The Editing Process – Appraisals.
Following on from a previous blog post about deciding whether or not to use an editor – I've made a decision.
After a couple of introductory emails to a professional editor I'd seen recommended on blogs and forums, I sent the first 1000 words of my novel, Seven Seconds, for a quote. This was for a sample edit on which to build the quote.
Generally speaking, it seems most professional editing services have the same procedure for providing quotes. The editor makes an estimate given the word length of the full manuscript and the state of the work they see. From the evidence at hand, they build a quote based on the amount of hours they think it will take to complete the task.
In my case, the sample edit I received back was extremely comprehensive. Almost not a single line escaped some kind of edit or comment. This is not to say it was ravaged by the electronic red pen, aka 'Track Changes' in Word, a lot of it was commentary or suggestions regarding the use of British, American or Australian English, or simply a comma inserted or deleted. But nonetheless, it served to prove that a professional edit of your work can provide a whole host of insights. From the brief edit I received I found a couple of nasty traits that seem to have infested my work when I looked back over the full document. 'Find & Replace' soon sorted that out.
Having the services of someone with the right amount of emotional distance from you and your work is invaluable. Ultimately it's a business transaction between the writer and the editor. The editor applies their expertise and time to your work, and sends you detailed analysis back. Generally at this stage they aren't commenting on the marketability of your work, or whether you stand any chance of ever getting published, or even if they think you are ready to show the outside world or not. They are simply looking for typos, grammatical errors and various other inconsistencies that we the writers are somehow blind to see.
In the end, I decided to opt for an appraisal rather than a comprehensive edit. While I think my novel would definitely benefit from a full edit, I found the price to be prohibitive at this point. A manuscript appraisal will provide me with a detailed report, complete with illustrative examples taken from the novel, showing me how I can improve it. Ideally I'd have a full edit done on it, but I am reasonably confident in it not needing a total overhaul in terms of grammar and spelling. I'm more concerned about enormous plot-holes that could swallow the novel whole.
So I'll be sending Seven Seconds off early next year, giving me time to edit it as best I can in the meantime. Once the appraisal is complete, I can marry it to a cover designed by a graphic designer friend of mine, and self-publish it via Kindle and Smashwords.
A large part of the decision to pay for editing services is I want to be assured that I have done everything possible to make my work ready for anyone willing to buy it. Will I make that money back? Who knows. It's possible, as I estimate the outlay for self-publishing Seven Seconds to be in the region of a couple of hundred pounds, so over a long enough timeline it could well earn its keep. I see the money spent as an investment in myself. The cost of an appraisal is certainly a cost I could absorb if sales come to nothing.
Ever had a professional appraisal done on your work? What did you think of the results?
