Working with an editor without wasting the money
An edit is usually the largest single cost in a self-published book, and the money is rarely wasted on the editing itself. It is wasted on the wrong kind of editor, on scope nobody wrote down, on paying a professional to repair formatting, and on a report that arrives, stings, and is never acted on.
This page is the relationship: finding someone, agreeing terms, handing over a file, and doing something with what comes back. For which kind of edit you need, and in what order, see The editing passes that have to happen before typesetting.
Finding someone
Ask authors who write what you write. A referral from a novelist two books ahead of you in your genre beats any directory, because the editor has already done the exact job you are buying. Ask what the edit changed, not whether it was good.
Editorial associations keep member directories. Most countries have one, and members generally have to show experience to join — a floor, not a ranking.
Discount the marketing. A website, a testimonial page and a client list tell you how someone sells, not how they read.
The sample edit is the only real test
Pay two or three candidates to edit the same pages. A thousand to two thousand words, the same extract for everyone, taken from the middle rather than the opening you have polished forty times.
It is the only way to see judgment instead of marketing. Pay even where a sample is offered free; it keeps the comparison honest.
Read the returns for four things. Did they catch the fault you already know is in those pages? Do they explain their changes or just impose them? Does the prose still sound like you? Are the notes specific enough to act on tomorrow morning?
Hire the one whose notes you can use — not the one who marked the most.
Agree the terms before work starts, in writing
An email that both of you have replied to is enough. It needs six things:
- Which edit. Named — developmental, line, copyediting or proofreading — and what it does not include. "Editing" on an invoice means nothing.
- The scope. The real word count of the file you will send, as a number. If the book grows by a fifth before you deliver, the terms change and you both know it.
- The deadline, both ways. When you deliver, and when they return. Your date matters: editors book months ahead, and an author three weeks late loses the slot.
- The format of delivery. A .docx with tracked changes and comments, a written report, a style sheet, or some combination. Say which.
- How many passes are included. Whether the editor looks again at text you revised, and where that stops.
- What happens if the manuscript needs more than was scoped. The one people leave out. A copyedit sometimes uncovers a book that needs a structural pass. Agree now that the editor stops and tells you rather than working on, so you are not handed a polished copyedit of a book you then rewrite.
Send a file that does not cost you money
Editors charge for their time. Do not spend it on housekeeping you can do yourself.
- Accept all tracked changes and delete every comment from your earlier rounds — see Tracked changes, comments, and what they do to a typesetter.
- Use styles, not manual formatting. Heading 1 for chapter openings, body text for body text, not 18 pt bold centered by hand.
- One space after a period. A single find-and-replace.
- One scene-break mark, the same everywhere — see Chapter openings and scene breaks.
- One file, named with the title and the date, plus your style sheet if you have one.
In the tools. Nothing here edits your writing — editing is a separate profession and we do not sell it. The tools do everything after: the Interior Formatter reads your .docx for structure only, so a clean file arrives as chapters, italics and scene breaks rather than as stray formatting. Start your book → · about the tools
Receiving the edit is the part that decides whether it worked
Read the whole thing before you change a word. A report is an argument with a shape; working note by note from page one means arguing with a case you have not finished hearing.
Then put it down for a few days. The first response to a good edit is defensive, and it passes. Nothing you decide in that window is a decision; it is a mood.
Separate two objections that feel identical. "This is wrong" — the editor misread the scene, missed the setup a page earlier, is pushing the book toward a genre it is not in. That happens, and you should say so. "I do not want this to be true" is the other one. The test is whether you can explain the objection without using the words but I like it.
You are allowed to reject changes. It is your book and your name is on it. But watch for the note you have now rejected three times: a note that keeps coming back is usually a real problem wearing a fix you dislike. Reject the fix, then work out what the note is pointing at.
Record what you decide on your style sheet, so the next pass inherits it — see The style sheet: how a series stays consistent.
One editor is not enough readers
An editor reads your book professionally, once, with expertise. That is not the same as five genre readers reading for pleasure and telling you where they put it down. Neither replaces the other: beta readers will not fix your commas, and one editor cannot tell you what most readers will feel.
Make your book
The tools are free to use: name your book, bring your manuscript or your artwork, and work as long as you like. You only pay when you want the files without the preview watermark.
Next: Beta readers: what to ask, and when · Back to The editing passes that have to happen before typesetting · Also: Preparing a manuscript that typesets cleanly