I won’t lie, I didn’t set out to be an online editor, it wasn’t part of my vision. However, it is something that comes with the territory, because sooner or later, someone will ask you to edit their work. I won’t lie again, I cringe when I see the “editing” word in my inbox; why? Because I know that means someone has written something and is asking for “a quick edit to make sure it looks professional and the grammar is correct”.
Why should that make me cringe? Because I also know this means two things:
1. They wrote the piece themselves because they thought it would work out cheaper just to get a quick edit.
2. I know this job will probably take me longer to complete than if I wrote the work from scratch.
Sure, I can edit the work for mistakes, but making it look professional and “jump of the page amazing” means I need to bring the appropriate tone and style to the writing, and be it a press release or web page, this usually means extensive changes. Occasionally I am pleasantly surprised and the work is well written bar a few sentences here and there that could do with some reworking. But being the person I am, I don’t like to just fix something up to an “okay” standard.
So, my approach is this. I look at the work, and if I know I will need to rewrite the entire thing for it to be excellent then that is what I suggest to the client. If the client wants the quick fix then it’s cool, they are more than welcome to go elsewhere. I would rather lose the cash than put my name to work that isn’t excellent. I don’t like to put work out there that represents a unstable mix of someone else’s writing and my patchwork efforts. Of course, I can keep all the bits a client wants left in, and adopt the required tone, but if I need to rewrite every sentence to make it the cat’s kittens then the charge is going to be the same as it would be if I had to write from scratch. Why? Because as my regular clients know, it would be quicker to give me a list of bullet points and let me fire on all cylinders from the outset.
And that is my advice. Don’t spend hours grafting and then employ a patchwork online editor to help you finish the race. You might save some pennies, but you will regret it when the writing doesn’t perform. Pass the baton at the conception stage to a professional and Usain Bolt your way to the finish line.
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