2026 Editorial Intentions

Hello, dear readers! Welcome to 2026 and happy new year! I recognize that the new year doesn’t magically change much. But it does give the autism in my brain that fresh start mindset that I love, so I’ve always been a fan of setting intentions for the upcoming year. I appreciate everyone giving me that space to reflect on the year in a way I love in the same way you did when I did my wrap-ups!

For this month, these are the areas I’d like to be particularly intentional about:

• Intentions for 2026

• Freelance Business Goals

• Reading Goals

So, before we dive into what my intnetions are, let’s talk about why I use the word intention, rather than goals.

Editorial Intentions

2025 was an incredible year when it comes to my editorial business. I am so incredibly grateful that so many authors trusted me with their words and stories.

As I’m slowly moving past the “this is a temporary living out of my dreams” to “wait, this can be my reality; it can be my career” brainshift, I’d love to make 2026 a year where I continue to explore this new adventure and really cement who I am as an editor and where I want to be in the freelance space, so that, by 2027, I feel truly established, secure and stable (you know, as secure and stable as you can as a freelancer 😅).

With that in mind, here’s some of my intentions for my editorial business in 2026, focusing on things I can actually control. I’d like to:

• Continue to grow my knowledge as an editor, making connections with colleagues and grow my referral list

  • I’m so lucky to have multiple editors I can reach out to for questions, refer my clients to, and aspire to be like, one day. I want to continue to nourish those relationships and maybe even find new ones!

  • Plus, I’ve enjoyed copy editing so much this year that I really want to hone in my focus for that in 2026, taking some more classes and seeing if I want to focus even more as a copy editor, moving foward (still having other options, ofc, but I didn’t anticipate how much I would really love copy editing when I got to do it more consistently than when I was part-time only).

• Find a better balance between editing for my authors and writing my own books

  • Currently, the priority always goes to my authors. And I don’t think that’ll change. But I would like to find a better way to balance writing more regularly on my own end, as well, instead of just massive spurts where I feel like I’m playing catch up. Or, if that truly is the way that is works for me, embrace that and stop beating myself up!!

• Soft explore coaching

  • My style as an editor is very much mentorship-focused. I have so much knowledge about publishing (both trad and self) that I want to share it, plus, that’s just sorta organically what I’m driven toward? I like supporting both the manuscript and the writer. Numerous people have told me I’d be an incredible writing coach. So I want to explore that in 2026, maybe take on a few clients, see how that feels, before officially expanding into that for 2027!

• Remember to schedule time off!! 🫠

I’m so proud of the foundation I’ve laid (built over six years) and excited to continue growing upon it. I’m currently booking new authors for 2026, so if you want to work with a queer editor with a lot to give, I’m filling up ridiculously fast. I want to work on your stories!!!

Dreams

As always, I’m not me if I’m not also dreaming big. These dreams aren’t necessarily dreams that I’m hoping to achieve this year (mostly bcause they are pretty big and I think it’ll take some work and not a small amount of luck). But, in terms of my editing career, I do dream that I:

• Get to work with another trad romance publisher, like Bramble or Avon or Berkley (currently one of Generous Press’ proofreaders and I am so, so lucky!) or a SFF imprint like Ereworn Books!

• Become an award-nominated editor

• Earn $50,000 after taxes in one year

  • Considering I earned $19,000 after taxes this year despite being completely booked out, it’s a big leap! But it’d be amazing to earn enough to pay all my bills and be able to live a little.

• Become debt free thanks to my editing income

  • I owe $30K between medical-and-vet-induced credit card debt and student loans. I’ve only been able to pay off the monthly interest each month for years on these, so I’ve made no progress on the principle. I’d love to wipe these debts forever, someday.

2026 Manuscript Wishlist

Just for fun, here’s my editing manuscript wishlist for 2026! It’s certainly non-exhaustive, as I am constantly in the mood for different things. But I’d really love to edit a few things, in particular. Manifesting that the following makes it way into my inbox:

• Dark stalker romance (ala Lights Out) but fantasy

• Monsterfucking romance, tentacle edition

• Something that means me feel seen and cry like Becky Chambers’ A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

• Plot twists that hit as hard as an Andrea Stewart or Megan E. O’Keefe story

• DRAGONS

• Anything that can comp to a BioWare game

• LOTR but make it queer and sapphic

That’s a little dreaming for this year as a freelance editor! As always, it means the absolute world to me when you hype up this business of mine. Whether telling your friends about it, sending an author my way, sharing my marketing on socials—it all matters. 90% of my authors come to me thanks to word-of-mouth, so while 2025 was a success and I hope 2026 can follow in—or even surpass—its footsteps, I literally cannot do it without you.

Thank you.

Here’s to another year bringing more stories into the world. May they always be a little weird, hella queer, and push against publishing’s outdated standard quo.

Until next,
Nicole 🖤

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