A lot of people create elaborate resume sites to beef up their Google clout–after all, you never know who might be searching for an editor/writer and good Google results for your site could help you out in all sorts of unexpected ways. But Google can’t find you easily if you don’t make your site Google-friendly. Here are some tricks that can help:
1. Google loves sites that are deep and have plenty of content. If your site is light on the content side, try adding a professional-sounding-but-personable blog. You can update once or twice a week and see how it goes–just make sure to take the advice of the next step into consideration when writing it.
2. Use keywords the same way you would when writing or editing SEO content. Don’t skimp on the phrases that you want Google to associate with your resume page, but don’t stuff them in at every turn, either.
3. Name your images with Google-friendly file names. “Picture 1A.jpg” isn’t going to help you out much. “Freelance Editor at work.jpg” might be more helpful. Know what I mean?
4. In addition to posting your resume, work samples, and related material, try posting a page about your experiences. An about me-type page that’s tucked away somewhere on the site for the REALLY curious adds more keywords to your resume page and also gives a bit of insight into who you are, your work ethic and experience. Just don’t turn it into a commercial for yourself. Keep it personable and fun to read.
5. Get other sites to link to you–especially any professional organizations you belong to or other groups. The more incoming links to your resume page from legit sources, the better.
Hey editors, what does your online portfolio look like? Do you include before and after examples of your editing work? Why not take a page from Stephen King’s playbook and show what somebody else’s work looks like after you’ve gotten done with it?
In King’s book, On Writing, he throws in a few pages from his story 1408, showing the before and after from his own work–but you can do the same using one of your actual clients (with their permission, of course). Naturally if you can’t get permission you’ll have to edit one of your own first drafts, but this is a GREAT way of showing off your editorial chops.
It’s even better if you can also show a .jpg of a page you’ve marked up with editing symbols and such as an extra gimmick. Nobody edits much that way any more, but it’s a good visual and very effective when positioned properly.
Writers post writing samples, why not post editing samples? Something to consider next time you revamp your resume page.
Yes, EditorWriter.org had a brief hiatus there for a time due to, you guessed it, deadlines. We had to go down for a bit but we are back now. Look for more of your favorite resources and such coming to this space and thanks much for your patience!
In the meantime, here is a list of links we’ve been enjoying lately-there’s a bit of nepotism here with a couple of inclusions (friend blogs) but we found some interesting things to ruminate over here:
FreelanceWriterVille
The Writing Journey
A different (but valuable) perspective on the editing game–APhotoEditor.com
Find An Editor has promise but we’re not sure how current this is…
a 2007 article on hiring editors at Folio.com
Interesting that while there are many insultingly low-paying gigs for writers–two dollars for an article, for example–and scammer sites aimed at freelancers, editors hardly seem to be on the radar.
There could be a number of reasons for this, but it is fascinating as a concept. Writers’ work is frequently seen as little more than a commodity. I remember one CEO asking what the difference between a product description and a blog was. He failed to understand even the most basic concept of blogging–that a blog is an entity and not an individual piece of work.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with that–until you presume to try and structure a company around things like blogs and social media. But I digress. It’s fascinating that editing isn’t the target of scam sites and low-payers. It seems that giving someone the ultimate responsibility for printed or online material getting completed in an accurate, readable fashion isn’t something you can simply throw a few pennies at.
Imagine a job ad where an editor was offered the same terms as some of these low-balling writing gigs. “Editor wanted for revisions. One dollar per article.” They’d be laughed out of court!
That said, I am sure some try–or have tried. Have you seen such laughable ads? If so, we’re dying to hear from you. Please post your experiences in the comments and share your favorite bad editor job story. Some of us think these are less plentiful than for writers…but what’s YOUR experience?
Self-editing is a skill you aren’t born with, you learn it over time. It’s not easy to look critically at your own work, which is especially true when you’ve been slaving away at it all day long.
One of the best rules of thumb to follow when editing your own work is to put it away for the day and don’t look at it again until tomorrow. That gives you a fresh set of eyes to look at the work with in the morning and you are more likely to catch little mistakes and hard-to-spot errors. One thing you shouldn’t do is try to self-edit after just having worked on the piece–at least give yourself the benefit of sleeping on THAT edit and looking at it again fresh the following day.
In cases where you simply can’t afford the time to let the copy go until tomorrow, try reading the piece backwards from the end of the last paragraph to your opening line. This helps you catch spelling mistakes and punctuation issues. You’ll have to read it the right way around to catch poor usage, but when you do, try reading it aloud.
If you’re headed down the path towards publication, Pneuma Books wants to help. This small press and pro-self publishing advocate has a collection of how-to guides including a guide to book editing and another on the publishing process.
But Pneuma isn’t the only help available for self publishers. Angela Hoy at WritersWeekly also runs a self publishing company, Booklocker.com. Writersweekly and Booklocker both offer help for authors including the most helpful Whispers and Warnings section which can serve as early warning against troubled and/or unscrupulous publishing companies.
And finally, the Science Fiction Writers of America have a fascinating page about print-on-demand and self-publishing including a pros-n-cons look the issues related to publishing your own work.
New editors are rightfully hyper-vigilant about issues like apostrophe abuse and passive voice, but if you’re trying to learn the rules some of this stuff can be a real wilderness. Is it ALWAYS bad to use passive voice? Not according to this resource from the University of North Carolina.
What about the proper use of semicolons? WritingHood.com has four tips to help you remember what you learned so long ago.
And then there’s the flagrant abuse of the apostrophe, which has aggravated at least one person so much they dedicated an entire website to it.
ParagraphPunch is another site dedicated to a single idea, but this one’s for pay. Alas, some who need it are too stingy to shell out…but it’s there should you need a bit of schooling.
And finally, show your writers this Self Editing Success article by Carole Moore if you really need to send a message. With a little luck the writer will take a hint…but this is also good for keeping oneself honest when you lack decent input from a more experienced writer or editor.
When you put out your very first call for writers as a new editor, one thing you should do once the articles are all assigned and the search is over? Hang on to the suitable resumes and refer back to them when you need to hire a new freelance writer.
Those who have already performed their first hunt for freelancers know why that is. If you’ve never hunted for a decent freelance writer, you couldn’t possibly be prepared for the onslaught of inappropriate responses to your “writer wanted” ad, but trust us when we say you’ll get about 90% unusable responses.
NewOf those ten percent, the ones you actually want to work with will make up probably five percent or less. That’s why you want to hang on to the GOOD responses–who wants to deal with that other 90% again if they don’t have to?
As a writer it can often help to get another pair of eyes on something that you are working on, but this can also be true if you are an editor. Sometimes you will have copy that you are struggling with, or personal issues will be competing for your attention, making it hard to focus. In these cases, you may want to ask a fellow editor to give you a bit of feedback. Teaming up with another editor can be a good idea. Having someone else to bounce ideas off of and trade opinions with can help keep you on your toes.
by Joe Wallace
What should a new editor expect from those early editing jobs? Whether you’re freelance or full time, chances are you’ll perform in a mixed capacity, writing some material and editing some. The days of “pure” editing work and the duties associated with it are slipping away, but more experienced editors can still find gigs where they handle editing chores almost exclusively when it comes to periodicals and online publications. Book publishing is another animal altogether.
That said, I see a small number of job ads listed by companies looking for “editors” or other creatives who list “admin duties” as part of the job description. I strongly urge aspiring editors to avoid such jobs (or at least investigate them closely) as they’re often listed by people who don’t understand what an editor or writer does, or (more likely) they really want an office admin type who can double as a writer when the boss has a whim. Don’t let the job poster take advantage of the fact that you really want an editing job.
