Looking Forward to 2018–and Year Eight!

Seven years ago this week, I officially unveiled this website, complete with my first Editing and More blog post. A few days later I walked out of my office job for the last time and officially started my life as a small business owner.

In the past seven years, I have worked with about 90 different clients, including graduate students, publishers, marketing firms, book packagers, individual authors, businesses, organizations, universities. I’ve edited historical novels, dissertations, year-end reports, academic articles, counterterrorism reports, memoirs, how-to books, press releases, college textbooks, blog posts, devotionals, research reports, spiritual life curriculum, private investigator reports, and institutional histories.

In addition to everything I’ve learned about the subjects I’ve edited, I’ve also learned a great deal about how to run a small business. I’ve done my own marketing and advertising, maintained my website, created contracts and invoices, joined professional organizations, presented at conferences, taken—and taught—some educational webinars, learned a variety of editing programs and shortcuts, and experimented with multiple productivity tools and routines. I have published 93 blog posts, even though I’ve badly neglected this blog in the past couple of years. It was interesting to learn that my most popular blog posts in the past seven years include a personal examination of how I find clients, a review of Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman from an editor’s viewpoint, and a reflection about public protest in the U.S.

Chatting about Business

As with any job, some days and weeks have been more productive than others; some projects have been more enjoyable than others; some clients have been easier to work with than others. I’ve done some things right and also made some big mistakes. One of the things I did right was to start participating in Liz Dexter’s “Small Business Chats” on her Libroediting website in 2012. My sixth chat with Liz was published on January 6, seven years to the day when my website was officially unveiled. Although the date was a coincidence, it seems like an appropriate way to celebrate the seventh anniversary of eDitmore Editorial Services!

Participating in Liz’s regular website series has helped me step back at least once a year and think about where my business has been and where I want it to go. As I told Liz, 2017 was challenging in many ways, but I think it served as a good wake-up call. I realized that I can’t take my business for granted, and that realization makes me even happier to be celebrating eDitmore’s anniversary this week.

Looking back over some of the statistics of the last seven years has prompted me to set a few goals for myself — the first being that I want to hit the century mark for both clients and blog posts by the middle of the year. I’m happy to note that I have had several intriguing job prospects since I responded to Liz’s “Small Business Chat Update” request, and I am eager to get back into a productive work rhythm after a laid-back holiday season. I’m truly looking looking forward to what 2018 might bring!

What are you looking forward to in 2018?

 

January 6, 2018

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Tammy Ditmore, a superb editor, was so instrumental in helping to manage the text and flow of the information. She was, like a composer with notes, astute in rearranging words and sections to defin… Read more
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