As a self-employed medical editor, I'm often asked how freelancers can find medical editing work. This topic came up recently on the
Freelance email list (also called the Publishing Industry Freelancers list) and in a discussion within a LinkedIn group. Today I'm sharing with you both my response in those discussions and the response of my colleague Susan London.
My Advice
First, see the
Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Medical Writer; it applies to medical editors too
[updated 1/13/2020].
To develop a clientele in medical editing, you may want to contact the managing editors of various medical journals to pitch your services to them. There are plenty of places online where you can find lists of medical journals so that you can then hunt down their websites to find contact info, including these:
- List of All Journals Cited in PubMed (download a text-only file listing information about journals indexed in PubMed and MEDLINE, to search them for journal-name abbreviations; PubMed is a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine that allows free access to citations and abstracts in journals in medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary sciences, health care, and preclinical sciences)
I also suggest that you consider joining the
American Medical Writers Association (AMWA); it counts medical editors among its members, including me. The AMWA website has lots of excellent resources for both medical editors and medical writers. Its private email list is great for networking and learning from colleagues, and members who are freelancers can purchase an entry in the website's
freelance directory [updated 1/13/2020]. You can also follow
AMWA on X (formerly called Twitter) and on
LinkedIn [updated 12/15/2024].
There is a large market, for those who are persistent, in doing medical editing for researcher-authors who are non-native speakers of English and need their journal-article manuscripts polished before submission to U.S. and UK journals. See the article
"Building Good Relationships with ESL Authors" from
Science Editor, the publication of the
Council of Science Editors (CSE).
Susan's Advice
In response to my post to the
Freelance email list, Susan posted some additional helpful information, and she gave me her permission to share it with others as long as I credited her. So here's what she posted to that list:
What Katharine said! All great advice. I'd add just a few things.
The Council of Science Editors also has a
Job Bank open to all[, even to those who aren't CSE members].
The
National Association of Science Writers (NASW) has many medical writers and editors among its ranks, a great freelance discussion list for NASW members
[updated 1/13/2020], and
job postings for members.
Katharine interrupting here: And, I add, BELS—the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences—offers certification of applicants' skills as editors in the life sciences through a rigorous 3-hour examination. I have this certification, and it has made my services more desirable to some clients.
A wonderful medical writer, Emma Hitt, sends out a list of medical writing and editing jobs weekly (the
HittList), although it goes out to hundreds (maybe thousands now) of subscribers, so standing out is hard
[updated 12/15/2024].
[If you are] interested in a certain genre of medical writing or editing, [you] might want to look into organizations specific to that area, such as the
Association of Health Care Journalists, mainly for reporters and feature writers.
I'm still a big fan of cold calling, as hard as it can be. Just prepare a brief pitch, research some companies, and give them a call and be sure to get to a top person in publications. The worst that happens is they decline. In that case, always ask (1) if they know of someone else who might be looking for a medical writer or editor and (2) if you could send along a résumé for them to keep on file should their needs change.
As with all types of freelance writing and editing, you have to get a foot in the door, [and] then things get easier.
Your Advice?
If you're a medical editor, what advice would you add?
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