Mentoring

Are you new to freelance copyediting and looking for a mentor? E-mail me to inquire about my availability as a mentor.

The cost of being mentored?

You must agree to mentor others as you gain more experience.

I accept tea leaves or certificates for them. My two favorite tea vendors are TeaSource.com and Brooklyn Tea, but here is a long list of links to additional vendors. I have uploaded a list of my favorite teas to Dropbox. Ask me for the link to it.

I accept being treated to lunch or dinner if you live near East Setauket on New York's Long Island. If you live farther away, you can send me a gift certificate for a Long Island restaurant of my choosing.

My mentoring method is straightforward. Mentees e-mail as often as they wish, for as long a time period as they wish. Some work with me for only a few weeks; others, for several months. Mentees ask questions on all sorts of topics: education and training, grammar and syntax, starting their own business, office equipment, setting up a work schedule, finding work, setting rates, nurturing editor–client relationships, balancing personal life and work life. . . . I answer to the best of my ability and as quickly as possible, given my full workload and life outside of work. I sympathize, motivate, cheerlead, listen, and advise. I don't provide study exercises or have a syllabus or give out certificates; I don't provide work or project leads. I don't share clients' contact information.

Note: If I do not answer your emails immediately, it is likely that I am busy with paying work. Mentoring is not the only thing I do; I always have commitments in multiple arenas of life. Your patience is appreciated.

Before you request mentoring, please read the following advice on choosing and working with a mentor: this post about asking for editorial business advice on the blog The Parlour and this post about mastermind groups on the Sucess Alliance.

Also, consider this quote from my colleague Amy Schneider:

I'll never understand the posts I see online that go something like this: "I've just started my editorial services business. Does anyone have any advice on [how to run it]? Any tips greatly appreciated!" Cart before the horse, and in the age of Google, especially flummoxing. Sure, we all ask for advice. But to start there? I wish I had had access to the wealth of information that's available now back when I started my business. I did most of my information gathering the old-fashioned way. I was barely using e-mail at the time. If you're going to be a self-employed editor (or, for that matter, self-employed in any field), your number one skill needs to be . . . finding information on your own.

If you're considering transitioning to editing from another career field, read this post on the blog EditorMom.