Looking back over the last four years of being a freelance editor, it’s interesting to think about how the scope of my business has changed.

 

At first, I was taking any and all jobs anyone would throw my way, so there was a lot of short form content, blog posts, articles and books I probably wouldn’t pitch for now. All I was trying to do was match my office job salary, to justify quitting and going freelance full time.

 

Through a great deal of hard work and a fair amount of luck, I managed that quite quickly (it also helped that my office job salary was pretty low, so it wasn’t a hard amount to hit) and bade my worker bee lifestyle an enthusiastic farewell.

 

But, even as I started raising my rates and being pickier about projects, I restricted myself to copy editing. That was where I felt confident, since I’d been editing my own writing, as well as that of several writer friends, at a sentence level for years.

 

Developmental editing felt too far out of my comfort zone, and also like a difficult thing to build up experience in, starting from zero, so I decided I wouldn’t offer that. However, referring back to my project spreadsheet, it turns out I started taking developmental editing jobs much earlier than I thought. Apparently, I dipped my toe in with some crafting instructions, a business presentation and some RPG item descriptions in my third month of freelancing and worked on my first book-length developmental project (a memoir) in month four, which really surprises me.

 

There are scattered developmental editing projects in most months after that, but it doesn’t hit around 50% of my paid work until over a year after I started freelancing. Now, I generally prefer developmental projects as they are more fun, less exacting, and there’s no fear of lingering technical errors I might have somehow missed.

 

Now, at the start of 2025, nearly four years into my freelancing journey, I’m embarking into other areas I never thought I would try.

 

The weekend before last, I ran my first ever writing workshop – a tester session for a group of people I already know, to see if I was any good at it (apparently yes!) and whether or not I enjoyed it (mostly, yes!). I was incredibly nervous about doing it (despite a very safe and encouraging attendee group) and didn’t get much sleep the couple of nights before, but it went really well and I’ve now got a whole series planned out – which I will hopefully be hosting later in the year and getting paid for!

 

My other first for this week was a Creative Expansion Talk with Sean from A Write and A Pint (also the person who will be paying me for workshops!) about editing memoir. This was a 90-minute online discussion where he asked me questions about different aspects of writing and editing memoir, then we looked at an extract from a famous memoir, and Sean directed the attendees in a couple of writing exercises aimed at helping them clarify some starting points for writing their own memoir.

 

And that went really well too! I’m better at that sort of thing than I give myself credit for – it turns out I can speak with confidence and authority about a subject I’ve developed expertise in over the last four years! I had done some preparation for the expected questions, but I also felt like I addressed the on-the-spot questions from the attendees pretty well too. It was exhausting, but also quite fun and Sean seems keen to do more in a similar vein. I’m not sure that will be much of an income stream – but it does have the possibility of getting me new clients, so it’s a worthwhile exercise, over and above just providing useful information to budding authors.

 

So, after saying I would never offer developmental editing, it has become my preferred type of project to work on. And, after saying I would never run workshops or do speaking events, I’ve now done both in the space of two weeks and done them well. I’m not generally very good at pushing myself outside my comfort zone – but apparently, 2025 is going to be the year of exploring new opportunities!

 

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