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How I Became a Full-Time Freelance Copy Editor
Or, How I Get to Sleep Till I Wake Up Every Day, Have No Commute, and Am Paid to Read Books…but, I Also Don’t Know What Evenings and Weekends Are Anymore.
Once upon a time I had a full-time day job outside the house, with retirement and benefits and all that; I was also married to a man with a great income.
Then that part of my life came to an end. But that’s another story.
Today, I am a full-time stay-at-home copy editor and proofreader. I have a large stable of fantastic, loyal repeat clients, and occasionally take on new ones. Even more wonderfully, I also turn away potential clients — I did that just last week, as it happens. It feels sort of terrifying and marvelous and irresponsible and unreal; I haven’t quite gotten used to that part yet. I’m still emotionally in the days of what if there will never be another client, never another gig; I will never work again; we’re going to starve…
Even if I haven’t actually been in those days for several years now.
I can’t tell you how to become a freelance copy editor/proofreader so successful that you can pick and choose your clients. I can only tell you how I did it. As with any personal narrative, there will be parts of my story that are just random luck and happenstance — but, I think there are some things that are…
