Do you know how many books you’ve edited? How many words you’ve proofread? Motivate yourself by tracking key editing milestones with my free checklist.
I recently tallied up all the full-length books I’ve edited or proofread since starting my freelance editing business in 2018. I was delighted to discover I’m currently working on book 101. ONE HUNDRED AND ONE! So I’ve edited or proofread 100 full-length manuscripts!
This mainly includes manuscripts with a word count of 50,000–120,000 words, but it also includes around 10 children’s books. It doesn’t include individual chapters, sample edits, first 10K words or any types of content other than fiction or nonfiction books.
Judging by the comments on my LinkedIn post about this milestone, it seems as if I’m not alone in not keeping track of these motivating milestones.
So, I hereby propose that we start to not only track, but celebrate, as many editing milestones as possible!
Why bother tracking milestones?
We editors work so hard, churning out tracked changes and marketing posts like there’s no tomorrow! If we’re not careful, we can get bogged down in the daily grind, failing to notice what we’re achieving.
And what you’re achieving is fantastic!
If I hadn’t happened to count up the number of books I’ve edited or proofread, I wouldn’t have got a boost from realising I’ve worked on 100 manuscripts! (And this blog post wouldn’t have been born.)
Stepping back for a few minutes to recognise these little wins (and sometimes huge wins) is important for our mental well-being and self-confidence. It keeps that naughty imposter syndrome at arm’s length and allows us to say, “See? I’ve actually done so much!”
Don’t forget to celebrate each milestone! In the free download with this blog post (MS Word, 198 KB), there is space to plan how you will reward yourself for reaching the next milestone. A slice of cake? A glass of champagne? An extra long walk in the sunshine? The possibilities are endless!
Which editing milestones to track?
There are lots of achievement points on your editing journey that you can choose to track. Here are some editing milestones you may decide to celebrate:
- Number of books edited or proofread (50, 100, 200, 500) or other types of content
- Number of words edited or proofread (first 500,000, 1 million, 5 million, 10 million)
- Number of clients (or of a particular type of client, e.g. publisher, self-publishing author)
Download a free motivating milestones checklist for editors (MS Word, 198 KB)
Keeping track of editing milestones
It’s great to celebrate reaching milestones by letting others know, but don’t rely solely on social media platforms to log your editing milestones. LinkedIn, for example, only keeps posts for one year, so you will lose this record of your successes.
Keep your own record of what you achieved when, and how you rewarded yourself. This makes for a lovely living document that shows what you’ve already done and what you will do.
Download a free checklist template (MS Word, 198 KB) to track your editing milestones.
It is also useful to hold a CEO Day once or twice a year (you’re the CEO!) to keep tabs on every aspect of your editing business.
Other milestones to track in your editing business
As well as editing and proofreading milestones, there are so many others you can track and celebrate.
I’ve listed a few ideas below. Feel free to add your suggestions in the comments!
- Number of blog posts written (I’m not far off 100!)
- Social media milestones (total followers, engagement metrics, etc.)
- Record the number of pageviews in a month for your editor website
- YouTube subscribers and views – see my YouTube channel
- Income (e.g. celebrate when you achieve your first 1,000/2,000/3,000 month in the currency of your choice)
- Books or resources sold (if you sell these in your business – see my books for editors and authors)
- Mailing list subscribers – record when you hit 100, 500, 1,000, 5,000 or more!
Over to you
It’s your turn. Go to your record of work and tot up the total number of books or other types of content you’ve worked on. You may be surprised at how much you’ve achieved!
Record your milestones on my free downloadable checklist of editor milestones (MS Word, 198 KB).
Let me know in the comments, and I’ll do a little dance of celebration with you.
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