4 ways you can make your editor’s life easier
4 ways you can make your editor’s life easier
Welcome guest editor Jessica Lawlor!
This month, I invited my friend Jessica Lawlor to share her tips (and gripes) for writers. Jessica is the founder and CEO of the content management agency JL&Co, and her team serves as managing editors for a variety of websites and blogs that work with freelancers on the regular. She also sends out a weekly(ish) newsletter for people who love content. (I’m a subscriber, and you should be, too!)
Want to make your editor’s life easier? Spoiler: The answer is yes, of course you do!
When you make your editor’s life easier, you can quickly move up their metaphorical ladder of favorite writers to work with. Translation: They’re going to want to hire you again! 💸
Believe me, I know this firsthand.
After five years of working with freelancers, here’s one thing I’ve learned: Some writers go above and beyond in simple ways that make me want to work with them, well, for the rest of time. And I mean more than delivering clean copy and meeting your deadlines, which are minimum requirements.
4 ways to impress your editor & make their life easier
1. Follow directions
You’d think it’d go without saying, but many writers don’t always do this. (I’d like to guess it’s because they’re just so relieved to be finished with the piece that they can’t wait to send it off!)
Before hitting send, consult your editor’s submission guidelines carefully. Do they want the article sent as a Google Doc? Is there a specific way they’d like the document named? Have they asked for you to include a certain number of headline options?
2. Perfect your formatting
My biggest pet peeve as an editor is opening a document and seeing that it looks nothing like an article we’d publish.
Before you start your piece — and definitely before submitting it — review the website you’re writing for:
Does it use lots of subheads to break up text?
Are the subheads written in sentence case or title case?
Does it use bullets or lists?
Does it use direct quotes from sources or prefer paraphrasing — or both?
Try your best to emulate what you see on the site to save your editor the time of reformatting your piece.
3. Suggest a few headline ideas
While headline writing technically falls under the purview of an editor, I always appreciate when a writer shares a few headline ideas for their piece. You’ve written the piece, so you’re intimately familiar with the content.
Even though an editor may tweak or change your headline suggestion, it’s always helpful to have a few options on the page to riff off of.
💡 Quick tip: If headline writing is outside of your comfort zone, look at past articles your client has published for inspiration. Repurpose headline structures for your piece.
4. Go above and beyond with SEO
If you’re in the content marketing space, it’s safe to say your editor is probably thinking pretty strategically about SEO writing.
Help them by asking ahead of time whether they have target keywords in mind for your assignment or even by doing a bit of research yourself. With that information in hand, include keywords in key areas of the post, including:
Headlines.
Meta description.
Introduction.
Subhead.
… as long as they fit in naturally. (And, speaking of meta descriptions, your editor will really love if you include one in your document!)
Further reading
🧡 How to Become a Freelance Writer That Editors Will Want to Hire Over and Over (The Write Life): Kristen Pope shares six tips from her perspective as both an editor and a freelance writer for cultivating the all-important freelancer-editor relationship.
💚 This Is Why Your Guest Post Pitch Was Rejected (JL&Co): Editors want to accept your pitches! But you’ve got to give them something good. From her experience as managing editor for two blogs, Jessica shares five reasons behind most of what she rejects.
💜 Blogging 911: Six Tips for Repairing a Blown-up Relationship (Be A Freelance Blogger): Freelancer Cherese Cobb tells the story of the time she almost lost a client — and exactly the steps she took to repair the rocky relationship.
💙 Six Ways to Make Your Editor Happy and Get More Story Assignments (FundsforWriters): Freelancer writer turned magazine editor Carol J. Alexander explains what it takes for her first-time freelancers to get a second chance to write for her.
💛 7 Tips for New Freelance Writers (Elna Cain): Freelance expert Elna Cain encourages new writers to overcome analysis paralysis and get to work by paring down everything you need to know in this actionable list.