Crushing Your Editorial Business with Metric Tracking

Give me a spreadsheet, a color-coded system, and a workflow chart, and I’m happy. (My husband still jokes that spreadsheets and to-do lists are my real love language.)

But even if you’re not a certified data enthusiast like me, tracking metrics is one of the most powerful things you can do for your editorial business.

Because you cannot make good decisions without good information.

You’re flying blind if you don’t know:

• Which marketing activities bring in actual clients
• Your real hire rate
• How long projects really take you
• Whether you’re undercharging
• Which genres, clients, or projects drain you
• Whether you can afford to take time off or enroll in a course
• Your true hourly rate you pocket after admin and expenses

When you don’t know these things, you can’t steer your business with intention. That’s where metrics come in.

1. Clarity on what’s working and what’s not

Don’t rely on assumptions. When you look at actual data, you often discover a very different story.

2. Better boundaries and better scheduling

When you know exactly how many hours you have available—and how many a project will actually take—you stop overbooking.

You stop saying yes out of panic and editing at midnight (unless you genuinely enjoy that vibe).

3. Pricing confidence

When you see your real numbers, you stop undercharging and apologizing for your rates. And you start quoting based on facts, not fear.

4. Cleaner processes and fewer mistakes

Tracking ensures you’re not forgetting tasks, skipping steps, or losing track of invoices.

(I once forgot to run a final spellcheck on a project. Listen … even editors need systems.)

In my webinar, I go deep into each stage of the editorial process and what data is worth capturing.

Below are the metrics that make the biggest difference—enough to improve your business on their own, without overwhelming you.

1. Inquiry Metrics (Your Most Underrated Goldmine)

Every inquiry—whether you take it or not—is data.

At minimum, track:

• Where the inquiry came from (marketing source)
• Whether you pursued it
• Why you didn’t pursue it (full, not your genre, not a good fit, etc.)
• Whether the client ultimately hired you

This alone can change your marketing strategy.

You may learn that

• A platform you spend hours on brings in zero clients
• A random directory you forgot you were listed on brings steady work
• A source brings many inquiries… but not ones you’d ever accept
• Your hire rate is far better (or lower) than you thought

Knowing these patterns helps you stop wasting energy and start investing where it counts.

2. Sample Edit Metrics

If you offer sample edits, track:

• Words per hour on the sample
• Estimated hours for the full project
• Whether your estimates tend to run high or low

This helps you:

• Quote accurately
• Identify red flags before the full project
• Catch outlier samples (maybe your toddler was interrupting every 30 seconds—ask me how I know)
• Understand your true speed across genres and complexity levels

3. Hire Rate Metrics

Editors rarely track this, but it’s incredibly important:

• Hire rate for pursued inquiries
• Hire rate from each marketing source
• Reasons clients choose not to hire you (when they share)

If your hire rate dips below a certain point, that’s your signal to reevaluate:

• Sample-edit quality
• Pricing
• Response time
• The type of projects you’re pursuing
• Whether it’s time to charge for sample edits

4. Editing Time + Efficiency Metrics

Whether or not you charge hourly, it helps to know for your each project:

• Your editing hours
• Your admin hours
• Your speed (words or pages per hour)
• Whether the project matched your estimated hours

This is where editors often discover big surprises:

• A genre you love editing is actually eating your profit
• A “small” project takes just as long as a large one
• You’re losing hours each week to admin tasks
• Your hourly rate is far higher—or far lower—than expected

Tracking time gives you control over your schedule, your income, and your sanity.

5. Final Project Metrics

At the end of each project, it’s helpful to note:

• Final total hours (editing + admin)
• Your true hourly rate
• Whether your estimate matched reality

• Whether you’d take a similar project again
• Client follow-up (reviews, portfolio permission, referrals, etc.)

This is the moment the business picture becomes crystal clear.

The key to beginning to track metrics without the overwhelm is to start small and build a system.

Begin with three essential metrics:

Track every inquiry

Just source, pursued yes or no, and hire outcome. That alone will change your marketing decisions.

Time on each project

Even roughly. You’ll learn more about your business in one month than in a whole year of guessing.

Compare estimated hours to actual hours

This is where accurate pricing is born.

Start there, and you’ll already be operating with more data—and more confidence—than some freelancers.

You don’t want to spend time crunching numbers, so first build a system that will do it for you.

You can track metrics in:

• A simple spreadsheet
• A project management tool
• My Project Data Tracker (I show this in webinar screenshots)
• Toggle (for time tracking)
• A printable checklist

Or a combination that fits how your brain works

And once the system is built, updating it is surprisingly quick.

In my own business, even with 40+ projects per year, it takes me about 14 percent of my total working time—and that includes all admin tasks, not just tracking.

And the payoff is worth it.

This post only scratches the surface.

In my webinar, I walk you through:

• Exactly which metrics matter at every stage of the editorial process
• Where editors commonly overtrack (and undertrack)
• How to calculate hire rate, editing speed, hourly rate, and more
• How to use metrics to improve accuracy, income, scheduling, and boundaries
• How to build your system in Excel or inside tools like Dubsado, Infinity, and my own Project Data Tracker
• My actual formulas, setups, checklists, and conditional formatting methods
• Real examples from my agency and client work
• How to avoid the “metrics spiral” that leads to overwhelm
• And how to create a workflow that fully supports your business goals

If you want your editing business to feel organized, intentional, and sustainable, register here. It’s free for EFA members and just $59 for nonmembers.

If you feel confident you’re ready to track metrics after reading this blog but don’t want to build your own system, check out my project data tracker. It’s only $37.

And if you want help customizing your system, I’m always just an email away.

Here’s to running your editorial business like a pro, one smart metric at a time.

To get notified every time I create a blog, get links to other professionals’ helpful blogs, get discounts to my resources, receive business management tips, and see what I’m reading and recommend, sign up for my newsletter.

I’d love to hear from you. Comment below using any of these prompts to guide you:

• What questions do you have?
• What metrics can you start track today?
• What metrics do you already track and how have they helped your business?
• What is one thing you did professionally or personally today that you’re proud of?