Successful Editorial Freelancing

This course is designed to provide you with the practical nuts and bolts of what is required to set up as freelancer in the publishing industry, and to equip you with the confidence and business sense to create a successful and sustainable freelance income.

Woman with glasses studying at laptop On completing the course, you will:

have the motivation and confidence to start your own business
be equipped to manage yourself through the difficult first six months of freelance life
gain a good understanding of what publishers are looking for in freelance editors and proofreaders
recognise what is required to gain new customers and keep the ones you like to work with

At the end of the course you will generate your own personal business plan, with a particular emphasis on researching your market, understanding what would make you particularly attractive to your publisher clients, and why they would want to employ your freelance services. The business plan will be assessed by your tutor and individual comments and suggestions will be sent to you.

Note: The financial, tax and company advice sections are specific to the UK market.

Payment Information

The emailed version of the course costs £95.

How to Enrol

To enrol, you need to click on the Add to Cart button on this page. You will be asked to register (if you have not already done so). You will, at that point, be able to pay immediately by credit/debit card, request a pro-forma invoice or download and complete a “fillable” PDF enrolment form. This form can be emailed to or posted to the Publishing Training Centre, 6 Bell Yard, London, WC2A 2JR.

Money back guarantee

If, within 10 working days of receiving your course materials (and before any assignments have been marked), you decide that the course is not for you, simply return the materials to us, in perfect condition, to receive a full refund.

Important note

You must complete the course within 12 months of enrolment or, if you wish to continue the course, you can study for a further 12 months following payment of an extension fee. Any further extensions are at the discretion of The Publishing Training Centre.

What is Included?

Course materials:

You will receive all course materials when you enrol so that you can work through the programme at your own pace. When you are ready you can tackle the assignment, which will be marked by your tutor. You will be given feedback on the business plan you have created and can clarify any issues raised with the tutor.

Your own tutor:

Mary James, the author of this course, will be your tutor.

Who is it for?

The course will benefit:

delegates who have already completed one of our distance learning proofreading or copy-editing courses
editors and proofreaders currently employed in companies who want to make the transition to freelance status
freelancers who would like to grow their current business

There’s not much that beats the excitement of starting a new direction in your career by turning freelance. Sadly, for many of us, the fear of crossing the wobbly bridge to the land of independence somehow curbs that excitement and often makes us think again. Often, we decide not to do it.

Even if you are an established freelancer, it is worth taking some time to take a step back, review your current activities, and invest in yourself to see if you could make even more of a success of it.

Whichever of these situations chimes with you, you are already displaying something of what it takes to be an effective and successful freelancer: you are willing to question yourself, to look sideways at yourself, realise you can learn from experts in your field and chip away at what you don’t know in order to be more successful.

About the Author

Mary James combines her publishing expertise with a hands-on knowledge of the freelance market. Having set up innoved to provide research and consultancy services to publishers, Mary understands what is required to run a sustainable business from home and to develop strong working relationships with publishers in order to keep a full order book.

£95.00

Study Time

The course requires 6--8 hours of learning time as well as completion of an assignment. The assignment is in the form of a business plan and you will receive individual feedback on this from your tutor.