How I Built My Editing Business

Have you ever wanted to start your own editing business? Do you love picking apart grammar and love great stories? In today’s post, you’ll hear one editor’s journey from book blogger to editor and how she found her first clients, tackled self-doubt, and started her own business.

I am sharing a guest post from Pamela, from The Picky Bookworm. Pamela was my editor for The Disappearance of Susannah Dane and The Absence of Aurelia Perez, plus countless other smaller articles and projects. Pamela was kind enough to write this post about how she started as an editor, working with mostly self-published authors, and allow me to share it with all of you. I hope you enjoy it!

Find The Picky Bookworm on her website, Twitter, and listen to The Picky Bookworm podcast!

How I Built My Editing Business

Pamela from The Picky Bookworm

In 2021, almost 2 million books were self-published on Amazon. That’s a lot of books. This number doesn’t include books published through small-press publishers or big-name publishers. These books were published by an author who decided, “I have a story to tell.” Most of these authors have a day job, and many do not have a support system in place to encourage them.

They write because they have to.

What does this have to do with The Picky Bookworm and editing? Probably not a whole lot, when seen from the outside. But, when I started my blog, and started reading these awesome stories, I saw a very specific need. Self-published authors don’t have a big budget for most editing companies. It’s doubtful they would be able to go to Caitlin Pyle or Phon Bailie, and have their books edited for publishing, without paying through the nose.

What started my editing and proofreading career wasn’t anything fancy. I saw a need and decided that I could fill it. I didn’t start marketing right away, I simply paid attention to the places I thought could use me the most. Self-published authors became a clear choice. Not because self-published books deserve the “badly edited” stigma placed on them, but because I could afford, with my own day job, to charge less than many other big-name editors.

My first editing story is pretty funny, actually.

I was reading a book by my friend Brandon (@breederauthor), and noticed some typos and misspelled words. Things that standard spellcheck wouldn’t pick up. So, I messaged him on Twitter, let him know that I had found these issues, and asked if he could send me a word doc where I could mark the typos I found.

What Brandon told me in response chilled me to the bone, and thoroughly pissed me off.

He informed me that 3 (THREE) other proofreaders had been through his book, and hadn’t caught these issues. Because of the type of misspellings I had found, I knew that what Brandon had paid for was not what he got. His other proofreaders had pretty much just run spellcheck and sent him an invoice. The misspelled words I found were ones that spellcheck wouldn’t have caught because they were only misspelled in context. Something an editor would only catch if they had actually read through the book.

From my experience with Brandon, I knew I had found my new career, and that I could build a business around it. So The Picky Bookworm, which had once been just a book blog, now had an even bigger purpose.

Did I know how to market my services? No.

Did I make mistakes in the beginning? Heck yes, I did!

Did I love every minute? You bet your booty!

I started mentioning in passing with various people on Twitter that I had started this arm of The Picky Bookworm, and started charging REALLY cheap prices. My day job allowed me to take this time to learn the process, and make sure that this was really feasible for me to do.

Fast-forward to today, and I have worked on some of the coolest books! My author friends have been so supportive through working with me, and I’ve gotten in on the ground floor of some really great book series. One of the first I worked on was the Hide and Seek series, by Z. Jeffries. I absolutely loved the series, and if you’re interested in reading my review of book one, you can find it here.

I also got to work on The 13^th Zodiac series by my good friend L. Krauch. I’ve learned so much from working on her books, because if I did make a mistake (and there have been a few, not gonna lie) Lacey would always DM me or email me to let me know. I appreciate that more than I can express, because I want to always get better at what I do, and I want my clients to get the best service I can give them. You can find my review of The 13^th Zodiac here.

One of the best experiences I’ve had was with a client from Norway (or Finland?) named Pim. I received a proofreading request for their book, and it looked like fun, so of course, I said yes. When I was about halfway through the book, I emailed Pim to let them know how much I was enjoying the story, and you know what they told me?

They were so glad I was enjoying it because they were only 15, and the only other people to read their book were family. To have a stranger validate their work meant so much to them.

Pim was FIFTEEN YEARS OLD and had written a BOOK.

I was in absolute awe of this young person, to want something so badly, and put in the time and work to make it the best they could.

This story, this, is why I do what I do. I want to spend my time encouraging people, lifting them up, and helping them do what they do best. I never want a self-published author I work with to receive a book that I haven’t thrown everything I have into. One of the promises I give authors is, “My job is to help you make your book the best it can be.”

Eliza, the owner of this blog, has been one of my clients as well, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with her and getting to know her. As a ghost-writer, she gets some of the most interesting assignments, and I always smile when I see her name pop up in my emails. We have become good friends, and I look forward to continuing both our working relationship and our friendship far into the future.

If you are interested in starting an editing business, my biggest piece of advice is to just start. You’ll make mistakes in the beginning, and may even drive away some clients, but you’ll never really know if it’s for you, unless you try. If you’re wondering if the market is too saturated, check out this post’s first sentence. Almost 2 MILLION books were self-published. Trust me, there’s enough work to go around.

*Pamela, aka The Picky Bookworm, is an editor, blogger, podcaster, and book-inspired gift shop owner. You can find all her services, and check out her editing prices and policies at thepickybookworm.com.

When Pamela is not running her business, she’s playing with her cats Simon & Glenn, watching TV with her husband, or chatting with friends on Twitter.

Connect With The Picky Bookworm on: Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

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