In 2021, I took a major leap of faith and launched the Freelance Editors Club, an online community where editors can learn and grow their businesses. I’m amazed at how far our community has come since then, so in this episode of The Modern Editor Podcast, we’re looking back at the history of FEC. Listen in as we talk through how it all started, where the membership is at today, and the exciting things in store for the future.
In 2021, I took a major leap of faith and launched the Freelance Editors Club, an online community where editors can learn and grow their businesses. I’m amazed at how far our community has come since then, so in this episode of The Modern Editor Podcast, we’re looking back at the history of FEC.
Listen in as we talk through how it all started, where the membership is at today, and the exciting things in store for the future.
Welcome to The Modern Editor Podcast, where we talk about all things editing and what it's like to run an editorial business in today's world. I'm your host, Tara Whitaker. Let's get to it.
Hello. Welcome to today's episode. We are officially 57 episodes in, and I have yet to properly talk about the full awesomeness that is the Freelance Editors Club.
What is happening? It's kind of similar to what I mentioned in a previous episode where I never talk about my editing experience. Good grief. What is the matter with me? I have mentioned FEC multiple times in my podcast because it's where I spend most of my time outside of editing, and yet it hasn't gotten its own proper episode.
So we're gonna fix that today. But what it is not going to be is a sales pitch. I am not sitting here for however long this episode ends up being pitching something. That is the last thing I want to record and the last thing that I would want to listen to, and I would assume that you would feel the same way.
So what this is going to be is more of a history of how FEC came to be, kind of a behind the scenes of the community, why I created it, how it's evolved, and then I'm gonna share some exciting things of what's going to come. So no pitching, just awesomeness.
All right, so how the Freelance Editors Club, or FEC, came to be. And I've mentioned this in the very first episode of The Modern Editor Podcast, and in the episode where I talked about five things I wish I had known when I started my editing business, but I'm going to go a little bit deeper here today.
I started my editing business officially as a side hustle in October of 2012. And I lasted a whopping five months before I quit my full-time job and took my freelance business full time in February of 2013. Now, I don't know exactly when this incident I'm gonna talk about happened, but I know it was toward the very beginning of my journey to become an editor.
I was doing all the googling, you know, all the research, all the learning, all the reading, all the things that I could possibly get my hands on to figure out how to become an editor. And along the way in that research I came across Facebook groups for editors and writers. So I'm thinking, great, score, right?
Eh, wrong for me. I joined these groups—I don't remember what they were, what they were called, if they're around anymore—but I saw time and time and time again these, you know, self-appointed gatekeepers. They would attack all these new editors or people who wanted to become an editor as soon as they asked any questions or expressed any interest in joining the industry.
The vibe was not it, y'all. It was not welcoming. It was not coming from a place of sharing and helping. It was very much hoarding info, belittling anyone who knew less than, and just the whole like, yucky competition.
And it still happens now. I mean, let's be for real. It's not completely gone away. But it's not quite as bad as it used to be, at least the groups that I'm still in. And I am a cishet white woman, so my experiences are definitely different than editors from marginalized communities. And we have a lot of work to do. I think we can all agree on that.
So back when I started the business, I knew that if I posted something, chances were very, very good that it was not going to be met with kindness, because I saw it happening, and I saw it happening all the time, and I also saw differences in the responses based on who asked the question.
So I lurked and I was like, I'm not even going to put myself out there because I know I'm gonna get attacked. Until one day, don't ask me why, I decided to ask a question. I don't remember what the question was. I don't remember what group it was in. I don't remember the people that responded.
All I remember is how I felt, and that's probably true for a lot of things that aren't so positive, right? I got pounced on. I was made to feel like I was just an idiot and I didn't know what I was doing, which, to be fair, I didn't, which is why I asked. So guess what? I never posted again. I retreated into my freelancer hole, my little hidey-hole, my editing cave, and I stayed there for many, many years.
Now, I did do some in-person networking. I was even on the board of a local group, but online, uh-uh. I did not talk in any forums, didn't post in any groups, didn't speak at any events, none of that. I stayed hidden, and I'm still making up for that today.
So fast-forward to 2020, and we all know what happened that year. We were all home. We were either alone or with the same people, we were inside for a long time and we were craving community. I had always kept that Facebook experience in the back of my mind because it was such a pivotal moment in my editing journey, and I hated that I experienced it and so many other people experienced it.
But I never made any move to change it. I wanted to change it, but I didn't, you know, who was I to change it? I'm just, you know, I'm just a baby editor, or I don't know everything, or I'm not an industry expert, or I don't know this or that. All all the things, right?
Well, 2020 came and it gave me the shove that I needed to just say, you know what? Screw it. I'm just gonna give this a try because I just, I need to. I'm doing myself a disservice by just hiding and not putting myself out there.
So I started with six people in a group coaching program in September 2020, and it was how to launch a freelance editing business. It was one call a week for six weeks. Looking back on it now, it was overwhelming for people who joined. It was so much information in a short amount of time. All I did was just throw information at those six people for six weeks, but I did it and I morphed that group coaching into the Freelance Editors Club, and it officially launched in January of 2021.
So here we are, August 2025, and what? Four-and-a-half, a little over four-and-a-half years later. And I could not be happier about taking that scary leap that I made. It's certainly had its ups and downs. There are days where I'm like, I'm just gonna burn it all to the ground, my whole business, I'm just going to just go get a nine-to-five, and then you know, come to my senses.
But I honestly, honestly cannot picture my business right now and myself without FEC, which is completely bananas because I'm one of those people that—I'm an introvert, which doesn't mean I'm shy, it just means I get my energy internally—but I hate people and I also love people. And if you had told me that I would be in charge of a group, a community, I would've laughed.
I would've laughed and been like, never. But here we are. And that's how FEC started and it continues to grow. So back then, back in January 2021, I offered a business builder workbook, which was essentially the content that I used in the six-week coaching program, it was all of that consolidated and put in a pretty format.
I did one training or workshop a month. We had a book club every month, two Q&A calls, or office hours, where anyone can join and ask me questions. And then we had the private community. That was it.
Now since then we have added and changed and reiterated so much. So just a brief highlight, we still have that hundred-page business builder workbook that is currently being updated.
We still have a monthly training or workshop. We still have the monthly book club, the Q&A calls. We've kind of morphed those because I think we're getting Zoomed out. so we started doing those as like, threads in our community. And we still have the community of course.
But now we have weekly two-hour coworking sessions every Tuesday. We get together and work simultaneously. We do a self-care event of some sort every month. So we've done a cozy reading party where we get together, you know, on Zoom, and we just read together with some cozy music. We've done a crafting hour where we all brought our craft we were working on, or our knitting or crochet or whatever. Just something to make sure that we set aside some time every month to take care of ourselves.
We have a private internal referral database, so if someone in FEC gets an inquiry that isn't a good fit, they can share it with the rest of the group. We also have a public member directory that anybody can go to if they're looking for an editor. I also offer FEC members 25% off everything that I do, everything I launch, everything that I create.
For example, the editing contract template, they get 25% off that. They also get first dibs on anything new, and they get the opportunity to beta test new offers and then get those offers for free.
So I list all of that not as like a pitch, but to show you that when it started four-and-a-half years ago, it was minimal; it was bare bones. It was a lot for me because it was new, but it was not a lot. And then as we've grown and as the years have gone on, we've pivoted, adjusted, tweaked, reiterated, added, deleted, like, we've changed things to meet the needs of the members and for myself.
And it is okay to be new at something and not have everything figured out or have everything be the final version. Please give yourself permission to be new, to try and to learn, and to fix and grow and whatever. Because had I tried to start FEC with that big list of what I just said, it wouldn't have happened. I would've burnt out.
I might've added things that weren't needed or necessary or what members wanted. I do a survey every year, at least every year, about what education they're looking for. And I tweak everything in FEC accordingly because without members, FEC doesn't exist. And I want to make sure that I'm providing exactly what members are looking for and what they need.
So when you're starting an editing business, don't think that you're gonna have all of your processes and your systems and your templates and everything perfect. It's not gonna happen. The only way you're going to grow and figure all of that out is by doing, which I know, I don't like doing things that aren't completely fleshed-out either, but the only way to figure things out is to actually do the thing. So there's your permission. Permission to try something new and to be new at that thing.
Okay. So what is ahead for FEC? I've got so many things. I'm gonna try and do this quickly, but also not, because it's very exciting and very cool.
So the first thing is, at the time of this recording, I'm in the middle of a business branding project. It's been almost 13 years, and I have never had a proper logo. My logos have been self-designed by me in Canva or PicMonkey. If you remember PicMonkey from back in the day, I might as well have done Microsoft Word Word Art at that point. But I figured it was time. I hired an expert and someone who knew what they were doing better than I did.
So my business is gonna have a brand new logo, my website, and FEC is gonna have beautiful new logos. FEC members get a badge to put on their websites if they so choose. That's gonna be new and beautiful. So that is coming soon.
And then if you have been in FEC before, either as a member or have done a free trial, you'll know what I'm talking about. For those of you who haven't, you might not totally get what I'm gonna say, but I promise it's exciting. Currently, we have two systems. We have one platform we use for the community, which is Mighty Networks, and then we use Podia, which is like a portal for where all the recordings and the workshops are.
I did it that way because it was less expensive. I was using what I already had implemented when I started FEC, so I was trying to do it, you know, as simple as possible. But we've grown, we've outgrown this, so it is time to try something new. So I've made a substantial financial investment and time investment in merging these systems into one.
Everything's gonna go into Mighty. It is gonna be beautiful and seamless and streamlined for both myself and members. It's gonna be a thing of beauty. It is gonna take me a while though, because everything has to be manually put in and like I said, we have 175 recordings. We have more than that. We have far more than that, but it's gonna take awhile. But when it's done, it's gonna be beautiful.
The next thing is I've already sort of soft-launched this in FEC because again, members get first dibs on things, but there are going to be tiers in FEC. So right now there's only one membership option, like you join FEC and you get all the things. You can pay monthly or yearly, but everybody gets the same thing again.
That worked for a while. It was the simplest way of doing it. My system, ugh, backend things were a nightmare with offering anything else, so I didn't do anything else. But now that I’m switching systems, we're gonna have tiers. They're gonna be called Connect, Cultivate, and Collaborate.
So Cultivate is the middle tier, and it's essentially what the club is today. There's gonna be some tweaks. Connect will be the lower tier, priced accordingly, and Collaborate will be the higher tier, again, priced accordingly. Now, the details aren't final, so I don't wanna give too much info, but if you wanna sneak peek as to what Collaborate is going to include, there will be a mastermind component for those of you looking for mastermind groups, and we are gonna be collaborating with writing groups.
So our first partnership is going to be with the Literary Craft Society run by Juliet Diaz and Neva Talladen. We're gonna create an editorial directory to connect authors from the society to editors from FEC. It's gonna be amazing. I'm so excited for this collaboration. We're gonna have more info when we get closer to launch, but stay tuned for that because FEC is going to a whole nother level.
All right, and last but not least, I wanted to highlight some wins for some of the FEC members because it can be hard to, I guess, quantify what a community offers. You know, I'm not in the business of being like, “Editors can boost their sales numbers by 25% by joining FEC.” Like, that's not a thing. That's not how I operate.
Nor can I guarantee you clients. I wish, but no. So it's kind of difficult to put numbers on things other than the numbers of like, 175-plus recordings and 25% off things. So I wanted to share what members actually think. What do you actually get out of being an FEC member? What's it worth? What is it? Why do it? Why join? So I'm gonna share those right now and I'm gonna get in my feels, but it's okay.
So Neva Talladen, collaborative book editor and writer at Otherwordy, she says, “I appreciate the constancy of FEC more than you know. It helps me remember that I'm not alone in what I'm doing, and that there is always support when I need it. In a business community, usually the focus would be on getting clients and income, but there's more behind that process that gets left out of the discussion. Your programming and FEC makes room for the reality of the business and gives members like me transparent, actionable, and ungatekept information to help make decisions that are right for their own freelance editing career.”
Audrey Hodge, who's a nonfiction book coach and editor at Hodgepodge Solutions, said that “FEC has helped me to accomplish so much. As an editor, it can be lonely and hard to connect with other editors without feeling like you are working with the competition. But it's different in FEC. We all support each other by offering advice or support when.
Tara is great at coaching us gently or firmly as needed, both in the group and one-on-one. I love all the resources at my fingertips. Recently, I've enjoyed the Canva training for editors, the book coaching talk, and how to edit recipes.
Personally, FEC has helped me move along when I needed to take a break in my business. I know that sounds odd, but it's true. While I was on my break, I still checked the community on a regular basis. It reminded me what I was missing, and I did want to get back to it when the time was right. Now that I'm getting into the business of editing and book coaching, FEC is providing me with the support and feedback I need on all my backend stuff, and I know they'll be there when I need a second opinion on how to word something to a client or recommend a resource I can't seem to find, but need.”
Philippa Hammond from Philippa Hammond Editorial said that “The Freelance Editors Club has given me something that was missing from my other editor groups and memberships: a safe and supportive community. The club offers a lovely balance of training, content advice, and well-being sessions for me. The monthly training and other events have built my confidence and plugged some knowledge gaps that could not have been filled by any other group or network. I've also read some editing-related books that I probably wouldn't have discovered otherwise. There's never any pressure to keep up, and the space is just always there when you need it.”
Deborah Taylor is a copyeditor and proofreader from The Blue Pencil. She said that “For me, I was looking for support for my fledgling editing business where I didn't have to keep explaining myself. What I mean by that is I can get good support from a business coach, but having support from a fellow editor means that there is a shorthand, an immediate connection from a shared experience, and that's special. What I found with Tara and the Freelance Editors Club was a community of editors from around the world at different stages of building their businesses, and that has been invaluable.
Although the time zones can mean that I can't always attend in real time (Deborah's in the UK), the value to being a member of FEC is the recordings and the back catalog of information available whenever we want. Freelancing can be a lonely and isolating experience. Being a member of FEC has changed that for me, and I no longer feel alone. So thank you for creating this space for editors and proofreaders like me.”
Rosalinda Alcalá from the Word Bouquet said, “The Freelance Editors Club has provided me assistance in bringing my editing from the classroom to private clients. More importantly, the club has amazing and supportive editors that genuinely care about each other.”
Ah, the warm and fuzzies. It was a little weird for me to read those just because I'm not good with compliments and praise, even though I'm trying to be better. But I just adore everyone in FEC, and it's such an amazing community, and it's amazing because of the members inside just, straight-up, period.
So that's the background of FEC. That's how it came about. That's how it was created. Why I started it, how it's evolved from just little baby FEC to I don't even know, we'll just call it a toddler because I feel like we have so much room to grow from here.
I just can't stress enough how much I want to change the vibe—I know that vibe is like, not as strong of a word as I wanna use, but I'll use it for now because I can't think of anything else—but the vibe in the industry. I'm over the gatekeeping, I'm over the icky competition. I'm over hoarding information, and FEC is my way of helping with that, and I can only hope that it's a positive thing in the editing industry.
So I will leave you with a very soft pitch because I promised you this wasn't gonna be a whole episode of pitch. But if you want to check out FEC, I have a free trial for 14 days. As of right now, the free trial includes access to everything. That may change with the tiers that I talked about. I don't have specific plans—there's so much work involved in the backend and all of that—but I'm just giving you a for-real heads-up that might change. But for now, everything is accessed in that 14 days for free at TaraWhitaker.com/Club. And if you have any questions, I am always happy to help at Hello@TaraWhitaker.com.
So until next time, keep learning, keep growing, and remember that the right community will always get you to where you want to be.
Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. If you enjoy The Modern Editor Podcast, I would be so grateful if you left us a review over on iTunes. And as always, you can head to TaraWhitaker.com to connect with me and stay in touch. We'll chat again soon.