So, you’ve finished writing your novel or story and now you want to have it professionally edited?
Part of our business philosophy is that we will never sell you a service that you don’t need. There’s a saying, “Money should always flow toward the author.” In other words, an author should never be required to pay anybody any money in order to have his or her book published — and that “anybody” includes us.
You’ve done the work of the writing, your job now is to submit your manuscript to whichever publishers you think would be interested in producing your work. The publisher who ultimately produces your work will have editors, copyeditors, and proofreaders of their own who will do the editorial work for you — without charging you a dime for it. In general, if a publisher believes that your book is marketable, a few typos won’t stop them from producing your book.
You might want to consider having your novel or story critiqued by other writers rather than paying to have it edited. There are a number of on-line critique groups available, and you can probably find a face-to-face critique group in your local area too by asking around at your library, college, or bookstores. Some critique groups that we’ve had personal experience with are Critters and SFF/OWW both of which specialize in S/F/H fiction and Critique Circle which accepts a wide variety of genres including general fiction and children’s/YA fiction. Critters is free, SFF/OWW requires a paying membership, and Critique Circle is fee-based but still offers functionality for non-paying members.
With that said, if you have decided to self-publish or if you still want to hire somebody to edit your work before submitting it to a publisher, you should consider hiring a professional so that you don’t risk wasting your money.
Whether or not you ultimately choose to use our services, we want you to be an informed consumer, so we offer the following advice:
First, no matter who you choose to hire, ask for and check their references. There are plenty of well-intentioned (and not-so-well-intentioned) people who may mislead you about their experience. That’s not to say that someone lacking professional experience isn’t capable of editing your work well. But if you are hiring someone without professional experience you should at least be aware of this.
Second, before you hire anybody, thoroughly discuss with them what it is you expect from them. Your idea of a “light edit” may not be the same as someone else’s. This not only protects you from overspending or from being edited much more heavily than you had wanted, it also helps your editor provide you with a realistic estimate.
Third, be an informed consumer. We’ve seen authors posting ads for editors with the pay rate listed as “You tell me!” Some people are all too willing to overcharge you, and some well-intentioned amateur editors could inadvertently overcharge you. There is no “going rate” for any kind of editing but the Editorial Freelancers Association offers some rough guidelines to common rates as well as some definitions of what editorial freelancers do.
If we haven’t talked you out of having your book professionally edited, I hope that we have given you a good consumer education to help you choose an editor who will serve you well. We would be delighted if you chose Kimberly Creative Services, and would be happy to provide you with a rate quote and references. Congratulations on completing your manuscript, and good luck in your publishing endeavors!