Tools for Finding and Attracting Clients

In this economic recession and electronically connected world, self-employed editorial pros can't depend on just the old ways—making cold calls and sending prospecting packets out by snail mail—to get clients. It's wiser, for your bottom line, to use a variety of methods. These are the tools that I find to be good for discovering and attracting clients, listed in descending order by my sense of how many client inquiries come through each one:

1. Word of mouth (which means publishing contacts recommending my editing services to others in publishing, and authors recommending my services to their colleagues)


2. Participation in profession-related e-mail lists (check out some of the ones listed here)


3. My business web site


4. My listing in the freelance directory of the American Medical Writers Association (tie with item 5)


5. My ad on the web site of the Council of Science Editors (tie with item 4)


6. My presence on Twitter


7. My listing in the member directory of the Editorial Freelancers Association


8. My presence on LinkedIn


9. My presence on Facebook


10. My listing in the directory of the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences


11. My listing in the Directory of CE-L Freelancers of the Copyediting-L e-mail list (see the "Freelancers" tab)

I've been self-employed nearly 18 years now and am quite good at hunting for and attracting new clients in a variety of ways. I haven't had a day without a work project in years. If you're a self-employed editorial pro and would like to learn more about how to use the social media Big 3—Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook—to find prospective clients and to attract them, sign up for my 90-minute November 1 webinar.

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