courtesy of ankakay
By Jennifer Blanchard
If you’ve been working on your writing for a while now, it may be time to consider hiring an editor.
Although it may seem like an unnecessary “purchase,” an editor is actually pretty important.
Yes, if you get picked up by a publishing company, they will have editors who will edit your writing. But you first need to have a manuscript that will attract the publishing deal, and that takes some professional editing.
When I was considering hiring an editor for my soon-to-be-published novel, I did a lot of research. It was a long road, but I finally found an editor that I’m happy with.
Here are some tips to help you throughout your journey to find an editor (if you so choose):
- Keep in mind a reputable editor will give you one chapter or up to 10 pages of edits for free. This is to make sure that your style and the editor’s style mesh. If the editor you’re considering won’t do this for you, you may want to reconsider.
- Interview all the editors you’re considering. Aim for at least three if possible. Choose the one that best suits your writing style.
- When you do finally choose an editor, make sure the contract you sign with them has a specific time limit for the first round of edits. Ninety days is usually the quickest turn around time. Some editors take up to six months. Any longer than that is not worth it.
- Make sure the contract has a per page charge, not an hourly charge. Hourly charges are too open-ended and could cost you a lot more than you budgeted for. A per page charge helps you keep track of exactly what you will owe the editor.
- Your contract should include multiple edits without additional charges. Most editors give you three edits. After that they start charging again.
- Remember, all your editor’s comments and changes are just suggestions. You do not have to make any or all of the changes. Ultimately, it’s your book, so you have to decide what changes to make and what changes not to make.
Hiring an editor is a big step. It’s telling yourself and the world that you think your book is good enough. That you think your book is worthy of money and someone else’s time.
That in itself is a huge accomplishment.
What about you, Procrastinators? Any experience with hiring an editor? Any additional tips to add? Please comment below.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
As an editor myself, I have to say this is an excellent post.
http://www.daniellebuffardi.com
Hi Jennifer. Thanks for this interesting post. I’m a freelance editor myself, and I do work differently to some of the practices you outline above. I thought it might be useful to explain what some of the other options are, and why an editor might use them.
First, I don’t do edits for free. But I do think it’s very important to make sure that my approach to the editing process is in sync with the writer’s goals and needs. To do this, I ask all prospective clients to send me a writing sample. Then everyone gets a free phone consult during which I would let them know how I think I can best help, and they can express concerns, ask questions, and so on. They interview me, and I interview them, and we work out if we are a good fit.
Second, I don’t specify turn around time in a contract either. Once a writer has decide they want to work with me, and provided me with the work, they get a schedule: this is when I will deliver the work to you. My turn around time is usually much less than 90 days.
Third, I do charge by the hour, not the page, and here’s why: everyone’s pages and needs are different, and I offer a range of services to accommodate that. Some writers want line edits, and their work is extremely clean – beautiful language and sentence construction. Not too much for me to do. Naturally, I’d get through more pages per hour than I would for someone who has a much rougher manuscript. Other times, I work more in the capacity of a developmental editor. The author doesn’t need line edits at all – they need help with structure, theme, overall cohesion. Again, my reading rate and level of engagement is different in this case, and a single page-per-hour rate isn’t going to cover it. So I take each piece of work on an individual basis and always, but ALWAYS, give a firm quote upfront. The author knows what they are being charged for, and the rate. No hidden costs.
Finally, I don’t give multiple edits for a single rate, and that seems a little odd to me. How can you, when you don’t know how an author will respond to the first edits, and so how much work there will be to do? Plus, I always try and do the best and most complete edit possible the first time around, so that multiple edits are not necessary. Of course, this can vary, depending again on what kind of editing I am doing, and how experienced the writer is. And making sure the client has realistic expectations, both of me as an editor and of how much they can get done in a given time, is also part of my job: an essential part of the free initial consult.
So, that’s my two cents worth. Thank you for kicking off the discussion. Interested readers can check out my website: http://www.nancyrawlinson.com
@nancyrawlinson Thanks for sharing your editing process with us! The tips I gave in this post are just things that worked for me. Obviously not all editors will work the same way.