{"id":881,"date":"2019-12-31T14:52:06","date_gmt":"2019-12-31T14:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catherinedunn.co.uk\/?p=881"},"modified":"2019-12-31T14:52:08","modified_gmt":"2019-12-31T14:52:08","slug":"end-of-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catherinedunn.co.uk\/index.php\/2019\/12\/31\/end-of-year\/","title":{"rendered":"End-of-year summary: this editing life"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

It\u2019s time to take stock of the year and plan for 2020, and\nthis is particularly important for me as I only moved into freelancing ten days\nago. What went well for me this year and what are my plans for next year?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s easy to scramble along from one day to the next\nthinking you\u2019re doing \u2018okay\u2019 but not feeling as if you\u2019re achieving anything\nnoteworthy. That\u2019s typical of me \u2013 if I don\u2019t have my head down working like a\ndemon, I\u2019m panicking that I\u2019ll never work again! Whether I\u2019m looking for work\nor actually doing the work, I\u2019m always motivated, but analysing what I\u2019ve done\nisn\u2019t something that I carve out a lot of time for. So when I did this a few\ndays ago, I was pleasantly surprised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did the year go?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Over the last year (2019) I\u2019ve done thirty-nine projects for\neight new clients and ten repeat ones. (I count publishers, agencies, packagers\nand \u2018middlepeople\u2019 as single clients rather than counting every author I worked\nwith through those channels.) I\u2019m pretty happy with that! Next year I\u2019d like to\nfind more new clients than I did this year, but of course repeat clients are\nalways good \u2013 a testament to the fact that they were pleased with my work!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty-six of my projects were books, six were essays, four\nwere \u2018other\u2019 (websites, emails, blurbs, instruction manuals, newsletters,\ninterviews and biographies), two were short stories and one was a writing\nproject \u2013 my first piece of work of that nature. Bite-size corporate projects like\nproofreading emails or web pages slot in nicely around other work, but books\nare still my first love. Out of those, fifteen were fiction and eleven were\nnon-fiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from my activity on social media and various forums,\nthe only real promotion I did was a full-page advert in Writers\u2019 Forum<\/em> magazine and an article that I was kindly invited to\nwrite for the July\/August\nedition<\/a> of Editing Matters<\/em><\/a>, the SfEP\u2019s trade\npublication. (I was surprised to find out that I\u2019ve actually published six blog\nposts myself, not including this one, but five of them were posted within the\nfirst four months of the year!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One great way to round off the year was with a lovely\ntestimonial that was volunteered by one of the non-fiction authors I worked\nwith. She mentioned my \u2018versatility, keen eye, outstanding professional\ncommunication, efficiency and verve\u2019.\nI usually have to ask clients for testimonials \u2013 with my usual British\nreticence, and not nearly as often as I should \u2013 but they serve as a fantastic\npick-me-up when they land in my inbox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plans for next year<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m excited about the prospect of spreading my wings,\nespecially when it comes to promotion, CPD and networking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All too often, time spent on marketing or networking can\nfeel like time wasted if you don\u2019t see an immediate return, but now that I\u2019m\nonly accountable to myself, I hope to look into various other options for spreading\nthe word about who I am and what I do. Corporate clients are a notoriously hard\nnut to crack, and I still find myself drawn to books by self-publishing\nauthors, but I\u2019m not going to close my mind or eyes to any potential openings\nin the world of business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m particularly looking forward to doing more face-to-face\nnetworking with my fellow editors, who are always amazingly supportive and\nhelpful online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m also keen to set some of my budget aside for training\ncourses and CPD in 2020. I\u2019m very close to meeting the requirements to upgrade\nto Advanced Professional Member of the SfEP \u2013 which I\u2019d be over the moon to\nachieve \u2013 but I do need a little more training to get there, and I have my eye\non a couple of courses that would help me hone my skills and benefit my\nclients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One major avenue I want to pursue in 2020 is developmental\nediting. I\u2019ve already started some informal development in this area, and\nideally I\u2019d like to complete some formal training in this area too. I also have\na reading list of dev editing books that are highly recommended by my\ncolleagues! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This might also be the year when I finally get some printed\nmaterials done. I\u2019m in the process of having a logo designed, and it can\u2019t hurt\nto get a few business cards and flyers. I\u2019ve felt the lack of them a few times\nover the last year, and they are particularly useful for corporate clients, who\nare best reached via face-to-face networking rather than online. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for blogging, I deprioritised it in the latter half of\n2019 and I don\u2019t think my bottom line suffered as a result \u2013 it freed up my\ntime to do other things \u2013 so I\u2019m not sure yet whether I\u2019ll simply continue to\nbe bad at it, whether I\u2019ll make more of an effort, or whether I\u2019ll feel more\nnaturally inclined to blog now that I\u2019m a free agent, so to speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In sum<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m excited about 2020. My successes this year have given me\nconfidence that I can continue to do well, and I can\u2019t wait to improve my\nskills and pass those improvements on to my existing clients and, hopefully, a\nwhole swath of new ones! I\u2019m sure I have what it takes to be a good dev editor,\nand I\u2019m looking forward to crystallising that with some training and a few\njuicy projects for my portfolio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel like I may have been on the edge of burnout for a while, but now, writing this, I don\u2019t feel as though the cure is going to consist of working less. There is no working less on my horizon, only working more, but for me it\u2019s working differently that is the key. I feel energised, not dismayed, by the prospect of all the extra things I want to fit in next year! Despite the variety of work in my portfolio, I\u2019ve never had a project I disliked or was reluctant to get stuck into. I\u2019ve enjoyed every piece of work I\u2019ve had \u2013 no exaggeration \u2013 and spent every day glad that I get to do this for a living. But I also feel that working on other things \u2013 CPD, marketing and networking \u2013 will freshen up my brain and help me to work faster and more efficiently across the board. Let\u2019s get started!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s time to take stock of the year and plan for 2020, and this is particularly important for me as I only moved into freelancing ten days ago. What went well for me this year and what are my plans for next year? It\u2019s easy to scramble along from one day to the next thinking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[244,20,83],"class_list":["post-881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-copyediting","tag-dev-editing","tag-editing","tag-new-year"],"yoast_head":"\nEnd-of-year summary: this editing life - Catherine Dunn<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It\u2019s time to take stock of the year and plan for 2020, and this is particularly important for me as I only moved into freelancing ten days ago. 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