Skip to content

Tag: editing

Four Nontraditional Ways to Pay for Editingpay for editing, editing cost

Four Nontraditional Ways to Pay for Editing

Published by Janell E. Robisch on November 23, 2015

You have finally done it. You have written your novel. You know that you will stand out in the slush pile or in the crowd of self-published authors if you get your novel professionally edited. However, editing is more expensive than you thought it would be (see Why Does Editing Cost So Much?). How on Earth do you pay for editing?

pay for editing, editing, editing costs

Four Nontraditional Ways to Pay for Editing

In this post, I take a look at several nontraditional ways to pay for editing. I assume here that you don’t have the cash in the bank and that you don’t want to use credit. Remember, these are just some possibilities. Pick the one that works for you!

1. Save: If you just started writing your novel, start saving. Maybe you don’t consider this nontraditional, but in this day and age, there is a lot of “I want that, and I must have it now!” Take a step back to yesteryear and remember that all that hard work and hard saving can pay off. Novels can take anywhere from weeks to years to write. Estimate now what editing will cost, divide that amount by the number of months that you think it will take to finish your novel, and save that much per month. Emily Nickerson at the muse has some great tips on budgeting for big expenses.

2. Work Out a Payment Plan: See if your editor is willing to work out a payment plan with you. If you are a repeat (a.k.a. dependable) client, this is much more likely. Alternately, perhaps the editor would be willing to work with you on one chapter at a time as you can pay (say, monthly) or on a shorter section of your book. A developmental edit of just a few chapters will contain valuable information that you can extrapolate to your entire novel.

3. Barter: Consider bartering for services. I am not suggesting you bombard editors’ websites asking them to barter. This plan works better if you know your editor personally or run in the same circles and know what you can offer each other. A group of editors that I know who are also writers exchange services so that they can edit each other’s work instead of their own.

4. Crowdsource: Finally, we come to everyone’s favorite fundraiser: crowdfunding! Do your friends and family know that you are chasing your dream of becoming a published novelist? Use a site like Kickstarter to let them help you. You might even find complete strangers climbing aboard to help you fund your dream as well. The Alliance of Independent Authors has a great article listing “Top Tips on Crowdfunding for Authors.”

However you decide to fund your editing services, it will be a worthwhile investment in the future of both your book and your writing career.

5 Comments
Why Does Editing Cost So Much?editing costs

Why Does Editing Cost So Much?

Published by Janell E. Robisch on November 16, 2015

So, you’ve finally finished your book. You are almost ready to self-publish or maybe send it to an agent or publishing house. You’ve decided that it would be a good idea to have it professionally copyedited first. (I will stick to copyediting in this case for the sake of example, but the principles apply to developmental and substantive editing as well, sometimes more so.) How much does editing cost anyway? After reading a few blog posts, you decide to pick an editor from the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) member directory and ask for a quote.

Then comes the shocker. You never imagined that the editor would send you back such a large quote! One to two thousand dollars for a standard copyedit of your 75,000-word/300-page novel? (See the EFA’s Editorial Rates page for industry-standard fees and editing speeds.) What?! How could editing cost so much? Didn’t you just see editors advertising on some website for less than $100 for a whole book?

It’s likely that any editor that you see advertising such a low rate is not actually a professional editor, and that is the difference that matters. Professional editors work for professional rates. They edit for a living, spending 6–10 hours a day sometimes 7 days a week editing or writing. Words are their vocation, and they’ve invested a lot of time learning and perfecting their craft.

I can’t speak for all people who proclaim themselves as editors, but I can speak for good professional editors.

What a Professional Editor Brings to the Table

1. Education and Training

A good editor has a good education. This can mean several things. Editors can have degrees in language arts or specialty areas. They may have an editing degree or a certificate from a university or editorial association. They will usually pursue various forms of continuing education from various sources to keep their skills up to date. They may even spend their free time perusing editing blogs, listening to writing podcasts, and soaking up all the knowledge that they can about words, writing, and editing. In addition, many freelance editors have or continue to work in-house for professional publishers. I first learned to copyedit while working in the production department of a publisher a few years into my career.

2. Experience and Expertise

A good editor will have at least several years’ and sometimes decades’ worth of experience with various styles and types of editing. Your average English teacher or another writer who offers to look at your book primarily does other work and cannot compare.

3. Time

editing, editing costAccording to Forbes.com, the average adult reads at a rate of 300 words per minute. That means that an average reader will take 250 minutes, or more than 4 hours, of uninterrupted time just to read a book that is 300 pages long. Editors, however, need time to communicate with their authors, read every word multiple times, make corrections, and query the author. According to the EFA’s Editorial Rates page, a professional editor will generally be able to do a basic copyedit at a rate of 5-10 manuscript pages per hour. That means that an editor will generally spend 30–60 hours to edit your 300-page book. It’s not an afternoon’s work. It’s the work of at least a week or two, and that is if the editor is working on only one job at a time.

4. Rigor

Good professional editors are thorough. They will read and edit manuscripts at least twice before considering them done. Every word counts. Your editor also knows that her relationship with you is important. She will answer your questions and try to find workable solutions to problems that arise.

In other words, your investment in an editor is an investment in improving your book in ways that you might not be able to.

Even editors who are also writers hire editors. We all know it’s good to get a fresh set of eyes on our work. What better eyes can you hire than those of a professional editor?

Ready for an editor but don’t have the cash? Check out my post on Four Nontraditional Ways to Pay for Editing!

4 Comments
Editors versus Beta Readerseditors vs beta readers

Editors versus Beta Readers

Published by Janell E. Robisch on November 9, 2015

I recently listened to a podcast about beta readers on The Journeyman Writer at Storywonk. It got me thinking about the differences between beta readers and editors and why a lot of writers think that they don’t need an editor when they have beta readers.

Certainly, there will be writers that make use of neither before self-publishing. For traditional publishing, it is rare (or should be!) that a book will be published without at least being copyedited. There will also be some overlap between the services provided by beta readers and editors. However, here are some differences that stand out.

Differences between Beta Readers and Editors

  1. Cost: Beta readers generally provide their services for free or as a quid pro quo. As trained professionals, editors charge a fee, depending on the work and their experience.
  2. Perspective: A beta reader sees things from the perspective of a book consumer. This is an essential viewpoint to be sure. Consumers/readers are your audience! Editors, on the other hand, can also be consumers. However, they are also part of the production team. They are more likely to have a handle on what isn’t working, why it isn’t working, and/or why it won’t work for your particular audience. They can also provide some hand-holding through the publishing process. Most beta readers would be out of their depth when it comes to the ins and outs of publishing.
  3. Experience: A beta reader’s experience will vary widely. However, any good editor will have spent years working with words day in and day out. They have probably taken courses to update their existing skills and learn new ones. They go out of their way to keep up with the profession and current books and trends in their sector of the publishing industry.
  4. Professionalism: When you hand your manuscript off to a beta reader, you usually just have to sit back, wait, and hope that they get it back to you and that they do so within a reasonable amount of time (believe me, I know). Maybe you’ll start writing your next book while you wait. Then, they may or may not hit on the points where you need feedback. With a good editor, you will get a schedule and a systematic point-by-point review of your manuscript, depending on which kind of editing (developmental editing, substantive editing, or copyediting) that you choose.

beta readers

Editor or beta reader? My advice? Once your manuscript is finished, start with a few beta readers. Then, polish up your manuscript on the basis of their feedback. Once that is done, seek out an editor. You will likely find that he or she has a lot to offer in bringing your manuscript up to a professional level. In this day and age of self-publishing, that edge is essential in giving your story the attention it deserves. If you are going the traditional publishing route, you can be sure that editors and agents will appreciate a well-developed, edited manuscript more than a rough first draft.

 

Leave a Comment
%d bloggers like this: