Shall we get into a story?
Let's go back to February 2022. I was in my last semester of college, taking a capstone class about professional writing and editing. We had a guest speaker online who explained to us that he was one of the founders(?) of a magazine that had recently gotten a sponsor, as well as a significant boost in traffic, so they wanted to hire a few editors. He left us with an email, and I figured, "Why not?"
I could go into a whole...thing about my experience working with that company. It was neither overwhelmingly positive nor overwhelmingly negative; in fact, it was probably the most neutral job I could have ever had in all my life. But anyway, the point is, by February-ish 2023, I was no longer receiving projects or updates from the company, so I said, "Uh...I guess I don't work for them anymore?"
This was a bit of a problem, as you can imagine, for someone who actually wanted to, you know, edit as a career. I was still making steady income from my part-time position at the local fitness center, and while my boss would have me proofread emails and papers for the employees, it didn't change the fact that I was working at a job that had nothing to do with my degree or what I wanted to be doing for the rest of my life.
I was applying to various editing jobs, but I got zero interviews. The closest I came was a company that I fortunately clocked as a scam before finishing the secondary application process. I considered some contract work, but none of it seemed to pan out.
Then, in June 2023, my friend Lexi approached me and asked me if I would look over her book she was writing, and she offered to pay me for my time. I eagerly agreed. She was in the middle of finishing her master's degree, so it was about a month in between each chapter she would send me. As it was some of the earliest stages of these drafts, my edits were pretty minimal and focused more on the overall scope of the story rather than any major details.
A few months later, that November, my aunt connected me with one of her friends: Tricia, a therapist writing a self-help book based on her therapeutic program. It became immediately apparent that this would be a totally different process. Whereas Lexi had a lot of experience with writing, Tricia did not, so she needed help with writing the book, not just editing it. We didn't actually start working on the book until January 2024, and in those earliest stages, we were taking her raw notes and outlines and writing them into cohesive paragraphs, and then we went through each chapter probably five times to add any other information she found pertinent. This process took until the beginning of 2025, when we finally got the first finalized draft to the beta readers, which is where the book is currently standing.
In February 2024, I was contacted by my mom's cousin's sister-in-law, Ellie (quite the pipeline, I know), about editing her manuscript. She had written a Beauty and the Beast retelling and had gone through just about every stage of the writing process, and she was looking for a copyeditor. I agreed, and she said she'd get back to me in April, once her beta readers were finished.
Around this time, I started to feel rather strongly that I needed to just go into freelance editing as my "full-time" job. I resisted this because, to put it plainly, that did not make any sense. I was not making nearly enough as an editor to even think about trying to pay my bills—my job at the fitness center supplied the money for all of that, while editing was more of a side gig to help me gain some experience that would hopefully boost my résumé for prospective employers.
But the feeling just wouldn't leave.
So, at the end of March/beginning of April 2024, I switched to freelancing full-time—or as "full-time" as I could possibly make it. To say it was nerve-wracking would be an understatement. But it ended up working out even better than I could have hoped. I still had meetings with Tricia regularly and a steady stream of work with her, the occasional chapter from Lexi, and Ellie's manuscript, plus a couple odd jobs from family, friends, and neighbors who just needed quick work done.
Ellie's book was published November 12, 2024, and it was so exciting to see. Her passion for writing and for her story were always evident to me, so I was happy to see it reaching other people. It was also deeply satisfying to see my own name in a published book, I will admit. (If you're interested in checking out Heart of the Beholder by Elizabeth Ruth, I'll attach links at the end that you can follow.)
In February 2025, I did a quick copyedit for a friend's dad with experience writing and publishing, and in March 2025, someone in my ward contacted me about editing his book. It was a different genre than I was used to, but I ended up enjoying the process immensely.
Around this time, I knew I needed to be doing more to put my name out there as an editor. I created a website and obtained an LLC, making me extra official and fancy. I got a couple more clients after that, one of which I just finished working with and one I'm still helping for a little bit longer.
Is freelancing ideal? It certainly has its perks. I can wake up when I want, work when I want, choose what projects I want. But I have no guarantee for work, nor do I have the typical benefits of a full-time job: no retirement plan, no healthcare benefits, etc. Still, this is the path that I feel I need to be taking at the moment, so here we are. I love what I do, and I love reading stories and meeting people that I wouldn't have ever interacted with if I weren't freelancing.
So, yes, this is a shameless plug: if you're working on something, anything, that needs another set of eyes, consider hiring me! Attached below are links to my website, as well as to the two books that have been/will soon be published that I have worked on.
As my high school Spanish 4 teacher once said with a nasty cold, "Dreams do come true, my friends."
Links
My Website: https://odessataylor.journoportfolio.com
Elizabeth Ruth's Website: http://www.authorelizabethruth.com/
Brea Rose's Website: https://www.authorbrearose.com/
Heart of the Beholder by Elizabeth Ruth (Amazon): https://a.co/d/2YaYKoZ
What's in the Cards? by Brea Rose (Amazon): https://a.co/d/960A4jb
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