To Editor, or Not to Editor? Navigating the Freelance Editor Scene

To Editor, or Not to Editor?: Navigating the Freelance Editor Scene

Are you ready for a professional editor? How do you know? This presentation will break down the different types of editing, standard rates, and resources available to help prepare your book baby for its appearance on the publishing stage.

Based on the presentation I gave at the Pre-Quill Writing Conference in Salt Lake City on Saturday, April 20, 2024 as the League of Utah Writers’ Editor of the Year.

You have done it! You have finished writing an entire story! All the late night writing sprints, the whining and the crying, the family picnics and the movie nights you skipped out on to eke out a few more words—they’ve actually become something.

But it’s not quite the something you had imagined. It’s close…maybe? It sounds good to you, but what are your readers going to think of it? Are you going to be the next Stephen King? Nora Roberts? JK Rowling?

Or maybe it’s the worst book ever and you should just burn it before anybody finds out that it exists.

Okay, okay. Just calm down. Well, maybe only a little. Completing a manuscript is a big freaking deal and my first sliver of professional advice is to refrain from burning it because you suddenly worry that it’s also the worst thing ever to be composed (I’ve seen a lot of manuscripts in my day and I can assure you that it is most definitely NOT the worst thing to ever be composed).

But what do you do now?

The process from drafting to publishing is usually not a smooth, logically sequential series of tasks. Drawn out, the process looks more like the trail of a squirrel on meth than any sort of straight-ish line. There are several parts of the process that will send you skipping ahead, backtracking, looping around, taking a nap to quiet the little negative gnats in your ear and recover from decision fatigue, and then plop you at the finish line in a heap of infinite hope and crippling anxiety while you obsessively watch your sales dashboard.

Essentially, there’s a lot involved in preparing a manuscript for readers, and a professional editor can help you when you feel like you’ve taken the same turn in the editing labyrinth a hundred times and keep ending up in the same place. The purpose of an editor is to balance out your own talents and skillsets, and there are also some good computer application options that are useful during specific phases of the writing and editing process.

This article will map out the phases of the writing-to-publication process and suggest when you might benefit from an industry-specific application or a professional freelance editor.

COACHING: You should start the editing process with a completed manuscript. If you are having trouble reaching that finish line, you may consider bringing on an editor who offers coaching for writers. Editors who are good with story development and with teaching can help you understand where you are struggling, what your strengths are, and how to balance those to reach this finish line.

$$$: Book coaching costs are listed under Consulting on the Editorial Freelancers Association rate sheet with a range of $70-$90 per hour. As freelancers, our charges are more individual and negotiable than what you find on the rate sheet, but I would expect to start negotiations somewhere within the published range. The final cost per hour or meeting or month will depend on your needs and the editor’s skillset and availability.

$: To help you complete a story, you may get quite a bit of help from apps which are specifically designed to help writers with their first draft. My suggestions are mostly what I have some familiarity with and are by no means a complete list of what’s out there. Start by researching these and go from there:

Plottr is a plotting program that helps you track plot beats and scenes against pre-loaded plot structures or one of your own. It lays out scenes much like color-coded notecards. It also offers features for world building. If you really like it, you could draft your entire novel in this software. I use Plottr for my own plotting, but also to reverse-engineer plots for my clients who have finished a manuscript but need more story development.

AI assistants for authors that include help with drafting are programs such as Sudowrite, Autocrit, ChatGPT, and Future Fiction Academy’s Rexy.

While the upfront cost of an application is significantly less than the cost of a full coaching commitment, be sure to weigh your own talents and time into the equation to make the best decision for yourself.

SELF-EDITING: After you have completed your manuscript, put it away for a couple of weeks. This will give you distance from the movie that’s been playing in your head while you’ve been drafting your story. You need this distance in order to approach your story from the perspective of a reader. Your main job with this edit is to prepare it for alpha readers. Basically, does it make sense to another human being?

ALPHA READING: This is a step in the process that is available to you without cost, or at least without the cost of dollar bills. You may owe a friend or two a favor in exchange, but you can very likely find a few readers who will read your first version for the opportunity to get in on the action. Alpha readers can come from a pool of superfans, fellow authors, or just family and friends. I recommend that you choose three to five people WHO READ IN YOUR GENRE and who can reasonably be trusted to get back to you in a few weeks with any feedback.

I also highly recommend creating a feedback guide, such as a few guiding questions and/or a rubric, to help your alpha readers know what kind of feedback you want from them. This should all be more general story and character development feedback, not feedback on your prose or punctuation.

Post alpha reading, we’re going to go with the idea that you still maintain at least a sliver of hope that your story is shaping up to what you dreamed it would be.

REVISE: With the first self-edit, you were still mainly looking at your story through your author lens. Now that you have feedback from readers, this revision will be more targeted. You may not agree with all your readers’ feedback, or with how they suggest you apply their feedback, but if more than one alpha reader gave you the same basic feedback about a plot point or a scene, then you definitely need to address it in this revision phase. Remember, you are still addressing larger story concepts here—you’ll play with semicolons and commas later.

BETA READING: Beta reading is like alpha reading except you’ve gone through a couple of major revisions and you are ready for a larger group of people to read it. I would still keep the beta reading group small—fewer than twenty people—and again choose readers WHO READ IN YOUR GENRE; otherwise you’ll be getting a romance reader’s opinion on monster fight scenes (I just skipped that part) and a military sci fi reader’s opinion on love scenes (Ew! Why?!).

For beta reading, you can send out your manuscript as a pdf, or you can look at some efficient and inexpensive formatting software to send out your manuscript as an ePub. The two main software options are Atticus (PC and Mac) and Vellum (Mac only). I use both for slightly different projects, but they essentially do the same thing and compete with each other for continual improvements and new features, so they are both pretty great. Putting your manuscript in ebook form keeps the readers from trying to fix your commas while they should be focused on, again, the greater story.

Another option for beta reading is a feature on the platform StoryOrigin. This platform is designed to promote reader magnets among potential fans while collecting emails and securely distributing ePub or pdf files. While StoryOrigin’s main competitor Bookfunnel offers these same features and does a great job, only StoryOrigin has a built-in beta reading feature that requires readers to leave feedback after each chapter before they can read the next chapter.

PEER CRITIQUE: Peer critique comes from a writing group of some kind. This can be a writing group formed geographically, or by genre/goals. The advantage of getting feedback from other writers is that they may have good suggestions for how to implement revisions in your manuscript. To get the most from peer feedback, I would again give them some guidelines on what feedback you are looking for in the form of guiding questions or a rubric. If you’ve gone through beta readers, this is a great way to follow-up on any revisions you made in response to beta feedback.

One disadvantage of peer critique is that many of your peers may not be up for the commitment of reading the entire manuscript. Getting feedback on a chapter at a time can be helpful for prose and the flow of that scene, but at this stage in the process, you are still seeking feedback on the greater story. If your peer group only works with smaller sections, you might want to save their time for help with revising prose.

MANUSCRIPT EVALUATION: $ Another option at this stage is to bring in a professional editor for a manuscript evaluation. If you have received beta reader feedback that is consistent but that you disagree with, or agree with it but don’t know how to implement it in revisions, then getting a manuscript evaluation can be an efficient and cost effective way to leverage the experience of a professional.

A manuscript evaluation is a typed out evaluation of all relevant major story elements, such as plot, world building, magic system, character arcs, themes and tropes, etc. The specific list of categories may vary slightly depending on the genre(s) and subgenre(s), but the larger categories should always be covered. This manuscript evaluation should highlight the strengths of the story and your storytelling, the revisions that would carry the most impact, and suggestions for implementing changes to the story to achieve the connection you are seeking with your readers.

My manuscript evaluations typically run between eight and twelve pages of notes breaking down all parts of the story and including suggestions for a revision strategy. They contain the same amount of information as a developmental edit, but there are no notes in the manuscript itself. My personal process is to convert the manuscript file to an ePub (using Atticus or Vellum) and read it on my Kindle while taking notes. Other editors might read on the computer, but I prefer to curl up on my couch as a reader and experience the story through that lens.

The cost of a manuscript evaluation will depend on the word count. Longer manuscripts will cost more money because they take more time to read. That’s basic cause and effect. The range listed on the Editorial Freelancers Association is $600 to $900. Check individual editing sites for rates. Choose an editor you like, remember you can negotiate (this rate is harder to negotiate because it’s honestly already a pretty good deal for what it provides), and also make sure you hire an editor WHO READS/EDITS IN YOUR GENRE. I cannot emphasize enough how much genre familiarity matters.

PLOT RESTRUCTURE: $$ A plot restructure is more than a manuscript evaluation and less than a development edit. This is an offering that might be exclusive to my editing style, but you could also ask another talented editor if they would consider this particular scope of work. A plot restructure takes the feedback from the manuscript evaluation and uses it to create a map of your story parts with revision feedback chapter by chapter. I use Plottr for this since it is perfect for mapping out the story scene by scene with content and feedback, including details regarding characters and settings to create a story/series bible that can be accessed in one place as you plot out the rest of a series. This takes the parts of your story and creates a map for you to follow for your next set of revisions, but this still does not include notes in your manuscript itself.

I include a plot restructure in my developmental edit, but you can contract for just this scope of work for half the price of a developmental edit if you are willing to do the full dig into your own manuscript to move parts around, combine/separate scenes, and make your own plan for executing the feedback in your draft.

DEVELOPMENTAL EDIT: $$$ A developmental edit is the application of the analysis from a manuscript evaluation and a plot restructure. This is digging into the manuscript itself, moving parts around, expanding or condensing, etc. It includes notes in both the body of the manuscript and in the comments column, and this edit may or may not involve writing out some scene examples. This is a big-picture, time-intensive edit and costs around $0.04/word. For the investment, make sure you like your editor ;).

By now, you may be even more excited about how your story is shaping up, or you might be a bit disenchanted with the amount of work the full writing-to-publishing process involves. This is where you learn that stories are edited more than they are written. In the moments where you feel a bit intimidated by the scope of work, think back over everything you have learned and are learning about your strengths and about your personal writing process. Next time you complete a manuscript and gear up for the revision process, you will be much more equipped to map your process.

REVISE PROSE: After you’ve been through the loop of revising, beta readers, and developmental edits, you get to make it all sound pretty. Your story is in solid shape. Your character arcs are arcing, your emotional beats are hitting a deep base or a high cymbal, and your action scenes are kicking ass. This stage of the revision process is getting into the nitty gritty of your scene pacing, how long your paragraphs and sentences are, and how consistent your details are. At this stage, you are tracking story and character details through the overall story, and you are also feeling through it scene by scene to move sentences around, flesh out the setting context, make sure a character only uses their own catch phrase, etc. This is still an intensive edit, addressing how scenes sentences, and word choice flows for the reader.

LINE/CONTENT EDIT: $$$ This is another time-intensive edit, scrolling through the manuscript to make sure the characters maintain the same color of eyes throughout the story, clean up any phrasing to help the story flow through the readers’ minds, and anything else it needs to keep the reader fully immersed in the story. The advantage of an editor through this stage of the process is that we will be reading the story through the lens of a reader and making adjustments through the lens of a professional story doctor. If you have to choose between a developmental edit and a content/line edit, I recommend investing in the developmental edit. Readers will forgive a few awkward sentences if they have an emotional investment in the characters and their situation.

Ideally, however, the reader doesn’t have to work to enjoy your story; they escape in it. Line and content edits will address all the areas in the manuscript that pull the reader out of the story.

The value of a line/content edit, in addition to the obvious professionalism of the final published product upon initial release, is extending the shelf life of what will become your backlist. While readers will forgive smaller inconsistencies in favor of a great emotional experience, reviews will mention whether or not the manuscript reads well. This will affect long-term sales. Line/content editing runs the same as a developmental edit at $0.04/word.

Pro-Writing Aid, Autocrit, Grammarly, etc. can help fine-tune your phrasing, but they aren’t as helpful with story detail consistency. However, they can be great for a final clean-up, like a Roomba for your writing.

REVISE PROSE: This is a follow-up to any changes you made based on your last pass through the manuscript and/or an edit by a professional editor. This is a stage in the process where it works well to read the story out loud to yourself, or have someone read it to you. You’ll hear most of the changes you need to make for great story flow. Most friends and family are willing to do this for the small fee of a night at the movies or a mention in the acknowledgements. Some of them may even do just about anything if you name a character after them. It’s like capturing a fae by knowing their true name.

COPY EDIT: $$ Now we’re to the commas and the periods. For those of you who confuse copyediting and proofreading, the difference is that copyediting is done BEFORE your book is formatted for publishing, and proofreading is done AFTER your book is formatted for publishing. Yes, you will need to go through the story at least twice more for those little typos that somehow make it through three rounds of edits and all your childhood English teachers. You still won’t find everything—it’s one of the laws of writing and publishing. You can, however, make sure that your manuscript is as clean as possible to spare the reviews that the typos kept a reader from continuing.

The final authority on all conventions in fiction manuscripts is The Chicago Manuscript of Style.

You can hire a professional editor for a copy edit at an average rate of $0.02/word. It’s half the cost of a more intensive edit because it takes about half the time. One key thing to remember is that hiring an editor for a copy edit DOES NOT obligate them to address any story elements. They are only correcting the technical areas of your writing, such as making sure you have a comma before a coordinating conjunction that is followed by an independent clause and not before a coordinating conjunction combining a compound verb. That is all you are paying them for unless you have arranged for a greater scope of work. You probably have a friend who is reasonably good at this and can do a decent job.

Pro-Writing Aid and Grammarly are particularly helpful for this stage of the process. However, there are a couple of things to consider when weighing the value of doing the copy edit yourself, using software, or hiring a professional.

First, a little anecdote regarding the software. I had a client who believed that she would be fine using software. I did a manuscript evaluation for her, then a fast-pass follow-up, and she decided to go with Pro-Writing Aid for cleaning up the copy of her manuscript to stay within her budget. Nothing wrong with this; this is exactly what these programs are for. I figured all was well after we had our final Zoom chat, and I sent her on her merry dark-fantasy-romance way. Then she started sending me screenshots of the changes that the program was recommending. They were basic fixes for things like the proper placement of double quotation marks and spelling corrections, but she had such a lack of fundamental grammar rules that she didn’t understand why the changes were being recommended and therefore couldn’t make a decision whether she should accept or reject them.

Software is an assistant for a skillset, not a replacement for a skillset. Keep that in mind and choose wisely.

Second, one helpful scope of work that comes with an editor is a style sheet that breaks down consistent mistakes and their corrections, any decisions regarding ambiguous spellings, links to research and references for an alternative to the conventional treatment of words and phrases, spelling and treatment of character names, etc. I recently completed a copy edit on the manuscript of a heist novel, and I had quite a learning curve and had to do a significant amount of research to determine how to punctuate characters’ call signs, flight tower dialogue, flight coordinates and lingo in dialogue versus narration, etc. I documented all my decisions, including links to any online references, in a style sheet for my client so that any future editor (quite likely me) who works with him on his following novels can keep those manuscripts consistent with the first novel in the series.

You can build your own style sheet, which is mostly just an organized list of spelling and punctuation notes, if you choose. Regardless, I suggest you have one. You can find templates for these online.

If you are going to copy edit yourself, one trick to help you spot issues is to change up the font style, and also to change from a white screen with black type to a black screen with white type and vice versa.

FORMATTING: Once your manuscript has been copyedited and you have accepted or rejected changes, it is time to format your file into an ePub for distribution. It used to take a specific skillset to format a book on a computer in a way that guaranteed that it would print correctly. The options were to hire someone, use Amazon’s online option (it’s like using the old-school library card filing system to find a book), or to figure out through trial and error how to format in Word. Now there are specifically two great, affordable application options. I use both Atticus and Vellum to format different types of books. They are developed and managed by great people who are completely hands-on with continual improvements. Atticus is both PC and Mac compatible, and Vellum is Mac only.

This part of the process can be a lot of fun. There are options to make your book file as artsy or as clean as your heart desires. It’s the moment when you get to make your book look like a book.

PROOFREADING: $$ Proofreading is basically copyediting once the book is in its final formatted form. I proofread in the formatting document, so directly in the Atticus or Vellum file. The only disadvantage of this is that there is no ‘track changes’ option in these programs, so you really have to trust that this is being done correctly. Proofreading costs the same as copyediting at $0.02/word.

If you don’t find all the errors, you really don’t have to worry. There are readers out there who will be sure you (and the world) know about each and every tiny error in the text.

ARC: ARC stands for ‘advanced reader copy.’ This is a final step before hitting ‘publish’ that will help you find any little (or big) things you missed during the already intensive and lengthy editing process. Advanced reader copies are sent out to a select few readers (probably a greater number than your beta group) with the goal of creating hype, getting a head start on reviews, and finding those few errors that somehow managed to hide until this point. Many new authors skip this step because they don’t feel they have the fanbase to provide enough readers, or they’re just so excited to be ready to publish that they don’t bother. However, if you can hold on for a hot minute, you can distribute ARC copies through StoryOrigin or Bookfunnel and get some valuable feedback and support before your official launch. I highly recommend doing more research on how to leverage ARCs.

PUBLISH: Let’s throw a party!!!

Please post a comment if you have questions. I’ll see if I can answer them. :)