In last month’s blog post, I shared a detailed account of how I found my first few clients as a freelance book editor. I mentioned in that post that certain elements were down to timing and luck, but I made it easy for those clients to understand what I did by having a clear and active profile on my social media and website.
There was so much more I wanted to say about the work that goes into finding those first few clients, so I’m sharing it here: what’s worked for me to promote myself as a self-employed book editor and proofreader.
1. Market yourself before you launch
Launch your social media as soon as possible: my first post on my Instagram business account was 3 months before I officially launched for business. Here’s why:
It’s better to make mistakes with a small following.
You can gradually increase the number of followers so when you officially launch you won’t end up advertising your availability to an empty crowd.
This is when you can afford to limit the number of posts per week while you hone your skills with programs like Canva or making Reels so that by the time you launch you can create such posts with a quicker turnaround.
3 bonus tips on how to market yourself before you launch:
You might think you have nothing to say before you’ve actually launched your business, but you do! Use these as a starting point.
Tell us about yourself. What’s your story or background leading up to this point? Why have you decided to launch your proofreading or editing business? Don’t forget people love to hear about your interests outside of work too.
If you’ve worked out your niche, keep telling us about it. What’s inspired it? What would be your dream book to copyedit or proofread?
Tell us about any courses you’re taking. I told my followers about the courses I was taking. I had 14 years of experience proofreading and copyediting by the time I launched my business but I didn’t have any certification to back this up. I felt it was important for prospective clients to understand how seriously I was taking my endeavour but also the effort behind it.
2. Experiment with marketing
There are a few ways you can market yourself: social media, newsletters, networking being the most popular. Most people do a combination of all three.
When you first start out with your business, focus on one at a time. As mentioned above, refining the skills required for each platform takes time. It also gives you chance to see which ones gain the most traction and which ones you actually enjoy doing.
I should also add that once I felt confident in the basics, I joined a marketing group (The Best 90 Days Ever) which has been invaluable to understand how to create effective and consistent marketing. Understanding marketing language is a skill outside of the command of the English language that proofreaders and copyeditors naturally possess, so don’t be afraid to fill the gaps.
3. Show up as yourself
I truly believe marketing is successful when you can easily show how much you love your work, which is easier to do when you show up as yourself.
One of the biggest incentives for me launching my own business was because I wanted to work in an environment where I could be myself. I’m very chatty, passionate, and silly. I’m professional, too, and I wanted to work with people who welcome those qualities into their lives.
I’m not particularly gifted with aesthetics and polished videos or graphics. You’ll find me doing lip sync Reels and dancing around because this is how I behave at home. Think about what your genuine vibe is and don’t be afraid to project that in your branding, messaging, and content.
Find places where you can be yourself, too. I am massively on edge in corporate settings, so I’m extremely selective about networking (both online and in-person): it has to be relaxed and supportive, but also engaging and informative. My available time to network is extremely limited, so I don’t want to come away thinking I’d have been better off spending the time working, or frustrated that I had to put an act on the entire time.
4. Engage authentically
When I first launched on social media and found myself talking to other small biz owners who weren’t fellow editors, I saw every single one as a potential client. I wasn’t overly pushy with my services, but my prime objective when engaging with them was to turn them into clients, rather than simply finding out more about them and seeing if they were the sort of person I’d want to hang out with.
Thankfully, that changed a couple of months after launching, and I saw the value in having a varied circle of individuals in my orbit, from those who understand what it’s like to juggle family life and running a business, to fellow exercise lovers, others who are open about their mental health… you get the idea.
Two of my first four clients came from genuine engagements on social media. You can read the full story of each of those in my blog post ‘how to find work as a freelance book editor’, but one was someone I’d been chatting to for a while, who then took a look at my profile and asked if I’d edit their book. The other was someone I won a book giveaway with, who happened to be working on their fourth book, which they intended to self-publish (again, they checked out my profile, reached out, and we ended up working together!).
5. Find out how others run their business
On the day I launched my Instagram account, a fellow editor commented to invite me to their editors Facebook group, which proved to be invaluable. I now had a super friendly bunch of editors on hand to help me answer questions about running an editorial business and I also viewed them as a source of inspiration when they shared their latest and upcoming projects.
I clicked with a few members of this group in particular: we found we could be honest and open with each other about aspects such as how long editing and proofreading took, what we included with our services, which courses we’d recommend, etc. Even though there are plenty of guides and posts out there providing tips on running a small business or freelancing as an editor, sometimes you have a specific question to ask or you want to double-check something before you contact your client.
6. Don’t feel like you need to pay for every service out there
So far in my time as a business owner, I’ve only paid for a handful of networking meetings, some branding photos, and the marketing membership I mentioned in tip 2. I’ve never paid for advertising (print or online). Like any financial outlay, once you start adding it all up, you’ll soon see how it can eat into your profits.
The same goes for courses: it’s so tempting to feel like you need to prove your worth by cramming your profile with qualifications.
Gain basic grounding in knowledge and skills (the entry level courses were sufficient to teach me best practice approaches to proofreading and editing, particularly regarding setting expectations for clients).
Ensure you don’t get hung up on doing course after course, rather than just launching and then progressing with your business.
This is worthwhile to a point, but try to limit yourself to those courses that will provide the most information or development to YOU (for what it’s worth, none of my clients have ever asked me about my qualifications… the work speaks for itself!).
The great thing about working as a self-employed editor or proofreader is that your work will come in from all sorts of avenues, so if you bide your time you’ll find you don’t need to pay for many marketing or advertising services. My most lucrative leads have been through social media which only cost me my time.
7. Include any discounts on the final invoice
This tip came from a fellow business owner. If you decide to offer discounts when you first launch, make sure these show up on your client’s invoice so they understand the full financial value of the service you’ve agreed on. In QuickBooks, I also get a breakdown of the total value of discounts I’ve given out, which is a handy way to see what your potential extra earnings could be for next year when you shouldn’t need to give out any discounts!
8. Don’t wait for things to be perfect!
I launched my business at the start of the summer holidays from an Aldi car park. I’d just passed my second proofreading course and had my basics sorted, so I decided to just go for it and focus on marketing for the autumn and winter.
Here’s what I mean by the basics:
how you will create and send invoices (consider a basic template or whether you will use accountancy software)
a business email address (glitterangel@hotmail had to go!)
a business bank account
indemnity insurance
legal requirements such as registering with HMRC
equipment such as a laptop
a basic website and domain
licenced edition to Microsoft Word (sadly, alternatives like OpenOffice or Apple Pages won’t suffice)
Ts and Cs on your website, including your payment schedule and how you will handle late fees
what’s included in each service (so your client understands the difference between copyediting and proofreading, for example).
Then go for it! For the first few projects, try to allow yourself more time than you think you’ll need so you can deliver the work ahead of schedule while not panicking about the quality of your work.
Don’t wait for your website to be perfect before you start sharing the link with prospective clients. Of course, make sure all the necessary information is on there and there are no errors, but don’t panic about making it an all singing, all dancing affair (in my opinion, the cleaner the better!).
Remember: it doesn’t matter how many followers you have. It matters you’re attracting the right ones. If you’re proofreading or copyediting a full manuscript, this will take between 2 and 6 weeks anyway, so you really only need 1 or 2 clients at the start of your career to get things going.
Are you a newbie editor or new to working in self-publishing?
I’ve carried out a few 1:1 calls with prospective or newbie editors and proofreaders in the past few weeks and will be launching this as a new service from September 2024. It would be along the lines of chatting to me for about an hour about how I run my business, such as how I decide what to charge or work out how long projects will take me, or how many clients or books I work on in a year.
I need to work on the name, but what do you think? Would this be of interest to you? If it would, then make sure you’ve signed up to my newsletter and you’re following me on my social media so you can find out when it goes live! If you know someone who’s thinking about launching their own editing or proofreading business, do let them know about me.
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