Last time on Freelancing: An Editor's Journey

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Michaeli Knight, Freelance Editor Extraordinaire, had negotiated a part-time position at her day job with a weekday schedule, and was steadily gaining more editing clients. Her wonky shoulder was much better, thanks to the easier workload, and she was using her excellent schedule to spend more time with her fiance, Mark, as well as family and friends. Despite the tendency of her car’s AC to crap out after ten minutes or so, her commute was much better and she was using it to listen to informative podcasts about freelancing and editing.

However, she began to think about all the time off she would need for a week-long church choir conference she was attending, her wedding, and Christmas with Mark’s family, and dreaded the reaction of her superiors when she put in the requests. She cringed at rising gas prices, and the heat in the un-air-conditioned warehouse at work left her sweaty and faint.

Things were much better, but they were still far from ideal. Though she had more freelance gigs than ever before, she realized that, without more time, she’d never be able to do the marketing she needed to earn enough to replace her day-job income…

Freelancing: An Editor’s Journey (Part IV)

Disclaimer: A lot has happened since February (the last time I updated) so this one’s a bit long, y’all. I cut a few things out and plan to include them in later posts, so hopefully this doesn’t drag on too long! Click here for the TL;DR

November 2022: Hello again, friends! It’s been several months since my last update, and I am pleased to announce that I’ve reached a HUGE goal–I have quit my day job and am now working from home full time!

Now, that doesn’t mean that I automatically started making the big bucks—in fact, though I had a couple larger projects that put me in a comfortable place for the start of the summer, I lost a couple of clients I’d had for a long time, which was a big blow, and we were still planning for a wedding (you can see some pics of the big day here if you’re interested.). I had a long way to go to replace the security of in-house employment. Several clients promised to come to me when they finished their current projects, but that didn’t really help me in the meantime. In this essay, I will

Just kidding. (That one was for all you Tumblr fans.) In all seriousness, though, I’ve gotten a lot of advice from various people in my network and have done a lot of research on sundry topics, mostly marketing. (Un)fortunately, there is no shortage of advice online, not to mention paid courses, on the topic. I came close to paying for a course, but decided I really didn’t want to spend $1400 on learning more, when what I really need to do is act.

Call to Action

Tip: Don’t spend too much time comparing products! Many apps have free versions, or trial periods so you can try them out to see if you like them.

In several episodes of podcast The Deliberate Freelancer, Melanie Padgett-Powers talks about James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits, specifically his concept of motion vs. action. Listening to her on my way to work one morning, I realized that I had been doing a lot of moving, mostly in the form of research—looking at different apps (time tracking, social media, finances), learning about marketing strategies, reading articles about how to build a freelance business—but I wasn’t putting anything into action. I was putting off making a decision about any of these things by opening tab after tab in my browser, reading article after article, and going down whatever rabbit holes opened up along the way.

Another thing that gave me a jolt was a sermon I heard one Sunday at church. The general gist of it was this: God puts change in our path to help us grow, and to lead us to where we need to be to live our lives the way God intends. By resisting this change, and ignoring the opportunities (and, yes, trials) God puts in our path, we are not only missing out on what’s best for us, but also basically telling God we know better. I may not know everything, but I do know that I don’t know better than God!

Basically life, the universe, and everything were all lining up to tell me I needed to do more than move. God knew it, my friends and family knew it, and I was finally starting to realize it myself. And so, after a heart-to-heart with my ever-pragmatic, lovingly cautious, heartbreakingly anxious then-fiancé, in which I sat down and showed him how much money I’d saved up and explained that I couldn’t realistically make more without more clients—which I couldn’t get without more time to market—I decided to turn in my notice at work, with my nervous yet supportive partner’s blessing.

You’ve Been Served

Tip: Work out a two week’s notice at your day job before you quit. You may need to pick up another gig from time to time to supplement your freelance income, and a good reference goes a long way.

I know that many people suggest that, in your two weeks’ notice, you should simply say when your last day will be and leave it at that. However, the organization that I’ve been a part of for the last five years has (for the most part) been good to me, and their year-long, free recovery program got me back on my feet after I’d been couch surfing and living on the streets off and on for years. It gave me structure—and a good kick in the rear—when I needed it, and helped me establish a firm foundation and the financial independence I needed to succeed, mending bridges on the way.

And so, in my notice, I included how grateful I was, not only for the opportunities they had provided me, but also for the good they do for all the under-priviledged in our community. It seemed appropriate, and later my regional manager (who is, like me, a graduate of the program) told me how proud she is of me and how much I’ve grown over the past five years. She also asked me if I would write a short article about my time at the Mission and how it has helped me to succeed; their newsletter often includes stories about those currently in the program, but rarely do you see stories about those who’ve graduated and gone on to success. (You can read the article, which was published in their September 2022 issue, here, on page 5)

I got a new corner desk, worked out my notice, and hired someone to do SEO on my website. I was a bit nervous, but mostly excited to begin this new chapter in my life.

The First Week

Tip: Set yourself a daily schedule every week. Have a template in place that you add unique projects to as they come up, and add deadlines to your personal calendar.

My first week working from home was like a dream, but I made several mistakes. I didn’t have a daily schedule in place, which turned out to be a huge problem. I had projects due Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and while I was working on these I neglected to read emails and check messaging, which led to my missing a job that I had previously accepted. My inattention to the conversation and lack of communication left me confused about what I’d agreed to, and the client went elsewhere.

Things like this are bound to happen, I guess, but my lack of professionalism left me horrified and disappointed in myself. (Since then, I’ve been diagnosed with ADHD, which explains a lot.) Lesson learned, however, and the client agreed we’d put it down as a learning experience and never speak of it again. It’s a small consolation, but at least there were no consequences other than lost work—though that’s bad enough.

Tip: Set a timer when you’re working at the computer to get up, rest your eyes, and stretch!

Another issue came up when Mark and I sat down to watch tv; about ten minutes in, I started seeing double. Now, I’ve done more than my fair share of “partying” in my day, but I had only had one glass of wine and I haven’t touched anything else in over five years, so I was very concerned and even a little scared. I told Mark, and he asked if I’d looked away from my computer at all that day.

Well, yeah, sure I did. A bit. I mean, I walked to the kitchen for a snack, a drink, a few times, that counts, right?

Apparently it needs to be more often.

So I set the Pomodoro timer on Toggl Track—the time tracking software I’ve been using—to see if that would help. It’s supposed help you remember to get up and stretch, too.

Toggl’s timer didn’t really work for me, so now I have a separate desktop program, called “big stretch reminder,” that does this, though I’m still prone to ignore it.

What the Tweet?

Tip: Create social media accounts and pages for your business, separate from your personal accounts.

One of my mutuals on Twitter had been giving me marketing tips, one of which was to create an account solely for business—nothing personal, just promo. I railed against this; after all, I’ve built (what I thought was) an impressive following over the past year, and now I’m just supposed to start over?! And how can I possibly get followers if I don’t engage?

He came back with “I doubt there are 3800 people actually paying attention to what you tweet. No offense.” (I was only a little offended.) “Don’t worry about followers. You don’t need followers, you need customers.”

The more we talked, the more I realized that he was right. He recommended a book, Ogilvy on Advertising, which went into my TBR list (right underneath the sexy fantasy romance series I insisted on finishing first.) It has some great tips that I was able to put into practice immediately.

He did say later, “NOW, if you then decide to publish as an author, you can use the social account because authors are people, whereas editors are mysterious forces that no one except authors ever wonder about,” which gave me a nice giggle.

So I decided to make another account, strictly for my business (Edits by Knight). The problem, as I saw it, was that my personal account was already @EditsByKnight, so wouldn’t that be confusing?

As it happens, on Twitter, what you see most prominently is a user’s display name, not their handle (in fact, the tweep I just mentioned didn’t even know I had a name for my business), so I grabbed @Knight_Edits and made it my own.

So Cool Social

Tip: Create a Linktree account to direct clients to, with links to your website and all your social media accounts.

With that, I was ready to start the media campaign I had vaguely envisioned but never had time to implement. I created a business account on Instagram (finally) and eventually a page on LinkedIn, updated all the links on my website, and created a separate linktree to reflect my business accounts, rather than my personal ones.

The story with LinkedIn is actually kind of funny. I was updating my profile, and trying to see if I could put my logo in where my freelance status was listed in the “experience” section. After some research, I discovered that the only way to do this was by creating a business page, because, well, duh. So I did. It was actually pretty easy, and it gave me another opportunity to build my brand.

Now, since I specialize in fantasy, sci-fi, and romance, most of my clients aren’t spending a whole lot of their “author” social media energy on what is, for most people, a professional (read: day job) website. However, simply having the page gives me an opportunity to add legitimacy to my business, and makes me more likely to show up in internet searches. I can also get verified reviews from real, actual people to bolster my reputation (if I can get any of my clients to actually go on LinkedIn so they see that I asked them for one!)

Canvassing the Joint

Tip: Use Canva or a similar program to design a simple logo that leaves clients with a good idea of what you do. You can also hire a graphic designer to do this for you!

Check out this logo designer I found on Reddit: Jek Ramos

In previous installments, I mentioned not having a clue what I would put on Instagram, and there’s not much point in being there if you aren’t posting content. However, I had started poking around on Canva again to design a sleeker logo and banners for social media. I know I mentioned Canva before; I used it a LOT when I was building my website, but had canceled my paid subscription because I wasn’t using it much.

The wedding was fast approaching. I started looking at invitations, but none of them really seemed right. I’d had this silly idea in my head for months, though: a picture of Mark and me holding our lightsabers, hands outstretched, with the text, “We can’t FORCE you to come to our wedding…” So I hopped on Canva to make my dream a reality…

I had so much fun designing it that an idea started to form in the back of my mind and I started to look at Canva again, in a new light. I had noticed that it was difficult to post reviews on Twitter because of the character limit. Well, what if I put the text in a picture? There’s no limit but my good sense!

I renewed my paid subscription (about $120 for the year and totally worth it, plus I can write it off on my taxes as a business expense) and started brainstorming. Customer reviews, writing tips, quotes from famous authors… I went crazy and was having a blast doing it. I’ve even considered putting another project on Upwork to design social media banners for people, since they all need to be different sizes and profile pics appear in different places, plus desktop and mobile look different as well.

I also discovered that you can schedule posts to social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, IG) directly from Canva, without having to download the images! Unfortunately, I had already paid for a year of Buffer (a social media scheduling tool) when I discovered this, and couldn’t find a way to cancel my subscription (one of the drawbacks of the whole doing vs. moving thing, I guess.) At least I can still write that off on my taxes.

Tip: Use a social media scheduling tool to make sure you’re posting content across all platforms.

And Now, The Main Event …

… Editing! (The crowd goes wild)

Yeah. I know I mentioned that I lost some clients, but things have picked up quite a bit, and I had several jobs waiting for me when Mark and I got back from our “mini-moon” (we’re taking our real honeymoon next summer.)

I have two anchor clients on Upwork, both of which I edit romance novels for. The pay isn’t great (though I did recently get a small raise from one), but the work is steady and the clients are pleasant and easy to work with. For one of them, I do developmental edits in four parts (20k words each), then a final proofread. At any given moment, I may have as many as five books in various stages of development for them, and I generally get at least one job a week from them. Turnover times are quick, but they work with me when I have a scheduling conflict and I have never turned anything in late.

Tip: Look for “anchor clients,” customers that engage your business on a long-term basis, usually project-based, so that you always have at least a little bit of income.

In fact, quick turnover times are a plus for me because, as I recently discovered, I have ADHD! Without a deadline I would sometimes (okay, pretty much all the time) procrastinate until the last minute. Since I have epilepsy, the psychiatrist started me on a non-stimulant medication first, and it’s definitely helping. I’m having some issues with side effects (as I’m typing this it is 5:30 am and I’ve been up since 3:00) but since I’m working from home they are manageable. It would be a lot harder to adjust if I had a day job; typical employers don’t really like it when you take a nap after lunch.

I may write a separate post about all of that eventually, but for now, let’s move on.

As a freelancer, the best way to get customers is by word of mouth. Satisfied clients tell their friends and colleagues, and recommend you if others ask. One of the jobs I had at the beginning of the summer was for a repeat client, Edge O. Erin, and I just finished a job for someone from the same area (Nova Scotia) that Edge recommended me to, Doug Barnes. It was a nice job, a cool sci-fi story, and I’m grateful to have such awesome clients!

Speaking of awesome clients, I’m also editing my second book for Shelly Monarch. The first one was wonderful and a prequel to the one I’m working on now; it’s cool to learn more of the story.

Knowing Your Worth

Tip: Research the market to find the standard prices for the services you provide. You can start low, but as you gain experience, your rate should change to reflect that.

I raised my (extremely low) rates soon after I quit my job, and decided that I will do so again for every five full book jobs I get. It’s important for freelancers to feel comfortable doing this; inflation is a real thing, and as we gain experience we get better, faster, and more valuable. There’s so much that goes into running a business: marketing, accounting, networking … all that administrative work that an employer would normally do for you is translated into unbillable hours (and hours) of work. Keeping track of your finances alone can feel like a full-time job if you don’t have a good system in place (see Part I and Part III for some spreadsheets that can help you get started with this), and you’ll never get clients without marketing and networking.

Never sell yourself short. No matter who you ask, my rates are still less than half of the established standard, but since I haven’t been at this for very long I feel that it’s appropriate. As I gain experience, expand my portfolio, and gain more testimonials from satisfied clients, my rates will rise—and rightly so. A good client knows that you get what you pay for, and that the editor that’s charging $0.002 per word doesn’t have as much experience, and won’t be paying as much attention—or doing as good of a job—as the one with 20 years under their belt that’s charging $0.15.

Of course, there are always exceptions to this rule (which is why you should always get a sample edit, writers!) but that’s why we need to have these kinds of honest conversations about rates. We’re not competitors; we’re colleagues. Let’s build each other up.

TL;DR

My life has changed so drastically in the past year and a half, it’s unreal, and it’s all been for the better. I was able to begin my freelancing journey and save up enough money to quit my day job within a year! I believe that, while I have been the happy victim of good circumstances and a series of very fortunate events—not to mention the best and most helpful cheerleader in the whole world—the biggest factors in my success have been my determination to take advantage of these boons, the major effort I put in, and my love for the work. There have been ups and downs, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, and mistakes made, but it’s all been worth it.

If you have any questions for me, feel free to email me at mcknight@editsbyknight.com, send me a message on my Contact page, or tweet me @EditsByKnight. I’d be more than happy to connect with you and add you to my network! (I’m also on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn if you’re more comfortable with those platforms.)

Thanks for reading, and happy freelancing!

Want to know how it all started? Check out A Guide to Establishing a Career in Freelancing: Starting Out with a Full-Time Job to read about the beginning of my journey, and for a couple downloadable spreadsheets that will help you get started. Part III has tips on paying taxes, in-person networking, and another financial spreadsheet.

If you like reading my ramblings, visit my blog homepage for writing and editing tips and some biographical information.

Special thanks to @MarkEGDorey1 for his advice on marketing, Charles D’Amico and Ricky Treon for their guidance and the opportunities they’ve provided me, and all my rockstar clients for helping me get this far!

Michaeli lives in Harvest, Alabama with her husband, Mark. They have two cats, Henry and Louise, and live the quiet and satisfying lives of two nerdy introverts. In her spare time, Michaeli enjoys playing the piano, singing, playing JRPGs, Tabletop gaming, and (of course) reading.