Yesterday I took the plunge to open a business account with my bank and had a lovely chat with the woman there in the process. She had never come across a book editor before and was fascinated. Until filling out my application, I didn’t realise quite how close I was to my one-year trading anniversary. I thought I started up after finishing my degree, but after checking my accounts (which are always bang up to date) it would appear that I raised my first invoice on 4th April, 2015.

I’ve come  a long way since that first manuscript, despite having edited for free two years before that. [Nearly] one year on and I’m still learning, still improving as I discover new techniques, new software, and, of course, new authors/clients. I never really ‘launched’ the business as it just sort of ‘took off,’ though it took a while to wean myself off of doing edits for free and accepting that I was, in fact, offering a service people were willing to pay for.

Through this, I’ve discovered that I much prefer developmental and line editing to copyediting, as I don’t feel I’m knowledgeable enough (yet) to do copyediting. I’m working on that, though, brushing up on my grammar and punctuation, learning not to get into such a tizzy over commas, capitalisation and what words should be hyphenated and what should not. I’m writing again too, occasionally. I still need to do a little work on my time management.

So anyway, the bank account. It made it all seem very real yesterday, especially when she asked me about forecasts and future plans. I’d love to be able to save and do a Masters in creative writing, paid for from the business I’ve built from scratch. It just happens that I get a linked savings account too (business), so anything is possible.

I’m still thoroughly enjoying myself editing, more so than writing, in fact. The woman was fascinated by the business and asked if any books I had edited were published, so, of course, I made a few recommendations…