My Life as an Editor

Okay, I think it’s time for my first personal blog entry. I do realise this won’t be as interesting for authors (who are essentially my clients) as for fellow editors, so it won’t bring me any new business, but I feel the need to be more open and share my experience so far.

It’s been almost a year since I quit my job in a marketing agency. Boy, was that a scary step! Thankfully, I was clever enough to save enough money to be able to survive for at least 6-8 months (depending on what you see as “surviving”). There were days when I just stared out the window, praying for clients. There were days when I utilised every digital marketing technique I learned in the past eight years - social media, blog posts, Google and Facebook Ads, organic posts, emails… It was painful. I thought it’s never going to work. No one will want to hire me. Nobody knows me.

And today I realise my calendar has been fully booked for the past five months. I have edited twenty books in the past few months! I know it doesn’t sound impressive, but to me, it is a great accomplishment! One of my clients won several awards for his book (Tom, you rock!).

I can’t say I have projects lined up for the next few months (I wish!). But somehow, so far, the right people find their way to me. I have never been happier with my work. With my life. Freelancing was a terrifying dream. Now it’s my reality. I would never exchange the peace and quiet of fully emerging yourself in a story for unnecessary meetings (that could have been an email), corporate gossip, and overly ambitious colleagues.

I don’t know what I’ll be working on in the near future. And I love it!