I Love Editors

[NicoleDreadful]

I'll pay a tasty muffin and three skittles to someone who can tell me where to find a reputable freelance editor. No joke.

EDIT: For the sake of transparency, the tasty muffin now has a bite taken out of it. And the skittles were found in my left front pocket.

I am aware of (and active on) critters.org for manuscript review but I know there are people out there doing professional editing. The discussion I see here and elsewhere all points to successful e/self-pub authors working with an editor, so as the number of hopeful authors grows, I expect the number of editors (and preditors, unfortunately) looking to work with them to increase as well. It seems like there must be a place to connect these two sets of people, or there should be one in the works.

I have a vague idea to bug an author on twitter who a) has fabulously professional e-pubbed books and b) has put stars in my eyes by responding to other tweets, and ask her if her editor is taking clients, but there should be another way.

In my dreams, there is something like Yelp, where editors are listed/list themselves, and writers who have worked with them say whether they were helpful, timely, etc. And there are little icons that show you at a glance if this editor specializes in developmental editing, or copy editing. There don't have to be skittles involves, although now they're on my mind and I want some. Mmmm... skittles... *ahem*

How are you supposed to locate an editor, anyhoo?

[kmtolan]

Editors - the whips...the chains.

More.

Please.

Kerry (three cheers for one Judy Gill who edited my last three)

[KatG]

Well, there are professional organizations and they usually have codes of conduct to being members of them, so that's a place to start. There's the Editorial Freelancers Association: http://www.the-efa.org/ And in Canada, there's the Editors' Association of Canada: http://www.editors.ca. Another possible source is the Literary Marketplace (LMP) which you can access at large public libraries in the reference section and which may have a freelance editorial sub-listing. It's also a good source for literary agents and publisher info, as entries have to meet certain requirements before being listed.

Most freelancers get their business from referrals. A possible way to find them is to check out the acknowledgement page of authors you like, see who they thank for reading the ms. who is not an editor at their publishing house, if they have one, and then check whether any of those names are freelancers on the Web. A number of SFF authors have been known to also freelance edit, but I'm afraid I have no current names for you.

They do vary considerably in price and in what services they offer. Developmental editing is where the editor helps you in developing and revisions and changes. Line editing is where the editor goes through the text line by line, and that's done when the ms. is almost finished to smooth out the prose. Copy-editing deals with typos, spelling errors, punctuation issues, awkward phrases, incorrect data, inconsistencies in the text and is the final editing stage. Proofreading is a read over of a text to find any remaining typos and spelling errors and may involve formatting for publication. We now also have electronic editors whose job is to format texts for e-book formats, checking for typos and problems for each format and each conversion stage. Most of the self-pubs who are talking about working with an editor are probably working with a developmental editor and possibly also getting line editing.

[JRMurdock]

How much do freelance editors cost? On average.

I have heard numbers from $200 to $1500. All depends on what type of editing you want done. It can also range from $1 per page up to $6 per page again depending on the editing level you want done.

Do a YouTube search on book and beer editing and you'll see a great interview with two pro editors.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yKRGX8gN6U

[Hellsfire]

I hired my editor from the Editoral Freelance Association and I love her. Now I must say I queried about a dozen editors, some part of that association, others not. I don't think it really matters where you get your editor from as you're going to want to vet her. You should always get a sample edit to see how they work, ask plenty of questions, see how fast they respond and how friendly they are, and of course, their price.

[tmso]

I just hired an editor!! One I've been courting for the past year and she finally said she would put me in her queue! She said I was ready for 'copy editing'! I'm so happy!!!

EDIT: she also said it would be brutal. I'm not so sure about this, but I'm forging ahead. Kind of scary to pay someone to thrash you...

[Cononomous]

I just hired an editor!! One I've been courting for the past year and she finally said she would put me in her queue! She said I was ready for 'copy editing'! I'm so happy!!!

EDIT: she also said it would be brutal. I'm not so sure about this, but I'm forging ahead. Kind of scary to pay someone to thrash you...

Congratulations. That's awesome news!

[KatG]

I just hired an editor!! One I've been courting for the past year and she finally said she would put me in her queue! She said I was ready for 'copy editing'! I'm so happy!!!

EDIT: she also said it would be brutal. I'm not so sure about this, but I'm forging ahead. Kind of scary to pay someone to thrash you...

She's not trashing you -- she's not a critic. She's not schooling you -- she's not a teacher. She's working with you -- she's your editor. You're hiring her to give assessment of weak spots and problems, spot inconsistencies and story logic violations, come up with possible solutions, and help you make sure that everything you wanted to have on the page is on the page. But you're the one who has to make all the decisions, figure out final solutions, make all the rewrites, cuts, etc. If she's good, then she'll nitpick your text to death, to the point where you get the notes and want to go hide in the cellar. And then you come back out at the cellar and realize that you just got an extra brain and work from it. Once you get the first initial shock, it's a piece of cake.

[tmso]

She's not trashing you -- she's not a critic. She's not schooling you -- she's not a teacher. She's working with you -- she's your editor. You're hiring her to give assessment of weak spots and problems, spot inconsistencies and story logic violations, come up with possible solutions, and help you make sure that everything you wanted to have on the page is on the page. But you're the one who has to make all the decisions, figure out final solutions, make all the rewrites, cuts, etc. If she's good, then she'll nitpick your text to death, to the point where you get the notes and want to go hide in the cellar. And then you come back out at the cellar and realize that you just got an extra brain and work from it. Once you get the first initial shock, it's a piece of cake.

Sage advice, Kat. I will do my best to heed it.

[Teresa Edgerton]

I do freelance developmental editing and my rates are competitive. I don't want to turn this into an ad, so if anyone is interested in hearing more, you can PM me.

[NicoleDreadful]

I just came across Media Bistro, which is relatively close to what I was imagining. Hopefully cross-referencing between there, the professional orgs, and who I see listed by authors I admire will get me what I want.