Patricia MacDonald’s essential advice on building a freelance editing business by choosing a niche
Patricia MacDonald (pictured above) combined her love of sports with an aptitude for English to build a successful career.
Patricia MacDonald, owner of Power-Play Editing, is a Canadian editor who specializes in sports editing. We met with Patricia to learn about how she developed her business, why she chose sports as her niche, and how being bold and going after her dream projects paid off.
What's the Idea: We're here today to talk about your business, Power-Play Editing, and your focus on sports editing. Could you tell us what inspired you to become an editor?
Patricia MacDonald: I didn't have aspirations to become an editor when I was younger. I was always a reader, but editing wasn't something that was on my radar as a career. I actually went to Dalhousie University to take my Kinesiology degree. I wanted to be the first female trainer in the NHL [National Hockey League], but of course that didn't work out.
After I got my degree, I was set to go to Mount Royal University to take athletic therapy towards that end of becoming an athletic trainer. I heard at the time that the physiotherapists were trying to make it illegal to practise as athletic therapists, or trying to make it more difficult. They didn't want the competition. So I put that on hold for a bit. I ended up working as a pharmacy tech for a while. In 1999, my husband and I moved to Richmond Hill, just north of Toronto, for his work. While we were there, he encouraged me to check out editing because he thought it was something I'd be good at, and my other family members and friends thought I'd be good at it as well.
My aunt was an English teacher, and I've always had a natural aptitude for English. And so while I was in Richmond Hill, I checked out the Editors’ Association of Canada’s seminars. I took several of those, such as So You Want to Be a Freelance Editor and Proofreading 101. Just a lot of different seminars to help me know what I needed to know that I didn't already know, because a lot of people think being an editor is just checking spelling and grammar. There's a lot more to it than that. So I took several seminars, and Editors Canada had a self-driven course called Meeting Editorial Standards, with workbooks you can work through. I worked through those as well.
And so I taught myself what I thought I needed to know as much as I could. And then I realized, “Okay, I need to get some real-world experience now,” so I drew on what I knew, which was sports. I've always been a big hockey fan. So I decided to try to use that subject knowledge to see if I could break in that way. I contacted Dan Diamond, who was the publisher of the NHL Official Guide & Record Book, to see if there might be something coming up I could help out with. And he happened to be in the process of doing the second edition of Total Hockey Encyclopedia and needed some proofreading done, so he told me, “I'll send you some pages and you can take a look at it and let me know what you think.”
So that's what happened. I got a courier delivery the next day: a two-inch-thick stack of papers, 8 and 1/2 by 11 pages, with a section of the book printed on it. I took a look, then called him up and said, "I can do this." And he told me to go ahead. So I got that proofreading experience under my belt, and he gave me some positive feedback.
“That’s really what I think helped my career, having a niche that allowed me to break in with that knowledge base as I was learning what I needed to know. ”
And from there, I decided to contact the publisher Human Kinetics, who do a lot of textbooks for physical education and kinesiology, coaching guides, stuff like that. They gave me a copy editing test to do, which is quite common in the editing industry. I did the test, sent it back, and the feedback I got was that I missed a few things, but it was just style guide stuff I could learn. The important thing was that I knew my muscles, knew how to spell gastrocnemius and sternocleidomastoid. So she said, “I'll send you a book and we'll give it a trial run." I got along fine on that first edit, and I've been doing projects for Human Kinetics ever since. That was back in 2000, and I've done more than 100 projects for HK.
From there, I also branched out to contacting Canadian companies who use freelancers and got added to their rosters, and that's how I started to build my business. I did try to specialize as much as I could in sports. That was my selling point. And I still get a lot of sports projects, although I do some other things as well. Sometimes I get books about historical events, like the Halifax explosion and the Springhill mining disaster, or general non-fiction, as well as some fiction. But sports is still my baby. I still really enjoy doing those projects, and that's really what I think helped my career, having a niche that allowed me to break in with that knowledge base as I was learning what I needed to know.
What's the Idea: The sports industry is huge and hugely important to a lot of Canadians, so it’s great that you're able to participate in it as an editor and do what you want to do.
Patricia: Yes, for sure.
What's the Idea: How did you find the contact information for these people?
Patricia: Believe it or not, I went to the library. They had this really big, thick book called Writer’s Market. It was a very large industry book that listed all the publishers and head offices and contact information, along with the kinds of material and genres they published. So that is one place where I mined information. I went through the book and picked out ones that had sports in their names or in their genres. I handpicked ones to contact and just sent out cold emails to people. Of course, I sent out a lot more emails than I got responses from. Sometimes I’d get a response saying, “We don't use freelancers. Sorry.” But eventually, I did get a few positive responses saying, "Yes, we do have a freelance roster we can add you to." Sometimes they asked me to do an editing test. So that's how I built up my business.
Since then, I've gotten projects from working with one person who was a managing editor with one company and then they moved to a different company, and then a little while later, they contacted me to do something for their new company. So that's definitely another way that I've expanded my business, through having worked for somebody before, they liked what I did, and then contacted me again when they moved publishing houses.
“A lot of times you’re learning things as well about the people you’re editing about, and sometimes it’s just pure fun. ”
What's the Idea: What is it about sports, or hockey specifically if that's your true passion, that’s so important to you?
Patricia: We're a sports household. Our whole household has watched sports. It's just something we enjoy doing. I can remember watching Wide World of Sports every Sunday at home when I was a teenager. I would watch anything. I enjoy the competition. I enjoy the excitement of it. When the Olympics are on, I’ll watch every minute I can. I have a running joke that I’d watch paint dry if it were an Olympic sport. So it's not specifically just hockey, but that was the one I focused on in the very beginning, and it is still probably the one I enjoy doing the most. But I like all sports.
“Some projects hit harder than others. I was honoured to proofread this book by Kaleb Dahlgren, one of the survivors of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash.” - Patricia MacDonald
I've done a figure skating book, I've done baseball books, I've done football books, I just finished a curling book. Jennifer Jones, the Canadian champion and world champion curler, did a memoir. I just finished that. I find the stories are interesting. A lot of times the project is a memoir, so they're talking from their own experiences. I did a book by Andre De Grasse, the Canadian sprinter. He had a book out in 2023 where he shared lessons he learned through his career. And it's just interesting to hear his thoughts on working hard and what he had to do in order to get to the top of his game. So a lot of times you're learning things as well about the people you're editing about, and sometimes it's just pure fun. And I’ve gotten to work on books by some of my favourite athletes, like Doug Gilmour and Curtis Joseph.
The book I'm doing right now is by TSN sportscaster James Duthie. It's all short stories about something fun or crazy that a player did or something that happened, and they’re mostly feel-good, fun stories, so that's always nice as well. I just enjoy that. I enjoy the different stories. There’s also a chapter on Johnny and Matty Gaudreau, the hockey players who were killed last summer by a drunk driver. It’s a wonderful tribute to them.
What's the Idea: Is there a goal to try to do as many different sports as you can?
Patricia: It hasn't actually been a goal. That's just the way it's shaken out, that I've been approached for different sports by the publishing companies. I definitely have a lot of different ones on my plate. Basketball, there's another sport I’ve done. And tennis.
What's the Idea: I guess you want to know the sport a little bit as well, right?
Patricia: These are all sports that I've watched, that I kind of know, at least a little bit about all of them. Some I watch more than others. Football, didn't watch a whole lot of football, or basketball, but I still know a lot about the sports. It's good to have a little bit of background knowledge.
Speaking of background knowledge, that's something that does really come into play sometimes when you're doing, say, a sports book where people are talking about facts, that this happened or that happened. And if you know about the subject matter, you can sometimes pick up mistakes the authors made that somebody else wouldn't necessarily pick up on or wouldn't think to fact check.
Quite a while ago, I did a book about a prominent hockey player. And one of the comments the author made when talking about the Calder Trophy for rookie of the year was that Wayne Gretzky surprisingly didn't win it in his rookie season in Edmonton. Well, Wayne Gretzky wasn't eligible for that award because he had played professionally before he joined the NHL. So I pointed that out to the author, and that if Gretzky had been eligible for the trophy, he would have won it. Hands down, he would have won the trophy. The author thanked me for saving him from this major mistake because he probably would have been raked over the coals for saying something like that. Because it was a very obvious and very large mistake for anyone who knows anything about hockey and Gretzky.
If an author posts an error that's big, and it goes in the book and a reader catches it, they kind of start to wonder, “What else did the author miss? What else is not correct here?” So that's where it's really important to be able to correct errors like that. And errors like that happen all the time. You just don't have the information you thought you had, so that's why it's good to have an editor with a little bit of background who can catch stuff like that.
What's the Idea: Absolutely. That's such a hugely valuable part of the editing process because nobody's a perfect writer or editor.
Patricia: Exactly. That's why I have a job, because nobody's perfect. So, that's a good thing.
What's the Idea: When I first heard you were a sports editor, I imagined sports newspaper columns, or news, more than memoirs or biographies. Do you ever do anything like that?
Patricia: My business is probably 99% books. I also do a hockey magazine, The Sports Forecaster’s NHL Preview and Fantasy Guide. I've done that for six years. But that's the only periodical-type project that I work on. It's pretty much all books. So, as I said, it's mostly memoirs on the sports side, or stories about hockey players or certain events that happened. I've done a couple of those as well.
For the last time the Leafs won the Stanley Cup, there was a book I did that documented the final game of the series against Montreal. So that was interesting to me as a Leafs fan. And I edited a book on the Canadian amateur hockey team that went over and won the Olympics back in 1948, so that's just an interesting historical event that you get to learn more about.
I did a book on the ’72 summit series as well. It's always interesting to learn more about those types of events because I wasn’t around in 1972. Well, I was around in 1972 but I was two, so I certainly don't remember that. But I mean, that's hockey lore, the Summit Series when Canada beat the Russians in 1972. So I found it really interesting to be able to do a book on that, to learn the details and just get immersed in what the players were doing and thinking and feeling during those few weeks of the tournament.
What's the Idea: Sports is a largely male-dominated industry. Has it affected you at all to be a female-run small business working in this niche?
Patricia: That's interesting, because editing itself is more female dominated. The percentage of editors runs a lot more female than it does male. But of course, sport is more male oriented. That's changing, but traditionally that's been a more male oriented area. I'm not sure if that's really played a factor or not in my career. I'm being hired for my editing expertise as much as anything.
What's the Idea: It hasn't held you back in any way, then?
Patricia: It certainly hasn't held me back. I have about six or seven Canadian publishers now that I do general work for and I get a lot of requests from independent people as well. I do some independent work and most of those are male authors. Not all, but a good chunk of them are. They’re looking for my sports experience as well as my editing experience. So I guess they respect that it is possible to be a woman and still know a thing or two about sports in this day and age.
A look at Patricia’s bookshelf, filled with the books she’s worked on.
What's the Idea: Is this type of work what you set out to do? Did it change as you went through the projects and realized memoirs were going to be a big focus?
Patricia: Yeah, that's a good question. I didn't really have memoirs on the brain when I first started out. It was just books about sports or whatever. I thought maybe I'd do some fiction. I don't do a lot of fiction, but I do some, and I do enjoy it because it's a nice break
But I really found that I enjoyed doing memoirs because that's a lot of what I get from HarperCollins Canada. They send me a lot of memoirs and I've discovered that I really enjoy doing that type of book, because a lot of times it's somebody I'm familiar with. Most of the memoirs I've done have been hockey players or other sports figures or musicians that I'm familiar with. I really enjoy learning more about their stories. It's really nice to be able to polish their stories, help to hone the story, help to make their voice come across, and to help tell their stories as well as possible. So I like that aspect of it as well, knowing that I played a part in polishing off their words to make it a good end result for the reader.
What's the Idea: Is there a goal that’s most important for you when working on these memoirs? For example, trying to bring their voice out, or to make it accurate, or just trying to make it readable?
Patricia: That's pretty much it. I think you nailed it right there. You're trying to bring their voice, but you're trying to preserve their voice as well. You're not trying to make wholesale changes in what they've written. They have their own voice and you are definitely trying to preserve that; as an editor, you need to respect the author's voice. You're just trying to polish, maybe how they say some things, or correct obvious errors in grammar and usage or whatnot. Sometimes they're using words that the meaning of is not quite what they're going for and you help them find the right word. But you definitely have to respect the author's voice. And yes, you're striving for accuracy. So if there's anything that doesn't quite sound right, you look it up and make sure that it's accurate. And you’re definitely keeping readability in mind as well. It’s a balance!
One of Patricia’s editorial assistants, Maisie, supervises with long sleeps under the desk.
What's the Idea: Is there anything specific that you’ve learned or found interesting about running your own business that you’d like to share?
Patricia: One thing I found interesting is that often when you're working on a book, something will pop up that was in a book you previously edited not that long ago. Sometimes I've been able to correct something because I read something similar or something about that particular subject in a previous book I just worked on. That's actually happened to me where I've been able to make corrections based on previous projects. So I always enjoy it when little things like that pop up, almost like a theme sometimes.
Preserving your author's voice is important, but it's also important to treat your authors with respect as well when you're querying them. If they've written something and it's not making sense to you, I think you have to be respectful in how you frame that question. Just “This isn't quite making sense to me. Did you mean this?” and you make a suggestion. Or “Could you please clarify this?” rather than just, “This doesn't make sense. Please rewrite.” I’ll often even say, “Perhaps I’m missing something, but…” You need to treat the author with respect. They put their heart and soul into these words and you have to treat that with respect and tread lightly when you make comments. If there is a criticism you have, you really have to go softly. You need to treat it lightly and be as nice as you can about it if there's an issue that's popping up that might need to be corrected. So that's one thing I've learned, the importance of good communication with your authors and being fair and being nice and being helpful and supportive.
“Don’t be afraid to ask for something or to go after a project that you’re interested in, because you never know what might happen.”
What's the Idea: Do you have any advice for people starting out freelance editing businesses?
Patricia: I think if you have a niche, that's definitely helpful. Sports was my niche and it really helped me to narrow my focus on the types of projects I was going after. It narrowed my experience as well. So I think if you have a niche, use it to your advantage.
Also don't be afraid to go after a project that you're interested in. If you see a book that you know is being published, like publishers sometimes reveal upcoming titles, or if you just happen to hear that such and such is doing a book, don't be afraid to go after it. Find somebody, contact the publisher if you can, even if you have to track them down, and just say, “I'm really interested in this. I'd like to be considered for this.” I've done that several times and I've managed to land the project a couple of times.
I'm a big Rush fan, and after Neil Peart passed away a few years ago, I contacted ECW Press and HarperCollins and said, “If you happen to be doing any books about Neil Peart or Rush in the future, I'd love to be considered for them.” Within a couple of months, I got contacted by ECW Press saying, "We've got a Rush book coming up. Would you like to copy edit it?" And I'm like, "Yes!" So I got two Rush books out of that.
I almost landed Geddy Lee’s memoir with HarperCollins USA, but they ended up having to go with somebody in-house in the States, rather than farm it out to some wannabe in Canada. But I did go after it, because you never know.
I also did a book on a band I really like from Norway, a-ha. I was 15 when their hit song “Take On Me” came out. I am still a big fan of a-ha and I saw there was a book being written. Some guy was doing a book about all their albums and was breaking all the albums down into the individual songs and talking about the songs. So I contacted the publisher and said, “Hey, I'd love a chance to proofread this book. I'm a big fan. I have proofreading and editing experience.” And I landed that job. I got to proofread that book, which was really interesting. So that’s one piece of advice I would pass along: Don't be afraid to ask for something or to go after a project that you're interested in, because you never know what might happen.
The three books pictured above were the books Patricia landed as a result of contacting publishers about a specific topic (Rush) or book (a-ha).
What's the Idea: That’s really interesting. And I mean, you didn't get that Geddy Lee book, but it's not going to be the last Geddy Lee book that a publisher's going to be putting out, or an Alex Lifeson book.
Patricia: Oh, I’ll take that, too.
What's the Idea: Do you have a website or a portfolio? How do you communicate that you're a sports expert?
Patricia: I've been saying for years “I have to make a website, I have to make a website.” But I just have never gotten around to it because I'm not that tech-friendly. But I have a listing in the Editors Canada Online Directory of Editors, and I've been contacted for work through that directory by several people. I also have a listing on Reedsy and I've gotten a few books from Reedsy as well, and those have all been sports. I must have it on there that I specialize in sports, because every book I've gotten from Reedsy has been a sports one.
So that's how independent authors find me. I do have to get that website going though, and of course all the publishing companies I work for know I'm the sports go-to for them.
“I would name some of the books I’d worked on and my experience and give an idea of what I had accomplished, and I just used that as a starting point.”
What's the Idea: When you were reaching out to those publishing companies initially, would your message have just been something like, "Hi, I'm Patricia. I love sports and have experience with these books" and then you gave your portfolio or resumé. Or how did you go about that?
Patricia: It was exactly that. I reached out and said, “I have experience with this. These are some of the titles I've done.” Once I had a few things on my resume, I would name some of the books I’d worked on and my experience and give an idea of what I had accomplished, and I just used that as a starting point and saying, “I'd love to be considered for any freelance opportunities and be added to your freelance roster if possible, and let me know if you have any questions,” and we’d go from there. And that's basically how I ended up at HarperCollins and ECW and Dundurn and Firefly. So yeah, that was the approach.
What's the Idea: That’s an amazing list of publishers doing great work today. Are there any projects you're working on now that you want to focus on or is there anything that you're thinking of doing in the future? Any ideas for what you might want to try in the future?
Patricia: I'm happy with where I am right now, actually. I do get a fair amount of work throughout the year. One thing about editing is sometimes it's feast or famine. Sometimes you're between contracts and there are breaks in your schedule. It always seems to happen in February. It never happens in August, when you actually want time off. It's always February. And other times two jobs come in at once and you’re scrambling. But I'm enjoying the variety I have right now, both the publishers and the content I'm working on. So I'm pretty happy with this as a status quo at the moment.
I would like to get a few more independent clients because they do tend to pay more, so if you can get that, obviously that's nice. The publishing companies generally have a set rate, so they basically tell you what they're going to pay you for a project, because they can go, “Here's the budget.” So they tell you what the project is and what the budget is when they’re pitching a job to you.
I've been able to get my rates up with a couple of my publishers so that I'm being paid higher now than I was a few years ago. But you can go for a higher rate when you get somebody who's contacting you through Reedsy or through Editors Canada’s online directory. I mean, you can put out a high estimate and they either accept or they don't. So that's kind of where my mindset is right now. Go big and fingers crossed that they'll accept it. And if they don't, move on to something else. But if there's something that I'm really really interested in, I would be willing to work at a slightly lower rate just to get that book on my desk.
In recognition of her contributions, Patricia won Editors Canada’s Lee d’Anjou Volunteer of the Year Award in 2022.
What's the Idea: I know you've been involved with Editors Canada as a volunteer, and you won the Lee d’Anjou Volunteer of the Year Award in 2022. Do you have any advice around volunteering that you would want to give?
Patricia: I think if you're in an association, it's really important to get involved. You learn a lot, you meet a lot of people, you get to network, and people get to know you and they will recommend you for something if they know that you're a good fit. And it's nice to be able to give back to an association as well. I've gotten a lot out of Editors Canada. That's where I got my initial training.
Back when I was a newbie, we had an editors forum where you could ask questions, and I asked a lot of them, like “I’m looking for advice on breaking in” and just tips, and there were a lot of experienced editors who took the time to write out thoughtful responses and send them to me, and it was very, very helpful. So it's nice to be able to give back in that way too.
I actually had a phone call this afternoon with a woman in New Brunswick who was looking to break into the editing business. A friend of mine who thought I might be able to pass along some advice put us in touch and we had a chat for about 20 minutes, and I told her a lot of the stuff that I've just told you about how I broke into editing, and that you need to have training and how to go about getting that, so it's nice to be able to give back to the next generation of editors as well and help them to grow their businesses.
What's the Idea: Was there anything else that you wanted to touch on?
Patricia: The one thing I really wanted to get in there was not being afraid to ask for something you want to go after, like a project you're interested in, because I think that's a really important piece of advice. This is probably one of the biggest things that I've learned, and I learned it through my own experience. So I think that’s the best piece of advice I can pass along to anyone in this career, in any career, or in any situation. Go after what you want! Because you never know what might come of it.
What's the Idea: I feel like there's also an assumption we have about other people that they already have a lot of options. That they already have their editor ready or they already have 10 editors they could choose from. That might be the case sometimes, but just as often, people must appreciate if somebody's reaching out to them to say, “Hey, I would love to work on this, and I have relevant expertise.” You're helping the other side out by presenting yourself, right? That must work to your advantage, I'd hope.
Patricia: Yes, absolutely. I know with the a-ha book, I don't even know if it was going to be proofread, to be honest. So that was definitely one area where I got in there and I helped make the book better than it was, because I have a sneaking suspicion that step was going to be skipped. It was just going to go straight to publication. So it was nice to help out with that and make that book a little bit better just by having a fresh set of eyes to go through the material and smooth some things over.
What's the Idea: That's awesome. As you said, you're not always working with big publishing houses. You're working with independent clients, so there must be room to bring your expertise and educate them about the publishing process.
Patricia: Yes, that’s right. It’s very rewarding to work with independent authors.
What's the Idea: I really appreciate learning about how you've established yourself as a professional editor. It's really interesting and instructive.
Patricia: Thank you very much. I enjoyed the chat.
Contact Patricia MacDonald at powerplayediting@gmail.com if you’re interested in hiring Patricia for freelance editing.
Interview recorded over Google Meet on April 29, 2025.
All photos are the property of Patricia MacDonald.
Transcription edited by Matthew Long
Additional copy editing by APT Editing