Writing Your Book: Working With an Editor

Posted by in Writing

When you don’t have issues with the process of writing, but want help with the writing itself, that’s when to hire an editor, not a coach. You don’t need to check in weekly or every other week, you want someone else to read through your manuscript and focus on improving the structure, or carefully line editing.

What is it like to work with an editor? A good editor is very experienced working with writers and should treat you with respect and professionalism. Most editors will be able to give you an estimate of the cost of reading the material (usually a whole manuscript), and will be willing to sign a contract. You should ask in advance or tell them which level of editing you are most interested in:

  • Structural editing – having to do with what’s included in your book, and the order in which it appears—the big picture
  • Line editing – having to do with the quality of the sentence structure and word choice
  • Copy editing – fine tuning—grammar, fact checking, spelling and, if needed, line editing as well

Costs relate to the level of detail in the editing. Copy editors can usually do only about 5 pages an hour, so their hourly rate may be the lowest, but the total cost will still be high. Line editors can do somewhat more, depending on how much work the manuscript requires. Structural editors, if only commenting in general, should be the fastest, and so their hourly rate tends to be the highest.

It’s worthwhile to take the time to think about what you need most, so that you don’t waste time and money getting input you don’t really need or that your manuscript isn’t ready for.

Your editor will probably ask to see some of the material first to gauge how much work is needed, so they can be accurate in their estimate. And it’s totally fine to ask for references or samples of the editor’s work.

If you want an overview of where your manuscript would fit in the marketplace, and advice on how to proceed with publishing, an experienced editor can often be helpful in this area as well.