If Editing Is Your Home Business…

Editing may be something you do as a home business or are considering.  Laura Spencer, at Writing Thoughts, has written an informative post, Eight Reasons Why Editing s a Whole Lot Harder Than You Think It Is, that should help you in this line of business.  (This post also may help you to understand the editor’s viewpoint if your work has ever been edited.)

Editor image: sxc.hu

I’ve not done editing as a home business, but I’ve been a news magazine editor and encountered my reporters’ frustrations when I changed their grammar or sentence structure.  “But that’s the way people talk,” one responded when I changed incorrect grammar.

I tried to explain that we weren’t writing in dialect, but were producing a professional magazine.  If the reporter was quoting someone, that’s one thing.  But when his grammar was incorrect, that’s a responsibility that falls back upon the editor.  If he wrote in incomplete sentences, that also needed to be corrected.  (Fortunately for me, my editor-in-chief backed me up.)

However, when you’re an editor on a freelance basis or as a home business, you will run into situations whereby the writer disagrees with your corrections. 

• Be ready to explain why you’re doing this. 
• Be ready to back it up with grammar rules.  (Many people feel these are changing nowadays and traditional ones are obsolete, especially in the blogging world.)
• Have examples of correct grammar/phrasing/sentence structure to show.
• Perhaps have statements from editors concerning what they’re looking for. 
• Be knowledgeable yourself, so that you do know what is correct and what isn’t.

This doesn’t mean your client will or has to follow your editing.  But this will help back up your editing, especially if you want to get paid. 

If you are or have been an editor (for someone else or in your own editing business) do you have any tips to share?