Leaving Academia: Becoming a Freelance Editor

This episode is extra special and is absolutely packed with information that will help you get started as a freelance editor or expand your business. Nicole Halper is a former high school physics teacher who became disillusioned with the bureaucracy of teaching and wanted to have a greater impact, especially in terms of social justice issues, outside the classroom. Four years ago she took an editi...

This week I wrap up 2024 with our 16th episode. I give you all the juicy stats on 🎯 the number of clients I've worked with, 🎯 the projects I've completed, and 🎯 the top strategies I used to attract a steady stream of clients and start earning $10k per month. I also discuss my website traffic, email list growth, total 2024 earnings, and what's on deck for 2025. Above all, I am so incredibly grat...

This week’s episode will be particularly helpful for anyone interested in working with editing clients in Europe. I talk with Marieke Krijnen, a political science PhD and academic copy editor who’s lived all over the world but is now located in Poland. 🌏 Marieke shares how she decided to leave academia at the end of a postdoc and how her connections with scholars around Europe continue to bring h...

Do you need more free time–for yourself, your family, and your hobbies? Have you been thinking about making the leap from academia to freelance editing or coaching? In this episode, I chat with Tom Smith, PhD, a social scientist who recently took his editing side hustle full-time. Tom’s journey from academia to editing spans multiple countries and reflects the challenges and rewards of forging a n...

In today’s episode I talk with Katrina Oko-Odoi, PhD, co-owner of the dissertation editing and coaching agency, Editing Worm. Katrina earned her PhD in Literature from UC San Diego and began freelance editing while she was in grad school. Observing various challenges of academic life, from departmental politics to student behavior, Katrina realized early on that she wanted to have more control ove...

Do you want to explore life beyond academia? 🌈  In this episode, I talk with Leslie Castro Woodhouse, PhD, founder of Origami Editorial, about how she transitioned from academic life to building a successful freelance editing and book coaching business.  With a PhD in History from UC Berkeley and professional experience spanning corporate marketing, graphic design, and coaching student...

Today’s podcast guest, Lea Popielinski, PhD, shares her journey from academia to an unexpected editing role–with a twist. Lea earned her PhD in Women’s Studies from Ohio State and began her career in academia by copy editing dissertations for other graduate students. She then transitioned to full-time freelance editing and, through a surprising opportunity, found a job that combines her academic s...

This week I talk with Molly Mullin, PhD, a tenured professor who left academia to move across the country with her family and found joy again in academic editing. For many scholars, one of the most difficult aspects of academic life is living in a place you don't like or far from your loved ones. Many of us are not prepared for how challenging this can be when we accept our first academic job, and...

Today I'm talking with Autumn Knowlton, an academic editor and dissertation coach who specializes in filling the gap left by less-than-attentive advisors in their role mentoring graduate students. Autumn has a PhD in Educational Studies from the University of British Columbia. And she has an interdisciplinary background that made it difficult to find a job that was a good fit when she graduated an...

Episode 8 of my podcast, "Escaping Adjunct Hell and Rekindling Your Passions: An Interview with Ana Hartman," is now available on YouTube and on your favorite podcast app. In this episode, Ana shares her journey from the precarious position of adjunct faculty to the more flexible and rewarding career of freelance academic editor. We discuss the challenges she faced as an instructor, the strategies...

How Blogging Can Attract Clients: Advice for Freelance Academic Editors In today’s episode, I give some key pointers on how blogging regularly can help improve your SEO (search engine optimization), demonstrate your value to potential clients, and get you noticed... so you have a steady stream of client inquiries–and income–headed your way for years to come. Questions I answer: What should academi...

In episode 6 of my podcast, Leaving Academia: Becoming a Freelance Editor, one of the members of my first group coaching cohort, Niki Tulk, PhD, PhD, MFA, joins me to discuss the transition from academia to editing. Niki has such a fabulous sense of humor, so this episode will make you LOL (and there's a guest appearance by her rescue dog, Lily!). But she also gets to the heart of the problems wit...

In this episode I discuss the different ways of setting your editing rates and how much you can earn as a freelance academic editor--per hour and in terms of annual income. Some of the most common questions I get from faculty who are considering editing deal, understandably, with how much money they can earn, whether or not it would be enough to replace their faculty salary, and if there’s enough...

Welcome back to Leaving Academia: Becoming a Freelance Editor. Today, we have the incredible Dr. Julia Galindo joining us. Julia is a former faculty member in the Harvard Writing Program who has helped countless students navigate the challenges of college-level writing. She’s also a trained executive function coach and specializes in helping writers break down overwhelming tasks or break through t...

Welcome to Episode 3, “Is freelance editing right for me?” When you’ve been working as an educator for years and you’ve always pictured yourself as having a secure, salaried position, the thought of freelancing or owning your own business can be daunting. In this episode, I’ll break down what it really means to be a freelance academic editor and offer some tips to help you decide whether or not th...

In this episode I discuss what exactly an academic editor is, the different types of editing, and where freelance editors work. When I was still in academia, I had no idea what a copy editor was or that they worked with scholars to improve their writing and chances of publication. In fact, it wasn’t until I published a book with Routledge and I worked with a freelance copy editor employed by the p...

This first episode of the podcast offers an introduction to me, how I left academia, and how I became and academic editor. I share my story so that you know you’re not alone. But in general, the aim of this podcast is to help you decide if you’d like to leave academia, and whether or not a career (or side hustle) as an academic editor is right for you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mo...