Proof Pros: what non-editing training has most helped your editing business?

Editing requires versatility, both in the work itself and in how freelance copyeditors and proofreaders run their businesses. Read about the unexpected ways that seven professional editors have benefitted from their non-editorial professional development.

Copyeditors and proofreaders edit texts about the whole gamut of human experience. So, it makes sense that they would have accumulated useful nuggets across the breadth of their own experience.

From language learning to marketing ethics and from touch typing to genealogy, these accounts just might inspire you to see your own past training in a new light.

Bernadette Kearns: ‘No experience ever goes to waste with editing. We should all play to our strengths’

This is an easy question for me. Studies in two non-editorial areas have, in fact, shaped my work as an editor from the very start.

The first was my degree in Theatre Arts from Rose Bruford College, London, where I studied acting and dramaturgy. This gave me a thorough grounding in character development and how a story works, all of which not only fed into my theatre work and my own writing, but also directly led to me getting professional editing training, and eventually hanging out my shingle as an editor specialising in structural editing, and later copyediting, for fiction. And the techniques I learned on the radio acting modules in drama school are really useful for audio-proofing too.

The other area of work which has been sooo useful to me is my professional work as a legal executive. I’ve only worked in civil law, so I don’t have an insider’s view into criminal or police procedure. But you would be surprised – or maybe not – by how many times I’ve been able to give fiction clients useful information about types of law or how a law firm or the civil legal system in Ireland works in general.

No experience ever goes to waste with editing. We should all play to our strengths.

Amanda George: ‘Second-language acquisition develops our cognitive skills and strengthens neural pathways’

When I read this question, I thought of second-language acquisition (SLA), which teaches us the mechanics of language, linguistic structures, new vocabulary, and cultural nuance. It also develops our cognitive skills and strengthens neural pathways, boosting the deep concentration required by editors.

And then I thought about those evening classes I went to, many years ago, to learn computer skills, at the same time teaching myself to touch type. It goes without saying that computer literacy is essential when running an editorial business.

Finally, I remembered the happy decade of work in a Cambridge bookshop, and the ten years after that working in a Cambridge college. Both provided editorial and publishing-related training, as well as customer service, people management, and assertiveness training, which are crucial when you run a small business.

But I know Hazel wants us to choose, so, having gone on a slight detour, I’m going to pick SLA, in honour of all my wonderful clients who have English as a second language but (don’t realise they) speak and write English so well.

In 2026 I’ve decided to focus on Italian and Latin, both of which I was lucky enough to learn at school. I also did a Latin degree, spending hours with my nose in Petronius’ Cena Trimalchionis and Cicero’s Selected Letters, only to pack it all away in a small part of my brain for a few decades.

I’m (re)immersing myself in both languages, using a combination of ancient Latin texts and Italian TV shows, films, short stories, and books: two very different, but also similar, approaches. By happy coincidence, my Australian ‘edibuddy’ is of Italian descent – I would describe her as fluent – which means we can talk about editing (and life) in Italian if we choose to. I’m hopeful that soon I’ll be able to offer her una conversazione più corrente.

Andrew Hodges: ‘A fresh perspective showed me how to market in a way that isn’t extractive to myself or others’

If we’re talking just about the editorial work itself, the answer is simple: My work as a cultural anthropologist helped me out the most, closely followed by my work as a fiction writer who learned how to write and revise short stories and a novel!

If we’re discussing running an editorial business more generally, then Bear Hebert’s course Marketing for Weirdos has helped me out the most. When I started editing, I knew I had to figure out marketing – especially for the fiction side of my business. And there are loads of marketing resources and tools out there, mostly designed for aspirational beginners – because they are the biggest market. But a lot of the advice didn’t sit right with me. I wasn’t interested in growing my business quickly or scaling or hiring a team. I didn’t feel comfortable with psychological tricks like fake urgency, emotional marketing to encourage impulse buys, hanging out on extractive social media platforms, etc.

As editors who love the craft, not the selling and self-promotion, it’s easy to drop into the trap of thinking all marketing is sus; Bear Hebert’s course gave me a fresh perspective that showed me how to market in a way that isn’t extractive to myself or others and doesn’t give my expertise away for free, while chasing discoverability and fast growth. Instead, their course offered me a blueprint for marketing to a much smaller but better-aligned group of fiction and academic writers.

Hazel Bird: ‘If I had to pick one lesson, it would be the importance of focusing on the end product’

Having asked the Proof Pros to pick the one piece of non-editorial professional development that’s been most helpful in their editing work, I’m going to highlight two – one from my professional life and one that, strictly speaking, comes from my personal life.

First, professional: a few years back, I formalized my project management experience by becoming accredited as a PRINCE2 Practitioner. I’ve written about PRINCE2’s place in the editorial world and why it’s helpful to copyeditors.

If I had to pick one lesson from PRINCE2, it would be the importance of focusing on the end product. Spelling, grammar, flow and editorial style are all vital. But they are not the goal. The goal is to produce a publication that honours the writer’s, publisher’s and reader’s reasons for producing or consuming the text.

When we’re battling with pesky commas, it can be easy to lose sight of this bigger picture, and I appreciate the reminder my PRINCE2 training gives me.

The second thing I want to highlight is my genealogy experience.

Most of my learning in this area has been informal – from genealogizing since I was eight years old. But the pathway from that eight-year-old’s dabbling with dates to my editorial work is clear.

Genealogy is all about data, and to work well with data you have to be organized. By the age of about 15, I already had thousands of ancestors recorded in my genealogy software. To keep the relationships tidy and track my research, I needed clear systems and careful paper trails.

When I interviewed for my first job in publishing, at Elsevier, a surprising proportion of the hour ended up being about my genealogy research. Seeing my hobby through my prospective bosses’ eyes, I began to realize the power of the data-handling techniques I’d learned and developed. After about a year at Elsevier, I began working on encyclopedias. And I realized I had a ready-made mindset for handling these complex beasts with many moving parts.

For freelance editors, the business is us. The magic we offer our clients grows from our experience – both personal and professional.

Debbie Emmitt: ‘I’m grateful to that teenager who persevered with a new skill’

When I was a teenager, I bought a Teach Yourself Touch-Typing book. For days on end, I sat on my bedroom floor with my mum’s typewriter (this was the nineties, after all), diligently following the lessons and exercises to the letter.

I’m a rule-follower, so I ensured every finger tapped the key allocated to it and kept my eyes on the paper rather than the keys. I wouldn’t move on to the next exercise until I had completed the previous one, twice, without a single error. No backspacing or Undo button on a manual typewriter!

Fast-forward to today, and I’m a freelance editor and proofreader, typing thousands of words a day. Those hours spent at my mum’s typewriter served me well, helping me to type fast and (fairly) accurately, thereby allowing me to spend more time focusing on my clients’ manuscripts and less time working out where ‘y’ is on the keyboard.

Continuing professional development (CPD) isn’t just for the task at hand. It gives you skills to carry with you through your whole life. Thirty-five years or so after I taught myself to touch-type, I’m grateful to that teenager who persevered with a new skill, sitting on her bedroom floor at her mum’s typewriter.

Carla DeSantis: ‘Pursuing professional development in the software required for my editing work has given me indispensable tools’

Of course my non-editorial academic training in research, Latin, Spanish, Italian, and literature forms the backbone of my work as a scholarly editor, but my response here will focus on what I interpret as ‘professional development’.

While professional development regarding running my own business and marketing has been crucial to my editorial business, I would have to say that professional development in maximizing my use of software has been most helpful in my actual editing work itself.

Learning to use MS Word – my software of choice for editing – more effectively has enhanced my editing process, speed, and workflow. Certain MS Word tips learned within professional-development contexts changed and improved how I work.

Two examples:

New Window

Maybe you have always known about this, but I only learned about this feature a few years ago in an EFA webinar, and it has completely changed my editing life. As a scholarly/academic editor, almost every text I work with has a bibliography. By using New Window in MS Word, I can reproduce the same document on two screens/windows, viewing the bibliography at the end of a document on one screen while editing the rest of the text on the other, without having to constantly scroll to the bottom to make any changes. I can also keep my place in the document where I am editing on one window and search the same document for whatever I need in the other window. Saves time, makes work efficient.

Styles

When I first started editing, I wasn’t up to speed on what Styles could really do for me and learned about setting up style templates from an SfEP (now CIEP) editing conference. As an editor for two journals, this has become a lifesaver for me. I can set up the styles to be used within a template, based on each journal’s particular formatting choices, for headings, block quotes, footnotes, bibliography lists, etc. This not only saves time in preliminary formatting/file prep, but it also ensures that I am being consistent in implementing such formatting across issues.

Maybe these seem like very basic MS Word points to some of you out there! In fact, I can’t work without them now. But pursuing professional development in the software required for my editing work has given me indispensable tools.

Lisa de Caux: ‘My most important non-editorial training has come organically as a result of editing business books’

This question for me and my squiggly career has to be framed with the background that I’m a career changer and spent many years as a chartered accountant before becoming an editor. Are we talking about the crucial professional development of my accountancy years or are we talking about learning since I changed career? Do we mean running an editorial business or the nuts and bolts of editing?

I’m going with what I’ve learned since I became a business owner and applying it to my whole business, rather than the act of editing. Needless to say, all my previous training has helped me develop the business I run today. All that learning supports my Frame yourself! business mentoring programme, and after the beta programme, that’s influencing my thoughts! I firmly believe in continuous professional development and working on the business as well as in the business.

My most important non-editorial training has come organically as a result of editing business books. A tip of the hat here to all my authors! I have learned from them all and I’m grateful for those lessons! Many of their practical tips and frameworks have become part of how I run my business.

This is not a ‘piece’ of development – it’s continuous development in action. From this perspective, there are three groups I’ve been a member of: John Espirian’s Espresso+, Louisa van Vessem’s InclUSion and Debbie Jenkins’ Better Than Great club. They’ve allowed me to use my business skills from the accountancy years while learning and thinking widely.

This is a good place to nod to Hazel and her Proof Pros! These interactions and thought experiments challenge me to explore the corners of my mind. And co-mentoring with Hazel (which started as a time-limited exercise and has developed into regular support with a trusted advisor) has given me the chance to share my business thoughts while receiving valuable challenge. It makes my brain fizz!

So, though I can’t point at a particular training course, I recommend making connections – people support your development in unplanned ways!

The Proof Pros are all independent contributors. Each person’s words are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by the other contributors.