Let us ignore that I am writing this towards the end of March. February was another busy month in terms of work, which is probably just as well, since I seemed to be living in a land of permanent drizzle and grey skies.
What I’ve been working on
I finished off two projects that I started in January – the first was the copy-edit of a cosy crime thriller and the second was the copy-edit of an exploration of Britain via its walking routes. I moved on to the copy-edit of an intriguing and complex speculative novel that wouldn’t be out of place in a course on popular metaphysics. Towards the middle of February I took on the copy-edit of a fantasy novel that had a twist to surpass even the Red Wedding – I’m not often stunned in such a way. Alongside these I had a science fiction manuscript to critique.
What I read for fun
Sara Hashem’s The Jasad Heir was the Illumicrate book for July 2023 (so I’m just a little behind). It’s Egyptian-inspired fantasy, with forbidden magic and a fight for survival, and an enemies-to-lovers romance. I really wanted to enjoy it a lot more than I did – there was so much potential in the world-building. However, the pacing was frustrating in places, and I didn’t like the main character, Sylvia, all that much. Main characters don’t have to be likeable, but it can create a book that is hard to read if they are not. In fact, I found Diya to be a much more compelling character and she’s barely in it.
Looking ahead
I’m taking some time off at the beginning of March, for a trip to the Cotswolds. I should have a lighter schedule towards the end of March, and I am planning to spend some time reviewing my services and the fee structure. There may be changes in April.
Another year, another January. I don’t really do New Year’s resolutions, but I have the intention to get back into the habit of reading at least one chapter of a novel before I go to bed each night (unless I’ve had to go out and socialise or something). It’s easy to feel a bit of reading fatigue when you work with words all day, but books are joy, and I don’t believe you can be an effective fiction editor unless you read widely.
What I’ve been working on
I finished off two projects I started in December – the first was the proofread of a fictionalised memoir about growing up with multiple disabilities and the second was the developmental edit of a delightful YA fantasy novel. I moved on to the copy-edit of the second book (third, if you count the prequel short story) of a new series by one of my regular clients, and the end of January saw me take on the copy-edit of an account of an epic journey around the most picturesque areas of England, Wales and Scotland. Both of these will be with me until early February.
What I read for fun
I absolutely loved Legends & Lattes, so I was excited to return to Travis Baldree’s cosy fantasy world in Bookshops & Bonedust. Naturally, I pre-ordered the signed exclusive edition from Waterstones because I can’t resist sprayed edges (it’s still available at the time of writing). It did not disappoint. I think prequels can be hard to pull off, especially when we have to engage with a version of the main character before they went through all the character development of the original book. Here Viv is a young orc, desperate to prove herself and live a life of adventure, and Baldree has made the most of the opportunity to give the reader more insight into her. Like with Legends & Lattes, I would recommend acquiring a pastry or two before you curl up to read this one.
I’ll start with my apologies for failing to produce a separate November round-up and squishing it in with the December edition – I have been pretty swamped for the last couple of months. As is December tradition, though, I have some stats to report.
This is the sixth (!) December round-up for Black Cat Editorial services. My 2023 projects had a combined word count of 3,278,487, which is an increase on 2022 (as I had hoped and anticipated). That means that my career total word count is rapidly approaching 20 million words – a number that would have seemed entirely ridiculous when I was starting out. My tutoring time dropped, which was expected, but it still clocked in at a solid 128 hours.
What I’ve been working on
November: I finished off several projects that I started in October. The first was the copy-edit of the second book in a cosy supernatural mystery series. The second was the proofread of the conclusion of a duology about an international assassin. The third was the copy-edit of a dystopian YA novel that has been reworked for a modern audience. I moved on to the proofread of a coming-of-age novella, and the copy-edit of a dark fantasy romance that had been almost completely rewritten since I provided a critique of it earlier in the year.
December: The beginning of the month saw me take on the proofread of a thriller about conspiracy at the top of the UK government. Alongside this, I continued the copy-edit of the dark fantasy romance – it was a beast of a novel that took me right up to Christmas. Two other projects will finish in January: one the proofread of a fictionalised memoir and the other the development edit of a YA fantasy novel.
Looking ahead
I managed to have some downtime during the festive period, but I’ll be more or less straight back to work in the new year.
As predicted, August was not an exciting month – turns out that having a broken rib is both very painful and very boring.
What I’ve been working on
My run of non-fiction projects continued – including one that has got to be up there as one of my longest proofreads ever: 222,500 words. This was an autobiographical look at the work of local politicians. A much shorter, but still substantial, proofread followed of an exploration of modern law enforcement. I hadn’t had any on-paper proofreads for quite a while (at least six months, I think), so it was nice to be able to get out my red pen again. I found myself much more in my comfort zone, though, with the development edit of an epic YA fantasy.
What I read for fun
I’ve had Juno Dawson’s Her Majesty’s Royal Coven on my TBR shelf for a while. (I’m hoping that a TBR shelf rather than a TBR pile will prove harder for me to neglect – this remains to be seen.) The idea of a secret government department of witches is an intriguing one, and there’s clearly lots of potential in that premise. The focus, however, isn’t so much on this, but rather on a prophecy about a possible imminent apocalypse. I enjoyed the world-building, but I wanted a little more exploration of HMRC itself. The writing is mostly engaging, and I always appreciate cultural references that are very much ‘of my time’. The ending, though… I don’t know if I can bring myself to read the next book in the series for a while.
Book reviews
My latest book review for the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading has been published. Arika Okrent’s Highly Irregular is interesting and entertaining, and I loved her reminder that language is ‘not […] something we control but […] something we do’.
Looking ahead
September is the month of my birth. It’s cake time.
Well, this is a bit embarrassing to admit, but I fell off a horse and broke a rib. I guess it had to happen eventually (although I had hoped that the time I fell off when I was a teenager might have been accepted as my required sacrifice to the universe). It was just one of those things – he got scared (of something – the poles we were trotting over?) and I lost my balance. Anyway, after about eight hours at the hospital, the good news was that I’d just fractured a rib. It could have been much worse – I did take a hoof to the head. I cannot tell you how glad I am that I had a good quality and professionally fitted riding hat. And that I had such lovely people taking care of me at the riding school.
It took about two weeks for the bruising to heal and I’ve been very limited in what I have been able to do. I did still have Mini (a friend’s dog) to stay for a week as she was quite happy with a slow potter for her walk – I think it was good to keep moving a bit instead of sitting on the sofa all day.
What I’ve been working on
Very fortunately, as it turned out, I didn’t have a lot of projects booked in for July. I finished the critique of a dark romantic fantasy that I started at the end of June, and I took on the copy-edit for a memoir and family history. I’ve had a run of non-fiction projects from one of my publishing services clients, and I have quite enjoyed the variety. I also had a book to review for the CIEP – I think my write-up should be published in August.
Looking ahead
I’ve probably got another two months of healing to do, so I don’t think I will be doing anything very exciting for a while.
June was a much less stressful month than the curse that was May. Oscar (my cat) has had his post-op sign-off, and he’s very happy to be allowed to snooze in our garden once more. I’m thrilled to no longer have to be the big meanie keeping him inside and telling him not to do any running or jumping (things he didn’t do that much of prior to surgery, being of the potato cat persuasion, but which suddenly became his most desired activities).
What I’ve been working on
My schedule was absolutely packed, and there was considerable variety in my projects. I completed the copy-edit of the cosy crime noir I started in May, and took on a murder mystery from a publishing services client. I finished the critique of the historical fiction manuscript from May, and moved on to the critique of a dark romantic fantasy from the author of a series I’ve previously worked on. Alongside those I copy-edited a short story and poetry collection, and I copy-edited a delightful light-hearted horror/ghost story. The month was wrapped up by a work of non-fiction – an expansive family history, including some significant figures in medical research.
Looking ahead
We will be having two doggy visitors at Black Cat HQ in July – fingers crossed for not too much chaos.
I know what you are thinking: did Hannah survive her venture into wall climbing? I did, thank you very much. I am relieved to be able to say that I did make it all the way up on my first try – I was a bit worried I wouldn’t be able to drag myself up even halfway. I have to say that, once you get used to the height, it’s quite good fun to bounce your way back down again. Alas, my arm strength was sapped after an hour or so, and I can report that the crash mats in the bouldering centre do a pretty good job. I include a picture of the walls as evidence that I did go; that’s not me at the bottom, but the kind stranger provides a sense of scale. I was eating chips by this point.
What I’ve been working on
I’ve been back to full capacity this month, and it has been a little bit of a shock to the system. I finished the two projects I had from January – one the copy-edit of a family saga and one the critique of an epic fantasy novel. They couldn’t really have been more different. The critique manuscript sets up plot lines for multiple sequels, and I hope the author makes the decision to pursue them further. I moved on to the copy-edit of a substantial split-timeline thriller – I’m always impressed by the ability of authors to juggle events and characters as they weave a story through multiple time periods. That was followed by the copy-edit of a novel that sees the central character on a path to redemption after losing everything – I’ll be working on this one for a while longer and it will take up a good chunk of my time in March. I also took on a new critique manuscript – a horror thriller novella – and that will be on my desk a bit longer too.
A new editorial society
I have been thinking about how to maintain my continuing professional development in a way that’s somewhere between formal courses and just doing lots of reading. I’ve seen fellow editors on social media praising the seminars and workshops held by the the American Copy Editors Society (ACES), and since the yearly membership fee is only a little more than the cost of attending two of their webcasts, I thought I would join as a member. I have quite a few American clients, so ACES seems like it could be a good fit for me anyway. I look forward to exploring their resources when I have some time in the coming months.
This is the fifth December round-up for Black Cat Editorial Services, which seems like an achievement in itself. As is tradition, it is time to consult my project-tracking spreadsheet. It tells me that my 2022 projects had a combined word count of 2,873,453. That’s slightly down on 2021, but it takes my career total to more than 15 million words. Some of the drop is explained by my tutoring time increasing to 176 hours for 2022. A good chunk of that was down to the CIEP’s end-of-year discount on courses in 2021 – it was very successful in attracting new students – so I’m not expecting it to be so high in 2023.
What I’ve been working on
I finished the critique I had been working on – contemporary romance (even with elements of fantasy) is a little outside my wheelhouse, but it was enjoyable to work on something a bit different to my usual fare. I moved on to the copy-edit of a manuscript I had critiqued an earlier version of. It’s always a huge compliment when one of my critique clients asks me to take on the copy-edit of their revised work, and I love being able to see how the story and characters have developed in response to the feedback I gave previously.
Book reviews
My latest book review for the CIEP has been published. It was a pleasure to read Louise Willder’s Blurb Your Enthusiasm: An A–Z of literary persuasion. It’s a book that can be read for fun and for a purpose – if you are an independent author who struggles to write cover copy, this would be a great place to look for inspiration.
Book post
I am fortunate to have some absolutely wonderful clients, and one of them is Ashleigh Bello. We first worked together during the first UK lockdown, when she was one of the precious indie clients who kept me going during that difficult period.
I’ve worked on five of her books in total and it has been one of the best experiences of my editing career so far. I think a great editor–author relationship is built on trust, honesty, team work, and humour, and we’ve pretty much got it nailed. It was a lovely Christmas present, then, to receive a copy of the beautiful paperback Ashleigh has produced for the first instalment in her epic fantasy series. I continue to be astonished by the quality of the cover art and I think it does justice to the world and characters she created.
Ashleigh’s very kind words made me a bit teary when I read them. I can’t really express just how much it means when a client takes the time to do something like this. It makes all the tough times worthwhile. I look forward to working together again soon. I know – spoiler alert – there’s a Belvedor prequel coming in 2023 and I can’t wait to find out what happens!
Looking ahead
I didn’t have that much of a Christmas break this year, so I’ll be taking the opportunity to relax a little at the beginning of January.
Every so often an email will drop into my inbox from someone who is thinking about starting a career as a proofreader, and so I thought it may be helpful to write up some advice based on my own experiences. This will, therefore, be UK-centric and presume that you want to be self-employed. It has been a while since I took my first tentative steps towards building my own editorial services business, but I can still remember the swirling mix of feelings. Here we go:
Training
There is, I think, a popular idea that anyone who enjoys reading and who has a reasonable grasp of grammar can become a proofreader. That is a good foundation, but professional proofreading is complex – it is a skill that has to be learned. Training is key. I started with the Publishing Training Centre’s Basic Proofreading by Distance Learning course. As far as I’m aware, the Essential Proofreading: Editorial Skills One course is the current equivalent. I chose it because it’s an in-depth course that provides an industry-recognised qualification at the end, but there are other options out there. One is the proofreading suite from the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (I am a tutor for the second and third courses). Anyway, I passed the PTC course with merit (I was less than one percent off a distinction mark – I ate a whole tub of Ben & Jerry’s Baked Alaska to console myself).
Many people start looking for work once they have completed their initial training, but I am a big ball of anxiety, so I felt that I needed to do more before I put myself out there. How could I ask someone to pay me for my work if I didn’t have confidence in it? So I took a sort of ‘bridging’ course from the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (the previous name for the CIEP). At that time it was called Proofreading 2: Progress, but much of the material from that course is now in Proofreading 3: Progress. (Course providers like to have a shake-up every now and then!) That went well and I was able to join the mentoring scheme. I was beyond lucky to have Margaret Aherne as my tutor – she is a legend for a reason. The mentoring scheme is not open at the time of writing, but I know the CIEP plans to re-introduce it sometime in the future. I would certainly recommend it – it’s Margaret’s encouragement that gave me the confidence to take a skills test for a publisher, and that was when things really started rolling.
Join a professional body
One of the best decisions I made was to join the SfEP (now the CIEP). It provided a wealth of information and support, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without it. One of the great things the CIEP does now is discovery meetings. You can join one and ask pretty much anything you like about proofreading, editing, and the organisation.
Research
There are so many resources out there and it is worth spending some time going through them and making a plan. Your business plan doesn’t need to be Dragons’ Den level, but a basic outline is a good idea – having a direction and knowing what steps you need to make will help you to achieve your overall goal of a successful business.
If you’ve joined the CIEP, you’ll get access to all their wonderful guides. These are probably the most relevant for our purposes:
Going Solo: Creating your freelance editorial business, Sue Littleford
Marketing Yourself: Strategies to promote your editorial business, Sara Hulse
Pricing a Project: How to prepare a professional quotation, Melanie Thompson
Some people start as generalists, and that’s okay if it works for them, but it won’t give you a selling point. How are you going to stand out? There are thousands of people offering their services as proofreaders. What is going to make a client pick you?
When I was starting out, the obvious thing for me to do was to make use of the BA I’d gained in politics and international relations. I had specialist subject knowledge and I understood academic work. You may have a degree or work experience or a hobby that you could harness in the same way. Of course, I moved away from non-fiction and academic proofreading, but it gave me an opening and I was able to use that experience to position my business where I really wanted it to be.
Finding work
This is probably the bit a lot of readers will be most interested in. I don’t think there’s a simple answer here. It’s important to be market ready – that’s where the training comes in. But that doesn’t entitle anyone to work. We have to go out there (metaphorically, probably) and find it. Once I’d built a basic website, I started with online directories. As a newbie proofreader, you probably won’t have the experience required for an entry in some of the most lucrative directories, but you can build up to those.
The most obvious candidate is Find a Proofreader. This is where I got my first ever job. Anyone can join this directory, and there is a lot of competition, but it is possible to pick up good work and some experience here. Entries start at £35 a year (at time of writing) for proofreaders, so you won’t be losing too much if it doesn’t yield results, and you’ll get some SEO benefits from linking your own website to one that ranks quite highly in Google. Find a Proofreader has a sister site, Freelancers in the UK, but I didn’t find that as rewarding – others may have a different experience. If you took the PTC’s proofreading course, you can have an entry in their Freelance Finder database. I’ve never had any work from it, but I have heard that other people have. It’s free, though, and reciprocal links will be good for your website’s SEO, so it’s worth setting it up.
The next thing I did was invest in a copy of the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook. This is updated every year, and it contains lots of information on the world of publishing. The part we are most interested in, though, is the comprehensive list of publishing houses – and their contact details. I sent lots and lots of emails and letters, and I made it on to a few lists. From there I found a publishing services company that I still work with now. This approach will take time, and the response rate is likely to be fairly low, but you ‘just’ need to get your details in front of the right person at the right time.
Summary
I’ve been a proofreader for more than seven years now and I am so very glad that I stuck at it in the beginning, no matter how anxious I was about the training or how demoralised I was by the lack of response to my marketing efforts. Other proofreaders will have similar experiences; some proofreaders will have completely different experiences. But I hope the above gives some insight into one way it was possible to get started in proofreading.
Hannah McCall is a line-editor, copy-editor and proofreader who specialises in working with independent authors and publishers of commercial fiction, particularly speculative fiction. She is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) and a Partner Member of The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi).
This round-up is a bit late, and that’s because something pretty momentous happened at the end of October. I bought a house. It took three very long months from offer to completion, but I am finally sitting in my very own home. To be honest, there were times when I thought it would never happen – and the declining health of the UK economy meant circumstances were not exactly ideal. Mixed with the relief, though, there is a sense of achievement. When I first started my own editorial services business, I hoped that one day it would be successful enough for me to be able to buy my first home, and I have done that. It’s a point in my life that shows me just how far I have come. I have to thank all my colleagues and clients for your support along the way. I appreciate you all, very much.
What I’ve been working on
October has been a fairly quiet month, in terms of work. My usual tutoring commitments have been ticking along nicely. In addition to that, I had the opportunity to work with a new client. It was a pleasure to copy-edit her debut murder mystery novel – it was impressively crafted and I hope it finds the audience it deserves. My other project for this month was a proofread of a sci-fi novel for a client I work with regularly – and it’s always exciting to see where her storytelling is going to venture next.
What I read for fun
This is a bit of a cheat because I haven’t completely finished it yet (I’ve been a bit distracted, for obvious reasons), but I’ve been enjoying Natasha Pulley’s The Half Life of Valery K. As you would probably expect from Pulley, this is historical fiction with shades of fantasy and a delightful smidgen of romance. This time, we find ourselves in Soviet Russia during the Cold War, exploring the secrets of a hidden nuclear research facility. I always enjoy Pulley’s writing style and storytelling, and this is no exception.
Looking ahead
There’s likely to be a lot of disruption in November as I get things sorted out in my new home, including setting up my brand-new office space. I hope to be back to normal as soon as possible.
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