Things to look out for before you hire a freelance book editor

After you get close to finishing writing your book, there are many things you still need to do to make it successful. Finishing your first draft happens to be one of the hurdles you overcome because you still have to overcome others. You have to think about editing the draft, promoting your book, and increasing the audience. When it comes to editing your draft, it makes sense to hire a freelance book editor. This post explains the things to look out for before you hire a freelance book editor.

Understanding a book editor

A book editor refers to a book editing firm or a person who refines pieces or a piece of written work. Many book editors you find on the market have proper qualifications and experience to allow them to be objective in their work and offer some insights into your story.

Getting a book editor can be a good decision for self-publishing authors. While self-editing can be another option, you still need another person to critique. Therefore, a freelance book editor can make a huge difference between having an average book and a bestseller. If you have experience editing books or you are trained to edit, you can choose to publish your book without seeking the services of a freelance book editor.

Working with a freelance book editor is critical for self-publishers. This is especially true nowadays when readers have become more critical and judgemental.

A good freelance book editor can review your book for word choice. This means they can examine your writing for vocabulary to make sure there are no problems and uniformity of context. An editor can check whether or not you are using enough expressions that can determine the type of responses from readers.

Sometimes when you write, you can find yourself with lengthy, redundant, and clumsy sentences. A freelance book editor can assist reduce these missing words to make the context and syntax clean for the readers to understand.

A freelance book editor can also check the character and theme consistency. They can know where you are coming from and guide you to your destination.

And, the tone and mood throughout the book need to be effective and consistent from scene to scene. Therefore, a freelance book editor can check if you are using the right mood in the scene and its placement in the book. This is crucial for getting your audience emotionally involved in your story.

Editing your book

You have already done most of the work, used a lot of time and effort in writing a manuscript, and understand the importance of hiring a freelance book editor. There is also a chance that you have tried self-editing and made all the required corrections that family members and friends suggested. Now you believe it’s time to tighten some loose ends in the story by finding an experienced editor.

You should remember that you can get book editing agencies or freelancers to edit your book. Getting an editing agency can seem to be the best choice for many writers who want to outsource book editing. This is usually the way some self-publishers opt for it.

A book editing agency can have a group of editors with the same goal or experienced writers who have registered businesses to help writers or authors after the editing services. They have a rigorous editorial process and can involve developmental editing, copy editing, and proofreading. 

On the other hand, you can also choose to work with a freelance book editor who is usually a standalone professional editor with a wide range of options, meaning they are not limited by the knowledge of most in-house editors

As mentioned earlier, hiring book editing agencies can seem like the best choice. But it can be expensive and hard, especially when it comes to the time. If you have low resources and need the project to be done quickly, then freelance book editors are a better option.  

This is because freelance book editors are affordable, you can choose to hire or let go when you want, and you can decide to pay a fixed rate. Even better, you can agree to work with a freelance book editor at any time of your choice regardless of the place where you live.     

Hiring a freelance book editor

Freelance book editors usually have different sets of skills or talents. You can find different types of editors, such as a development editor, content editor, copy editor, and proofreader. Hence, the first step you should take to get an editor is to clarify the type of editor you want to work with. 

You should avoid picking up any random potential editor at this stage because choosing the wrong one can lead to bad consequences. This is the reason why you need to check the type of services that they offer. If it’s a traditional editing company, find out if they can also publish the book and even market it for you. These after-sale services can reduce the additional publishing or marketing expenses of your book.

Besides, you also need to ask the potential editor the other books they may have edited. A good editor should have the knowledge and relevant experience with editing. Some editors only work with companies, so check if they can work with an individual. Even better, you can ask the potential book editor if they have relevant certification or training and the length of time they have been editing.  

Remember that it’s your responsibility to know the type of editing your book requires. But if you are new to self-publishing or editing, you may already know that the book deserves more than just proofreading. There are some costs for the services editors provide. 

Therefore, you must make sure that you get the right editor who can help you meet the financial obligations of your book. In other words, you don’t have to spend tons of money for a book editor because you may have already spent a lot of cash during the writing process.