Every year, I try to carve out a week or two in early January to prepare for the new year and wind down the previous one. I often refer to this as my business retreat. This year, as I was doing my end-of-year accounting, writing my business plan for 2026, and getting ready for my 2025 taxes, it occurred to me that, as an editor, I have my fair share of tools of the trade, though most of them are virtual/digital tools. To that end, I thought I’d give you all a glimpse behind-the-scenes as I walk you through the freelance editing business tools and services I use to keep my business running.
Editing
American book editors live by the Chicago Manual of Style, and I am no exception. I have physical copies on standby, but to be honest, I consult those very little compared to the website, which has both the current edition and the previous one entirely online for subscribers.
Any time I have an editing question—or even if I think I know the answer but want to be sure—I run right to the CMS. The online version is also very easy to search and lets you bookmark or flag specific sections that you want to save for quick reference.
When I am copyediting or citation editing, I consult the CMS several times a day.
And if the CMS doesn’t answer my question, my next stop is always Merriam-Webster online. It’s the default dictionary for American editors, just like the CMS is the default style guide for American book editors. I also end up consulting Merriam-Webster several times a day. I love that it’s a free resource, and they’re also a fun follow on social media.
I know some editors also use a lot of macro tools specially designed for editing. These programs let you look for highly specific issues and can be a great time-saver, but I’ve never really dabbled in them. I do, however, use Intelligent Editing’s PerfectIt. This Word add-on allows me to do a wide range of consistency checks that I used to have to do on my own. It doesn’t automatically fix issues. I still have to go through each example it flags and adjudicate whether it requires action or not. But PerfectIt has become an integral part of my copyediting process. After I have read through the manuscript twice, it goes through PerfectIt at least once.
Project Management
My project management tools drastically altered in 2024. I had been using one service for a few years, but it really wasn’t meeting my business’s needs. As I researched other options, I quickly realized that most of the big project management software options didn’t work for me. Many of them are designed for tech design projects, which is great for them but not for me as an editor, or they overwhelmed me because they required steep learning curves to even use the app, which I quite frankly do not have time for, or they were designed for teams, which doesn’t help solo entrepreneur me.
I eventually settled on WithMoxie, an app specifically designed for freelancers, and I wish I had made the switch to them sooner. I can easily manage all my clients and projects with them. It also lets me track my time on projects and tasks. Before, I was using three or four different apps to do all the things I can do with WithMoxie, and it’s cheaper than what it replaced!
I also have Dropbox and Dropbox Sign (formerly Hello Sign) subscriptions. Every time I work on a document for a client, I save it to my flash drive, but I also save a copy of it to Dropbox too. I learned the hard way to back up multiple copies of anything I was working on when I was in college—I still mourn that 8-page paper for Logic and Language that disappeared into the ether—and Dropbox helps make sure I always have a backup copy in case my computer or flash drive goes down on me. The Dropbox Sign subscription, meanwhile, is how I manage electronic signatures for contracts.
I also have used Action Day planners for years to keep up with my everyday tasks. And that’s not just for editing. Everything from my editing projects to my part-time library job to my volunteer commitments go in there. I write in them—and mark up physical copies of manuscripts—with G2 Pilot bold 1 mm gel roller pens. I cannot abide skinny pens when I’m working. 😊 I keep the pens in an assortment of colors (red, blue, and black).
I also tend to make daily to-do lists in Notion, which is where, like my planner, I maintain information for every facet of my life and not just editing. Though I have editing project deadlines saved in various places, I also still like to use an old-fashioned desk calendar to mark them on. That gets scribbled on with the G2 Pilot pens, too, though I am considering ditching the desk calendar because it gets used less and less each year.
Accounting
I use QuickBooks to handle my bookkeeping and invoicing. I must confess, I have grown increasingly disenchanted with Quickbooks and hoping to find a suitable alternative I can switch to this year.
I also juggle a lot of receipts and invoices for my taxes, so I keep track of those and all my general tax paperwork with Trello boards. Every year, I create a board for that year’s tax papers. I divide the paperwork into different categories (credit card receipts, invoices, general tax papers, etc.), then color-code the cards I use for each specific piece of paper, so at a glance, I can see what I have filed away in an accordion file, what I need to print, what’s awaiting payment, and what still hasn’t found its way to me in the mail yet.
Agent Submissions Memberships
I periodically help clients find literary agents. To ensure I am always ready to answer these queries when I get them, I maintain subscriptions to Duotrope, Publishers Marketplace, and QueryTracker. Publishers Marketplace is also just a great way for me to stay up-to-date on the current literary scene with their daily Publishers Lunch emails.
Website
To maintain and run this website, I also have Bluehost (for hosting), Paddle (for my book portfolio plug-in), and Jetpack (for WordPress plugins) subscriptions.
I also maintain a Canva subscription. Sometimes I use that for the images on the site, but I mainly use Canva for graphic design needs. The most prominent example is my reading list I publish every December. That’s always designed on a Canva template I have become quite attached to—every year, I briefly consider finding a new one before I quickly talk myself out of it and reuse the old one.
I also use Unsplash and Pixabay for free public domain images for the website and social media. All the pictures for this post, save the very last one, are from Pixabay. To maintain my black-and-white theme, I sometimes run them through Lunapic’s Black and White Filter.
Professional Services
I also would not have the beautiful website without Red Rooster Design. They created it for me and also maintain it. Thanks so much, Brad and Ali! They’re always a pleasure to work with.
I talked a lot about taxes earlier, and my accountant, Michelle McCasland, makes my life and my taxes much easier. When I decided to expand my business from a side gig to a full-time job, Michelle was one of the first people I consulted with, and her help has been invaluable to me over the years with my quarterly and annual filings and any business finance questions I have. Thanks so much, Michelle!
I also maintain a business insurance policy with my local State Farm agent, Jo Ann Clark. She was also one of the first people I consulted with about setting up a full-time editing business. I had different business needs than a more conventional brick-and-mortar business, and she helped me find a policy that was just right. Thanks so much, Jo Ann!
Professional Development
My professional development expenses vary quite a bit by year, depending on what I am exploring. Sometimes I just buy books to read. I currently have a couple written by Jennifer Lawler, whom I have taken multiple excellent classes on editing with, that I am wanting to find time to read.
I also maintain yearly subscriptions to three different professional organizations for editing professionals—Editorial Freelancers Association, ACES: The Society for Editing, and National Association of Independent Writers and Editors. I also am a member of the free Copyediting-L listserv. These groups have helped me develop my professional skills through classes and seminars, and they also keep me current on the editing profession through their newsletters and/or listservs and have provided me with several job opportunities over the years.
Those are the main tools, apps, software, and services I use to keep Shirley Rash Editing going. I am also kept on task by copious amounts of Yorkshire Gold, Assam, and Irish breakfast tea—not a coffee drinker—and a fiercely adorable Chihuahua who believes himself to be is my supervisor.
