This post was written in 2017 and revised in 2022.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”—Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
This quote describes almost perfectly my experience as a freelance editor on Upwork.
When I decided to become a freelance English editor, I didn’t know where to start. I had no clue where to find projects and I lacked both professional editing experience and confidence in my skills. So I did what many newbie freelancers did at the time: opened an Odesk (now Upwork) account.
For those who have never heard of Upwork, it’s a website that connects freelancers with clients. Freelancers get paid through the platform, which keeps a big chunk of their earnings. Freelancers and clients rate each other at the end of each contract.
It took me several months to get my first job on Upwork. I completed it and received my first 5-star rating. Getting new contracts became easier, though still incredibly frustrating. Before I knew it, I was spending all my time on Upwork. I submitted proposals in the morning, and I worked on my projects in the afternoon and evening.
Almost 200 successfully completed contracts and thousands of unsuccessful job bids later, I realized I was just plowing the sands. I was wasting precious time completing applications for jobs that were later canceled, Upwork had doubled its fees, and the quality of the job postings was plummeting. What was I doing on Upwork?
So, in 2015 I made a big decision: quit Upwork, get a website, and work on building my own client portfolio, not Upwork’s.
In this post, I’ll describe what it’s like to work as a freelance editor on Upwork. Then I’ll tell you why I used Upwork for so long and why I decided to close my account. I hope this information will give you an idea about what to expect if you work on Upwork as a freelance English editor.
Are you looking for a freelance editor and want to make the most of your budget for editing? Avoid paying third-party fees by hiring a freelance editor directly. Send me a message at editor@languageediting.com.
Working as a freelance editor on Upwork: Facts and numbers
I didn’t just decide to leave Upwork one day. It was a rational decision based on data I had gathered during my whole time on the platform.
Maybe it’s now a waste of time, but I keep track of all the hours I work for each client, as well as other details on contracts and payments, so that I can evaluate the health of my business. Maybe I’ve got too much data than I need, but, hey, once a scientist, always a scientist.
So, here are some facts about my experience working as an English editor on Upwork.
- Time spent actively working as a freelance editor on Upwork: 4 years
- How long it took to get my first contract: 2.5 months
- Number of contracts completed: 194
- Number of hours worked on hourly contracts: 2,981
- Feedback: 5-star, except one 4.60 and two 4.85 stars
- Lowest hourly rate: $4.5
- Highest hourly rate: $33.33
- Number of clients who didn’t pay me for my work: 0
- Number of job applications: I lost count—at least a couple each day for the first 2 years and then about a dozen per month
- Number of clients met on Upwork I still work for: 5
- Smallest contract: $3.5
- Biggest contract: $5,823
- Highest amount received from a client (for several contracts): $40,309
- Shortest contract: 1 day
- Longest contract: 3 years
- Worst (and first) editing contract: Rewriting unintelligible SEO articles
- Best contract: Editing aviation theory courses
- Most difficult contract: Editing a technical paper
- Easiest contract: Proofreading two flyers
- Most stressful contract: Editing a book in Google Documents with the client connected via chat, asking questions about each and every one of my editing choices
- Strangest contract: Working for two years for a person who used a fictitious name and never said hello (at one point I thought he was a famous cyclist—I won’t mention his name, but he’s very famous…)
- Felt worst when: Clients hired the lowest bidder for a job I would have been a great fit for
- Felt best when: A client mentioned me in the acknowledgement section of an important publication
- Biggest regret: Spending too much time applying to jobs on Upwork
- Biggest satisfaction: A client recommended my services to her friends, family, and co-workers
Now that I’ve given you some statistics, I’ll list the pros and cons of working as a freelance English editor on Upwork. I’ll also tell you why I think freelancing platforms aren’t worth your time if you want to have a successful career as a freelance editor.
Why I liked working as a freelance English editor on Upwork
For a long time I thought that if I stopped working as a freelance editor on Upwork, new clients wouldn’t be able to find me. I didn’t hire a marketing agency, my website was not SEO optimized, and I was not on Facebook. But they did find me. It turns out word-of-mouth beats paid advertising.
Before leaving Upwork, I feared I’d spend my time chasing payments. But so far I got paid on time for every contract I completed.
Why did I work as a freelance English editor on Upwork for so long?
- Found editing contracts when I had no significant experience
- Learned how to apply for all kinds of editing jobs and how not to take rejection personally
- Became very resilient—it happens naturally when you get rejected multiple times a day, every day
- Bidding on various jobs, I discovered how much people are willing to pay for my editing services
- Learned how to distinguish a great client from a time-waster
- Worked on many different types of documents
- Learned how to work with difficult people
- Gained a lot of editing experience
- Got a few long-term contracts that gave me a sense of job security for a few years
- Loved that people found my profile and offered me a job without any kind of test or interview
Why clients cannot hire me as a freelance editor on Upwork
These are the main reasons I decided to leave Upwork:
- Upwork’s greediness—it charges 20% on smaller contracts (less than $500)
- Finding a decent job on Upwork is like finding a needle in a haystack
- Too many unethical jobs (such as ghostwriting dissertations) disguised as editing projects
- Terrible customer support
- System crashes and bugs
- A limited number of free job applications per month; if you exceed that number, you have to pay to apply for more jobs
- Payment processing takes too long
- Upwork’s exclusivity clause: you mustn’t work directly for a client you met on Upwork for 24 months unless the client pays a hefty buyout fee to the site
- Some clients use the feedback system as a retaliation tool
- The feedback clients get from freelancers is not accurate, so you can end up working for dishonest clients
Working as a freelance editor on Upwork: Is it worth it if you’re a beginner?
For four long years, I used this job-bidding site to find almost all my editing projects. In hindsight, putting all eggs in one basket was foolish. But back then, I was too obsessed with maintaining my 5-star rating on Upwork to see the alternatives. I fell into the gamification trap!
Upwork and similar platforms are a good boot camp for some fledgling freelance editors. However, they’re not a viable choice for anyone hoping to have a successful career as a freelance editor.
Upwork alternatives for new freelance editors
I’ll repeat here the advice I’ve given to other people new to freelance editing: Don’t waste too much of your time on Upwork or similar job-bidding websites. Get your own website, join a professional organization (such as EFA or SfEP), and network with other editors to find jobs. Go to conferences where your potential clients are, pay for marketing, use social media to your advantage, and don’t give up.
Finally, if you want to hone your editing skills, do pro bono work for an organization you support rather than working for peanuts on freelancing sites. The key to success as a freelance English editor is to find great clients directly.
However, this is the age of digital platforms, so you’ll probably have to work on freelancing sites every now and then. When you do, please charge what you’re worth.
If you are a freelance editor looking for more information on how to get more work, please visit the EFA website or Editors Canada. These associations have the resources you need to start or grow your career as a freelance editor. Apart from offering you free advice in this blog, I cannot help you find more clients, even if you are not one of my direct competitors. But if you would like to connect on LinkedIn so we can exchange information on continuing education and other career-related topics, please get in touch (it.linkedin.com/in/cneagu). Thank you for reading this post.
Related posts:
- Things I’ve learned from eight years of freelance editing
- Things your freelance editor should tell you
- Freelancing myths: What people think freelancers do (and what we really do)
Last updated on 22 June 2022
