How to Hire an Editor, Part I: The Basics
Hire an editor. Do it.
No, don’t tell me you don’t have to. Everyone—me included!—needs an editor.
I don’t care if you’re an editor yourself or know the dictionary backwards. When we write, we get too close to the work to fully appreciate the reader’s perspective. There are details in your story that you fully understand, but which need greater detail for a third party to comprehend.
So pull together a writing circle who can truthfully tell you if something sucks. AND, save up and hire an editor! It doesn’t have to be me. It doesn’t have to be anyone I know or vaguely recognize. Just please hire an editor. The more indies we have who hire editors, the faster the stigma of “crap indie writing” will disappear.
A good editor has a list of clients already and fills up quickly, so don’t go to them with a month left before your release and expect them to be able to help you. The best way to approach an editor is to find one four months early at least. Depending on their schedule, this will be way too early or just right. Either way, you’re in the clear. Even if you don’t have your full manuscript finished, it’s best to make the contact and see how they want to do things. If anything, have your first ten pages ready for them to give you a free sample (I’ll get to that in a minute).
To find a good editor, you have a couple of options:
Ask your other author friends for recommendations. Word of mouth is the best way to find a great editor because you hear the honest truth about what the author thought of the editor.
Google. Most of the referral sites you see here, though, send you to copy-editors and critiquers who want thousands of dollars for their time. That wasn’t what I wanted, so I went on to option three:
Stalk Twitter. Look for editors there. Much of the time, the people you find here are smaller editors who edit on a part-time basis. Their quality is still good, and their prices are more affordable because they often have secondary sources of income. Just make sure you check their testimonials and get that free sample to make sure they work for you.
The Free Sample
Any editor should offer you a free sample of their work. Sometimes it’s just five pages, sometimes fifteen, but the point is they are letting you see the quality of their work first. Remember—you’re hiring them. You’re paying them a lot of money, so they have to do a good job. Make sure they give you your money’s worth.
If an editor ever charges you for a sample or says they don’t do samples, run away screaming. That is not an editor you want to work with and might very well be a scam.
Editors will often ask you to submit a deposit and then ask for the final sum before they send you the final payment. That’s normal. Just make sure you do your research to ensure they’re going to take care of you. Look for testimonials and talk to people who have worked with them to make sure they’re both good and for real.
Pricing
When I was hunting for an editor for my first novel, The Grimoire: Lichgates, I as so disappointed in what I found. I tried googling “fiction editors” (and “fiction novel editors” and “novel editors“) and came up with lists of editors, all of which had great bios and no pricing. So I queried them, asking for a sample and their prices.
The response? On average, they wanted $2,000. One wanted $5,000.
When I queried, I asked for a proofread when I probably did need a copy-edit. I grant that. However, no one was convincing with their reasoning why I needed a copy edit. Everyone who replied simply ignored what I asked for and quoted the price for copy editing or critiquing. No one listened to what I wanted or tried to convince me I needed something else.
While I did end up doing another line-edit and improving the novel, it has gotten excellent reviews off of what is mostly the original content I sent them. No one was convincing in their responses, and I couldn’t believe the quotes I was getting. I wasn’t prepared for that at all.
I took this into account when I became an editor. If someone wants a proofread when they need a copy-edit, I do a copy-edit in the sample. I explain why they could use a copy edit, but will of course work with them on whatever level they like. If they really just want a proofread, that is what I’ll do for them.
So when it comes to pricing an editor, you really have to shop around. You can find an excellent editor for a fair price, but you have to make sure they work on your level and give you what you want.
This is a three-part how-to series, so the rest of the posts will be going up in the next few days. Here’s the schedule:
The Basics
Types of Editing Services
How to Approach Editors
