Published by deborah.woehr on 16 Oct 2007 at 06:08 pm
Hired an Editor
Last night, I contacted several editors for a quote. When I began to think about hiring an editor, I had budgeted between $500 and $1,000, hoping for the lower end of the scale. They answered my inquiry within an hour after I submitted it, but that wasn’t the real shocker. The real shocker was the price . . . over $4,000. These people have wonderful credentials, and if money wasn’t an issue I would have hired one of them.
After I collected my jaw and placed it back where it should be, I explored other alternatives. I posted a project on Elance and contacted a Lulu provider. In the end, I hired the latter. I’ll let you know how this works out. Prosperity is now being edited, and I feel a bit calmer.
I’m now experimenting with Lulu’s new photobook tool, which I think is a vast improvement over the old one. Head on over to my Lulu blog to read my review in a day or so.
John (Syntagma) on 17 Oct 2007 at 4:35 am #
Yep, these professionals don’t come cheap. Actually, it’s a long hard slog editing a standard-sized book. On a reasonable hourly rate, it soon mounts up.
In the end, it’s worth it, though, to get a good pro, even though the fee may be more than the first year’s income from the book. A rule of thumb I use is that the editor is regularly used by good quality trade publishers — they won’t use editors they don’t know, as anyone trying to break into the trade editing market knows.
Good luck with the book.
deborah.woehr on 17 Oct 2007 at 5:27 am #
Thanks, John.
I’ve edited several books by various authors and have come to realize that I wouldn’t want to make editing a career. I’m hopeful that the editor I did hire will do a good job.
I’m getting a good education about self-publishing.
fred charles on 17 Oct 2007 at 3:27 pm #
I caught some crap from some writers at Absolute Write for hiring an editor for my novel. I don’t know, it just seemed to make sense to me since I tend to miss my mistakes. I’ve read my novel so many times that my eyes just skip over things, lol.
I actually met my editor from blogging. She had been a regular for a while and edited a short story of mine for free as a test to see if I liked her work.
deborah.woehr on 17 Oct 2007 at 4:40 pm #
That’s one of the reasons why I stopped hanging out at forums. On the positive side, you can get some excellent information/help from experienced writers. Most of the time, you’re dealing with people who think they know all the answers but don’t. You were smart to hire an editor because you’re right: you won’t ever catch all of your mistakes.
Karen Lee Field on 18 Oct 2007 at 1:57 am #
I own a writers forum and get some great feedback when I ask for it. Although my work is improved by the feedback, I don’t consider this to be an alternative to getting an editor. Critiques are for early drafts; editors are for the final one. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford $4000 either, but if you can find a good editor who charges a lot less then that person is worth the money, in my opinion. Editing isn’t my cup of tea. I honestly think an editor’s job would be quite tedious. If you find a really good one…treasure her/him. I hope you’ve found a really good one, Deborah.
fred charles on 18 Oct 2007 at 3:42 am #
I stopped going to the forums too. I was actually going to the Absolute Write chat room for awhile but most of the writers there pissed me off with their narrow views. Writers are oddly unimaginative when it comes to the business side of things.
deborah.woehr on 18 Oct 2007 at 5:19 am #
Karen: Editing novels is a tedious job. I’ve edited about five for different people. I hope this one works out. If not, I have another one.
Fred: I agree. Before that coup attempt on Absolute Write, it had been five years since I had visited a forum. The last one didn’t like self-publishers and didn’t mind thrashing them. Blogs have proved to be a more friendly medium.