Are you an editor? Or are you looking for a freelance editor?

[[deleted user]]

Canary, I am not a professional editor so I would not be good at the substantive issues, but I would be willing to proofread and do trial conversions to PDF and to epub format so authors can spot formatting issues before the work goes to a real editor or publisher.

Bob Cherny

[Amy Eye]

I have no issues with this type of post being here at all. HOWEVER - I do ask that ANYONE who is listing their services here to be a PROFESSIONAL. This means you have actual training or work for a publishing company or have your own freelance editing service and have happy clients that you can give to people as a referral.

If you cannot claim to have these, and provide references, please do not post. We are all quickly becoming friends on here, and just because we are all friends, does NOT mean the everyone is qualified (even if you like them) to edit your book. Yes, we all agree editing is important, but PROPER editing is more important. Someone you know who did well in English class or someone you know who reads a lot does NOT qualify that person to be an editor. Please remember that.

Everyone remember to ask questions and ask for references. Do your homework. Hiring an editor is a big decision and getting the right one is very important. Do not go off of price alone. Take into consideration the personality of your editor. Will the two of you get along? Will the editor be more lenient to your views on the book, or are they pushy and will impose their ideas on your work? Do they have time to dedicate solely to your manuscript? There are many things to think about first. Get to know your potential editor first, then make your decision! :)

With that being said, you can contact me about editing, proofreading and e-book conversions. I can do just about everything. :) I will have a website set up soon..I never thought I would be venturing into making a website, but I guess anything is worth a go... :)

[Cambria]

I can and will vouch for Amy on all of this. Including her editing services. She is really good at what she does.
Now, I will say that choosing an editor is not to be taken lightly. Before I hired Amy i had another editor that charge me a lot of money and then didn't do her job. I am so unqualified that I didn't recgonize that she didn't do a lot of what she was supposed to do until i submitted to a publisher and they asked me why i would tell them I had it edited when i clearly hadn't. OUCH.

Ouch on my pocket book and even worse on my book!

Do your homework here guys and make sure you and your editor are clear about what services you want them to perform. I would even urge you to get references and talk to the editors other clients.

If you would like to ask me for a reference about Amy you may do so through private message. :)

[Keryl]

I also got burned on an editor. Check those references, and then really, really check the sample they send you.

If you don't know enough grammar to know if he/she's doing a good job, make sure you've got someone how can look over the first installment of the work to make sure it's good.

Maybe that's something where those of us who aren't pros could be handy, a double check the sample service. Make sure you're really getting your money's worth.

Also, maybe a beta reader section would be good, too?

[Katy]

I am just beginning to offer editing services. I am trained in proper editing techniques, and served as editor for my university newsletter before moving away. I have edited two books for Weston Kincaid, one for Scott Rhine and am working on my second for Debra Martin; they are all pleased with my editing skills, plan to utilize me again, and plan to refer others to me. In fact, Weston is the one who referred Scott to me to begin with. Editing is my best skill - copy and content (to a certain degree - I try not to substantively change anything in the text, simply polish it up a bit) - and I am pleased to use it. Also, I do not plan on becoming a bustling business - I prefer to know I can provide quality service to a few, rather than substandard service in quantity.

Is that sufficient? :-)

[Cambria]

Looks good to me girl!! Good luck with all your editing and it seems that you enjoy it which makes for an even better editor!!
do you have a website or an email where people should contact you?

[Cambria]

Keryl wrote: "I also got burned on an editor. Check those references, and then really, really check the sample they send you.

If you don't know enough grammar to know if he/she's doing a good job, make sure yo..."

Keryl- i am sorry to hear you got burned too. a Beta reader is a good idea and something I am not that familar with and have only heard of recently.

BUt for sure, check those refrences!!
thanks for sharing with us Keryl!

[Amy Eye]

Yes, Katy, that definitely does work! :)

[Cambria]

Very true Canary, thanks for your great insight!! :)

[Cambria]

Fabulous way of thinking!! and one I wished I had thought of with my first editor!!

[Katy]

I'm probably asking to be taken advantage of, but I have usually done the editing and then let the author decide what it is worth ... Of course, once I'm more established and have a larger resume, I can probably stop doing that ... :-)

[Katy]

Cambria wrote: "Looks good to me girl!! Good luck with all your editing and it seems that you enjoy it which makes for an even better editor!!
do you have a website or an email where people should contact you?"

No website - folks can ask me through a private message, or email me at katy.sozaeva@gmail.com

[Amy Eye]

I'm working on my website right now (it should be completed very soon), but the address is:

www.theeyesforediting.com

I will be adding a very unique service to it as well once I get all of the details worked out on it. And I have to hire a few people for the job. More details on it soon! :)

[Keryl]

At this point, I'd say if an editor doesn't offer a free sample, say 2500 words of the author's choice, then I wouldn't go any further.

When I got burned the problem was that I got a sample, but didn't know enough grammar to know the editor knew less grammar than I did.

I was half way through the first third of what he sent me when I started thinking, you know this doesn't look right... The upside is I know a lot more grammar now.

[Amy Eye]

The more you work with an editor, the better you will get at noticing problems. You may not always realize what the problem is at first, but you will, at least, have an idea that SOMETHING is wrong. :)

The down side is that some people are so used to seeing things done incorrectly that when they see it done correctly, it looks wrong.

[Keryl]

You're certainly right about the so used to seeing it wrong it begins to look right. I had two people point out "errors" that were straight out of the MLA manual.

[Katy]

The Chicago Manual of Style is an invaluable aid to editors AND writers - Scott Rhine recommended I pick one up, and i'm very happy I did. If'n y'all don't have one yet, you should be fixin' to get one ... (a bit of dialectical lingo for your entertainment)

[Cambria]

Amy wrote: "I'm working on my website right now (it should be completed very soon), but the address is:

www.theeyesforediting.com

I will be adding a very unique service to it as well once I get all of th..."

Woop Woop! Check it out it looks great so far!!

[Katy]

Cambria wrote: "Amy wrote: "I'm working on my website right now (it should be completed very soon), but the address is:

www.theeyesforediting.com

I will be adding a very unique service to it as well once..."

In the 3rd paragraph under your Who Am I section, you have the following sentence:"The authors that I have had supporting me has been a blessing ..."

That should be "The authors that I have had supporting me have been a blessing ..."

Thought you might want that sort of thing pointed out! :-) I love the background on the front page - very serene! I'll explore further ... umm, later - I'm sleepy now, it's been a busy day ... want some sleep before I start my next book!

[Cassie]

Katy wrote: "The Chicago Manual of Style is an invaluable aid to editors AND writers - Scott Rhine recommended I pick one up, and i'm very happy I did. If'n y'all don't have one yet, you should be fixin' to ge..."

I just got my copy in the mail today! I was going to sign up online, but couldn't bear the subscription fee! So, I have a shiny new book to sniff instead ;-)...

[Cassie]

Amy wrote: "I'm working on my website right now (it should be completed very soon), but the address is:

www.theeyesforediting.com

I will be adding a very unique service to it as well once I get all of th..."

I *just* got the eye reference... ha... I'm slow.

[Keryl]

Cassie wrote: "Katy wrote: "The Chicago Manual of Style is an invaluable aid to editors AND writers - Scott Rhine recommended I pick one up, and i'm very happy I did. If'n y'all don't have one yet, you should be..."

Not a fan of subscription fees, but the ability to search and get your answers in an second was very, very nice.

[Amy Eye]

I appreciate the corrections, Katy, but the website hasn't gone live yet. My designer is just throwing stuff up there right now to give me a general idea of what is going to happen with it. When it goes live, I will be sure to let everyone know!! :)

When it does go live, I may recruit some of you guys to proof the site for me. As you all know, it is impossible to edit your own stuff, so I will be looking for another set of eyes - or 5...LOL

@ Cassie - glad you picked up on that!! LOL

[Katy]

Amy wrote: "I appreciate the corrections, Katy, but the website hasn't gone live yet. My designer is just throwing stuff up there right now to give me a general idea of what is going to happen with it. When ..."

Ah ... I thought it odd that your site would have such an obvious error! :-)

And I think I must be stupid - I took it literally - you have to have the eyes for editing, right? Is there some deeper meaning? I'm not good at finding deeper meanings ... X-D

[Amy Eye]

My last name is Eye...LOL

[Katy]

Ah - so I couldn't have caught it, 'cause I've not looked at your profile, so I didn't know that :-) I don't feel so badly now ...

[Amy Eye]

Oh, you shouldn't feel bad, my last name isn't on my profile!! :)

So even if you would have checked it, it would not have given you any hints. I have worked with Cassie outside of GoodReads, so she knows WAY too much about me!! LOL

[Cassie]

:-)

[Debra]

I have used Katy's editing services and she is very thorough with her edits. I'm very pleased with her skills and will continue to hire her for all of my future manuscripts.

[M.A.]

I got stung by my first editor and was very cautious when selecting my next one.

My current one makes sure she keeps my voice whereas my previous editor stripped my voice and added her own, didn't approve of that.

I would always suggest people get a sample of an editor's work before parting with any money. ;-)

Good luck to those setting out in the business, if you are good at what you do, the work will come flooding in.

[Katy]

Debra wrote: "I have used Katy's editing services and she is very thorough with her edits. I'm very pleased with her skills and will continue to hire her for all of my future manuscripts."

Awwww, thanks Debra! I'm so happy you're pleased!

[Amy Eye]

Mel wrote: "I got stung by my first editor and was very cautious when selecting my next one.

My current one makes sure she keeps my voice whereas my previous editor stripped my voice and added her own, didn't..."

And definitely get to know your author first, I think that is VERY important. I think what happened to you is terrible, your editor should never try to make your book sound like one of their own.

It's good to have an editor that you are happy with, you usually spend a lot of time with him/her and it's good to have one that you see eye to eye with. :)

[M.A.]

Thanks Amy, to be honest my editor did an awful lot of damage to my self-confidence too. It took me a good six months to get it back. ;-)

[Amy Eye]

OH NO!!! That is awful!! At least you were able to move on past that editor. YEA FOR SELF-CONFIDENCE!! It's a very important thing to have when you are creating an entire world for someone to get lost in.

[M.A.]

Agreed, onwards and upwards! ;-)

[Amy Eye]

You get 'em, girl!!! :)

[Christopher]

I use strangelandediting.com. she doesn't mess with the intent of the author (substantive editing), just the typos and grammar. She also does uploading and formatting for ebooks.

[Amy Eye]

WOO HOO!!!

My website is now up and functional! This is quite exciting for me. If anyone would like to go check it out, and help me make sure there are no serious errors on there, please feel free to check it out! www.theeyesforediting.com

I also have a new type of service that I will be announcing probably tomorrow if one of the people signs on that I want to hire for it. But I want to make sure that is set in stone before I go any further. But please check it out!! Thanks guys!! :)

[C.S. Splitter]

Professional looking bu not stuffy.

LOVE the slogan!

Splitter

[Amy Eye]

Thanks, Splitter!! :)

[Cambria]

Looks great Amy! You rock!

[Amy Eye]

Thank ya much, lady friend o' mine!! :) I really am taken with the site, he did such a great job!

[Cambria]

He did do a great job. Now let the jobs come!

[Amy Eye]

*keeps fingers crossed* :)

[J.A.]

Bugger, it just ate my comment! Ah well, will retype.

Love the site, esp the title font - very funky.

My only crit is that the font is quite small and dense and the commas look like fullstops - not an issue apart from second parag where because the I is a capital in the sentence "From copy editing to content editing, I offer[...]" and the comma looks like a fullstop, I initially thought it was a fragment.
If it was my site, I'd maybe look for a clearer font, make the font slightly bigger or line-and-a half-space it? But as I said, imho only so do ignore as necessary!

Love the spiel though - you know that when my bloke is mid PhD, if he doesn't have the time I'll be knnocking on your door - and actually, come to think of it, I may be able to send someone your way. Are you up and rocking yet?
JAC

[Amy Eye]

I am definitely up and running! Send some people my way!! :)

And thanks for taking a look at it, I will check out the font probs (making it bigger may do the trick, but I don't want to blast people away from the screen, but I'll definitely try it out!) and make sure it looks the way it should. Thanks for the heads up on that!! :)

[J.A.]

If you have a similar font but thinner that should do the trick, but it's not a glaring fault or anything - only as you were looking for crit, thought I'd throw it in for consideration. If I hadn't been looking critically, prob wouldn't have noticed.
JAC

[Amy Eye]

I need the critical lookers - I want to make sure it looks as good as it can. I'm sure you know the feeling. We want our stuff to look great!! :)

[Cassie]

Looks great, Amy! I'm excited for you! ;-)

[TC]

Just out of interest, I was thinking about trying to get into proofreading and/or editing but when I started looking into training it seemed that there were a million courses available but no industry standard or professional body (I'm in the UK) and that put me off. I wouldn't want to pay out for a course to find it wasn't worth the paper it was written on.

Authors, what do you look for when picking a new editor and editors, which organisations are considered gold-standard?( in case I ever decide to take it further)