When I first started out, I actually freelanced as a copywriter – that is, I wrote marketing copy, and the occasional piece of non-fiction content for businesses. Occasionally, I would do some non-fiction editing, or work on educational materials for the publisher I used to work for.
When I decided I wanted to do more book editing, I advertised myself as a bit of a Jack-of-all-trades, and so I took on all sorts of projects – from memoirs to self-help books.
But that wasn’t what I really wanted to do.
What I really wanted was to edit fiction – and to be honest, having studied literature and creative writing at university, that’s where my specialist knowledge lay anyway.
So I decided to market myself as a fiction editor, and ONLY a fiction editor.
That’s my informal story of how I sort of transitioned into fiction editing.
But many people don’t have the knowledge foundation I did – they don’t have years of writing creatively or studying literature behind them.
So what would I advise these people?
First off, you should fill the gaps in your knowledge with training.
When I was starting out, there were no dedicated courses for fiction editing – but luckily there are now! Including the ones here at Liminal Pages: fiction editing online courses.
But before you start training, I recommend you decide what kind of fiction editing you want to do.
Do you want to proofread fiction? If you already proofread non-fiction, you’re in a great position, because proofreading fiction is very, very similar.
Do you want to line or copy-edit fiction? There’s more of a difference here. You need to be more relaxed with your edits, thinking about author voice and narrative style while also maintaining logical consistency and correcting errors.
In some ways, editing fiction is easier than editing non-fiction because the rules are ‘looser’. But in other ways it’s harder, because you need to make more judgements over what is creatively acceptable and what could do with being changed.
You can develop this judgement by – unsurprisingly – doing some training, but also this is something you cultivate by having an open mind and gaining experience.
The difference between developmental editing for non-fiction and fiction is the biggest.
For non-fiction, you’re often helping the author streamline their argument and fit their book to a strict structure – and sometimes you’re making additions from multiple authors consistent.
In fiction, you’re helping the author craft a better story, looking at things like narrative drive, point of view, character development, and so on. Very different things!
Once you’ve decided what kind of fiction editing you want to do and trained up in it, what’s next?
The next step is transitioning your business.
You’ll need to find new clients in new places.
If you want to continue offering non-fiction editing, I recommend adding a separate section to your website dedicated to fiction editing.
Separating your website information for each type of CLIENT rather than each type of SERVICE is more beneficial because it allows each type of client to clearly and easily find what they need.
It’s also better for SEO (which stands for Search Engine Optimisation, and is all about how your website is found through Google and other search engines).
If you want to ditch non-fiction editing completely, then that’s possible too!
In this case, you’re kind of starting a new business.
You’ll likely need a new business name, a new website, new marketing materials, and so on.
You’ll be able to transfer some of your editing skills across to this business, but from the outside it should look very different to a business targeting non-fiction clients.
Where you find fiction-editing clients is a huge topic in itself, but if you wanted extra help in creating a new website and a new brand, The Visible Editor is an online course that will show you how to do this.
To sum up, if you want to transition your non-fiction editing business to fiction editing (or add fiction editing to your existing business):
- Decide what kind of fiction editing you want to offer.
- Train up on this kind of editing.
- Add a new page to your website to showcase your new fiction-editing services OR rebrand as a fiction editor.
- Tailor your marketing efforts to target more fiction-editing clients.
Things will grow from there!
