This blog now has dozens of posts that will help the new starter. Click the Starter Kit for Editors category to see them all, or start with these essentials:

Finding Work | Office Essentials | Background Skills | Is Editing for You? | How to Become an Editor | Estimating Your Pace | Setting Fees | Starter Kit for Editors category

Before you edit for pay, learn the ropes by completing the list on this page: [updated Aug 2024]

1. Read these

Edit Like a Pro (series) Editing exercises with solution discussions created by some of the most experienced editors in Canada; the series covers the gamut from restructuring to proofreading, and blogs to academics. If you’re not studying for certification exams, the older editions are wonderful as well; they just don’t match the new standards and the examples are dated. Called Meeting Professional Editorial Standards.

The Chicago Guide for Freelance Editors by Erin Brenner offers fresh guidance on “how to take care of your business, your clients, and yourself from start-up to sustainability.” It’s advice that every freelancer can use, not just editors!

Business Planning for Editorial Freelancers Follow the advice in this book and you’ll be off to a great start. Also recommended for existing freelancers who are feeling either stuck or ambitious. Or both, even. Read my review.

This sets out what tasks editors should do and what types of concerns they look for when performing various stages of editing. There are no standards “across the industry”, but this is a terrific starting place, and they continue to gain some ground, now forming the basis of university level training across Canada. (2024 update)

Quick Fixes for Business Writing: An Eight-Step Editing Process to Find and Correct Common Readability Problems This is the print version of EAC’s most venerated seminar. An excellent system that provides order and sense when faced with an insurmountable edit. Available as an ebook via Google Books, and as training from Editors Canada in webinars held in real-time, on demand, or by request.

So, you want to be an editor, the Pathways to Success poster and the Career Builder worksheet from Editors Canada. Quick guides to what makes an editor, where they work, what the career is like, and how editors got into it. Available free online, as a webpage or PDF, or at any Editors Canada event.

2. Read more

You’ll need to learn at least one general purpose style guide, and any that is specific to your subject or client group. For example:

• Chicago Manual of Style
• The Chicago Guide to Copyediting Fiction, by Amy J. Schneider
• Scientific Style and Format
• Editing Canadian English (ECE) editingcanadianenglish.ca
• The Canadian Style (and online: The Canadian Style)
• The Canadian Press Stylebook, plus Caps and Spelling
• Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

And complete the exercises in The Copyeditor’s Handbook.

Fiction editors should also read The Chicago Guide to Copyediting Fiction by Amy J. Schneider. It has some good advice that nonfiction editors will value too! Especially about timelines in the narrative and character descriptions, and guidance on both the author’s voice and the voice of each character. Read my full review.

3. Learn the software

Using the standard professional software (MS Word and Adobe Acrobat, even the free Reader version) is vital not only because of how they fit into the publishing workflow, but because they

• Enable efficiency & expedience
• Ensure effective thoroughness & consistency
• Prevent errors making it into the public (including artifacts of the revision process)
• Facilitate efficient & thorough vetting of suggested edits and answering of editorial queries

Yes, the traditional editing marks (pen) are still used and it’s valuable to know what they are and how they are used. But use of such marks is falling away as they do not suit most electronic workflows.

4. There’s more

Read my original post about how to become an editor. The above just gives you a glimpse at the tip of the iceberg. KOKedit has compiled (and continuously updates) a much longer list of resources. I’d even call it comprehensive.

Read about the temperament that makes a good editor — one of reason, not hyper-correctness, according to James Harbeck (Sesquiotic).

Read the blogs of a variety of editors. Their insights into daily life and challenges — and their advice — will give you a good sense of what you’re in for and maybe even help you avoid some of the mistakes they’ve made. Start with this here blog, of course, and with my courses in editing and in using Word to edit quickly, efficiently, and most effectively.

I’m certain you will find more resources there to help you on your journey. Add your favourites in the comments.

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Curious about a day in the life of an editor?

Start with this free sneak peek at proofreading in which a proofreader (me) explains their thinking as they live-proof a single page of a book. The drama! The intrigue! The slowwwww paaaace…

Learn to Proofread in These Self-paced Courses