Hire the Right Freelance Book Editor (Not All Editorial Services Are Alike!)
Are you hoping to get your book published? Did you write a book and now you need to hire a freelance book editor? It's possible that you will need a freelance editor to help you achieve your goal. However, there are two types of freelance editors, each with different credentials and skills. Know which type of editor you'd like to hire.
Should you decide to try to get a book deal with a traditional publisher, be aware that they will do a moderate to minimal amount of editing of your completed manuscript. You won't have to greatly concern yourself with copyediting, also known as light line editing, because they have people who do that for the books they publish. The editor at the publishing house understands that the book-length manuscript you submit will have some typos, grammatical and spelling errors, and perhaps a few boring headers that need to be jazzed up. Of course, you don't want to deliver a manuscript that's filled with errors and has structural problems either. Just remember that the publisher's concern is whether your book is in good enough shape to go into productino after some minor changes such as deleting or expanding upon some ideas, altering the order of topics, or retitling chapters. Then, professionals will copyedit and proofread the manuscript (and later, proofread the typeset version).
Should you decide you want to self-publish your book, you are the boss! You will need to hire an editor to help you make your manuscript the best it can be before it becomes a bound book or eBook. If you want a quality book, at the very least you will need someone to fix any errors in your text prior to printing. You might also decide you want a freelance book editor to look at the big picture and help you with the structure, tone, and voice of your book.
Let's say you decide you want to get a book deal. Even if you have written the entire manuscript for your nonfiction book, you will need an excellent book proposal. Why invest in editing your entire manuscript when what you most need right now is a proposal, the marketing tool that will help a literary agent get a book contract for you? A quality literary agent or a freelance editor can help you determine whether your proposal is all it could be, and can help you improve upon it. Most book agents will make at least some editorial suggestions but won't line edit your book. Later, you may decide you need a little more help shaping the manuscript before you hand it in to your in-house editor. At that point, you may want to hire a freelance editor for your book.
There are two basic types of freelance editors, with very different duties. The first, the developmental editor, does the "heavy lifting" and should be hired before you have the book line edited (copyedited) by a line editor or a copyeditor.
Developmental editors restructure manuscripts, clean up writing to make it less awkward and more consistent in tone, and add in transitions and headers. They may also suggest chapter titles and headers, rearrangement of material, and a change in the voice or tone. They will tell you what is missing, what needs to be expanded upon, and what needs to be whittled down. Some can help you further develop your ideas, taking them to the next level of sophistication. And they will help you figure out what to do if chapter 2 turns out to be 35 pages long while chapter 3 has only 8 pages! Developmental editing is also called heavy line editing, structural editing, or book doctoring. Developmental editors, or book doctors, vary in the depth of editing they will do and what they charge for their services.
Light line editors, also calledcopyeditors, do not address the structure of the book, the voice, or the tone. Instead, they fix grammar and punctuation, decide on styling (such as choosing whether to hyphenate a word), fact check, and note inconsistencies. It is not their job to help you develop ideas or keep an eye on the big picture.
A copyeditor or light line editor doesn't necessarily do developmental editing. A developmental editor will often only do minimal copyediting, leaving most of that work for someone else to do. Even if your developmental editor has great copyediting skills, and not all do, you really need a second set of eyes to look at text after she has finished working with your book.
There are many "editing mills" out there that hire copyeditors (light line editors) and claim that they can provide to you a professional editor who will "edit" your book. Know what you are getting in a "freelance editor for hire." If you want to hire a freelance copyeditor, I highly recommend the experienced professionals at the Editorial Freelancers Association. But if you want to hire a developmental editor who can help you more deeply develop your ideas and get your manuscript in better shape, check her credentials. Make sure she has the skills to do the job right.
Copyright © 2013 Nancy Peske
Should you decide to try to get a book deal with a traditional publisher, be aware that they will do a moderate to minimal amount of editing of your completed manuscript. You won't have to greatly concern yourself with copyediting, also known as light line editing, because they have people who do that for the books they publish. The editor at the publishing house understands that the book-length manuscript you submit will have some typos, grammatical and spelling errors, and perhaps a few boring headers that need to be jazzed up. Of course, you don't want to deliver a manuscript that's filled with errors and has structural problems either. Just remember that the publisher's concern is whether your book is in good enough shape to go into productino after some minor changes such as deleting or expanding upon some ideas, altering the order of topics, or retitling chapters. Then, professionals will copyedit and proofread the manuscript (and later, proofread the typeset version).
Should you decide you want to self-publish your book, you are the boss! You will need to hire an editor to help you make your manuscript the best it can be before it becomes a bound book or eBook. If you want a quality book, at the very least you will need someone to fix any errors in your text prior to printing. You might also decide you want a freelance book editor to look at the big picture and help you with the structure, tone, and voice of your book.
Let's say you decide you want to get a book deal. Even if you have written the entire manuscript for your nonfiction book, you will need an excellent book proposal. Why invest in editing your entire manuscript when what you most need right now is a proposal, the marketing tool that will help a literary agent get a book contract for you? A quality literary agent or a freelance editor can help you determine whether your proposal is all it could be, and can help you improve upon it. Most book agents will make at least some editorial suggestions but won't line edit your book. Later, you may decide you need a little more help shaping the manuscript before you hand it in to your in-house editor. At that point, you may want to hire a freelance editor for your book.
There are two basic types of freelance editors, with very different duties. The first, the developmental editor, does the "heavy lifting" and should be hired before you have the book line edited (copyedited) by a line editor or a copyeditor.
Developmental editors restructure manuscripts, clean up writing to make it less awkward and more consistent in tone, and add in transitions and headers. They may also suggest chapter titles and headers, rearrangement of material, and a change in the voice or tone. They will tell you what is missing, what needs to be expanded upon, and what needs to be whittled down. Some can help you further develop your ideas, taking them to the next level of sophistication. And they will help you figure out what to do if chapter 2 turns out to be 35 pages long while chapter 3 has only 8 pages! Developmental editing is also called heavy line editing, structural editing, or book doctoring. Developmental editors, or book doctors, vary in the depth of editing they will do and what they charge for their services.
Light line editors, also calledcopyeditors, do not address the structure of the book, the voice, or the tone. Instead, they fix grammar and punctuation, decide on styling (such as choosing whether to hyphenate a word), fact check, and note inconsistencies. It is not their job to help you develop ideas or keep an eye on the big picture.
A copyeditor or light line editor doesn't necessarily do developmental editing. A developmental editor will often only do minimal copyediting, leaving most of that work for someone else to do. Even if your developmental editor has great copyediting skills, and not all do, you really need a second set of eyes to look at text after she has finished working with your book.
There are many "editing mills" out there that hire copyeditors (light line editors) and claim that they can provide to you a professional editor who will "edit" your book. Know what you are getting in a "freelance editor for hire." If you want to hire a freelance copyeditor, I highly recommend the experienced professionals at the Editorial Freelancers Association. But if you want to hire a developmental editor who can help you more deeply develop your ideas and get your manuscript in better shape, check her credentials. Make sure she has the skills to do the job right.
Copyright © 2013 Nancy Peske
