Ragan just sent me a link to a number of stories, one of which I found particularly close to home: “How to make the most of your freelancers” by Sarah McAdams. (Sorry, link no longer live. But thanks to my western colleague, Dave Traynor, for introducing me to TinyURL, which wrestled Ragan’s full 218 characters into just 17.)
The article’s good advice includes providing your freelancer with any instructions you might have (Sarah calls it an “assignment letter,” but it doesn’t need to be that formal). For example, please share if you have an angle in mind, suggested resources and contact information.
Sarah says, and I totally agree:
“Freelancers must have sound writing skills, a willingness to accept editorial feedback, good social skills, reliability and painstaking attention to detail.”
When you find us, I think you’ll agree we quickly become part of your “family,” the first category of freelancers Sarah describes. The more we work together, the better we understand your company, making it easier every time to “turn complicated material into interesting, understandable copy.”
While I hope my long-time clients would agree that I am part of their family, sadly, none has told me lately they love me. 🙂
Having spent much of Sunday afternoon (when the sun was shining!) proofreading a very long and detailed technical manuscript (at the design and layout stage), I very much love the freelancer I contracted to do the copy edit…I hardly found anything that needed changing. Actually, I wasn’t expecting to find much–she is an extremely competent copy editor.
Things that contributed to the happy experience:
1. The freelancer once worked here, albeit a long time ago, so is familiar with the terminology of taxation, plus understands how critical it is *not* to change the intent of the information, just so its sound better.
2. The freelancer has undertaken this assignment for the last two years (it is an annual publication), so had a clear understanding of the type of material and what is involved in the assignment.
3. For reference, I provided the freelancer with a copy of our current in-house style guide, as well as a print copy of last year’s final publication. I indicated at the front-end what changes had been made in style since the prior year, what major sections had changed in the publication, etc.
4. We (freelancer, graphic designer and me) had an in-person meeting at the halfway stage (because this individual lives two hours away, so up until then all correspondence had been by phone and e-mail), to go over any problem areas (e.g., there were two paragraphs that made no sense to her–or me–so we ended up referring them back to the technical editor for clarification), plus she had some suggestions for possible format changes.
5. The freelancer’s invoice reflected her projected number of hours it would take to complete the project.
6. She has a great sense of humour.
What’s not to love?
Sounds like a terrific relationship! I think especially helpful to your freelancer must have been #3 — the style guide, last year’s version and expected changes. I hope you’ve shared your appreciation with your freelancer!
I did send an e-mail this morning, indicating how pleased I was with her copy edit, and mentioning that I’d expedited her invoice to accounting!
I forgot to mention that I also asked her (earlier) to provide a list of the areas where she spent the majority of her copy editing time. Hopefully we can try to eliminate unnecessary format errors and inconsistencies at the front-end for the next edition. (That way she can focus on typos, noun-verb disagreements, wrong dates, etc.)
This year there were a total of 10 contributors/subject-expert reviewers, which means style is harder to impress. Based on input from my freelancer, I’m thinking of developing a basic style sheet for the technical editor to share with the others. (The technical editor is a CGA by training, but earns a living writing accounting, financial and business-related articles for tier-one national print media, as well as targeted industry publications; ergo, the style sheet would be for the other contributors, who are professional accountants, but not necessarily writers.)
Anyhow, if I’m still the project manager for this public information booklet next year, I’ve told this year’s copy editor that I want her back for the 2008-09 edition.
Wow, 10 contributors – must be quite a project to get your arms around! The company is certainly lucky to have the continuity of both you and your seasoned freelancer.