What associations do you have with “editorial process”? Have you heard of that term before?
Here’s a fun story for you:
A publication I worked for for a long time was acquired and a bunch of new project managers came on board.
Almost immediately, within a week, I noticed my inbox was * blowing up. It seemed like every project manager I worked with was suddenly emailing me all the time, day and night, and the email chains for each project spiked to double digits (I checked).
What used to be 7-8 emails per project literally spiked to 16, 25, 30. It was extremely noticeable
I wanted to write back to everyone and say “Woah there, slow down. Lose my email,” but that’s not going to end well for me. Instead, I realized what was going on: these new people did not know, or were ignoring, the old process. Instead of writing back to answer the question each person posed me, I wrote back with a quick update about where we were in the process. Now they knew what to expect next. Now they stopped emailing me every day and night for an update,
In my mind, this summarizes the two reasons to have an editorial process, or at least become familiar with them so you can seamlessly slip into a client’s editorial process.
Processes allow you to balance a larger workload with less stress, ultimately allowing you to make more money. Processes establish you as a professional and give clients a clear reason to trust you, ultimately allowing you to make more money
Ultimately, editorial processes are your friend. They’re the buffer to call-you-at-night-clients and the soothing ointment for client-edits-gone-wild. They allow you and your client — different people with different goals — to clearly communicate what, when, and how, something will be done. And that leads to a lot more trust and a lot less uncertainty for your client, who has invested a lot of money in your services and wants to make sure you aren’t vacationing in Mexico City without Internet for the next three weeks.
SIMPLE SEAMLESS EDITORIAL PROCESS FOR FREELANCE WRITERS
Here’s a simple, seamless editorial process in four parts:
- Kick Off Call
- Outline
- SME Interview
- First Draft
There, isn’t that easy? Session over!
HAH! Implementing this knowledge is always where it gets wild. Let’s explore the best practices and pitfalls of each part of the editorial process.
First, what I mean by processes and four parts is that I literally create my own assembly line, whether or not my client asks me to. At different points I’ve had this digitized, or written in my planner, or sketched on my wall with tape and sticky notes for projects. Then I walk the little piece of chocolate through the assembly line, I Love Lucy-style, until it’s finished
Steal My Full Project Planning “Cheat Sheet” Here: Google Doc (Link)
Sometimes I’ve adjusted my process to suit a client’s needs. But many, many times I’ve pulled my clients into my process to help them get better work done on timeline. Don’t assume people have their stuff together. In many situations, you’re the one coming in to help them organize and make things happen because they’re overwhelmed, lost, or simply don’t think about writing the way you do
❓❓What questions do you have about this?❓❓
KICK OFF CALL
There are two golden rules of kick off calls:
- 1) Never skip the kick off call
- 2) Anyone who will give feedback on the final draft must be on the kick off call
The purpose of the kick off call is to make sure you’re speaking the same language. As a writer, you can deliver anything — funny or somber, salesy or non-promotional, about high level executive stuff or deep-in-the-weeds technical stuff. The kick off call is where you find out what the client actually wants you to deliver
There’s just one problem — sometimes the people representing the client want different things. So the purpose of the kick off call is actually to get the client on the same page, and then have them tell you what they want
That leads us to the golden rules: whenever I skip a kick off call, assuming the client brief is “just fine” or “they already have an outline!…” those are tend to be the projects that spiral out of control. Those are the projects where the outline doesn’t hit the mark, and then the first draft doesn’t hit the mark, and then everyone’s slightly grumpy and thinks it’s your fault. When in reality, they gave vague instructions and then didn’t like your instincts about where to take it. You may have to make this mistake a few times before it sinks in (I still make this mistake — I’m living this mistake right now), but at least now I’m conscious of the risk I’m taking when I take it
The same lesson goes for the second golden rule, where everyone who will weigh in on the final draft must be on the kick off call. If you don’t make sure this happens, usually by mentioning in a call or email, you end up with bird poop — executives fly in on the final draft, disagree with something essential and trigger a rewrite… and then you go round and round with an ever-changing premise. It’s really frustrating and makes you feel like a failure.
Language for making sure all stakeholders are on the kick off call:
“Hi, I’m so excited about the call this week! Can I confirm that everyone who will approve the final draft of this piece will be present on the call? I find that’s an important step to make sure we don’t have any surprise edits later down the line and I can really hit it out of the park on the first try.”
Every kick off call will require unique questions to prep for it, but you can use the Subject Matter Expert questions from B2BWI templates as a starting place, then add questions based on what you need to know:
- Can you speak to the important context surrounding [TOPIC]? Why do you think this is such an important topic to discuss today?
- What happens if companies don’t address [TOPIC]? What’s at stake here?
- How are company’s currently trying to address this problem without [SOLUTION OR PRODUCT]? Why isn’t that working?
- What are some common objections a company could have for using [SOLUTION OR PRODUCT]? What do they tend to misunderstand about the tool?
- Could you share a few real or potential examples of companies that have taken a proactive approach to [TOPIC]? What does success look like?
- What else do you think is important for viewers to understand about [TOPIC]?
OUTLINE
The same two golden rules govern the outline phase
- 1) Never skip the outline
- 2) Anyone who will give feedback on the final draft must approve the outline
The outline is your chance to digest what your client shares on the kick off call and put it into your own words, your own vision for the project. This critical to make sure you’ve absorbed what they meant for you to absorb — or so that they can see whether or not what want looks good on the page.
I have created outlines verbatim based on what a client shared on the kick off call… and they rejected it and changed their mind when they saw it on the page. This is as much for the client to think it through as it is for you to get a “yes or no” — sometimes you just have to see an idea laid out.
The outline is also where I get my Grade A “Thinking” done . Break up the concept into smaller pieces, explore new angles, think about what’s missing, think about what the reader will do after reading this. The outline is where you focus your attention on the concept or idea and let all your creativity come to play.
Sometimes the outlining process gets so creative that instead of an outline, I’ll start with 2-3 “concept statements” for the piece. That lets the client see potential angles or topics and a brief summary of what it will cover. They can pick the one they want to see fleshed out into an outline
Example topic suggestions for a white paper — client chose #2!
The second golden rule is also critical for outlines. If you don’t have everyone approve the outline, something will pop up. Someone reviewing it will leave an annoying, vague comment like, “Shouldn’t we talk about X here?” or “This is a great start, but Y and Z are critical to include here” …. And guess who has to incorporate X, Y, and Z into the existing copy without messing up the structure?
You.
Language for making sure all stakeholders approve the outline:
“Hi, I’m so glad to hear the outline hits the mark! Can I confirm that everyone who will approve the final draft of this piece has had a chance to approve the outline? I find that’s an important step to make sure we don’t have any surprise edits later down the line and we can make sure we stay on our timeline.”
SME INTERVIEW
I’ve done many projects (white paper, infographic, blog, etc.) without SME interviews, or the Subject Matter Expert interviews, and many projects with them. It’s a great idea to offer to do them, and they will likely make the project easier to complete because you’ll have someone else’s words to use to describe what’s going on in the piece. It also helps you stand out to clients if you are comfortable interviewing executives or experts for 30 minutes at a time.
It’s worth noting that some companies and writers prefer to do subject matter interviews before they create an outline in order to identify potential topics or generally explore a topic further. This is a matter of preference, so do what feels right to you, but in general, I recommend creating the outline with the stakeholders first so that you can run very intentional interviews with your subject matter experts.
Why do SME interviews?
Many companies today are publishing content, which means there’s a lot of competition for getting potential customers to read or subscribe to a blog. One way companies make sure they’re publishing unique and interesting content is by interviewing someone with expertise in a certain field, called a subject matter expert (SME).
When you kick off an assignment, ask if your project lead has anyone in mind they’d like to interview for the piece. Sometimes these experts are internal to the company – researchers, executives, account managers – and sometimes these experts are external – industry experts, consultants, and more. If you’ve niched into a specific industry and have connections, you can also offer to source a subject matter expert as part of the value of working with you. (Super secret source of lead generation!)
Send the SME your questions in advance so they have the option to prepare, but make it clear advanced preparation is optional. If possible, share the outline of the project you’re working on so the SME has context for your questions. Try to limit your interview to 5-6 questions, which will lower your risk of asking anything you can easily Google. For the average B2B writing project, the maximum time you need to interview a SME is 30-60 minutes – any more and you are likely wasting both your time and theirs.
Developing SME questions is an art form. As you get more practice, it will become more natural to you, but here’s an acronym that can help you focus on the 5-6 most important things to ask:
C O C O A
Context
Most B2B writing projects will provide background information about a product, trend, or innovation. Because SMEs are immersed in the industry, they often have a unique perspective of the context around that product, trend, or innovation. Your first question should provide an opportunity for the SME to tell the story and share the context of the topic – Why is it happening now? Why hasn’t it happened before? What is influencing it?
Offer
You’ll also want to ask a question about how the topic relates to the sponsoring company’s offer. Where does this product or service fit into the discussion? What makes it new, interesting, or helpful?
Customer
Along with the sponsoring company’s offer, you’ll want to ask a question about how this issue affects prospective customers. What problem causes customers to reach out? How are they solving this problem now, and why isn’t that sufficient?
Opposite
A great way to provide dimension to a SME interview is to ask questions that force the SME to explain what’s at stake for the reader or take a strong opinion stance, such as, “What happens if a company does not make the change that we’re talking about today?” or “Can a company ignore this topic and still be successful?”
Anything Else?
The SME is the expert on the topic, not you. So it may very well be that you didn’t include a question about something that is important to the topic you’re writing about. Always end a SME interview asking a question like, “Is there anything else you think is important to include about this topic?” to give the SME the chance to cover anything that’s been left out.
FIRST DRAFT
The first draft is where you bring the outline to life, incorporate the SME interview content, and generally feel terrible about your abilities as a writer until you hear back from the client (Nope, it’s not just you!). That being said, putting your work through the assembly line gives you more confidence that you’ve done all you can — you’ve applied your rigorous process to this masterpiece, and the rest is up to them to see if it aligns with their expectations. After 10 years of a process like this, if I get bad feedback, I almost don’t take it personally. My first thought is…. “What went wrong with the process that led us to different conclusions about what a good first draft is?”
There are a few tips and techniques I want to share about having a great first draft process:
Let it bake overnight
There’s simply no better editor than you, tomorrow, reading it with fresh eyes. You will almost always see an opportunity for a significant change that improves the work. This is because writing is not 3-D printed, it is iterative. It has to develop over time to reach its full potential.
Play with the schedule of delivery
I want to invite you to think creatively about when you deliver your work, because you can start to play around with your client experience in a few ways. First, if you want to impress clients and get a positive start on your relationship, finish the piece early and share it early, saying something like “I was able to prioritize this sooner, and I wanted to share it with you!” Alternatively, if a client is pushing boundaries and it’s more of a “Give a mouse a cookie” situation, if you finish the work early, schedule it to send on the proper day and time (I have done this before in answering client requests. I don’t want clients to get the sense I’ll respond within 10 minutes, so I’ll write my response, but schedule it to send later in the day). There’s a line where this could be manipulative — I don’t recommend crossing this line — but when it comes to setting and reinforcing my time boundaries, I experiment with this kind of stuff all the time
Show your work
I learned this from Ash Ambirge so I always need to give her credit, but, especially if it’s a picky client or the first project with a client, share a second, “narrative document” that shows the thought you put into different choices. For example: why did you pick that type of introduction? Why this source over another? Is there any significant departure from the outline you should point out, whether adding something or removing something? The client may not care to read all the details, but they will be very confident you put thought into each choice
Example of Narrative feedback:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11p47U5nA-NAKhjx3QhxK8Z4Dp118uFDdqKajO2xjh0g/edit
❓❓What questions do you have about this?❓❓
REAL LIFE EXAMPLES
“The Fenwick Flow” from Chris Gillespie at Fenwick Media
B2B Content Studio Process Page
Animalz Editorial Process
Ready to live your editorial life seamlessly?
If you start to feel overwhelmed by your workload, ask yourself “Where is this project on my assembly line?” You aren’t stuck in the jungle getting sucked into quicksand on this project… You’re the expert chocolatier putting the step-appropriate touches on a masterpiece before you send it down the line, and that’s the power of process.
Don’t hesitate to templatize or put something into a process. Processes free you from carrying the mental load of what you’re doing, then you can apply all your creativity, effort, and focus to the actual creative product, knowing you’re in “SME Interview Mode” so you don’t have to think about the draft, etc.
This also means you can mentally “move a project into the next column” and not worry about it while you attend to other things in your day. You can trust that the system will take care of it, almost like apple pickers dumping apples in the river, knowing they’ll float down and be processed by the farmers before they rot.
Without a clear editorial process, your clients won’t know what comes next. They’ll feel unsure, and they’ll take that out on the work by emailing you more frequently or being more critical about the milestones when you do check in.