Finding Work
Finding Work
In this section, we're going to lay out, as best we can, the ways into the industry.
One of the things that we have working both for us and against us is technology. The Internet has made it possible for us to work from anywhere in the world. While this may have many benefits, it also has its drawbacks. Internet searching, for some items, still requires the searcher to wade through pages and pages of useless babble to get to the gold.
You can read a thousand "How to write a résumé" websites and still not feel like you've found your answer. Each one might give a slightly different answer than the last. You might find one site that tells you how to write a résumé that looks strangely like a curriculum vitae and one that does the very opposite. One tells you to include an objective, while others say they are passé.
That being said, with a little caution, you can turn the Internet into the most powerful tool in your kit. You just have to know where to look and how to filter information. Luckily, we've already filtered it for you. So here's our how-to guide on the business side of working as a freelance editor.
The best places to start looking for work are company websites. It should be easy for you to find out if there are any major corporations headquartered in your city. Without a doubt, one or two of these will have editing jobs available. Let's use Seattle as an example.
The first step would be to do a Google search for "list of companies Seattle" and see what this yields. Some cities will yield different results. For this particular search, the first hit was a Wikipedia page titled, "List of companies based in Seattle." Obviously, this is the kind of thing we're looking for. However, any list will do. All you are looking for is names here. You don't necessarily need a "reputable" website to give you a list of names of companies. Just pay attention to the wording. That Wikipedia list is of companies based in Seattle. You want a list of companies located in Seattle. Some companies, maybe even massive ones, not based in Seattle may not be listed.
In Seattle, there are quite a few big companies to choose from. Amazon is headquartered in Seattle, as is Nintendo of America. You can also add Starbucks, RealNetworks, Nordstrom, Costco, Union Bay, Sub Pop Records, Safeco Insurance, and numerous breweries to this list. All of these companies have some kind of document generation that occurs behind the scenes, and for companies like Amazon, this is basically all that they do. Amazon is made up of people who develop content for their website. They literally have hundreds of editors and copywriters in their main office.
Once you've harvested a solid set of leads, go to their human resources page or employment page and see what they have to offer. Find opportunities that match your skill set.
The next places to look are job boards. Job boards help in two different ways. Many companies post exclusively on job boards, and many companies you didn't find in your initial, general search post links to their websites on job boards. Either way, you are going to find more resources.
We could list all the possible job boards to go to right here and now, but we really wouldn't be doing you any favors. While there are several national job board companies (like Monster.com and Monster.ca or CareerBuilder.com), many cities have their own job boards, some run by the local municipalities themselves and some run by independent companies. In fact, CareerBuilder.com tailors itself to major metropolitan areas to better serve local candidates. Looking for work at the local level is normally the easier (and often the more lucrative in the initial stages of your career) path to take.
We'll talk about job boards in a little more detail in the following section covering freelance work. Let it be sufficient to say, at least for now, that perusing job boards takes a decent amount of time, but if you look long enough you will find many jobs that will surely interest you. This doesn't mean you'll get even one of them, but the possibilities are there.
Freelance work can literally be found anywhere. Because of this fact, we're going to focus on the two main methods of locating good freelance work: job boards and freelance websites. We'll then talk about launching your own freelance career independent of any job search websites.
Before we get into the details of freelance websites and job boards, it should be noted that many companies will post freelance positions on their own web sites. When you are on a human resources page looking for full-time work, keep your eyes open for freelance work as well. If it looks like you won't be working for a while, picking up a temporary freelance job can provide you with that much more experience. It's also a good way to get your foot in the door because some companies will often include some kind of freelance contract that could eventually lead to a secure position.
Job boards are a great place to go for full-time or freelance work, but you've got to expand your definition of "job boards" to truly maximize your chances of finding a quality lead. You need to consider sites such as craigslist.org and kijiji.ca (in Canada). This may sound strange at first, but depending on which city you are in, it just may prove to be the most effective strategy.
Every city has its own hiring culture and practices. In some areas, it is still rare to submit an application online. Companies still want applicants to come into their place of business and physically drop off an application and résumé. Other companies in other areas do almost all of their hiring through the Internet and don't even meet the candidates until the second or even third interview. In some areas, it is more common to seek employment through company websites, and in some areas, companies post almost all of their openings on job boards and, yes, craigslist.
Beware, however, of scams on craigslist or any other similar website. Sometimes, job opportunities listed on these websites are simply fronts to get people to send in contact information. The person on the other end then requests personal information. Eventually, this person orders credit cards in your name and begins the process of identity theft. Most Internet users are generally wise enough to avoid these types of scams, but someone desperately seeking work just might let their guard down. Don't let this happen to you.
The most obvious and the most competitive place to go is a freelance website—and there are plenty of them. We say competitive because you are going to be competing with other qualified freelancers that know their stuff as well as you do and are going to make a grab for all the work they can get.
www.elance.com
www.iFreelance.com
www.online-writing-jobs.com
www.mediabistro.com
These websites provide work to freelancers in several different ways, and some provide more steady work than others. Some sites allow clients to submit their documents, and freelancers are then assigned to or choose their work. Other sites allow clients to request specific editors and copywriters to do the job for them. Others are a mix of both, while others simply provide massive lists of people who need freelance editing and writing services and provide you with the contact information necessary to apply for the job.
Sites like www.online-writing-jobs.com provide you with constant opportunities, but bear in mind that there is no guarantee that you will get any of them. This kind of site is far more competitive because there are a great many individuals you must compete with for jobs. None of the work is guaranteed. Be prepared to spend a fair amount of your time just sifting through potential gigs and making pitches for work.
Also bear in mind that the scope and pay offered for jobs will vary widely and that, in some cases, you may find yourself competing against freelancers in other countries who will work for much less because the exchange rate allows them to do so.
Associations and societies generally fall under the previous category as they provide, either directly or indirectly, freelance work. You must be a member to receive work, and it may cost you a pretty penny to join, but once you are in, you are part of a group and should be able to fairly easily reap the benefits of membership. Here is a quick list of the various associations and societies in Canada and the United States. Note how specific some of them are.
Editorial Freelancers Association
American Copy Editors Society
Editors' Association of Canada
American Society of News Editors
Search around your state or province (or if you are in another country, the equivalent), and find out if there are any local groups you can join. Even if they don't directly provide you with the work you need, your membership will no doubt be a great thing to list on your résumé or curriculum vitae.
We feel like we'd be doing you a disservice if we didn't mention one more resource: staffing agencies. While staffing agencies generally deal with a whole range of jobs and industries, they often allow job seekers to specify the type of work for which they are searching. For example, consider Creative Circle. They primarily provide job leads in the advertising industry, but ultimately, they have a never-ending trickle of freelance work. However, many staffing agencies only post jobs that are for local candidates. So, if you want to work from the comfort of your own home, you'll need to find a site that accommodates that desire.
The single most important piece of advice that anyone can give concerning marketing yourself to a potential client is this: never stop reading and researching the writing of résumés, cover letters, or curricula vitae and current hiring trends in your chosen profession. You will, of course, want to parse your research pool down to a few, high-quality websites and books, but there are enough quality sites out there that you won't have to keep looking for new ones.
Up until the late 1800s, employment was relatively restricted to the physical world. Then we had radio and cinema and phonographs, and then we had television. All these things dramatically increased the number of available jobs because there were more avenues for specialization. You could work with cameras or with film, or you could be a director, or a producer, or an actor, or a cue card holder, or an intern. The Internet did the same thing, except on a far more massive scale. It is true that television and radio allowed us to communicate instantly with anyone, but the practicality of doing so was almost non-existent because of the expense. Now, with one small device, you can send a text message or make a phone call to any person in the world, no matter where they are (provided there's a cell phone tower . . . so maybe there's one little hiccup).
This means that anyone, anywhere, can do the exact same virtual job as anyone anywhere else. Do you see? Let's return to the city of Seattle, just to keep with the theme and to localize our discussion.
Seattle companies have faced a series of recent layoffs (within the last ten years or so). All of these companies, or nearly all of them, employed people with advanced degrees, and as a result, the Seattle job market was flooded with potential job candidates, each with a respective amount of education (often master's degrees and doctorates) and years of job experience. To make matters worse, many of these individuals worked either for tech companies (doing copywriting and editing) or for a major industry (doing technical writing). Now, when a company needs to advertise a full-time position for an editor or a technical writer, they can ask for candidates with a minimum of five years of experience and feel confident that they will receive numerous qualified applicants.
So this is what you face. Daunting? Hopeless? No! What's lucky for you is that you are taking this course right now and you have us to tell you a few simple ways to ensure that you've got a leg up on 90% of the people looking for jobs. To be sure, you've got a lot of work to do in your personal time, but the payoff will be worth it. The payoff is, after all, the job of your dreams.
After you've done all the hard work and finally found a pool of places to which you will apply, figure out whether you need a résumé or a curriculum vitae (CV). The résumé and the curriculum vitae are actually very similar in many parts of the world, but in North America, they differ substantially. Most professional jobs in the US and Canada ask for a résumé, while most academic jobs (and many professional jobs in the arts) often ask for a curriculum vitae. Pay strict attention to what the potential employer asks you to submit and follow these instructions to the letter. Regardless of what they ask for, here is a brief description of what to include in each.
Résumés are fairly straightforward, and no doubt many reading this are very familiar with these documents. At the bare minimum, a résumé should include the following, generally in this order:
Contact information
Education
Skills (can be divided into "work-related skills" and "computer skills")
Work experience/work history
The job seeker might also include information about any second or third languages he or she may speak and may include a few details of personal accomplishments. However, résumés are generally written to be as brief and informative as humanly possible. Some résumés are in chronological order, while others are "functional resumes" that list work experience according to its relevance to the job for which the person is applying. It is now widely accepted that résumés can run onto the second page, but if you can keep your résumé to one page, so much the better. This is a challenge, to say the least.
Note: Our position on objectives on résumés is this: you need to do what works best for you. So many employers accept applications in so many different ways—via the Internet, in person, or through a temporary agency or staffing service—that you need to be the one who makes this decision. However, if you choose to include an objective on your résumé, be sure that it isn't the same run-of-the-mill objective that the hiring manager sees every day. Make sure it is unique. Read as many examples as you can and ask yourself, "Which of these would I continue to read?" and "Which would I immediately put aside?"
In North America, CVs provide much more information than résumés. CVs often include the following:
Contact information
Education
Employment history
Professional qualifications, certifications, and accreditations
Skills
Awards
Publications and presentations
Professional memberships
Obviously, curricula vitae are more in line with people in the writing and publishing industry. But this doesn't mean that the answer is cut and dried. Again, we want to stress the importance of giving potential employers what they want. If they want a résumé that includes much of the information on a CV, give it to them and call it a résumé. After all, if you can't follow specific instructions in the application process, you are not likely to be a serious candidate for a position.
Cover letters need to be short and powerful. They should never go over one page unless the potential employer specifically asks for something extensive that would necessitate more than one page. They should show confidence and humility all at once. Aside from the header, which contains all pertinent contact information for the applicant and potential employer, the cover letter should have three parts:
Introduction: The introduction should explain the position for which the individual is applying and should express confidence in the match of the applicant to the position. Try as best as you can to directly address a specific individual within the company. If this isn't possible, fall back to "hiring manager" or "human resources manager." "Dear Sir or Madam" is not as fashionable as it once was, nor is "To Whom It May Concern."
Body: This section should highlight specific work experience and skills that are particularly pertinent to the job in question. This section should also express confidence that the potential employee will be an asset if given the opportunity to occupy whatever position they desire to fill. And whatever you do, don't tell the people you are trying to convince to hire you that you want to work freelance or telecommute because you never change out of your purple wizard's costume. If you are ever called into the office, you certainly won't wear it. It's better that they don't know about it at all.
Conclusion: Thank the employer for the opportunity to apply for the position and reiterate both interest and confidence in your ability to meet and exceed expectations. Always, without question, say something to the effect of "I look forward to speaking with you soon." Don't ask them to contact you or tell them you will make contact; just assume it's going to happen. This, too, expresses confidence.
This seems fairly simple, but it's amazing how many people genuinely do not know where to place information in their cover letter. As a result, the candidate can appear unorganized, especially if information is repeated from a résumé or CV. A cover letter should never repeat information; it should only enhance your profile.
The online submission of résumés, CVs, and cover letters has made their creation much more of a challenge. You must make use of buzzwords and specific jargon in order to move your application up on any given list of search results. There can be no substitute for extensively researching each position to which you wish to apply. But we can tell you that using the same language as your potential employer certainly cannot hurt your chances and will in all likelihood demonstrate your interest in the position and the company.
Here are some general guidelines for putting together and formatting your résumé, CV, and cover letter.
Make them look good. You wouldn't go to an interview in your jogging shorts, so you certainly shouldn't treat your application materials any differently. Like it or not, they are the first impression of you that a potential company is likely to get. You want your documents to be soft, informative, and streamlined so that they are easy to read. Use one-inch margins, and increase your line spacing to 1.1 or 1.2. Give the words a little breathing room.
Use unique, but universally readable, fonts and font sizes. The default preference for Times New Roman is quickly losing steam. There are now a number of fonts that are simple in the same way as Times New Roman, but offer the reader a little more variety. While it is inadvisable to use script fonts or ornamental fonts, using Cambria, Calibri, or Arial is perfectly acceptable and often a welcome change. In fact, sans serif fonts are probably some of the most popular fonts in use. However, you should never, under any circumstances, use Comic Sans . . . ever.
Avoid long lists and large chunks of text. While you want to be informative, you don't want to overwhelm your reader, especially if that reader has to look at tens or hundreds of application packets each week. Start with an initial draft and begin cutting. Erase all unnecessary words, and then erase more. Boil it down to the least possible number of words expressing the most information possible.
Use action words! Do yourself a favor and sound like an active employee. Words like developed, enhanced, implemented, improved, maximized, organized, secured, and transformed show that you were an active participant at whatever job you are describing.
Tailor your documentation to each job in which you express interest. While it's nice to have templates you can return to and send out at a moment's notice, you'll want to try your best to make your documentation match each position to which you apply.
Have someone else, someone knowledgeable, edit and proofread your documents. This seems like the biggest no-brainer of all, but it is astonishing how many people submit cover letters with names spelled incorrectly, or words switched around, or sentences lacking proper punctuation. This is the surest way to be turned down before you even have a chance to impress potential employers.
If you are going to get any business, you have to know how to pitch your services. You need to know the most effective ways of getting your name out there. Advertising can be expensive, and for freelance editors and writers, it doesn't really pay off as much as other methods. So let's look at some of the cheapest and most effective methods for obtaining the business you need to excel.
While it may seem old-fashioned, sales letters are actually a cheap and effective way of generating interest in your abilities as an editor or writer. This does, of course, depend on the field you will be working in. It's much easier to send letters to companies that generate advertising copy than to guess which of the residents in your neighborhood may be penning the next great novel. But if you are in the right market, sales letters can be extremely effective.
You will want to include a description of the services you offer and the proper contact information. You may even include a few quotes from previous clients praising your abilities. You can start off the sales letter with some kind of scenario describing the situation in which a person might want to contact you for your services, and then provide the aforementioned list of services that would meet that particular need. Generate five or six different types of sales letters, each targeting a different market. Through the process of trial and error, you should be able to discern which is the most effective.
Everybody likes a good business card. It makes you feel special. It makes you feel important. But it doesn't just make you feel important. It makes you look important. When trying to generate new business, you can't be afraid to tell people what you think you can do for them. Even if you only hand out your card for the purpose of sharing your contact information, the words "freelance editor" or "freelance writer" will be stamped on the front, and that's advertising.
You also want to make sure that you are shaking hands, making introductions, and leaving fliers in appropriate places. Go to business fairs and offer free sample edits of memos and internal documents. Go to the local community college or university and leave a few fliers on bulletin boards around the campus. Go to the college or university library and leave a few business cards with staff likely to run into students in need of some help editing and proofreading their work (after working on papers 20–50 pages long, many graduate students would gladly surrender their work to someone else for proofreading).
One other great way to get your name out there is to actually get a few things published. Obviously, editors spend most of their time editing, not necessarily writing. But getting something published, even if it's an essay, short story, or a short poem, can put your name in front of eyes that may otherwise not see it. Getting published isn't an easy task. But there are some places that offer relatively easy ways of getting your name into print.
Calls for papers: Just Google the term "calls for papers." If you aren't familiar with calls for papers, they basically serve as a way for a journal or other publication to invite individuals to submit articles for publication. These calls for papers are often academic in nature and are often attached to symposiums and conferences. They can provide an excellent opportunity to get a paper published and meet other individuals who might just be in the market for a freelance editor.
Presentations and speaking engagements: As we noted in the "calls for papers" section, conferences and symposiums are excellent places to do the glad-handing we spoke of earlier. Not only that, but whatever paper you present at a symposium or conference will eventually be published along with all the other papers and presentations. Now you've got something to add to the "publications" section of your CV!
Reviews and e-writing: This is the easiest way to get your writing "published." There are countless websites looking to generate traffic by paying freelance writers very little money to write quality reviews of movies, books, restaurants, and really anything that can be reviewed. The pay may be terrible, but if you've got a load of books that you absolutely love, write up a few 250-word reviews and submit them.
Full-time work is usually well defined. Most businesses already have in place a structured pay scale, an established job description, and a health benefits package. Sometimes, depending on your experience and the job to which you apply, salary can be negotiated; however, it is often the case that the employer will make an offer that you must either accept or reject.
When freelancing, things are a bit different. You'll have to purchase your own health care package. You'll have to determine what you think your work is worth. You'll have to negotiate how that work is completed. To help you out, we've come up with a list of questions you should ask yourself when considering accepting a client's manuscript as a freelance editor.
What is my level of involvement? Am I expected to proofread a final draft, or will I take this document from a manuscript handwritten on the back of restaurant napkins to a beautifully formatted ebook available on all major devices?
Do I charge a flat fee or do I charge by the hour? If I charge a flat fee, how is that determined? By the word? By the page? How many passes on the document should I make? If I work by the hour, is there a cap to how many hours I can spend on a project?
What if the project is cancelled, do I get a kill fee?
Are expenses included? If I need to do research or buy material to work with, do I recoup that from my clients?
What are the payment terms? Do I charge a fee up front? How much? If not, do I have a way of guaranteeing payment (contract)?
What if the client decides to rewrite half the document after I have reviewed it? Will I need to charge more if he or she then asks me to review the rewritten portion?
Most of these questions can easily be decided before you start taking on clients. In some cases, you will certainly have to make decisions on the fly, but most of these problems can be solved by writing good contracts. However, before we talk about contracts, we'll talk a little bit about the ideas behind the questions.
If you are going to be freelancing or running your own one-person business (which is still freelancing, technically), you are going to need to determine the type of work you will do. Will you offer a range of services, each with different pay rates? Will you offer packages of services? Will you, as the questions on the previous screen ask, be there for the life of the manuscript, or will you only be working in the initial or the final stages? You decide your own level of involvement. You can always opt not to take a job.
The first rule about running your own business is "You MUST pay yourself first!" In order to run a successful business, you must have some kind of surplus. Otherwise, you are obviously losing money.
A large amount of freelance work is paid by the hour. A company will hire such and such a person for X number of days (usually one to three weeks) to work on a project, and then the project finishes. But there is an almost equal amount of work looking at individual documents. There is a large difference between writing copy or copyediting for one specific project for an extended time and editing an employee handbook for a local corporation.
The ideal editing speed is about 1000 words per hour. We say "ideal," but we readily acknowledge that it is sometimes very difficult to do so. For example, it might take a bit longer to read 1000 words of an article on neurosurgery than a manuscript of a novel. But on average, you can count on this being fairly accurate. If you are a newcomer to the scene, set your standard at 800 words per hour and work to reach the goal of 1000. Whatever your choice, you are the one that can best evaluate whether your work is better paid for by the hour, the word, the page number, or the project.
In business, one should never, under any circumstances whatsoever, discard documents haphazardly. For legal reasons and for tax purposes, contracts, invoices, bank and credit card statements, and receipts can save your business if your accounting of things is ever challenged.
Having copies of contracts is important for obvious reasons. If your client has signed a contract explicitly laying out your responsibilities, you have something in writing. If they refuse payment, you have legal recourse and can pursue payment through the courts. But this isn't the only reason to hold onto your contracts.
Contracts are also useful because, after years of freelancing, you will have a wealth of templates to use in any given situation that might arise. Being able to compare a consistent set of documents with one another can often provide much needed aid when faced with a new and unique business opportunity. Sometimes, multiple contracts can be cut and pasted together rather than having to come up with a new contract from scratch. This will guard against the possibility that you may not remember to include essential items in a newly developed contract.
In the next lesson's section on copyright, we talk about attaining permission to use copies of previous projects so that you can provide samples for prospective clients. This is something you do not want to forget to do. How horrible would it be to work for a solid year freelancing and find a job offer for a full-time job at a premium salary only to find yourself lacking any examples of your by-now-superior work? Be careful! Don't post these examples on the Internet or display them in any way that could violate a copyright. It helps to have a clause in your contract that indicates you can use a few approved pieces of work as samples for your portfolio. And remember, only provide samples when specifically asked.
As we stated before, you will want to keep copies of anything related to money for tax reporting purposes. Keep copies of receipts for expense claims. Keep track of every dime you spend on anything related to the business as well as every dime you earn as a result of your business. Keep copies of bank and credit card statements. Keep copies of health care costs for yourself and your employees. Speak with an accountant and determine exactly how many years back your records need to go (the general rule is seven).
As soon as you begin working as a freelancer, you need to develop a filing system for all of your financials. Whether you use a file cabinet or have your own special way of doing things, it is important that you be able to locate any document at any time for any reason. The likelihood that you will need to access any of these documents on a regular basis is relatively slim. But think of all the headaches you'll save by taking initiative and developing an effective filing system. No worrying about where you put that invoice, or that contract, or that receipt. If your accountant calls and tells you that he needs X document by Friday or the tax man is going to come after you, well, it's best to know exactly how to find it.
Last Updated: 09/29/2022