Streamline your editing workflow
As you are growing your tech-editing business, it's smart to think about how you will handle the work you will need to do from the first inquiry to final invoicing. If you do your best at tech editing, you will soon have many clients. If your clients are happy with your work, you might get lots of work from them and they might refer you to other designers, resulting in even more work.
Having lots of work is exciting—people need tech editing, and working to a deadline can make you feel accomplished and important. The flip side is that lots of work may lead to burnout, overwhelm, and frustration, not because you don’t want to do the jobs, but because all the various things that have to happen for each project (outside of editing) take time! Streamlining all those tasks and doing them with minimal effort allows you to plan your workdays and put your brainpower into the client work that pays.
Have a system in place
Just knowing what to do at each step of the tech-editing process will help relieve the stress of incoming work and allow you to focus your attention on the work that you can bill for. Here’s a general editing workflow for a tech editor that works with independent knitting or crochet designers:
1. Client contacts you for availability.
2. You respond with an informative email.
3. Client sends you the pattern for an estimate.
4. You respond with an estimate and turnaround date and other pertinent information they need to hire you.
5. Client agrees to terms and hires you.
6. You tech edit the pattern.
7. You send the edited pattern and editing notes to the designer.
8. The designer revises the pattern according to your notes and sends the revised version back to you.
9. You make sure the revision works, the edits are applied properly, conduct a final proofread, and send the final version back to the designer.
10. You invoice the designer for the work done, and the client pays you.
Sometimes there are multiple problems in the pattern that take more editing passes and revisions. Sometimes a designer sends you a pattern that has already been through test-knitting and only needs a quick check of certain numbers and the style. You will find that each pattern follows this general process, but may stay in a certain part of it longer than others.
Track the pattern’s progress
So what do you do when you don’t have just one client? When you sit down to work, how you do know where any individual pattern is in your workflow? Put an app to work! Many of my colleagues use the following to manage the projects they are working on:
Not interested in learning new software? Consider just using a customized spreadsheet that you update as the pattern moves through your workflow. Or you can use your file management system on your computer, using folder names for each stage. Some of my colleagues use their email primarily for client contact and make generous use of the email providers labeling system to track a pattern’s progress.
Automate steps where possible
Look carefully at your editing workflow and brainstorm how you could reduce your administration time to increase your billable hours. Ways to automate might be:
Using scheduling software and/or contact plugins so clients schedule themselves.
Using file sharing links (such as Dropbox or Google files) to avoid sending through email.
Using auto-reply on social media messaging.
Use time tracking software (and automatically generate invoices).
Use small business accounting software to keep ahead of bookkeeping and tax requirements.
Tend to the back office
It’s so important to set aside the time you need to tend to the “back office” side of your business, so your “front end” can thrive. We hope this has helped you consider the entire process of how a client works with you, so, as your business grows, you can fine-tune your workflow allowing you to be the best editor you can be for your clients.
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Interested in becoming a tech editor? Check out our course for knitters HERE and crocheters HERE.
Sarah Walworth is the owner of the Tech Editor Hub. She is a knitting tech editor, knitting instructor, and loves to solve grading problems. You can find out more about her at www.sarahwalworth.com.