The Freelancer

Send us Fan Mail Today I'm chatting with Sophie Playle, a fiction editor and course creator highly regarded in the editorial world for her fiction developmental editing and line/copyediting courses. We discuss her journey in editing and how the world has changed since she started in the early 2010s. We also chat about her courses, how motherhood has changed her perspective, and the impact of...

Send us Fan Mail This episode is all about book editor visibility. tl;dr: For most editors, visibility is an optional strategy, not a necessity Tune in to hear how: Visibility isn't something you have to do if you're an editor. You can have a fallow season without pressure to be visible. The pressure to be consistent can have negative mental health implications. Referrals are a significa...

Send us Fan Mail In today's ep I'm chatting with Vesna Kurilic of Shtriga Books again! Today we discuss inclusive language and nonbinary gender in Croatian language and fiction. We explore how culturally specific the discussions around conscious and inclusive language are, and what challenges other contexts face with different approaches toward languages. Then we get onto grammar. In Cro...

Send us Fan Mail In the last episode of 2025, I discuss how the year went from a business and marketing perspective. 2025 was a big experiment in running my business without social media. Things didn't go exactly to plan—tune in to learn which part of my business suffered, the big decisions I made at the end of the year, and find out how much I earned exactly in 2025. I finish with some predi...

Send us Fan Mail How does publishing work outside the Anglosphere? In today's ep, I'm chatting with Vesna Kurilic, owner of Shtriga Books – a small press in Croatia publishing queer speculative fiction. We discuss how things work differently in Croatia, the yawning gulf between literary and genre fiction there (compared with in the Anglosphere), and what Anglo-American publishing could l...

Send us Fan Mail Why do you read stories? What keeps you turning the page? Wish fulfilment is one possible answer! Tune in to hear other reasons, alongside a chat about wish fulfilment in romance and dystopian fiction, the story problems it can create, and how wish fulfilment links to the oppression of marginalized groups. Enjoy! Links mentioned: Call of the Camino : https://www.suzanneredfearnaut...

Send us Fan Mail This week's ep is all about how we balance our editing, coaching, and writerly selves and businesses! 😍 We discuss the query trenches, writing routines and habits, whether you need to be a writer to coach writers, and lots more besides! Here are a few things we mention: Karen's coaching: https://www.karenaparker.com/book-coaching Mythcreants community: https://www.patre...

Send us Fan Mail This week's ep is all about lit mags! ✨ If you're exploring this space and trying to figure it out, this podcast ep is for you. I discuss how to find the right magazine for your story, the importance of reading widely, and the realities of rejection in the submission process.  I also explore the culture and industry of literary magazines, including issues of elitism, ga...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Season 2! Yay! Today's topic is decolonizing fiction craft, and I'm chatting with the book coach and fiction editor Karen Parker. We cover everything from the hero's journey and remakes to the Iowa Writers' Workshop and how NOT to workshop. Come hang out with us :) Here's Karen's coaching – if you're ready to start pitching your novel,...

Send us Fan Mail Story structure is one issue fiction editors love to disagree about. At one end of the spectrum, some promote rigid templates, while others say "anything goes." In this episode, I cover ... the problem with rigid approaches to story structure why I dislike Save the Cat! and the Hero's Journey why you should think about story structure but not get hung up about it En...

Send us Fan Mail Psychotherapists and counsellors often feature in TV, film, and books. While there are all sorts of good story reasons to include them, they often do unrealistic things like sit in very nice offices and break boundaries with clients! In this episode, I discuss therapists in fiction with Aimee Walker, a counsellor/psychotherapist turned romance editor. We chat about some recent bad...

Send us Fan Mail Today is all about niching! Do you need one as a book editor? What will your clients say or think? How will they find you? And are niches necessary – or always a bad thing? Tune in for some fresh perspectives on the topic and the details on what I have planned for Season Two! Marketing for Weirdos: https://www.bearcoaches.com/m4w The Tyranny of the Niche: https://offthegridclubhou...

Send us Fan Mail Social media marketing isn't for everyone, and for small business owners, it comes with several tricky traps and challenges attached. Junk AI content and tech bro CEOs aligned with hard-right governments stripping people of their rights are making it less appealing too. And so this year loads more people are rethinking their social media marketing or ditching it completely. I...

Send us Fan Mail Is generative AI making the publishing world a better place? Or is it leaving a bad taste? So far, it's pretty clear to me there's a lot of hype, stolen data, angry authors, some benefits, and a truckload of problems. But it does and will have some important uses!  In this episode, I take you through my AI decision making and policies, and narrate the damage (and limited...

Send us Fan Mail It's all take, take, take! This week is all about how extraction – a pattern of one-sided taking from others – can show up in our small businesses. I cover how it's hardwired into big businesses, and how things can get confusing for small business owners. Traps of being exploited, or of exploiting others through icky marketing and pricing strategies, can leave small busi...

Send us Fan Mail Today's episode is all about how editors can get trapped in a cycle of satisfying and interesting but low-paid work for Big 5 publishers. #opensecrets I call this cycle a prestige trap, and explore the allure of high-prestige, satisfying projects, despite the low pay. I describe what attracts editors to take on this kind of work. In the second half of the show, I focus on the...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to episode 1! Today I'm discussing all the problems I see with self-publishing from my fiction editor perspective. First, I discuss my values misalignment with the self-publishing industry. Then I dive into serious issues and points that both editors and authors need to consider. And to wrap it up, I reveal who self-publishing really works for (except for big corporat...

Send us Fan Mail This is a trailer for a new show called The Free Lancer. The Free Lancer is a show discussing all things publishing through a queer, social justice lens. It’s for authors and editors navigating the industry in a heart-centered way—one that prioritizes care, relationship-building, and sustainable work practices over the relentless grind of capitalism, tech-bro culture, and AI promi...