book editing services and costs
Why you should get your book manuscript edited
Getting your book edited helps you have a better book. You are putting out a product, that will be enjoyed and judged. The easiest thing to ruin an otherwise good book is a typo or two. They’re hard to avoid with tens of thousands of words, but more than a couple and you’ll get bad amazon reviews like “should have hired an editor”. Those reviews never go away, and can kill book sales. Typos and spelling errors mar your credibility as a professional author. In my first book, I wrote “Thrown” instead of “Throne”. Twice. One reader was so put off about it, he trolled comments about my book and kept repeating how awful this was. Although people are becoming more tolerant (I regularly find a few typos in trade-published books) and are willing to stretch the limits for indie authors, you don’t want to come off as unprofessional.The difference between editing and proofreading
Proofreading is when someone goes through your book quickly looking for mistakes. Typos, punctuation errors, spelling problems. Mistakes are clear and easy to fix (if they can be found). Sometimes you can find a proofreading service that is cheaper than editing, so if you’re sure this is all you need, you can save some money (but I advise against it.) You can also just use a tool like Grammarly – the “free” version with “correctness” only will catch most issues. A good editor, on the other hand, will do all of that but also fix and rewrite poorly worded phrases, sentence structure – so they are actually improving your writing and tidying things up. They will cut out (or “flag” with comments) any big problems.
book editing services and costs
book editing services and costs
What you need to do first – fix the story!
Join a book club or writing group. Avoid your friends and family – they won’t give you tough, critical advice (OK, some will… but it’s tough to know who is and who isn’t). You can easily set up a group on Craigslist in your city. Get five or so aspiring writers to agree to criticize each other’s work honestly. While you can ignore 1 or 2 criticisms from different people, if several people flag the same issues, you probably need to change it. Authors are bad at handling criticism. They think they know best, because they understand things better than readers. Don’t be stubborn – listen to feedback (readers will never see the story as YOU see the story; and if they don’t get it, it’s because you haven’t written it well enough yet). Questions to ask yourself:- What’s the point of my book? Who will read and enjoy it?
- What happens? What’s the one, driving plot conflict?
- Are all my characters motivated in their choices? Or do they just do random stuff because they are really emotional (check how often your characters “burst into tears” or sob or whatnot. Over-emotional characters are weak and unbelievable.)
How much should you pay for editing and proofreading?
I used to charge between 1.5cents and 2cents per word ($0.02USD/word). I still feel that 2 cents per word is average, or “reasonable”. So a 50,000 word book would cost $1000. That’s a big, scary fee – which is why I was uncomfortable charging more. However, I stopped editing, in part, because it’s way too much work for the money. So if you’re looking for a super quality editor, 2cents per word might be too low (you couldn’t buy me at that price, and I’m awesome). These days, although I rarely take on editing work, I would have to charge at least 4 cents per word ($2000 for 50,000words). But I know editors who charge 4, 5, and 6 cents per word as well. I don’t think they are better editors than I am, but they may have a better business model that allows them to charge more; they may also be better suited to certain projects than I am. Edit: now that I have my PhD in Literature, I prefer only taking on developmental critiques closer to 8cents a word, or ghostwriting at 12 cents per word.Price can fluctuate widely for book editing
You can *also* find great editors for much less. Experienced authors often pay $.01 or less, because they’ve done the work and found great book editors. But also because, they probably write cleaner drafts that just need some light tweaks or proofreading. Unfortunately, it’s a challenge to vet qualified editors (I’ve hired several people with advanced degrees and great qualifications that just didn’t put in the work to do a good job). Editors aren’t usually business owners; they’re freelancers. They have to have a website and get traffic or figure out advertising, or compete on freelance marketplaces for “gigs” often while dropping their prices.
- Proofreaders are great at finding typos and inconsistencies.
- Line-editors improve the flow and word choice to make the writing more smooth.
- Copy-editors are meant to clean things up before publishing
- Developmental editors focus on big-picture story stuff.
Is your book ready for editing?
Another common question is, how many rounds of edits and revisions should an author do before their book is ready for editing? This depends on the author. I have a 5-step book editing system I also do for my own books. I start with the story, and making sure the plot is all there. I use my 24 chapter plot outline. Then I go through and fix pacing, character motivations, logistics – so it makes sense and feels like there’s natural progression between each scene. Then I go through and add more dialogue, more scene description, tighten up sentences, avoid repetition. Finally, I do a proofread and add final touches, fix the slow or in-between scenes, give the final conclusion more emotional satisfaction. Writing and editing books is always a messy process, but that’s helped me finish nearly 20 novels. You can learn the important skills you need to tell better stories, without hiring an editor – and I would recommend you do so, but it will take more time, effort and patience. And I would always do a careful check with grammarly before you send it to anyone else, to fix basic punctuation and grammar issues.How to choose an editor or proofreader
Now comes the hard part, actually picking someone to work with. Here are some things I would suggest:- Ask on online forums or chatrooms for recommendations by other authors
- Check out their website and prices (factor in some of the items above – are you paying for their service or for their lifestyle?)
- Ask for a free sample. Most editors will offer this, if not, ask. For a book, try to get at least 5 pages free. Don’t “trick” them by planting a few mistakes (or do if you want) – focus on how they can improve your regular text.
- Do this for at least 3 – in the process you’ll also get a chance to see how they respond to emails and treat clients. Your “feeling” about the person is important – although not as important as their skills. A nice person may not be the best editor (I’m kind of grouchy and my customer service is lack-luster. But my aloofness helps me concentrate on improving the text and catching mistakes). Often very enthusiastic, supportive editors are must more motivated to get your money. But some people are just friendly.
- Find 10 writers with amazing books in your genre or subject matter and ask if they’d recommend their editor.
So how do I find an editor for my book?
I used to have a big list of services I recommend… I took it down. It’s very hard to vet professional editors. I try to hire good ones for my own book editing company and it’s a challenge to shift through their work history and websites and try to find some good reviews or case studies. In the end it’s mostly about the confident editor who says they can do it, which is not an indicator of quality but you won’t find that out until later. I wish there was one good service I could whole-heartedly recommend, but the good, cheap editors are usually booked out in advance by big authors who publish frequently and understand the value. Red flags – by wary of vanity presses who offer to publish you, but you need to pay for editing first. Also be wary of vanity or boutique presses in general, which offer a publishing package that includes everything AND editing together. You’re paying double for hand-holding and product management… which is totally fine if you need some help – unless they are outsourcing to low-quality service providers, in which case, one little messup can wreck your launch plans (mostly, they’ll give you an offbrand or unprofessional book cover and the book cover is everything.)Should I sign a contract for book editing?
I tend to be optimistic and have high expectations of people. But contracts are often useful for protecting an editor and making sure the client and editor agree on the exact amount of work to be done, at what price – without one, clients can keep requesting more work and the editor can be taken advantage of. A professional editor will probably want some kind of contract. Authors often also want an NDA agreement signed, which I don’t think is necessary. But I’m not a lawyer and you probably shouldn’t listen to me. (Though, nearly everybody else will tell you this as well: don’t demand an NDA so people won’t steal your idea.) If someone steals your work to publish as their own, which I think is unlikely, there are some things you can do about it. But try to remember, plagiarism and piracy is not the enemy. Obscurity is the enemy. The risk that your book will never be found, seen or read – that’s roughly an 85% statistical chance. That’s the norm. So worrying about some unethical editor deciding your book is so great they’re going to quit their job, ruin their business and steal your idea well… it almost never happens. While I’m at it, contracts don’t help much when an editor ghosts you – which happens a lot, and unfortunately there’s not a lot you can do. This is the nature of working with 1-person businesses who are their own boss. Most are excellent. But there is a little bit of risk involved so do your research and don’t just pick someone who you “gel” with (I have another post somewhere in the universe, that says something like – finding someone who does a good job is more important than how someone makes you feel).Another way to find book editors
Another excellent way to find editors is to let them come to you. Join a site like Elance, Guru, or Freelancer, and post a project. Be specific about what you need, and include a price range/budget. You’ll receive probably around 20~50 responses. Choosing one can be difficult, but you can read through their testimonials, look over their portfolio, etc. This is usually how editors start building experience, before they launch their own site, so you might save some money by catching them early in their career (at the same time, they may have less experience….). At any rate, you usually aren’t required to choose someone for your project, so you could just use the process to get in touch with a few good options. Most sites like this don’t support free samples, but if you find a way to contact the editors directly by email, I’m sure they’d agree to a sample edit.Reedsy Book Editors
Reedsy is a marketplace of author and publishing services. It’s a well built and useful site for authors, and it makes finding editors easier. They don’t post their prices however, and it’s not super intuitive. Many people have been happy with the editors they found; but I’ve also heard some negative reviews. Reedsy tries to vet editors and protect authors (more than most sites) but as I mentioned, vetting editors is very difficult.Do I really need to pay to edit my book?
I don’t think it’s fair to tell someone they cannot publish because they don’t have enough disposable income to hire an editor. And there are books that have sold very well without proper editing – so I’ve learned that editing is not necessarily a sound financial investment: it won’t make or break a book’s success. It’s a good idea, and of course it will help, if you can afford it. But if you can’t, I don’t think you should take out a loan expecting your book to earn a windfall on publishing. If you can’t afford an editor: I fixed my books by getting reader feedback and asking my beta-readers to highlight or flag typos. If you have a committed group of betas, before you release the book out to strangers or make it available, you might be fine. I would still get the recommended “Free Samples” from a few editors though. If they can’t find anything to fix, you probably don’t need to pay for an editor. But they will probably show you how much you actually need to fix. 5 typos in a whole book is not the end of the world. 50 mistakes will probably upset readers and lose fans. Join writing groups, trade edits and critiques, find a way to get some fresh eyes on your book – and be open to criticism (though you don’t have to accept all if it, it’s always helpful to see how others will react to your writing).Can you self-edit your book
If you’re still here, you may feel like I’ve failed to give you the information you need (because damn, you just want to hire the best editor and wash your hands of the dumpster fire of your manuscript that’s side-eyeing you balefully from the desk). But here’s the good news. The absolute best thing you should do with your rough draft is to roll up your sleeves and invest some time in the craft of writing. Yes it’s harder, than the free-wheeling inspiration that vomited up your joyful draft… because you’ll have to learn some stuff. And the more you learn, the more you’ll see flaws and cracks and just objectively terrible writing in your book and that can sting. But it’s also part of the process. I’ve tried to make that process easier by creating an absolute ton of writing materials and resources for authors; and it’s not recycled garbage either. This is stuff you’ve never heard before, that didn’t exist before. I made it for you. Here’s just a small taste but you really need to dig around to find my best resources. You’re welcome to stay as long as you like. I’ll even put the kettle on.How to self-edit your book for almost free
#1 use Grammarly to find typos. #2 find and fix plotholes with my story plotting templates #3 show don’t tell (3 simple rules to fix everything) #4 common writing mistakes (you are definitely making most of these…) #5 fix your backstory/infodumps (write satisfying fiction) Get started with those… I spend 10 years getting a PhD and another ten years in the industry to begin to start understanding this stuff, and now I share it with writers for free. But this is just the very beginning. I have a lot of content, so you might have to dig around a bit to find my best content, or check out one of my writing courses (one of them on “self-editing” is free, so grab that one while you can!)- How to write a book in a month (34 easy steps!)
- The 6 signs of weak writing (how to tell if your book sucks)
Best writing and editing software
There are some very new, cutting-edge software that uses AI, that I think will replace proofreaders and maybe even developmental editors very soon. It’s already pretty smart, and can do basic things like fix grammar, spelling and punctuation; rephrase or rewrite your text in a stronger style, even change the POV or tenses. You can even ask it to give you critical feedback. There’s a lot of controversy, because this is a big change, but some of these tools could save you a lot of time and money, and make book writing more accessible to everyone. As a last resort, I try to collect great editors at The Book Butchers. We aren’t perfect, but we’re pretty great, and we have a better guarantee than anybody else so you’re always protected.
PS. This is an older article. A newer one comparing book editing prices is “how much does editing cost and are you being ripped off?” 
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I’m a philosophy dropout with a PhD in Literature. I covet a cabin full of cats, where I can write fantasy novels to pay for my cake addiction. Sometimes I live in castles.
7 Comments
“Personally, I’m against contracts. In general, trying to “protect” your writing from others is a bad idea. Nobody is going to profit from your book except you. If it’s a really good book, expect that someday it will be offered for free somewhere. Take it as a compliment (you should actually be shooting for it – it’s a benchmark of success)”
Yeah, No. The contract is used to set the terms of the editing service agreement. It establishes expectations on both sides, such as as when the author is going to deliver the completed MS and when the editor is going to finish each phase of contracted editing. It can explain expectations regarding editor “error rates.” (No single editor is likely to catch every error–yet some authors have tried to sue or extort editors with threats of lawsuits over a handful of errors in an 80K MS.) The contract sets rates and terms for canceling the business agreement.
As for rates… Have you tried to figure out how much your per-word rate ends up in terms of $ per hour? Were you paying rent, utilities and eating–or having time to–at the rate you claimed you charged? (Rhetorical questions) That sounds like a hobbyist (often retirees) or novice rate. Writers who can find a GOOD and Experienced editor at that rate are extremely lucky. Often what you find is a novice who’s halfway decent in terms of grammar and hunting down typos–maybe.
Maybe look a little deeper into the contract issue and reconsider. Since the self-publishing boom, there has been a huge increase in scammers claiming to be editors who do all sorts of misdeeds–including, taking MONTHS to edit, flaking out in the middle of the job, “disappearing” with a writer’s money, running a spell check and calling it an edit, editing an MS incorrectly, sending an MS to a friend who tosses it up on Amazon as their own (plagiarizing), and more. These sorts of editing “misadventures” are a regular topic of discussion in professional editing groups.
Anyway, peace and good writing.
Thanks for the comments – I agree there are tons of people offering to be editors on the cheap, many of whom aren’t qualified; but there are also extremely talented editors who don’t have formal qualifications. In general, editors charge as much as they can for what their time is worth; but those with nice websites or traffic can charge more – so price doesn’t always (or even usually) indicate skill level.
Authors spend a lot of money on editors, and this article was meant to help them find a qualified editor in a very murky industry. And I agree – I was only thinking of NDA agreements where authors try to overprotect their work, I hadn’t considered contracts to protect the editor, which are often necessary.
Some of this is very good advice, but – sorry – some of it is bunk. Mac users don’t (and shouldn’t) charge more just for working on Macs, nor should anyone charge more because they’re single vs. married, or even based on where they live. An editor’s rates/fees should be based on experience, skill level and chutzpah factor (having confidence to charge what we’re worth. Geography may be a factor in terms of what an editor needs to earn to pay for living expenses, but I still base my rates on my level of experience, skill and chutzpah. I’ve never had anyone ask me to reduce my rates because I don’t live in NYC or LA, and I never would accede if they did.
And putting down a colleague who has many years of experience is ageist, foolish and disrespectful. Someone with many years of experience will be more skilled than someone new to the field. Sure, we all age and confront the limitations that age may bring, but that doesn’t mean that an editor with, say, 30+ years of experience should retire and and go hide in a corner.
As for contracts or letters of agreement, they protect both author and editor and are well worth using. The only – luckily very few – times I’ve been ripped off by an editing client was when we didn’t have a formal contract. Luckily, even e-mail messages confirming details of a project can be used as contract language if a dispute arises.
Yes, you’re totally right – sorry for the things I said in the original article, they were thoughtless. It was written years ago.
Leaving behind the ageism, sexism, anti-marriage prejudice and whatever else-isms, I can only figure you are trying to get people who don’t know how to write ( or read, or think critically) to avail themselves of your sleek fleek hipster young cleavage (male or female) at high costs. To that goal I say “You go, go ahead, be the go-to editor for all the people that can’t write.” That’ll wear you out quickly to where you forget you’re under 33 years old. It would be a kind of instant karma. Plus, I guess you’ll have to keep changing this article every year to make it “under 34, under 35” and so on.
The most hilarious thing about age discrimination is that eventually, you yourself will grow old (if you’re lucky). It’s the only kind of bigotry where you automatically become your own target eventually.
oh, and the thing about macs vs pcs is so bizarre and meaningless, that you’re not doing a lot to assure anyone you have what it takes to be a professional anything, much less an editor.
and, it’s “whom to trust”. If your headline is wrong, and you want me to hire you to edit my book, you become a self-parody.
I’m not even sure where to start with some of this.
Your suggested pricing methodology for editors is rubbish. I’m not going to pay an editor more because they are married or want to drive a Ferrari. That’s their problem. What you can charge depends on what the market will bear. It also depends on perceived value. The more someone values your work, the more they will pay for it. Customer service is part of that, so grouchy is probably not helping the cause. I’m a lawyer, which means I’m often giving unpleasant feedback just like editors do, and being grouchy about it does not help my case. A flash website does not guarantee an editor is any good, but perception is reality, so all editors should aim to have a professional website to assist them in marketing themselves. All you can do is level the playing field.
The second point on value. If you run around telling people they don’t need editors, you are devaluing your own work, and thereby reducing what you can charge for it. What you just did is the editorial equivalent of authors selling books for 99c. Now maybe you really believe that, or maybe you just feel embarrassed to say writers need editors when you are an editor, but I’m NOT an editor, and I’ll say it: EVERY WRITER NEEDS AN EDITOR.
I’m sorry, but they do. Too many people publish raw first drafts without even revising themselves, much less editing, and it’s dragging the quality of literature down. Some writers don’t even know what revising and rewriting is, apparently. They write THE END and think their job is done. Now maybe a very rare book has been successful without editing (or without good editing–Twilight, 50 Shades) but they are usually exceptions that took off based on the market and the plot of the story. Unless you have that one in a million story, you should edit. And because you don’t know if you’ve got it until your book sells (or not) you should edit.
Yes, it’s expensive. Hey, newsflash. Writing professionally is a business. And like all businesses, there are expenses. Editing is one of them.
Although you’ve mentioned character development, plot revisions etc, this article also has way more emphasis on typos than it should. Finding a typo is not the editor’s main job. It is to make the story stronger by focusing on story elements and sentence construction. While you mentioned this, I don’t feel you put it up-front-and-centre like you should have. An author can find their own typos if they try hard enough (read the book backwards), but they CAN’T do the other stuff because they “can’t see the forest for the trees” or, they are quite simply too close to their own work. How can you ever assess if the reader is actually getting the right message from a chapter when you already know what that message is? By highlighting typos and putting developmental edits in the background, you have further devalued your own work by making it sound like what you do is easy and not that important anyway. Sure, readers will occasionally complain about typos, but in my experience they complain about slow stories, boring plot lines, shallow characters and inconsistencies far more often.
And finally, “I’m against contracts”. Are you for real? OK, I’ve already said I’m a lawyer, so yes, I’m vested in maintaining the value of MY services, but I can also testify from firsthand experience all the wonderful things that can go wrong if you don’t have a contract. No contract? How do you prove what you’re supposed to be paid? How does the author establish what services you were providing? Or if it was done in the agreed time? You’ll probably say–it’s in the email. Well, you know what, that’s a contract! Maybe not as formal, and not affording either party very much protection, but it’s a contract. A contract is for the mutual benefit of both parties, so what has a party got to hide if they won’t sign it? I would suggest that an editor has a standard even-handed contract that authors can sign as quick fix to this issue.
I see you did remove some of the more egregious statements from this piece, particularly the ones about editors’ ages. However, it still contains terrible advice, and ignorant statements. No editor—no one with any integrity—charges more because they work on a Mac or because they’re married. Pricing is based on skill, experience and marketplace standards.
Not only that, how do you expect writers to avoid such editors? Ask what kind of computer they use? Um, OK, sure, go ahead. Ask whether they’re married? Where they live? What their cost of living is? Now you’re getting into very weird territory. I’m no lawyer, but I have to wonder about the legality, or at least the ethics of this. Regardless, it’s unnecessary and just ludicrous.
I’m not even going to address the ridiculous contract part. Others have already done so quite well.
Finally, in your title, it should be “whom to trust.” Also, “And it’s crazy how terrible a lot of editor’s sites are.” should be “editors’ sites,” plural possessive.
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