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Making Money as a Writer: Editing & Publishing Services · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Writer Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Writer Starter Kit, visit DailyWriterLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: We've been working our way through a series on making money as a writer, and on today's episode, we're talking about two of the most underrated and not so obvious ways to make money with your writing, and that is editing and publishing services.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: These two things are related but they're not the same thing.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Let's begin with editing first.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: The essence of editing is that you are getting somebody's writing or book manuscript ready for publication, but there are different types of editing.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you're great with content organization or story structure, you might consider developmental editing.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Developmental editing means thinking through the structure and the flow of the book on the front end, or it could mean reworking a book that's not been properly organized or well written.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe the author is stuck and they need some expert help with their book.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: You could also consider line editing, copy editing, or proofreading.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Line editing is more of an art than a science.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: It mainly concerns making sure that sentences flow as well as possible.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Copy editing mainly focuses on the mechanics of language and ensures that the writing adheres to correct English usage, grammar, punctuation, citations, and so forth.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, proofreading literally refers to reading the proof, which is the final version of the book, just before or after it goes to print as a last measure of defense against errors.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there are all kinds of nuances within that, and I sped through that really, really fast, and any professional editors listening may take issues slightly with some of my definitions here, but that's the gist of different forms of editing.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, another form of editing that I want to throw out there, though, is working for a magazine or a publication.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: A few years ago, as I mentioned in an episode a couple days ago, a few years ago I worked as a lead editor for the Goodman Project.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the Goodman Project is a website that gets several million visitors a month.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: They have articles written by both men and women relating to all kinds of topics that have to do with manhood or men or family and so forth.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so my role as a lead editor for the Goodman Project meant that people sent me articles and I had to decide which ones to run in my sections that I was responsible for, which are also called verticals in the publications world.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then I would give the authors feedback if they needed to make changes to those articles.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I didn't accept articles at all if they didn't fit with the publication or they were poorly written or whatever.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as a lead editor, I almost always made changes in spelling, grammar, punctuation, the organization of how a piece was arranged, and so forth.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, being a lead editor didn't really pay very well, but the experience was absolutely priceless because I learned to think, to write, and to edit a lot faster.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: So those are some thoughts about editing.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you enjoy the self-publishing process, you can also help others navigate their way through getting their book published.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you're detail-oriented and you like to manage complicated projects, you can help people get their book cover and interior formatting design.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: You can manage the editors who are involved in a book, and you can get the book uploaded to Amazon and other online vendors.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: You can also help with marketing of books.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of different things you can do to help people get their books published and marketed.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: The bottom line is that if you can write and publish your own books, you can also help other people do the same thing.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the writers I know, in fact, no matter whether they're kind of getting started or whether they're really, really experienced and successful, most of the writers that I know do some type of client work in addition to doing writing for themselves.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, personally, I really like doing client work as one of my income streams because I learn something from every project that I do.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you're editing or you're helping other people publish their books, I think it's a great way to serve authors and also make some money at the same time.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: So again, editing or helping people with publishing their book, those can be really, really fantastic ways to add to your income streams, but also learn a lot at the same time.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Here's today's question Have you ever considered helping other writers with editing or publishing services?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And if so, what specific services do you think you could offer?
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Hope this is helpful to you, and I'll see you in tomorrow's episode.