E. Thaler-Carter (www.writerruth.com) is an award-winning provider of editorial and publishing services for publications, independent authors, publishers, associations, nonprofits and companies worldwide, and the editor-in-chief and owner of An American Editor. She created the annual Communication Central Be a Better Freelancer^® conference for colleagues (www.communication-central.com), now co-hosted with the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (www.naiwe.com) and sponsored by An American Editor. She also owns A Flair for Writing (www.aflairforwriting.com), which helps independent authors produce and publish their books. She can be reached at Ruth@writerruth.com or Ruth.Thaler-Carter@AnAmericanEditor.com.

On the Basics: Self-editing your writing

© Ruth E. Thaler-Carter, Owner

An American Editor

© An American Editor. Content may not be recirculated, republished or otherwise used without both the prior permission of the publisher and full credit to the author of a given post and the An American Editor blog, including a live link to the post being referenced. Thank you for respecting our rights to and ownership of our work.

I love to write, and I love to talk with sources and do background research for my journalistic writing. That’s why I often end up with the potential for more words than an assignment requires — sometimes because sources have such good material to include and sometimes because my voice might be more detailed and “wordy” than needed; sometimes because I just start writing and don’t stop until I have nothing more to say. Cutting an article down to size, so to speak, is a challenge when it feels as if every word is worth keeping. Here’s how I (usually) manage self-editing to cut an assignment down to a required word-count limit.

Ask for more space!

If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

Before doing any substantive cutting and self-editing to a story that I’ve realized is likely to run long, I contact my assignment editor and say something like, “I’ve gathered some great quotes and insights, but including all of the sources and their information would require more words than assigned. Please let me know if there’s space for any additional material, and what the absolute maximum word count might be.”

Another option is to ask whether my article could run in two consecutive issues, or even as a longer series.

Heading off the problem

The best way to prevent having to self-edit for length or beg for more words and space is to improve how we plan and organize what we write. That can involve a couple of approaches.

• Make an outline. Structuring the story before you start writing helps tighten it up and saves you from wasting time on unnecessary elements. I learned the value of outlines many moons ago in high school, when our “Critical Reading and Writer” teacher would give us a literary passage or poem, a few questions, and the 45-minute class period to craft a coherent essay incorporating answers to the questions.

• Ask fewer questions. I’m sometimes guilty of coming up with more questions for sources than an article really needs. If I’m dealing with a tight limit on word count, I go over my planned questions and drop anything that could be overkill. (I usually save the ones that might be unnecessary, in case I need more information after all or can use those for a longer assignment in the future.)

Now that I think of it, fewer questions also helped keep junior-high history essays under control. We didn’t have a word count to meet or beat, but our teacher gave us three or four questions every week and as many sources for answering them in, again, a coherent essay. Limiting the number of questions and sources helped organize both the research and the writing process. (That didn’t stop my dad from saying “I have a book!” and finding several additional books in his library for me to reference.)

• Do fewer interviews. There is such a thing as too many sources. When you have a word limit to meet, only contact absolutely necessary sources. That can be confusing when the client provides a list of sources whom you think should all be included. I still remember my first assignment for what became my longest-running client: a 1,500-word article for an association magazine for which my editor provided 15 members to interview. When I said it seemed impossible to reach them all or include substantive quotes from all of them without going well over the word count, he responded with, “Oh, that’s just in case you can’t reach some of them. We only need to reach four or five.” I was so glad I asked!

Working through the pain

Both writers and editors know that cutting good material from an article can be a painful process, especially for the creator of the work. We do tend to get married to our words, especially given the amount of work involved in creating or crafting them in the first place. It’s easier for editors, who don’t have the same investment of time and effort in the piece and are better able to view it objectively.

First and foremost, skim the draft to find and delete repeated words or ones included by mistake. I just cut a 2,500-word article down to the maximum limit of 2,000 by, in part, finding a few extraneous words that snuck in while I was writing and revising.  

The classic self-editing technique to trim word count is eliminating adjectives. Whether that works depends on the project. It’s generally a useful technique, but some adjectives are important, even essential, for clarity, voice or interest level. Like so many other things in life, a heavy-handed, one-size-fits-all approach can result in throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Oh, and ditch the clichés! Relying on clichés can block creativity as well as add words. Try to swap out clichés with your own language; your voice is often shorter and tighter.

Simplify: “had been expecting” could become “expected.” “had to” could work as “was.” Look for unnecessarily complicated phrasing, compounds and similar excesses, and prune them back to essentials.

Another technique that I often use is to look at every instance of “and” or “or,” and choose one piece of each of those lists, groups or collections to represent the whole.

Certain words can almost always be deleted without damaging meaning or clarity. “location” is one — you can often change “Such-and-such an event is located at …” to “Such-and-such an event is at …,” or even put an address in parentheses, without confusing your readers. Most of us know when “that” can be dropped as well.

Turn narratives into bulleted lists in phrases rather than complete sentences. Just be sure to pay attention to parallelism from one item to the next.

The beauty of blogging

For those of us who tend to write long, blogging is a bonus: We can usually write as much as we please, especially if it’s for our own outlet. There’s a concomitant danger, though: No restrictions on story length removes the need to do our own quality control through self-editing. Blogging can be the equivalent of babbling. Readers notice when a piece of writing hasn’t been edited, no matter by whom.

Payment ethics

Coming up with more words than required poses an issue both practical and ethical: Should the writer who goes over the assigned word count be paid more than an agreed-upon fee? I see producing more words and needing more space than assigned as something I’m responsible for, so I’ve usually offered to accept an original payment, whether it’s by the word or a flat fee, if I end up going over the word count and the client agrees to give me free rein. Some have upped the rate while agreeing to increase the word count; others have accepted my offer to stay within the original budget. Either way, as mentioned, check with the client before going over the assigned word count.

Do colleagues have any ways of keeping word count under control when an assigned topic begs for more words than assigned?

Ruth E. Thaler-Carter (www.writerruth.com) is an award-winning provider of editorial and publishing services for publications, independent authors, publishers, associations, nonprofits and companies worldwide, and the editor-in-chief and owner of An American Editor. She created the annual Communication Central Be a Better Freelancer^® conference for colleagues (www.communication-central.com), now co-hosted with the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (www.naiwe.com) and sponsored by An American Editor. She also owns A Flair for Writing (www.aflairforwriting.com), which helps independent authors produce and publish their books. She can be reached at Ruth@writerruth.com or Ruth.Thaler-Carter@AnAmericanEditor.com.

On the Basics: A personal perspective on finding friends

Ruth E. Thaler-Carter, Owner

An American Editor

© An American Editor. Content may not be recirculated, republished or otherwise used without both the prior permission of the publisher and full credit to the author of a given post and the An American Editor blog, including a live link to the post being referenced. Thank you for respecting our rights to and ownership of our work.

This is a more personal post than I usually publish at An American Editor, but it could make a connection to our professional lives: A lot of colleagues — especially those who (a) freelance and (b) are introverts — struggle to make friends and feel cut off from warmth, support and other important aspects of relationships, especially in the wake (and continuing effects) of the pandemic.

I started thinking about this topic when the radio station I listen to asked the audience to call in with stories about the last time they made a friend as an adult, and I got in — about making a new friend on my recent Philly-Wilmington trip in conjunction with a book event I’ve been involved with. I took the train from Philadelphia and when I got off in Wilmington, there was no elevator anywhere in sight, so I started down steps with my laptop bag over my shoulder and wheelie travel bag in hand. A lovely woman offered to help me get my bag down the stairs to the cab stand. Since she had been so nice, I offered to share a cab or Lyft/Uber if we were going in the same direction, and it turned out that she was going to within walking distance of my destination. I treated for the ride and invited her to the book event I was there for. She showed up a little while later, we hung out during the event and exchanged contact info, and I have a delightful new friend!

The sad stories from other callers saying they haven’t made any friends in years — including well before the pandemic — inspired these suggestions that might be helpful to friends and colleagues here (with the acknowledgment that I’m the poster child for extroverts). For all the lonely people, ways to make friends could include any and all of these. You might have to push yourself a little, and you probably won’t strike gold with every effort to mine these situations, but if you don’t try, you don’t succeed.

Attend conferences and be active in professional organizations, which often leads to friendships as well as working relationships. I’ve certainly added many colleagues to the ranks of my friends, and I even know a few colleagues who met their spouses through their memberships in professional groups or their work. (Just keep your expectations of romance in the reality zone.)

Join a church, synagogue, etc. In addition to religious services, most of these institutions have a variety of ways for members to get acquainted and work on projects together.

Volunteer for a cause you believe in. You’ll meet like-minded people, and even if you don’t find new friends, you’ll be doing good, which is worthwhile in itself. Some professions refer to volunteering or community service as pro bono work, and even give awards for these activities. Who knows — you could become famous for your service!

Take classes — art, literature, local history — anything! Skills-based can work as well as topics that are just for fun.

Get a dog and go to a dog park regularly. Chat with the people about favorite veterinarians, foods, toys, etc., while your pup makes friends with the other dogs.

Join a walking/running/jogging/swim/tennis/pickleball club.

Join a gym.

Look into something like MeetUp for book, mah jongg, dining, travel, theater clubs, etc.

Have a regular hangout for Sunday brunch or some other meal on the same day/same time every week (make friends with the bartender or wait staff).

Have a regular time and day to walk in the park or around the block.

When you’re at the pool, at a restaurant, in the park, on the bus/plane/train, in a waiting room, etc., have a book, magazine or newspaper that someone could ask you about to start a conversation. Knitting and crocheting projects can also be good conversation-starters.

Be the one who starts that conversation (that’s how I met Wayne-the-Wonderful!) — ask someone a question, compliment someone’s outfit or choice of meal or reading material, etc.

Reconnect with long-lost friends through a high school or college alumni association.

Be pleasant to neighbors (don’t wait for them to be nice to you).

Join an association for a hobby — there’s one for every interest, from animal companions to sports to crafts of all kinds and other activities (such as kiteflying — really!), literature genres (including comics and graphic novels); the list is endless. Check out the magazine section of your neighborhood library or favorite bookstore, or go online, to find such organizations.

Join a neighborhood association. If there isn’t one for where you live, look for groups or activities you can start — don’t always wait for neighbors or colleagues to come to you.

Get involved in local politics.

Participate in a community garden.

Join (or start) a “hometown” club — if you’re moved away from where you grew up, see if there’s a local group where you are now for people from your hometown. Washington, DC, has a lot of those, , because the country’s political center tends to have a lot of transient people who leave with every change of administration, but can’t be the only place where they exist.

Park your car and take a bus or commuter or in-town train every once in awhile. The commuter train service between Baltimore and DC is famous for its social life — card games that have been going on for 20 years or longer, birthday parties for the conductors and regular riders, etc. Buses also have regulars. Ask about the right stop for your destination (even if you know where it is). Strike up conversations based on what other riders are reading or doing, like crossword puzzles and other word games.

Have a roughly regular time and day for grocery shopping, so someone who notices you (or someone you think looks approachable) can expect to see you again. Consider asking people about favorite brands or items not to buy, or offering such tips to anyone who looks a little confused. (My DC-area colleagues might remember the “Social Safeway,” which became so well-known as a place where people would hook up that the store started hosting singles events! Not that anyone here would go shopping just for that, of course.)

In a way, now that I think about it, a lot of these ideas are the basis of effective networking, and even of finding new clients or jobs by looking for ways to connect with people and activities.

Oh, and learn to smile!

Other than the dog suggestion (I’m a cat person), these are all ways I’ve met and made new friends over the years. Some of those friendships turned out to be brief and forgettable, but most have continued over many years, even with people I rarely see in person, constantly enriched and enriching on various levels. For an extrovert like me, that’s a big part of what makes life worth living.

Ruth E. Thaler-Carter (www.writerruth.com) is an award-winning provider of editorial and publishing services for publications, independent authors, publishers, associations, nonprofits and companies worldwide, who is known for making and maintaining lasting friendships. She is the editor-in-chief and owner of An American Editor; created the annual Communication Central Be a Better Freelancer^® conference for colleagues (www.communication-central.com), now co-hosted with the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (www.naiwe.com) and sponsored by An American Editor; and owns A Flair for Writing (www.aflairforwriting.com), which helps independent authors produce and publish their books. She can be reached at Ruth@writerruth.com or Ruth.Thaler-Carter@AnAmericanEditor.com.

Thinking Fiction: Judging indie fiction contests

Carolyn Haley

© An American Editor. Content may not be recirculated, republished or otherwise used without both the prior permission of the publisher and full credit to the author of a given post and the An American Editor blog, including a live link to the post being referenced. Thank you for respecting our rights to and ownership of our work.

Judging contests is a great thing to do it you’re a professional editor in independent publishing. It stretches and refines your observational and analytical skills, strengthens your psychological muscles, and makes reading fiction more interesting and meaningful. You can take everything you learn from judging back to your business and be more effective, to your own and your clients’ benefit. Sometimes you can even earn extra income.

To judge book contests, you need editorial and/or writing and/or deep reading experience to lay the groundwork. Judging fairly requires technical knowledge of storycraft, an understanding of the contemporary publishing industry, and the rudiments of design. You have to consider each book as an object within those frameworks, and evaluate it within the parameters of a given contest. Since every contest is different, you must adapt your viewpoint to context.

This combination parallels what indie editors have to do with every incoming manuscript to analyze the needs, benefits, and limitations of a job and the client.

Subjectivity versus objectivity

Contests leave little room for subjectivity. In fact, contest hosts do everything they can to minimize personal taste as a judging influence. All the contests I’ve judged have used a number system to evaluate the submissions, and each contest host chooses the parameters it cares about. Some might judge on only five criteria, others might choose 20, or anything in between. Each criterion comprises a percentage of the total, so a book might score high in story, middle in production quality, low in packaging and appropriateness for its genre. Or any combination. The total is what counts.

With a numerical system, there are inevitably ties between entries, so contests have systems to separate even-ranked contenders to define the winners. Tie-breaking might entail a second pass of numerical ranking with different judges, or a point emphasis on a specific criterion (e.g., whichever contender received the highest scoring for story or cover wins), or requiring judges to specify why they favored one book over the other. This last is where subjectivity finds a place — at that point, you’re talking about just the contenders for finalists, so you’re emphasizing the details instead of the broad brush.

The subjectivity versus objectivity aspect hooks back to indie editing, because editors must learn how to unplug, or at least intellectually manage, their personal tastes. Unlike in traditional publishing, where somebody else has decided that a book is publishable before it reaches an editor’s desk, an indie editor’s responsibility lies in helping authors prepare their books for an unknown publishing outcome.

Variables in judges

Most contests engage two or three judges per title. Their scores might be combined, so the highest total wins, or the scores might be averaged, or the low might be knocked out. Sometimes this information is given to judges; sometimes not. What matters is for an individual judge to evaluate each submission on its own merits and be consistent with their own yardsticks.

Big contests have many judges — it could be hundreds. Smaller contests, especially those for literary fiction, may have a well-known author(s) as judge(s) and promote them as a reason to enter the contest.

In the main, judges are anonymous and expected to remain so. They comprise editors, authors, reviewers, readers, agents, teachers, marketers, librarians — anyone with enough relevant background to assess the submitted content. There’s normally a core cadre serving a particular contest for years, with newbies replacing anyone cycling out. That’s how I found my point of entry.

Variables in contests

While some competitions allow both self-published and traditionally published authors to submit, it’s commonly one or the other. The famous and lucrative awards tend to be limited to traditionally published authors, whose titles are nominated by their publishers or by genre organizations whose members vote on the nominees. There are exceptions, though, such as — surprisingly — the Pulitzer Prize.

Generally, competitions for indie-published novels aren’t well known, but between the two arms of the industry, there are so many competitions that a potential judge is best off just searching the internet for “writing contests,” then narrowing it down to area of interest. The opportunities change every year.

The majority of contests are annual, and entries must fall within a calendar-year range based on their copyright date or their publication date. But yes, you guessed it: There are variables here, too. A few contests have a “legacy” category, where material published before the contest year is allowed. These entries are jumbled together versus the rest of the contest, which is divvied up by genre. Thus, if you judge a legacy group, you can get the weirdest combination of fiction. I liken it to a big box of chocolate bonbons. You stick your hand in the box and pull something out with no idea what will be inside when you bite.

This mix reflects what kinds of books an indie editor might encounter. Each editing project will present something different, something unexpected, some variable X that requires it to be considered on its own merits.

Even more variables

Along with contests for complete novels, there are contests for opening sentence or opening page or first chapter plus a synopsis. Some are for ebook only; some for print only; others allow submissions in multiple formats. Contests may be narrow (one genre) or wide (multi genre) or separated by length (novel, novella, short story, flash fiction). They might be restricted to unpublished authors or also open to published authors. The limitation could be authors who are unagented, or pre-publication books instead of post-publication books. Larger contests might include everything between the poles of novels and nonfiction: poetry, short stories, memoir, children’s books.

Contest prizes range from cash to badges, stickers, and certificates; special reviews and consults with agents; free admission to conferences with pitching opportunities; special promotion packages. A highly desired prize is feedback. Some authors will pay big entry fees just for that. In those cases, judges must be prepared to comment as tactfully as a professional editor or reviewer.

I know of one contest that is judged solely by readers from the public, who are required to provide feedback for every contestant. But that adds months to the waiting period. Very few contests for book-length work announce results in less than a season. On average, the process takes three or more months. Throughout the timeline, from submission start date to post–award announcement, judges must maintain their anonymity and hold on to all the books they received for judging.

Finding a suitable contest

A prospective judge should have an idea of what kind of material they want to work with, and how much time they have available. It’s common to be given 10 to 20 books over the course of a few months. The fewest I ever had was five; the most, 41 — but that’s because I was judging two contests simultaneously.

While not all contests require that you read every page of every submission, you still need to read enough to evaluate the entry against the contest criteria. In some cases, you must write up your results, or enter them into an online form, and/or make photocopies or scans of your scoring sheets.

The time to read and process entries can interfere with your work schedule or personal life, adding up to a part-time job on top of what you already do.

Entering the judging field can happen by referral, learning through a contest website that judges are wanted, or reaching out to the coordinator to let them know you’re interested and waiting for a turnover opportunity. Regardless, do your homework first. Read everything on a given contest’s website. While those are usually oriented toward the submitting authors, prospective judges can get an idea what they’re in for by studying author submission requirements, category definitions, past winners, and the organization’s purpose for providing the contest. Look for people’s reviews of the experience, too. Any questions, contact the contest coordinator. If they’re not prompt, friendly, and helpful, take that as a cue to look elsewhere.

The plus side

Judging solely for money isn’t realistic — even judging a lot won’t generate enough income to make a living at it. Maybe way up there at the top, the honorariums have impact; but I haven’t found that information yet and expect I never will. Judging for the myriad indie-author competitions is volunteer more often than not, and any paychecks you get qualify as pin money.

But there are benefits. Not only can judging improve your editing skills, enrich your knowledge of writing and publishing, broaden your résumé, put some cash in your pocket, and widen your professional network; there’s also personal gratification to be had. The biggest plus for me is the surprise and delight of discovery.

On one hand, you need a high tolerance for substandard material — many entries equate the “slush pile” of yore, and there’s usually more of that than the good stuff. On the other hand, there’s always the moment that panning for gold suddenly reveals a gleaming nugget amid all the silt and gravel. My favorite literary experience is opening a book I have no expectations of liking, then being drawn into it despite my resistance, unable to put it down. When the story also hits all the bingos on cover, interior, editorial, and genre, it’s exciting to be able to honor that author and their work.

I also enjoy a little private competition … hoping my choices agree with the other judges’ choices and earn gold, silver, bronze, or honorable mention. Here again, it varies per contest. As I’ve accumulated judging experience, my choices more often align with the winners. That makes me feel like a winner, too!

Judging as continuing education

As an indie editor, you probably won’t be rating your prospective clients’ material on a numeric scale, but some sort of personal, internal scale can help you decide which jobs to accept and how to handle them.

In both editing and judging, the majority of material that comes to you won’t be what you relish. If you can’t handle that, don’t judge contests. For that matter, don’t be an editor for indie authors. How you manage your feelings is crucial for both activities. On the editing side, you see novels before they’re final. On the judging side, you see them after the authors present their work to the world. That’s a big difference in perspective, even though you’re looking through the same lens.

For this reason, I consider judging to be continuing professional education for editing — with the bonus that you don’t have to come up with tuition for courses. Rather, for an investment of time, you can gain invaluable experience and, if you choose your contests carefully, additional income. In the process, you can gain exposure to material beyond what might ordinarily cross your desk, qualifying you to expand your horizons.

“Thinking Fiction” columnist Carolyn Haley is an award-winning novelist who lives and breathes novels. Although specializing in fiction, she edits across the publishing spectrum — fiction and nonfiction, corporate and indie — and is the author of three novels and a nonfiction book. She has been editing professionally since 1997 and has had her own editorial services company, DocuMania, since 2005. She also reviews for the New York Journal of Books, and has presented about editing fiction at Communication Central conferences. She can be reached at dcma@vermontel.net or through DocuMania.

On the Basics: Ways for writers to find things to write about

Ruth E. Thaler-Carter, Owner

An American Editor

© An American Editor. Content may not be recirculated, republished or otherwise used without both the prior permission of the publisher and full credit to the author of a given post and the An American Editor blog, including a live link to the post being referenced. Thank you for respecting our rights to and ownership of our work.

It’s a question that annoys some writers: “Where do your story ideas come from?” It’s even been the theme of enough writers’ columns to be a cliché! But it comes up often, from readers and aspiring writers, colleagues, family members, and more. It’s especially challenging for freelancers. In-house writers and journalists can usually expect to be told what to write about and often have regular beats they’re expected to cover, which makes it easier to develop contacts, sources and ideas. They still can get burned out in covering the same topic over long periods of time, but at least someone else (and that regular salary) is providing the path and push to generate their stories. When you’re on your own as a writer, it can be a lot more challenging to come up new ideas — and new outlets to pitch them to.

There’s also the frustrating current trend of treating freelancers badly by websites that pay peanuts, and the growing threat of artificial intelligence being used to create articles and other writing works.

I’m seeing colleagues recommend artificial intelligence apps or bots as ways to get started on writing when you’re feeling burned out or less than creative, but I would use those only as a last resort. These ideas for ways to expand your stash of story ideas and subjects might be more effective and more “you.” 

• Stay in touch with grade school, high school and college classmates through friendships and alumni associations. Schoolmates — even ones from the years before and after you were there, not to mention staff and faculty — could be doing fascinating things that would be of interest to local, regional and national publications (including ones produced by alumni relations or development offices). You might be so well-acquainted and close that what they do isn’t new or surprising to you, but it could be fascinating to strangers, editors and readers — especially fellow alumni.

I recently proofread a collection of essays and was invited to write one of my own in a book project that came to me through a friend going back to junior high school days. (And that essay has nudged me to start compiling bits and pieces that might turn into a memoir of my own.)

I’ve also been able to include classmates as experts and sources in various writing projects over the years. Being involved in my high school alumni association has resulted in learning fascinating things about people who are great subjects for profiles in a wide variety of outlets.

• The same goes for neighbors: Don’t be intrusive, but don’t overlook the possibility that the family next door or the person in the apartment above you could be the basis for a story, either as the subject of a profile or a source when you need an expert.

Even something negative could be a writing prompt. One of my high school classmates wrote what became a widely popular and award-winning nonfiction book based on his response to a neighborhood tragedy that made him wonder about how becoming better acquainted could help neighbors head off such events.

• Colleagues in professional associations and people you meet through hobbies or contributing to a nonprofit organization are also potential stories. Most of us have hobbies or charitable interests that would be great stories to write.

Colleagues are also ideal sources of writing assignments. One of my long-time writing clients is a colleague whom I met through a professional association I joined many years ago. She initially had me write a couple of pieces for the association she worked for, and after she went out on her own with an editorial services business, has hired me to write for several of her association clients and even got me a speaking assignment at one of their conferences.

Even memberships can be profitable sources of writing income. I’ve been paid by professional organizations I belong to for everything from newsletter and magazine articles to conference coverage and more, often by simply offering to do such projects.

• People you interview for one story can lead you to new projects or stories. I was interviewing the owner of a small business for a magazine assignment when he asked if I was on the staff of the magazine. When I said no, I was a freelancer, he asked about my freelance services. I walked away from the interview with an ongoing new client for proofreading articles, blog posts and more that has lasted for several years to date — long after I stopped writing for that magazine! And he’s a great source for articles I write about small business, marketing and more.
• Keep your eyes and ears open. At the grocery store, church or synagogue, hairdresser/barber shop, family events, medical and veterinary appointments; on vacation, errand runs … wherever you go, there could be a story. There’s a market for almost every- and anything once you identify an interesting place, person or event to write about. It could be a local newspaper, magazine or broadcast outlet; a national association publication; a website … the possibilities are endless.

• Either at home or when out of town, places like museums can be a source of story ideas: Look for artwork and staff with connections to your hometown, your profession, the outlets you currently write for, etc.

• Repurpose your work. Few, if any, stories can’t be refashioned for publication beyond the original outlet. If you just can’t come up with a new idea, look through pieces you’ve already written and make an effort to find new outlets for them. Or even the same ones — you could do updates on issues or people you’ve written about.

When I was a staff reporter for a St. Louis newspaper years ago, I covered a conference featuring federal and regional resources for small businesses. I wrote about a dozen pieces for my paper about that event — and not only sold one of them to a national magazine, but was able to use it as the first in several other articles for that magazine.

• Ask for assignments! Contact editors who have used your work in the past and ask them what they need or want now. Clients might assume we’re too busy to write for them again; we might assume that clients don’t need our work or know we want to write for them again, but remember that to assume means to, um, “make an ass of you and me,” as my college boyfriend used to say.

• In a similar vein, offer yourself as a source and writer of a story. Local newspapers and hometown magazines, for instance, often publish stories about interesting homes, hobbies, travels, and careers or professions. If you think there’s something interesting about your life, look for their calls for ideas and offer yourself as both the subject and writer. As an example, I turned memories of my mom’s garden at our old house into an article for a gardening magazine; a very different kind of writing from my usual objective, non-personal journalistic articles.

I’ve also written and published several articles about a nonprofit organization’s program for high school kids that I’ve been involved with for many years — for a journalism review and a local newspaper. There are several angles to cover: the straightforward news value of the program itself, the heart-warming aspect of professionals volunteering their time to share their skills and experiences with students, even the sorry state of education and the amazing impact of a few days of work with professionals on the skills of students, etc. I didn’t get involved with the program to write about it, but once I was involved, it was clearly something worth writing about.

• Blow your own horn! If you receive an award, launch a new venture, speak at a conference, go on an interesting trip, volunteer with a cause that means something to you, etc., write about it and look for outlets that might use the result. You could craft it as a press release and starting point for someone else to jump on, or an essay or article to be used under your own byline.

• Get out there. Go to events, meetings, conferences, etc., either in person or online, and get to know the people around you. The person sitting next to you or visible in a corner of the Zoom photo gallery might be a great subject for a profile or as an expert in something you’re working on.

I once gained a client from sitting at the neighborhood pool and editing a manuscript (on paper, which tells you how long ago that might have been!) between dips — someone who noticed what I was doing and struck up a conversation. You just never know!

• Ask around. Whether you’re a columnist, a staff writer or a freelancer, ask your readers, friends, colleagues, sources, etc., what they want to see you write. Some of them might have perspectives or ideas you never thought of.

• Read more! When you expand your reading habit, you learn new things or see information gaps that you could fill. You also gain new sources to quote.

• Do your own thing. Self-publishing is a wonderful source of writing work. If you blog, you might be able to compile posts into a book or booklet that you could sell, even in something you don’t usually write about — poetry, short fiction (as a stepping stone to a longer work). There are websites that pay (usually not much, but something is often better than nothing, especially if it gets you out of a rut) for writing submissions. Do a little research about such options and see where you could become a writing star.

Such opportunities to expand your source of story ideas are yet another reason to have business cards in hand at all times, either in person or sendable as an e-mail attachment. (And yes, I had one in my bag at that pool.)

Your experience in story-hunting

What has been the most unusual and interesting way that you found a person or subject to write about? What are your go-to resources for new ideas, especially if you’ve been feeling burned out and uninspired?

Ruth E. Thaler-Carter (www.writerruth.com) is an award-winning provider of editorial and publishing services for publications, independent authors, publishers, associations, nonprofits and companies worldwide, and the editor-in-chief and owner of An American Editor. She created the annual Communication Central Be a Better Freelancer^® conference for colleagues (www.communication-central.com), now co-hosted with the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (www.naiwe.com) and sponsored by An American Editor. She also owns A Flair for Writing (www.aflairforwriting.com), which helps independent authors produce and publish their books. She can be reached at Ruth@writerruth.com or Ruth.Thaler-Carter@AnAmericanEditor.com.

On the Basics: Navigating “The Wonderful World of Subcontracting”

Ruth E. Thaler-Carter, Owner

An American Editor

© An American Editor. Content may not be recirculated, republished or otherwise used without both the prior permission of the publisher and full credit to the author of a given post and the An American Editor blog, including a live link to the post being referenced. Thank you for respecting our rights to and ownership of our work.

I recently co-presented a session about “The Wonderful World of Subcontracting” for TechWrite STL, the Mid-America chapter of the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA), with colleague and AMWA member Joanne McAndrews, PhD, and I thought subscribers here might benefit from expanding on highlights of the event.

The basics of subcontracting

Subcontracting is a two-layer process/relationship: One entity (the contractor or freelancer) provides the work, and the other (subcontractor) performs it. The contractor/freelancer finds clients, accepts projects, and finds and makes arrangements with the subcontractor (sometimes more than one). Technically, the client is a third layer, because the initial arrangement starts with the client and the contractor, but the subcontractor often doesn’t interact with the client.

Benefits to the entity providing the work

By bringing in a subcontractor, the original contractor or freelancer can accept more and different projects, as well as expand their business by offering different or additional services beyond their core skills. If I’m editing a book manuscript, for instance, I might bring in a subcontractor to provide a cover design, interior design/layout, interior illustrations, index, final proofreading if I feel too close to the material to catch errors at that stage (even though proofreading is one of my core services), etc.

I can use subcontractors to handle excess work while I keep my regular clients; I can accept more work than I can do myself, which frees me up to focus on either my usual deadlines or what I prefer to do.  

Subcontracting also creates a passive income stream: Fees come in while someone else does the work; I get paid, hand some of that income to the subcontractor and keep a certain amount — usually a percentage of the project fee.

Subcontractors can even function as a type of business partner by checking the contractor’s work. Everyone can use a proofreader!

And finally, bringing subcontractors into a business increases potential to sell the business when the contractor is ready for retirement, because there are already people in place who are familiar with the work to do, and the quality expected, for clients.

Benefits to the subcontractor

What’s in it for the subcontractor? Work comes to you; you don’t have to do queries or searches. You can hone existing skills with the equivalent of a mentor —  the contractor is usually a more-experienced colleague who will check and correct your work before the client sees it.

Subcontracting can be a way to develop new skills. As long as it’s understood that a given task or service is something you haven’t done before, subcontracting can be a training ground. The downside for the contractor is that they might have to ramp up the mentoring aspect of the relationship and adjust deadlines to allow for the sub’s learning curve.

Being a subcontractor can be a side hustle or way to test the waters if you’re thinking about getting into freelancing or a new type of work.  

Like freelancing in general, subcontracting might let someone with disabilities get and do more work than is possible or comfortable in the traditional workplace. Whether the concern is temporary (an injury, maternity/paternity leave, illness) or permanent, subcontracting can provide the flexibility someone needs to work at their preferred pace and place — as long as the subcontractor is upfront about any limits.  

Drawbacks for the entity providing the work

While there are plenty of advantages to including subcontractors in your freelance business, there are also potential pitfalls and problems for contractors. Most are preventable or manageable; it helps to think about them ahead of time.  

First and foremost, your reputation is on the line: If your subcontractors don’t do good work or complete assignments on time, it reflects on you. You’ll be held responsible, and blaming the problem on your subcontractor(s) won’t cut the mustard — you’re expected to manage them effectively, which means ensuring that they do the quality of work you and your clients need, and meet the deadlines you set so you can meet client expectations.

At least initially, you’ll probably have to spend time and effort on training, supervising and/or performing quality control; sometimes even after a subcontractor does a few projects for you. That’s especially true if you haven’t worked with a given subcontractor before. You can’t just assign someone a project and hand it directly to the client; you have to review the subcontractor’s work to make sure it meets your, and your client’s, requirements.

There also are rules to follow when adding subcontracting to your editorial business, and ignoring them puts your business at risk. Not all clients allow subcontracting — either because of their formal rules (especially true for corporations protecting proprietary material and government agencies) or their personal preference for the contractor as the person doing their work. The latter is flattering, but can mean extra pressure to produce that using subcontractors would help alleviate. If a project seems ripe for subcontracting, ask the client before making such arrangements. Not revealing the use of subcontractors could cost you the client.

Cash management is also a factor. Try to keep enough money on hand to pay your subcontractor(s) when they get the work done and you accept it, regardless of when your client pays you. Ad agencies, for instance, are notorious for making contractors/subcontractors wait for payment until paid by their clients. If that isn’t doable, let your subcontractor know ahead of time that you can’t pay them until you get paid. That might not be an issue for some subcontractors, but don’t assume it’s the case. You don’t have to know everything about a subcontractor’s financial health, but you don’t want to contribute to someone’s stress over limited income.

Trust can be a concern as well. Be sure to define whether a subcontractor will know the identity of the client and if they can contact the client directly. Include contract language to prevent a subcontractor from trying to snag the client for future work without you.

Drawbacks for the subcontractor

While being a subcontractor can be quite beneficial and profitable, there are potential disadvantages to keep in mind.

The subcontractor can’t always use the work to build their own network of clients, because they often don’t have direct contact with the client and the client might not know who the subcontractor is; in fact, the subcontractor might not know who the client is. Along the same lines, subcontractors who are invisible to the client often can’t add these projects to their portfolios or use clients for testimonials. Since a portfolio and testimonials are hugely important tools in generating new business, that can be a serious concern.

That lack of direct interaction also can mean frustrating and deadline-busting delays in obtaining important information or confirming details when communication goes from subcontractor to contractor to client, back to contractor, and then to subcontractor.

Deadlines can be unreasonable — some contractors bring in subs when a project is already running late, putting the subcontractor under undue pressure to perform.

There’s usually lower pay as well — the contractor pays the sub from what they receive from the client, so the sub only receives some of the fee. Depending on the project and the subcontracting agreement, that might still be more than the subcontractor would receive on their own, but not necessarily.

In fact, the subcontractor often has no sense of project value — there’s no way to know how much the actual contract or project fee might be, and how much of it is going to the subcontractor. Along with that could come some resentment if the sub is doing most or all of the work but not receiving the entire fee. If you’re on the subcontractor side of the process, it can help to remember that you wouldn’t have the gig without the contractor, and that you’re building your skills and experience; you won’t always be on the lower rung of the ladder.

Preventing problems

Subcontracting works best when expectations and boundaries are clear for both sides.

As the contractor, the ideal is a subcontractor whom you know and whose experience/skills are familiar. It could be someone you worked with in a previous job, met through a professional association, came to know through a LinkedIn or Facebook group for colleagues, know in your non-business life, etc. Just keep in mind that the contractor/subcontractor relationship is different from any previous one you’ve had, and that can affect how well it functions, especially if you’ve never supervised or managed the person— or anyone — before.

No matter how well you know someone and what good friends you are, it’s smart to build these steps into the process before committing to using them as a subcontractor, at least for the first time around:

      Check references!

      Develop a skills test

      Have a contract or checklist to clarify who does what, deadlines, communication channels, etc.

      Provide style guides — your own and the clients’

      Encourage communication about potential issues

      Be upfront about when payment will arrive

Set “false” deadlines — before work is due to the client: If your deadline is October 15, tell your subcontractor that their deadline is October 1. That gives them a little wiggle room if they run late, and gives you time to review their work before submitting it to the client.

Establish that client contact is confidential — the subcontractor agrees not to pitch your clients directly

Finding each other

With these insights for crafting effective client/contractor/subcontractor relationships, here are some ways for contractors and subcontractors to find each other:

• Professional organizations (AMWA, NAIWE, EFA, ACES, NABJ, SPJ, Editors Canada, STC, CIEP, IPED, etc.),

with the caveat that being active, visible and helpful will make that more likely to happen

• Colleagues, former fellow employees

• LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.

References/Resources

https://blog.amwa.org/when-and-how-to-subcontract-work-as-a-freelance-medical-writer

https://journal.emwa.org/trends-in-medical-writing/subcontracting-not-for-the-faint-of-heart/

On the Basics: Putting it in writing

On the Basics: How editors (and proofreaders, writers, photographers, graphic artists, etc.) get referrals and jobs

Ruth E. Thaler-Carter (www.writerruth.com) is an award-winning provider of editorial and publishing services for publications, independent authors, publishers, associations, nonprofits and companies worldwide, and the editor-in-chief and owner of An American Editor. She created the annual Communication Central Be a Better Freelancer^® conference for colleagues (www.communication-central.com), now co-hosted with the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (www.naiwe.com) and sponsored by An American Editor. She also owns A Flair for Writing (www.aflairforwriting.com), which helps independent authors produce and publish their books. She can be reached at Ruth@writerruth.com or Ruth.Thaler-Carter@AnAmericanEditor.com.

On the Basics: When you aren’t available any longer

© Ruth E. Thaler-Carter, Owner

An American Editor

© An American Editor. Content may not be recirculated, republished or otherwise used without both the prior permission of the publisher and full credit to the author of a given post and the An American Editor blog, including a live link to the post being referenced. Thank you for respecting our rights to and ownership of our work.

One of the Facebook groups I own just had a plaintive post from an author seeking a new editor because her long-time editor has died, which leads me to wonder how many colleagues are set up to protect clients should such a catastrophe strike us or our clients.

It doesn’t have to be death; it can  simply a decision to retire and close up your editing/writing/proofreading, etc., shop.  It could be something short-term, like a vacation or a business trip that lasts for more than a couple of days, or an illness or injury. Do you have a plan for serving your clients when you’re not available for some reason?

I’ve known of couples who don’t have each other’s computer passwords (for bank and other financial accounts, memberships, client contacts, etc.) and can’t get access to each other’s accounts after a crisis. I know of many friends and colleagues who live alone and might not have set up a way for someone to handle their professional and personal matters if they end up in the hospital or worse. I’ve tried to reach a colleague about a project and only found out months later that she had died without anyone to manage her e-mail and related contacts.

The best — and perhaps the only — way to prepare for such eventualities is to be active among colleagues so you know a few people you can rely on and recommend to your clients in the event that you aren’t going to be able to work for them for some reason, whether long-term or only for a while. That can mean joining professional associations — probably the best bet, since those colleagues are likely to be people it’s safe to interact with and refer — and LinkedIn or Facebook groups, where you’re also likely to “meet” colleagues who demonstrate strong skills and ethics.

The beauty of the internet is that nowadays, we can make those invaluable connections with colleagues around the country and around the globe. It rarely matters where we, our clients or our colleagues are based; we and they can be reached at any time and any place as needed.

I’m keeping this post short and sweet because the reason for having a backup person (or people) in place is obvious (someone has to respond to our e-mail and related contacts if we can’t) and I’ve written about such planning several times ((https://americaneditor.wordpress.com/2023/07/17/on-the-basics-thinking-about-retirement-readiness-way-beforehand/, https://americaneditor.wordpress.com/2023/01/02/on-the-basics-tips-for-starting-the-new-year-off-right/, https://americaneditor.wordpress.com/2020/02/05/on-the-basics-starting-the-new-year-by-planning-for-emergencies/, etc.), but it’s never a bad idea to remind each other about the importance of being prepared as much as possible.

Those backup contacts can be clients as well as friends, colleagues, organizations we belong to, etc. — in some instances, maybe even family members. We all need someone in place we trust with access to our accounts, passwords and clients in the event of an emergency or a planned exit from our work lives. In terms of computer access, someone local is ideal, but for most concerns, your emergency/backup contact can be remote.

How are colleagues prepared for emergencies?

Ruth E. Thaler-Carter (www.writerruth.com) is an award-winning provider of editorial and publishing services for publications, independent authors, publishers, associations, nonprofits and companies worldwide, and the editor-in-chief and owner of An American Editor. She created the annual Communication Central Be a Better Freelancer^® conference for colleagues (www.communication-central.com), now co-hosted with the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (www.naiwe.com) and sponsored by An American Editor. She also owns A Flair for Writing (www.aflairforwriting.com), which helps independent authors produce and publish their books. She can be reached at Ruth@writerruth.com or Ruth.Thaler-Carter@AnAmericanEditor.com.

On the Basics: When aspiring authors have no money for editorial services

© Ruth E. Thaler-Carter, Owner

An American Editor

© An American Editor. Content may not be recirculated, republished or otherwise used without both the prior permission of the publisher and full credit to the author of a given post and the An American Editor blog, including a live link to the post being referenced. Thank you for respecting our rights to and ownership of our work.

How do we respond to authors who want editing or proofreading, but say they have no money for our services?

I’m still trying to figure out why someone responded with an “Angry” emoji to my recent response to a Facebook request for advice to give someone writing a book who doesn’t have any money to pay an editor and thought they had to pay for FB ads, but here’s what I posted:

“First and foremost, aspiring authors should start saving for a professional, skilled editor, or at least a proofreader, as soon as (or even before) they start writing. Even well-published, polished, experienced authors need editors and proofreaders, and novice authors especially so. Doing without leads to being embarrassed by negative reader comments and lack of sales.

“Neither Grammarly nor Word are fully reliable as editing tools. It still takes a human being with training and experience to do a real edit and proof of a manuscript.

“That said, [the author] should take a writing class either locally or online to learn the basics of constructing a strong story. Making an outline of her book might help her make sure it’s organized logically and clearly, which would reduce the level of editing she needs. She should look for a critique or writers’ group for help with fine-tuning her work — local libraries, bookstores and professional organizations often host those, and they’re often free to join. And she can use social media without paying for ads — Facebook is free, as is access to groups like this one.

“Some genuine editors will donate their services or offer lower rates to authors who are low on funds. There are websites where authors can find inexpensive editors, but buyer beware — those are often untrained, inexperienced, unskilled people.”

Maybe the “Angry” person uses one of those low-ball sites that connect authors with editors or proofreaders and resented the implication that they might not be or have used professionals (and yes, some real editors do use those platforms to get started or fill in income gaps in desperate times). Maybe they were expressing anger at authors who ask for free editing.

Who knows.  I think my advice still stands, and wish there were a way of relaying it to every aspiring author out there.

My guess is that some new authors think they shouldn’t pay for our services because they aren’t getting paid for their writing (even if they hope/expect to make money from their work once it’s published). Some genuinely don’t have much money and aren’t planning to go the traditional publishing route where the publisher takes care of editing and proofreading (although even those authors probably should invest in professional editing or proofreading before trying to land an agent or publisher). But we aren’t in a position to assess the financial status of potential clients.

Skilled editors and proofreaders who donate their services or reduce their rates/fees to accommodate authors with limited budgets are admirable, but those of us who are making our living from our editing and proofreading skills expect and deserve to be paid, and paid fairly, even by someone whose writing work has not yet been seen in public and sold a single copy.

Let’s discuss

What would you tell an author who says they don’t have any money to pay for professional editing/proofreading services? How would you help get the message out to authors that they should squirrel away money so they can pay for those services once their book is done? Have you provided free editing or proofreading services, and what was (a) your rationale and (b) your experience?

If you or someone you know provides free or low-cost services to authors with minimal or no budgets, please let us know. It would be good to have resources to share with such authors.

Ruth E. Thaler-Carter (www.writerruth.com) is an award-winning provider of editorial and publishing services for publications, independent authors, publishers, associations, nonprofits and companies worldwide, and the editor-in-chief and owner of An American Editor. She created the annual Communication Central Be a Better Freelancer^® conference for colleagues (www.communication-central.com), now co-hosted with the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (www.naiwe.com) and sponsored by An American Editor. She also owns A Flair for Writing (www.aflairforwriting.com), which helps independent authors produce and publish their books. She can be reached at Ruth@writerruth.com or Ruth.Thaler-Carter@AnAmericanEditor.com.

On the Basics — Thinking about retirement readiness way beforehand

© Ruth E. Thaler-Carter, Owner

An American Editor

© An American Editor. Content may not be recirculated, republished or otherwise used without both the prior permission of the publisher and full credit to the author of a given post and the An American Editor blog, including a live link to the post being referenced. Thank you for respecting our rights to and ownership of our work.

A colleague in one of my many professional groups asked fellow communications consultants to respond to a survey about whether we have “unique financial and retirement readiness challenges.” After my first reaction of “Duh, of course we do,” I thought about it a little more and decided this was worth writing about.

Whether we think of ourselves as consultants, freelancers, contractors, businessowners, independents makes no never mind, as the saying goes. As I responded to that post,  “Consultants have similar challenges for financial and retirement readiness as for everything involved with being on our own: We have to do it all. We have to develop the discipline to save and invest toward the future, just as we have to manage income, expenses, record-keeping and taxes, not to mention meeting deadlines, marketing our businesses and handling the various day-to-day aspects of finding and doing our work. No one is doing it for us. It isn’t happening automatically. And if we don’t think about and handle it from the beginning, our businesses won’t do as well as they/we could — and our retirements will be dire.”

Even in-house communications/editorial pros have to give conscious thought to retirement planning, at least once past that first job or two and especially with any family members to consider. You’ve all probably seen the scary reports from various organizations about the high percentage of Americans who are one $400 emergency away from financial chaos and crisis because they lack savings. That statistic has been around for quite awhile but doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

Regardless of our employment status or style, how do we prepare for retirement? Or maybe, how do we plan finances to protect against a crisis and be prepared to retire comfortably? It seems obvious: Plan and save money.

Managing to save

It can be hard to save money when it has to be a conscious process, especially when we’re young and healthy (or even older and healthy), thriving in a career that we love, and decades away from retirement. People with “regular” jobs have the advantage of their employers doing some of that for us — they handle deducting from paychecks for Social Security, health insurance, savings accounts and related benefits. Academics have resources like TIAA-CREF that their institutions can help them create and use.

But keep in mind that for many, if not most, people, Social Security alone will not be enough to maintain a level of comfort in life when you retire. And independents, again, have to set up and manage all of this ourselves.

Even if you’re in a regular job with generous benefits that include retirement savings opportunities, the smart cookie actively manages, or at least pays attention to, their finances at some level.

Steps to take now

Whether you’re in-house or freelance, consider trying to take these steps:

• Put 10 to 25 percent of every paycheck or client payment in a savings account where you can’t get to it easily and spend it on non-essentials. If the money isn’t in your checking account or wallet, it’s easier not to use it.

• Look for a trustworthy (ask friends and family for referrals) investment advisor and open an appropriate account — a 401(k); traditional or Roth IRA; SEP-IRA, etc. — NerdWallet.com has good information about types of accounts (and banks).

• If you have kids, open 529 savings accounts for their college expenses.

• If time and energy allow, as well as employer guidelines, have a side gig of some sort, whether it’s selling crafts, having an AirBnB, doing freelance editorial work, etc. Put all the income from that into the savings or investment account so it accumulates for your future.

• Have a separate account for fun stuff — birthday and holiday gifts, vacations, etc.

• Put together a budget and do your best to stick to it, with the goal of something left over from that paycheck or those client payments every month that can be moved to the “future fund.”

• Assess expenses every year to see where you can save a few bucks without sacrificing quality of life.

• Make sure you have health insurance! One emergency room visit, even for something that turns out to be minor, can bankrupt you, or at best wipe out a savings cushion.

If you’re married or living with someone, try to have money conversations every once in awhile. Make sure you know about each other’s bank accounts, credit cards, loans/debts, etc. Any and all of these can affect retirement income and comfort. (Not to mention financial chaos if one partner has a health crisis or dies, and the other has no access to accounts or even account information.)

And if you are a full-time freelancer, think about whom to line up to take over your projects and clients when that moment arrives and you’re ready to hang up the ol’ shingle. Many of us simply cut back and do less editorial work, and some of switch from paid to volunteer projects if we can afford to do so. Either way, though, we need to have at least one skilled, trustworthy colleague, if not several, in mind so our clients aren’t left in the dust as we reposition our lives for retirement.

Personal plans

Beyond the financial and business aspect of planning for retirement, don’t forget the personal. Try to make time in your working days for a hobby, family and friends. Once you hit that retirement moment, there will be a lot of time to fill, and it will help to have ways to fill and enrich that time once work doesn’t take it up. (That hobby could become a source of income, as well as a way to fill and enjoy time.)

If you have a partner or spouse, talk about that moment ahead of time to ensure that you’ll be on the same page (can’t help the editorial reference!) about what you might want to do and where.  Those preferences might well change with time, but talking about them will make it easier to implement or revise them when the day arrives to act on them.

Think about the couple in a current TV ad, who each make vacation plans without consulting the other — and have to revamp because neither one’s choice works for the other.

One of the classic memes, as we’d call it today, is the chaos that occurs when one half of a couple retires while the other is still working. I’m familiar with that scenario, although — luckily — not much of the chaos: My beloved Wayne-the-Wonderful retired well before I did or was even thinking about it (in fact, here I am, still working years after he not only retired but died, and no plans to stop; one of the great things about writing, editing, proofreading, etc.). It worked fine, but only after a few initial bumps and the need to clarify things that hadn’t been a factor when he was at work while I was working at home.

It wasn’t that he didn’t respect my freelance editorial work; he thought it was great. He just hadn’t seen me do the work. I had to explain that I couldn’t always drop everything to go out and play on a whim, and learn to let him know when I was on deadline or had scheduled an interview with a source or client. Freelancers can usually be more flexible than in-house staffers, but not always.

It might not be the same as financial planning, but communication about what life might look like at the retirement stage is key to the relationship surviving and life being enjoyable for both of the people in it, whether one or both is no longer in a formal job or business.

What’s your take?

How are you planning for the future, whether you’re thinking of retirement or some other financial goal, either short- or long-term? Let us know the approaches and resources you’ve found helpful.  

Ruth E. Thaler-Carter (www.writerruth.com) is an award-winning provider of editorial and publishing services for publications, independent authors, publishers, associations, nonprofits and companies worldwide, and the editor-in-chief and owner of An American Editor. She created the annual Communication Central Be a Better Freelancer^® conference for colleagues (www.communication-central.com), now co-hosted with the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (www.naiwe.com) and sponsored by An American Editor. She also owns A Flair for Writing (www.aflairforwriting.com), which helps independent authors produce and publish their books. She can be reached at Ruth@writerruth.com or Ruth.Thaler-Carter@AnAmericanEditor.com.

On the Basics: Expanding your business scope and perspective

© Ruth E. Thaler-Carter, Owner

An American Editor

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I was already thinking about ways to expand a freelance business for a presentation about “Editing 201” that I’ll be making for the 2023 Editors Canada conference this month when I saw this FB post/query in a group for editors: “Anyone know of anyone who needs anything? … I’ll do just about anything. Like, I just applied for a dog-walking position …”

My response: “… now you could submit story ideas or editing services to publications for dogwalkers, pet sitters, etc.!”

Ways to move from “Freelancing 101” to “Freelancing 201” and beyond might start with increasing your rates based on the experience and success you’ve built up in your initial venture. (It’s a good idea to establish a policy of increasing your rate or fee every January. You can use a percentage or a flat amount, depending on how you usually charge for your services; the point is not to get stuck at the same rate indefinitely.)

While upping your rate is a good — and easy — way to do less work for more income, taking a creative look at where and for whom you do your work is just as good, and maybe even a better one. Finding new clients and/or doing new types or projects can make your editorial life more interesting and fulfilling by refreshing and repositioning who you are and what you do.

The point of my Facebook response: Any work you do could lead to editing (writing, proofreading, indexing) work. If your freelance business has slowed (or isn’t getting started) to a point where you have to consider accepting non-publishing work to get by, don’t despair. Do what you have to do for survival and to pay the bills, but look at that activity, whatever it might be, as a path to new editorial or publishing work.

Look for publications and organizations in the industry or profession you use to get by. Trust me: There are associations for anything and everything you might do. To piggy back on the Facebook post example, there are publications and associations for a vareity of animals, and aspects of animals, such as pet-sitting, medical care, science trends and advances, etc. Become a dog-walker and then write about it, or find a publication/organization for and of dog-walkers whose materials you can edit. Work in fast food, and again, write about the experience, or offer to edit company documents, websites, industry publications, etc., starting with the local shop where you work and progressing to the corporate level. 

Other possibilities include developing and offering new skills and generating passive (and sometimes active!) income by writing a book or booklet. If you’ve been doing successful in-house or freelance work for a while, you should have developed opinions, approaches, methods, etc., that you could share with colleagues, both established and aspiring. Take copies with you to conferences and other events to sell.

If that doesn’t appeal, you could always try your hand at something completely new — poetry, fiction, memoir, children’s stories.

Perhaps the most effective approach is to look at other places to do the work you enjoy and are known for: businesses, nonprofit organizations, publications, etc., that you haven’t considered before.

One of my favorite ways to expand a freelance business has been through teaching in-person or online classes and presenting webinars through a college or university, writing or arts center, continuing education program, or professional association. Ask to share the income; not all such outlets automatically offer payment, but they will often share income from event participants.

Once such events go well and you become established as an interesting and useful source of information, you could start offering these programs independently, rather than sharing income with a host organization.

As a further extension of such efforts, the handouts or PowerPoint slides you create for those sessions could become the basis of books or booklets; colleagues Jake “Dr. Freelance” Poinier, and Dick Margulis and Karin Cather have done just that with presentations they’ve made to the Communication Central “Be a Better Freelancer”^® conference in the past, and other colleagues have made similar conversions of presentations into publications as well. It’s something I’m trying to focus on myself!

A time-tested approach to expanding your business is to be proactive: Look at your current clients and what they produce that could use your input, and offer to do more. Don’t wait for someone to ask you to edit (write, proofread, index, illustrate, etc.) projects produced by other departments; ask your current contact person to recommend you internally and let them know you’re available for more than what you do now. That can mean doing the same kind of work but on different projects and for different departments and programs, or different types of work for the same and new departments.

And, of course, you could venture into entirely new directions, such as making and selling art, doing photography, gourmet cooking/baking, leading local tours — we all have talents or skills that either have been dormant or never explored that could lead to new career and income directions. They might not be direct extensions of a freelance publishing/editorial business, but they would require a similar business mindset that most of us already have in place.

I’m keeping this short so I don’t give away my presentation, and will revisit and expand this essay afterward!

Ruth E. Thaler-Carter (www.writerruth.com) is an award-winning provider of editorial and publishing services for publications, independent authors, publishers, associations, nonprofits and companies worldwide, and the editor-in-chief and owner of An American Editor. She created the annual Communication Central Be a Better Freelancer^® conference for colleagues (www.communication-central.com), now co-hosted with the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (www.naiwe.com) and sponsored by An American Editor. She also owns A Flair for Writing (www.aflairforwriting.com), which helps independent authors produce and publish their books. She can be reached at Ruth@writerruth.com or Ruth.Thaler-Carter@AnAmericanEditor.com.