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Hi Wendy! Can you tell us a bit about the nature of your business?

I provide editing (copyediting and substantive editing), plain-English rewriting and proofreading services to individuals, businesses, and government and non-government clients. I don’t edit fiction. My major client is a large non-government organisation. Many are academics or PhD students, but I also work with authors of general non-fiction. I have edited a wide range of documents: government reports, annual reports, magazine articles, journal articles, scholarly books, theses and dissertations, marketing material, training manuals and website content. I have in-depth knowledge and experience in human rights, immigration and refugee policy and community development, but I am certainly not limited to those subject areas. I’ve edited texts on sociology, history, the media and health to engineering, economics and sports medicine.

Tell us about your journey to becoming a freelancer.

It seems many freelance editors begin their career as in-house editors, but my journey has been quite different. I began as a publishing sales representative with Penguin Books Australia in the late 1980s after studying journalism at RMIT. It was three months before Christmas—the busiest time of the year for the sales team. I took over responsibility for the Melbourne city territory, including the largest and most successful independent booksellers in the inner suburbs. My first list to sell in was the Christmas list. The sales manager later referred to those early months for me as a “baptism of fire”.

In the years to come, I worked in Sydney and Canberra for Penguin Books and later in the same cities for Melbourne University Press. I learnt so much and loved everything about publishing – the excitement of the new lists, visiting booksellers, talking about books, reading books, meeting authors, networking with the publishing in-house staff and attending sales conferences and book fairs. It never felt like ‘selling’.

I stopped working for a few years when my children were little, but once the youngest was at pre-school, I started to get itchy feet; I wanted to work again, but not full-time. I started to think about editing as a viable new career. A colleague who knew about my interest in editing invited me to edit the first edition of a new magazine for the non-government peak body FECCA (Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia). FECCA liked what I did, and we signed an agreement. I managed everything related to the magazine: commissioning authors, picture searching, editing, proofreading, liaising with the designer and printer, and managing advertising and subscriptions. I edited the first 16 editions. During those years, I completed a Certificate in Professional Editing and Proofreading and attended a number of workshops run by the Canberra Society of Editors of which I was a member. Four years later, my family moved interstate to the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, and I started to build my own business. I joined the NSW Society of Editors, kept up my professional development, and, in 2011, I achieved accreditation as an editor via the Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd). My first clients were contacts through my work with FECCA, but since then my client base has grown a great deal.

What do you enjoy most about running your own business?

I’m quite particular about how things should be done and how clients should be treated. I don’t like cutting corners, so I love the autonomy of running my own business – being able to do things my way. I can choose which jobs I take on. I can also be available for my children, who are now teenagers but seem to need their mum just as much as they did when they were little!

Have you got any advice for aspiring freelancers?

Try to get some experience in-house before attempting to freelance. This will give you some contacts to get you started, not to mention the skills and experience. Connect with other freelance editors, join your local or national editing association, attend relevant workshops, talk to an accountant for financial advice before you take the plunge, and consult a tax agent who is knowledgeable about the tax implications for freelancers. Invest in good-quality ergonomic office furniture and equipment. You will need to be willing to spend time and money on marketing your services. Establish a professional-looking website. In addition, be aware that you will often work extremely long hours to meet deadlines, and you won’t have co-workers to fill in for you if you are unwell, have a family emergency or just need a break.

What are the downsides to working for yourself, if any, and how do you overcome them?

Working for oneself at home can be isolating and lonely. I have time with family and friends, but I do miss the daily face-to-face contact with customers and co-workers – sharing experiences and ideas, supporting each other. I overcome this by networking via social media, especially Twitter and various forums.

How do you go about promoting your business/finding clients? 

Most of my clients find me via my website www.wendymonaghan.com.au, my listing in the NSW Society of Editors’ freelance directory, or the listing of accredited editors on the IPEd website. I also have a Facebook page, and I use Twitter and LinkedIn. I have tried a few other methods of advertising: fliers in conference bags, donating my editing time to charity auctions, and listing my services on business directory websites. All of these methods have paid off to some extent.

Have any particular developments occurred within your business sector that have affected the way you work or the way in which you are taking your business forward?

The competition from countries such as India and Malaysia appears to pushing down editing rates internationally, which is affecting clients’ expectations of how much they should pay for quality editing. I think this is affecting the editing rates more in the US than in Australia, but it does mean that I’m always investigating ways of improving my productivity.

What is your most treasured work-related possession?

May I mention two? The first is my IPEd Certificate of Accreditation. The second is my first edition of The Macquarie Dictionary, which I purchased in 1982. I no longer use it because it’s out of date, but I couldn’t possibly part with it.

What do you enjoy reading when you’re not working with words?

I enjoy reading investigative journalism and analyses of contemporary issues, particularly politics, human rights, social justice and so on. However, for sheer indulgent pleasure, it has to be fiction.

What’s your favourite book?

What a tough question to answer! May I list more than one? Peace by Richard Bausch, The Speckled People by Hugo Hamilton, Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy, Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I could go on.

Wendy Monaghan is a freelance editor and proofreader based in New South Wales, Australia.  She edits all types of non-fiction and her website is www.wendymonaghan.com.au.

Welcome to ourFreelancer of the Month feature. This month we chatted with Julia Bodie, a proofreader and copy-editor who runs www.copy-proof.co.uk.

Hi Julia! Can you tell us a bit about your business?

I offer a proofreading and copy-editing service to both individuals and companies. I have worked across a very diverse range of industries and have edited everything from Terms of Business, insurance newsletters, blogs, menus, property brochures, to all manner of marketing material and novels.

Tell us about your journey to becoming a freelancer.

I worked as a recruitment consultant for years and was a bit of a frustrated proofreader even then – there were plenty of opportunities to use my red pen on applicants’ CVs and all of the agency’s marketing material was proofread by me, prior to being sent out. I knew the agency was in trouble in 2009 and, fearing redundancy, decided I would finally go it alone as a proofreader. I signed up to do a professional proofreading/editing course and when I left the agency in Oct 2009, I set up Copy-proof.

What do you enjoy most about running your own business?

I enjoy the flexibility and freedom that working for yourself provides. You can choose when to work and for whom and on what. Even now, I get a kick out of generating an invoice for Copy-proof and knowing that everything I earn is mine (minus the government’s share).

Have you got any advice for aspiring freelancers?

You need to really think about whether you want/need a regular income or whether you can cope with the fluctuations of workload. Freelance work can be likened to waiting for buses – none for ages and then they all come at once! You can have super months when you have earned a lot and then there are others when it is much quieter. Be aware of this before you start.

What are the downsides to working for yourself, if any, and how do you overcome them?

One downside can be loneliness if you are working from home by yourself. I did miss the camaraderie of the office environment at first, but you do get used to it. You need to make sure that you meet with friends and family regularly to counteract this. Of course, the upside is that you have a quiet and peaceful environment which helps when you need to concentrate.

Another potential downside is that the buck stops with you. You alone, are responsible for marketing yourself to get new business on.

How has the current economic downturn affected your business, if at all?

Up until 2 years ago I was proofreading for an examining board and they decided to move all of the proofreading in-house, which was probably as a result of the recession. In addition, I have a client in Estonia that used to regularly send me documents to edit (Estonian to English translations that needed tidying up) and the work has certainly become more sporadic in the past year and a half.

I believe that more and more, clients are deciding to proofread their work themselves and regard using a proofreader as a luxury!

How do you go about promoting your business/finding clients?

I have my own website – www.copy-proof.co.uk – and am fairly prolific on social media websites. I am on Facebook – www.facebook.com/copy-proof, Twitter – @juliabod and LinkedIn – http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/julia-bodie-copy-proof/31/665/43a/.

In addition, I email potential clients and have dropped off leaflets to companies in the past. I am also a member of PPH and of course findaproofreader.

What is your most treasured work-related possession?

Two things – my laptop and my Concise Oxford English Dictionary. Standard things, but essential tools of the trade!

What do you enjoy reading when you’re not working with words?

I read everything and anything. I am never without a book and have always got my head stuck in that, or a newspaper, article or online news item.

What’s your favourite book?

I don’t really have one favourite book – I have so many. I have a very eclectic taste in reading; from thrillers to romances and chick flicks to historical novels. I have recently read Ken Follett’s epic Pillars of the Earth, along with the next book World Without End and was genuinely very sorry to have finished them.

Julia Bodie is a freelance proofreader based in Hampshire, UK.  She provides proofreading and copy-editing services and runs www.copy-proof.co.uk.