Hey everyone! I’m back with a new post! Today I want to share with you the reasons why I love being a freelance book editor and beta reader. I wanted to write this for myself as a reminder of why I’m doing this. I’m not going to sugarcoat my job, and make it seem like my job is perfect. It’s definitely not! Being a freelancer is hard, and it’s way harder than having a regular 9-5 job. There’s certain things you have to deal with, like having periods/months where your work load dries up, and you have no work/clients. You have to keep hustling to find clients, even when you’re busy/booked for a while. And you have to deal with people ghosting you. (That rarely happens for me.) I have to tell you, that, when I quit my bookstore job and started doing this again the past year, my side of the business has really turned around lately. I went from having slow months with either no work, or not much work, to all of a sudden, getting busy, and being booked out the past several months. You can say it’s luck, but it’s also hard work. I worked my butt off last year, marketing so much, and it’s finally paying off! I also have to mention God, because as a Christian, I feel like God has a huge part in turning my business around. I’m so grateful for having so much work right now, and I really hope it stays that way. One downside is the fact that I’m not making much money right now. It’s hard to find high-paying clients, but I’m just grateful to even have work, honestly. I’m grateful to my clients. I also currently live at home with my parents, so I don’t need to make a lot of money right now. That’s probably something I struggle with the most in terms of the business. Besides that, here are the reasons why I love being a freelance book editor:
1. Flexibility-This is probably one of the best reasons. I love being able to set my own schedule, and get up whenever I want. I make my own daily schedule during the week, and I love it! I get to go for walks after my lunch break, when it’s actually warm out. I can take vacations and time off whenever I want. I also can take time off when I’m sick, and I don’t have to call out of work. It’s nice for when there’s family emergencies, or I want to go out and grab a coffee or something. I rarely leave the house, honestly. When the weather is nice, Stacey and I will go out once a week and either grab a coffee, or work out of the house. That brings me to my next point.
2. I can work wherever I want! First of all, I’m a huge homebody. I love being able to work from home. I’m not confined to an office, and I don’t have to worry about commuting, especially in the winter, with all the bad weather. My sister and I made a nice home office room, with my book collection. I love to sit on the couch in there and work. It’s so inspiring, because I get to look at my book collection while I work. It makes me happy. I also love working out of the house, even though we don’t do that very often. It’s fun to go work in a library or coffee shop. I love being able to work anywhere. That’s the best part!
3. I get to choose my projects/clients-I love being able to choose what projects I work on. It’s way more motivating to work on projects you love. I get to work with my favorite book genres. A lot of times, my ideal clients come to me. They either write romance, or fantasy. Those are my two favorite genres! It’s so fun to be able to work with my favorite genres. I also love having my own clients. My clients are wonderful people, and I love working with them. I also love meeting new people/authors. As of right now, I only work with indie authors. I love supporting indie authors.
4. I get paid to read books, and read them before they are released! It was always a dream of mine to get paid to read books. It’s also awesome to be able to read books early. It’s such a special thing! I get to help authors with the process of creating the books, and polishing them before they are released. It’s very cool! Editing is more than just reading books. It’s hard work! But at the end of the day, it’s reading, and I love being able to get paid to do my biggest passion! It’s the best job ever! It’s definitely the best job I’ve ever had. Sometimes, the job can be stressful, and sometimes it will make me burned out, and then I’ll get into a reading slump. But, my passion for books hasn’t gone away.
5. Don’t have stressful deadlines (most of the time)-If I was working for a publisher, my job would probably be very stressful. I would have tough deadlines, and it would be so much harder. I’m very grateful that most of my clients don’t have deadlines, or strict deadlines, which is better for me, because I’m not stressed out. I get to do projects at my own pace. Editing and Proofreading take a lot of time, and an author shouldn’t be pressured to finish a book in a small amount of time. Good editing takes a long time. I have some stressful projects every once in a while, but most of the time, my projects don’t have a certain deadline.
6. I feel like I make a difference-I love helping people, and my job is literally helping authors polish their books. It’s very fulfulling, and makes me feel so good, knowing I’m helping other people.
7. I get to make connections/friends with authors-Because I work directly with authors, I get to form friendships and connections with them. I love working with authors! It’s the best! I feel like I’m their number one fan! I love staying updated with a client after finishing their books. It’s also fun to be able to support authors and get a physical copy everytime I help them with a book. This hasn’t been the case with every author, but I’ve read some really great books, and would love to get copies of the books once they are released.
Being a freelancer/business owner can be hard and stressful at times. But, I have to remind myself why I’m doing this. The reason why is because I love books, and I love helping people! It’s that simple! It’s such a fulfilling job, and it’s my dream job! At the end of the day, there’s nothing else that I would rather be doing.
I hope this post has helped you, and inspired you. Are you also a freelance book editor? Leave me a comment. Or, would you like to be one? Let me know! I would love to chat with you! Thanks for reading!
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