Without guiding principles, you’ll question your judgement on every project
You’ll worrying that you’re not doing things right, or that your client expects something different from you. By developing some guiding principles, on the other hand, you’ll have an emotional and practical blueprint on how to handle every project, every time.
Without guiding principles, you’ll drive yourself bonkers comparing your service to what other people are offering
There are so many ways to conduct a developmental edit of a novel. Everyone seems to do it in a different way! But once you’ve worked out your own guiding principles, you won’t worry about what others are doing anymore and can just focus on making your own service the best it can be – for you and your clients.
Without guiding principles, the quality of your service will suffer
In general, developmental editing is the best-paying editorial service. But to justify your fees, you need to offer something of quality, something of value. Use your guiding principles to make sure you’re doing just that.
