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

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider 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.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: 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 those are editing and publishing services.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, these are related to each other, but they're not really the same thing, but I've kind of lumped them together in this episode just for the sake of convenience.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Let's start out with editing first.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: So the essence of editing is that you're getting somebody else's writing or book ready for publication, but there are different types of editing.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you're great with content organization or story structure, you might consider developmental editing.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: That means thinking through the structure and flow of the book on the front end.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Or it could mean reworking a book that's not been properly organized or written.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe the author is stuck and just needs some expert help.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now you could also consider line editing, copy editing, or proofreading.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Line editing is more of an art than a science, and it mainly concerns making sure that sentences flow as well as possible.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Copy editing mainly focuses on the mechanics of language, and it ensures that the writing adheres to correct English usage, grammar, punctuation, citations, and so forth.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And proofreading literally refers to reading the proof, which is the final version just before or after it goes to print as a last measure of defense against errors.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, another form of editing is working for a magazine or a publication.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: A few years ago I worked for the Goodman Project as a writer and then a little bit later as a lead editor.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're an editor for a publication, it means that people are sending you articles and you decide which ones that you're going to run in your sections, which are also called verticals in the publication world.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: And a vertical basically means that, you know, like if you have a big publication, they might have entertainment and lifestyle and then food and travel or fashion or whatever the case might be for that publication.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: My vertical was entertainment.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: People would send me articles, and then I would edit those and choose which ones to run in those sections.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I was in charge of some other sections as well, but entertainment was my main thing.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then I would also give the authors feedback if I needed to have changes.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: I almost always made changes in spelling, grammar, punctuation, and so forth.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's it's always a little shocking to me sometimes how when people submit articles for things, they don't always proofread them.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes there are crazy mistakes where you just go, like, man, did you like graduate junior high with your spelling and grammar?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I guess some people just are not good at it.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: But uh I would encourage you if you're submitting material for other people to consider publishing on their website or in a magazine, make sure that it's proofread and that it's as good as you can possibly make it.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, back to the Goodman project.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: One thing I wanted to mention is that they didn't pay very well, but the experience was absolutely priceless because I learned to think, write, and edit really, really fast.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that was honestly immensely valuable, and I'm so glad that I was able to be part of that for a time.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you enjoy the self-publishing process, you can also help others navigate their way through getting their book published.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so we've talked about editing, and let's move on to people with publishing services.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you are a detail-oriented person and you like to manage complex projects, you can help people get their book cover and interior formatting designed.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: You can manage editors, you can get their book uploaded to Amazon and other online vendors, you can help them market their book.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: There are all kinds of things you can do that are part of that process.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: But the bottom line is that if you can write and publish your own books, you could probably help other people do the same thing.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the writers I know, no matter what their level of success, they do some type of client work in addition to writing for themselves.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes it honestly surprises me how somebody can be at a very high level with their own stuff, but yet they still do client work.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason for that is number one, is that it can actually pay really well.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: But number two, is because you really, really care about books.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And when you care about something, you enjoy helping other people with it.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, at least that's part of what you do.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but also number three, there's something really important that you can learn from helping other people with their books.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of the things that keeps drawing me back to ghostwriting.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that is because when you ghostwrite a book for somebody, you learn a lot of stuff about their industry, about them as a person, about business, if it's a business book, and you learn things about working with people.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: You learn things that improve your own business and they improve you as a person.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of things that are good about doing client work.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you do it in the right way and you're doing work that you're good at and you enjoy and you're charging enough and all those kinds of things, of course, you've got to have some parameters in place.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: But aside from that, there are a lot of things you can benefit from when it comes to doing client work, which is one of the reasons why even very high-level writers who have very successful careers in their own books, why they sometimes still do client books.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: For example, Ryan Holliday, a very successful author in his own right, still does ghostwriting.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh this has been a year or two ago.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: He ghost wrote a book for somebody, and he was he kind of alluded to it in in one of his blog posts or something, and uh or newsletters, and it was obvious he was the ghostwriter for it.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just emailed him and I said, Hey, I'm super curious, like with all of your success that you have with your own books, why do you still do ghostwriting?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't seem to make any sense from the outside.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And he very kindly replied back, and he just said, When something interests me, I do it.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a really, really good reason to do client work is because if you're interested in a topic or you're interested in an industry or you're interested in a specific person and working with them, you can benefit a lot from it.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: I learned something from every single project that I do.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: So whether you're editing or you're helping people with publishing services or whatever you're doing in terms of client work, it can be a really great way to serve people and also make some money at the same time, which of course is always a good thing.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: So here's my question for you Have you ever considered helping other writers with editing or publishing services?
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: And if so, what specific services could you offer?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Give that some thought because it's a great way to earn income as a writer.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: All right, my friend, as always, thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time.