Lessons from a New Editor
Plus, updates about everything!
Interview with Lee Hornbrook
When you’re a newer editor, success – that is, booking clients regularly enough to pay your bills – can feel elusive. And when people who’ve been working as editors for twenty years give advice, it can feel as if their gems of wisdom aren’t especially pertinent to the current year. So, I asked some students who have begun working as editors only in the past few years to share how they’ve achieved their success.
The first person I asked was Lee Hornbrook, someone I went to grad school with long years ago and who recently decided to shift careers to editing.
1. Tell us a little about your background and what made you decide to train as an editor.
I come to editing by way of classroom college English teaching. I initially sought a career as an English professor. I have a Master’s degree in English and studied for a Ph.D. in English and then a second Master’s degree in Linguistics. Once I figured out being a graduate student wasn’t a career unto itself, I switched gears but stayed in academia. I mostly did communications work (making and maintaining websites, writing website copy, editing printed collateral for conferences and grant renewals) for high-level grants in educational technology and in neuroscience/electron microscopy.
But my love was always teaching. I kept my hand in teaching with a class or two as an adjunct through community colleges and then became a full-time adjunct English professor, or freeway flyers, as we were called in Southern California, traveling from school to school on part-time contracts. Before I knew it, I had amassed almost 25 years as a teacher, writer, and editor, wrangling other people’s prose.
After leaving teaching and while seeking meaningful work, I started writing (no more grading!). I wrote on Medium and started a publication – The Writing Prof – and started working seriously on a memoir. The pandemic freed up more time to dive into my memoir, which led me to Club Ed’s memoir editing class. That class, along with a rediscovered Kansas connection with Jennifer, led to my taking more classes. I saw editing as another way to help writers, something I dearly missed from my teaching days, and I began pursuing the Club Ed developmental editing certificate program.
2. When did you start working as a freelance editor? What type of work do you do?
I attracted my first job in 2022 through participating in a Substack community. I earned my Club Ed certificate in Developmental Editing of Fiction in July 2023. I officially launched my business with a business license in January 2024, and The Writing Prof Editorial Services was born.
3. What steps did you initially take to spread the word about your business?
Initially, I followed Jennifer’s advice to go where the writers were.
I attended open mics at Hugo House in Seattle and passed out business cards. (I also read my own work for the first time at an open mic.)
I attended the AWP 2023 conference in Seattle, which led me to the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) and the Northwest Editors Guild (NWEG), both of which I joined.
I went to the NWEG Red Pencil conference in the Fall 2023. Unlike the agents/editors at AWP who said “don’t call or write us for advice, we’re too busy,” I met editors at the Red Pencil Conference who said, “if you have questions in getting your freelance editing business started, call me. I will answer your question.” That inspired me.
I mentioned my business in my Substack posts and in the Substack communities I participated in, when it was natural to do so.
I sent emails to close friends and relatives telling them that I had started an editing business.
I created editor profiles at EFA and NWEG and reconfigured my LinkedIn profile.
I set up a simple website.
4. I know you felt a little frustrated early on about not gaining traction, and then you started filling up your schedule. What did you do to stick with it even when you did feel frustrated?
[to read the rest of the blog post, click here.]
Club Ed Certificate Program - Now Accepting Applications!
A few times a year, we open the Club Ed certificate program for new applicants and one of those times is now! Through June 30, 2025, you can officially enter the Club Ed Certificate in the Developmental Editing of Fiction program.
To apply, just send an email to ClubEdResortDirector@gmail.com (or to me at jennifer@jenniferlawler.com), noting your interest in the program and a bit about your background, including any Club Ed classes you’ve taken. We’ll reply within a day or two letting you know that you’re in or that we need more information.
Classes you’ve previously taken at Club Ed (with the exception of a few listed here) can be applied towards the certificate. Beginning classes taken elsewhere may be able to be applied, depending on where you took the class(es). EFA is fine; others are determined case-by-case. Just let us know your situation when you email us with your application information.
As always, the Club Ed Certificate Program Course Bundle can be purchased for $1500. This saves you over $500 from purchasing certificate program classes individually (although you are always welcome to purchase classes individually, as and when you like). Note that this course bundle includes all of the classes you will need to complete the program.
People who buy the bundle typically complete the certificate program about six months earlier than those who don’t, and they’re more likely to complete the program compared to those who don’t purchase the bundle.
If you have previously taken some Club Ed classes, and would like to apply the purchase price of those classes to the bundle, get in touch at ClubEdResortDirector@gmail.com (or jennifer@jenniferlawler.com) and I’ll customize a bundle for you.
To purchase the certificate class bundle, click here.
Getting Editorial Work from Book Publishers and Packagers
Starts This Wednesday, June 4!
$330 (Member price: $297) | How to get work from book publishers and packagers| 4 weeks | Instructor-led | Intermediate
This popular class is meant for editors with some experience who would like to branch out from working primarily with indie authors. The information and assignments are meant for both copy editors and developmental editors.
Face it, much as we love working with indie clients, sometimes what we’re looking for in a client is steady work, clear expectations regarding what we do, and a reliable accounts payable department.
Book publishers and packagers can make great anchor clients for freelance editors, creating a reliable base on which to rest your editing business.
But trying to get work from publishers and packagers can feel a little like searching for Yeti. Do freelancers really get work from publishers – even if they don’t know anyone at the company?
Yes! Many freelance editors of all types (developmental editors, copy editors, proofreaders) get some, most, or all of their freelance work from publishers. You could be one of them.
This class covers:
how to get the experience you need to be considered for these kinds of projects
various ways of approaching publishing companies (an irresistible letter of introduction, effective networking, and more)
the ins-and-outs of working successfully for publishing companies
Assignments include writing a letter of introduction, creating a brief marketing plan, and evaluating your skills (to make sure your edits are up to the standard publishers and packagers expect).
Each week includes a new lesson and a new assignment to be submitted for the instructor’s feedback along with online discussions about the lesson materials.
Intermediate classes are intended for those with some developmental editing experience or who have taken the Beginning + Intermediate DE for Fiction classes or the self-paced DE 1 through 6 classes.
The class is entirely online and asynchronous (you don’t have to be in any particular place at any particular time to participate) but weekly assignments are due by specific deadlines.
For more information and to register, click here.
Discovery Draft Editing Offer
A service I offer writers is discovery draft evaluation, meant for those who have written a draft or partial draft of a novel and aren't sure where to go with it. It's not a developmental edit or a regular manuscript evaluation; it's an analysis that shows what the draft's strengths are and suggests possible directions to go with the story, along with ways to strengthen character arcs, conflict, and other elements.
It helps answer the question, "Do I have anything worth pursuing here? If so, how might I go about that?"
Because I'm working on a related project for Club Ed, I'm offering a special price on this service through the month of June ($500 for up to 90,000 words) - but rest assured, nothing about your story will wind up in the Club Ed project, not even a minor detail about your plot. I'm just looking at my methods and approaches and it's easier for me to do this if I have a project in hand!
Right now, I’m looking for fiction manuscripts only, though I may open it to nonfiction later. Here’s the link for the service.
If you know someone who might be interested, please feel free to share the link.
Club Ed Updates
As you know, the Club Ed website went dark for a few days last week when the host decided to screw up. Now that my cortisol levels have been reduced to manageable levels, I wanted to make a few updates:
First, thank you to everyone for your patience. You were all kind and supportive, and I appreciate that.
We’ll be moving the website to a new hosting service, obviously. Because the new service doesn’t host emails, the Club Ed email address will be changing. Please use ClubEdResortDirector@gmail.com going forward, and delete any other Club Ed email address you have. (Emails sent to jennifer@jenniferlawler.com will always reach me as well.)
The FAQ has always noted that self-paced classes are available for eighteen months, but in practice they remain available indefinitely. I don’t go around deleting classes from your dashboard just because a year and a half has passed. But I want to emphasize that if something dramatic were to happen to the Club Ed website, such as the permanent loss of data, I can only promise to go back and restore eighteen months’ worth of self-paced classes. It would literally be impossible for me to reconstruct transactions that took place five or six years ago. So, if it’s been eighteen months or more for any of your self-paced classes, please download course materials that you want to save to your own local backup.
The content of instructor-led classes is similarly available indefinitely, but for these classes, once the class is over, I can’t promise access to the classroom materials, so I urge you to download the materials to your own local backup as you take the class. I’ve tried to keep class construction simple to make this easier to do.
We are of course taking steps to make sure a disaster doesn’t happen, but as last week’s antics demonstrate, some things are beyond our powers to control. I wanted to remind everyone that it’s perfectly fine to save the materials to your own local backup, though please do not share them with people who have not purchased the classes.
For Members
New: For the month of June, I’m blogging daily on the Club Ed website, and I’m keeping track of my progress in the Accountability forum. If you’d like to join me there, I’d be happy for the company.
Use of the Accountability forum has dropped off to almost nothing lately, so after this trial run, I’ll have to consider closing the forum. But if we can get a bit more participation this month, that won’t happen.
Find the coupon code for the new Mid-Year Review in the Membership Program classroom. (This class costs just $15 for members!)
New discount for PerfectIt and Draftsmith software! Save 30% off your purchase of PerfectIt and 20% off your purchase of Draftsmith. PerfectIt is a well-regarded program that many copy editors use to help ensure their edits are applied correctly across an entire manuscript. Use the coupon code you’ll find in the Membership Program classroom.
The new instructor-led class, Freelancing Through Tough Times, is available to members for just $75, but you have to use the coupon code that you’ll find on the membership program classroom page.
Upcoming Classes
Instructor-led classes starting soon:
Getting Editorial Work from Book Publishers and Packagers, starts Jun 4, 2025
Freelancing Through Tough Times, starts Jun 30, 2025
Mid-Year Review, starts Jul 7, 2025
Editorial Toolkit: Beta Reading, starts Sep 3, 2025
Editing for Plot and Story Structure, starts Sep 8, 2025
About Jennifer Lawler
I help editors figure out what the hell they're doing.
If you're an aspiring, new, or established book editor or story coach, I can probably help you learn how to do the work better and more profitably.
Through Club Ed, I offer developmental editing classes, a freelance editor membership program/support group, and a slightly bony shoulder to cry on.
I've worked as an editor for more than twenty years. I learned how to edit in the trenches of traditional publishing with its insane deadlines, pitiless competition, and crushing bureaucracy. To that I added a Ph.D in English literature with a specialization in medieval literature because of a long story.
Editorial clients have included Simon & Schuster, Girl Friday Productions, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, Barnes and Noble Custom Publishing, and others, along with many independent authors.
For fiction self-paced classes, click here.
For fiction instructor-led classes, click here
For nonfiction self-paced classes, click here
For nonfiction instructor-led classes, click here
For on-demand instructor-led classes, fiction and nonfiction, click here