To Buy or Not to Buy
Last time I talked about getting feedback and editing assistance from family and friends. This time I want to talk about paid assistance. This is best accomplished by describing my experiences going in chronological order.
My first foray into this nebulous world was with a neighbor who offered her services for a very reasonable three hundred dollars. She was a sometimes professional editor, had several published articles to her name and talked herself up pretty good. At the time, I was still double spacing at the end of sentences and she put me straight on that. And that was pretty much it other than telling me it was pretty good other than sometimes using “that” when I shouldn't or sometimes not using it when I should. No specifics or any mark on the manuscript. Three hundred bucks. Wow!
My second attempt to pay for help was with a relative of my wife's. I think I paid six hundred dollars not realizing he was going to charge me about one hundred and twenty five an hour for the honor. This guy was an editor by trade, having just left a newspaper to move to Victoria with his family. It was a misunderstanding to be sure but I got less from him than I did from the first debacle. I got the feedback during a coffee meeting – that I paid for thanking him for doing essentially nothing. Wow! Wow!
My third experience was a little more successful, but with a nice little twist – like of the knife. A friend's sister was in the business and a novelist to boot. I paid her I believe a reasonable three or four hundred dollars to read my book and for the first time I got back something meaningful I could use to improve it. In the course of this work however, I was accused of being a pedophile because of the way I wrote an episode in the book involving that horrific behavior. This was particularly irksome as my intent was the exact opposite. Finding myself having to explain that was to say the least embarrassing too. Jeez!
To try and take Fall From Grace to the next level I hired a real working professional in the business and got her to review the book. She gave me detailed notes I found very useful. There were some things I ignored and others where I think she was outright wrong but overall the feedback was very useful and made the book much better. Now I paid about twelve hundred dollars overall – a test run of the first hundred pages for three hundred bucks and the rest of the book later for nine hundred. It was a lot more money but ended in a lot more useful result. The book could use another edit I'm sure and having a good editor working with you would be really wonderful. Maybe some day.
Useful feedback on a novel from a real pro is going to cost anywhere between fifteen to twenty five hundred dollars at a minimum and go up from there. I'm not talking a detailed heavy edit either. This is high level impression and comments stuff. And I understand why. At $30 to $50 an hour (and up) it doesn't take long to add up.
Will I do it again? I'm really not sure. My conclusion at the end of the day? You get what you pay for plain and simple.
My first foray into this nebulous world was with a neighbor who offered her services for a very reasonable three hundred dollars. She was a sometimes professional editor, had several published articles to her name and talked herself up pretty good. At the time, I was still double spacing at the end of sentences and she put me straight on that. And that was pretty much it other than telling me it was pretty good other than sometimes using “that” when I shouldn't or sometimes not using it when I should. No specifics or any mark on the manuscript. Three hundred bucks. Wow!
My second attempt to pay for help was with a relative of my wife's. I think I paid six hundred dollars not realizing he was going to charge me about one hundred and twenty five an hour for the honor. This guy was an editor by trade, having just left a newspaper to move to Victoria with his family. It was a misunderstanding to be sure but I got less from him than I did from the first debacle. I got the feedback during a coffee meeting – that I paid for thanking him for doing essentially nothing. Wow! Wow!
My third experience was a little more successful, but with a nice little twist – like of the knife. A friend's sister was in the business and a novelist to boot. I paid her I believe a reasonable three or four hundred dollars to read my book and for the first time I got back something meaningful I could use to improve it. In the course of this work however, I was accused of being a pedophile because of the way I wrote an episode in the book involving that horrific behavior. This was particularly irksome as my intent was the exact opposite. Finding myself having to explain that was to say the least embarrassing too. Jeez!
To try and take Fall From Grace to the next level I hired a real working professional in the business and got her to review the book. She gave me detailed notes I found very useful. There were some things I ignored and others where I think she was outright wrong but overall the feedback was very useful and made the book much better. Now I paid about twelve hundred dollars overall – a test run of the first hundred pages for three hundred bucks and the rest of the book later for nine hundred. It was a lot more money but ended in a lot more useful result. The book could use another edit I'm sure and having a good editor working with you would be really wonderful. Maybe some day.
Useful feedback on a novel from a real pro is going to cost anywhere between fifteen to twenty five hundred dollars at a minimum and go up from there. I'm not talking a detailed heavy edit either. This is high level impression and comments stuff. And I understand why. At $30 to $50 an hour (and up) it doesn't take long to add up.
Will I do it again? I'm really not sure. My conclusion at the end of the day? You get what you pay for plain and simple.
No comments have been added yet.
