Five Things to Ask Yourself Before Hiring an Editor

You’ve made it to a point in your writing where you think it’s time to get some fresh eyes on it. This might be your first draft and you want to work the kinks out with a large scale, big-changes edit, or it might be your nearly final draft, and you just want someone to look for typos and missing (or extra) commas; we all know how they like to weasel their own way in and out of our writing.

There’s a few things you should do to prepare yourself for the hiring process. Or rather some things you should ask yourself before hiring an editor. Thinking about these questions will make the whole process a lot smoother and make sure you’re finding the right editor for you.

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These questions will help you solidify what it is you are looking for and why. Considering the answers to these will help both in your search and in communicating with your future editor. You'll make sure the fit is right, and you are both signing up for what you think you are.

1. What are your goals with this round of edits?

This question will help you answer the next one. What are you looking for at the end of this editing experience? Do you want to have a fully polished manuscript, or are you looking for suggestions for big changes and not interested in fixing grammar and typos yet?

Maybe you want really specific suggestions; there's a specific scene or story element you want your editor to look at.

Perhaps you want them to analyze your dialogue, does it read as realistic? Is there too much or too little?

Maybe a scene doesn’t feel right, but you can’t put your finger on it.

Perhaps you are writing a character that’s a different gender or culture or religion than you and you want to make sure you’re doing it justice.

These are all aspects of editing that you may be seeking, but not every editor offers (or is qualified to offer) those services! This will be one of the keywords you search for, and it will also help you communicate to your editor what you’re looking for, because types of editing aren’t always as cut and dry as we’d like.

2. What kind of editing do you need?

So, you understand your goals, but what exactly does it mean? It should help you narrow down what kind of editing you’re looking for. At the very least you should be able to decipher if you’re looking for something big picture (like developmental or substantive editing) or more line level (like stylistic or copy editing).

If you read my blog post "What Type of Editing do I Need?" then you know this isn’t a perfect science, but it will at least narrow things down for you. That’s why understanding your goals is important, so you can have a quick conversation to make sure you and your editor are on the same page.

Taking the type of editing with something more specific from your goals can certainly guide your search making finding an editor a little less overwhelming.

3. What are your project details?

Project details is another great way to narrow your search. Consider your length and genre when choosing an editor. For example, some editors work mainly with short fiction when it comes to substantive editing (it’s me) or only copy edit academic writing. They may have preferred genres or genres they won’t touch. Or it might be less a preference and more that they have a specialty because they’ve worked a lot on that genre or style of writing.

If you bring a personal essay to someone that only works on novel-length horror you won’t get the best treatment of your work (or rather they will just turn the job down, and you’ve wasted your time sending them an inquiry!) Just like you are a certain kind of writer, editors are particular in their skill sets too!

4. What is your budget?

This is a bit of a biggy. It’s technically a project detail, but I thought it deserved its own section. Everyone needs to work within their means, so knowing your budget going in will help you find an editor that can accommodate you.

Editors tend to charge in one of two ways: hourly or by word (a third one is by project, but that’s not really a third as it’s usually based on wordly or hourly rates behind the scenes!) It is possible that you won’t find their pricing available publicly, and you will have to ask them about it, but knowing your limits is a good idea. 

I will also mention that it is okay to ask to negotiate prices with your editor, but do so politely and if they say they can't accommodate you take it at that. Just like you’re trying to work within your means, so are they! 

Some things to consider about negotiating… an editor may offer a lower price for less work. For example, if they usually offer a style sheet, editorial note and a meeting with their services they may offer just the markup. Or if they usually charge hourly they may work on your piece for only the amount of hours you have within your budget and hand back your piece without all of it being marked up. It will be up to you if these are acceptable terms.

Knowing your budget may not help in the search bar, but it will help when you find an editor's site and in communicating with an editor.

5. Do you have a deadline?

Knowing if you have a date that this project needs to be finished is important. Editors are sometimes booking out months in advance, so being clear that you need this back in a month will help you find someone that can work within that time limit. This, like the budget, is more in preparation for when you get to the point you are communicating with editors. 

A fun tip? If the editor you had your heart set on can’t fit you in within your limits, ask them if they can recommend one of their editing pals! That makes the search nice and easy for your next inquiry or two; which is lovely, because searching for the perfect editor can be difficult!

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Now that you have a firm idea of what you’re looking for, where exactly is it that you should be searching?! Well, it depends a little bit on your answer to all of these questions! But you know I wouldn't leave you hanging. The next post in the series explores Five Places to Search for an Editor!