Before You Hire a Book Editor

Good editing can make or break a book.  Before you pay to have your book edited, here are four things you should know:

It’s included for traditionally-published authors 

If you’re publishing traditionally, your publisher will pay to have your book edited. Of course, if a good editing job would help in getting your book accepted by a top literary agent and publishing house, then perhaps you should consider it an investment in your book project. But generally, only self publishers need to ante up for editing services. 

Editing is More Than Proofreading

Proofreading is the baby sibling of copy editing, catching simple mistakes such as misspellings. A good editor will also catch proofreading mistakes, but not vice versa. (So if you're going to pay for editing -- and you should -- you can probably skip paying for proofreading.)

Invest In the Right Kind of Editing 

There are different kinds of edits. Be sure you’re paying for the type you need.

* Copy editing make sure that your book is grammatically correct and uses the correct wording. It is usually done only once, and is a final pass at your book.

* Next in intensity is line editing, which usually includes some small amount of creative feedback (but some people conflate copy and line edits.) .

* Developmental editing (also called content, structural, or story editing) focuses more on plotting and structure, and offers the most creative feedback. You might need one or more developmental edits,  since they frequently generate multiple rounds and revisions. (Sometimes development editors will include a copy edit for the same price.)

* Publish-ability editing (also called Market-ability editing) offers a very comprehensive read, after which you'll be told how marketable your book is, and what you can do to make it more saleable, both to literary agents and traditional publishers (if that is your goal), or to consumers (if the you're planning to self publish). Academic authors who want to make their books more popular can often benefit from this, but it's also appropriate for nonfiction authors who are trying to maximize advances or sales; and for novelists, who might, for example, benefit from adding niche nonfiction elements to their novel.

Good Editing Isn't Free

You get what you pay for, in editing as in everything else. Prices for editing vary widely, and different editors charge by word count, page count, and by the hour or project. Proofreading can cost  $2-$4 per page; expect close to ten pages per hour. Copy edits cost slightly more, $3-$8 per page; 5-10 pages per hour.  Line edits cost $5-$25 per page, two to five pages per hour. Developmental edits, which can take up to five page per hour, cost up to $50 per page.  (My clients receive my publish-ability/marketability edit included as part of their three-month publishing consulting package.)

Stellar editing can turn a mediocre manuscript into a strong seller, so don't neglect editing when planning your next publishing project.