Today I want to talk more about book editing, especially how to choose the right editor for your book. Also, I want to explain some of the types of editors there are.

The first temptation that a lot of people have is choosing an editor based on the price. Some people, whether it’s from a lack mindset or a bad financial situation, want to find the cheapest editor possible.

Then other people think that just because an editor charges a really high price (I’ve seen some charge five figures — which by the way, I don’t charge even though my skills merit it) they’re really good.

There are great editors (I have been guilty of this in the past) who charge too little money. And there are also awful editors who charge a lot of money.

I will say that when it comes to editing, in a lot of ways you are going to get what you pay for if you do your homework.

Before hiring an editor, you want to talk to them on the phone or on Zoom. Find out how many years of experience that they have in editing and proofreading. They don’t necessarily have to have edited a lot of books. But you want to find out what’s their professional background. Did they work for newspapers (like I did for 17 years)? If so, were they writers? Did they edit other people’s work as well as their own?

How did they learn their editing skills? They don’t necessarily need to have gone to school for editing or even writing, but how did they learn those skills? And how often have they been using them?

You also want to find out what kind of editing are they talking about.

There’s copy editing, which really focuses on grammar, sentence structure, and the like.

You have proofreading, where somebody’s looking for typos, inconsistent spacing, and things like that.

Then you have developmental or content editing, where they literally are going to tell you what is missing in your story. You need to have a thick skin for that type of editing.

I do all three. But I mainly do copy editing and proofreading. I think developmental editing is useful for some people, and not useful for others. I think it could be more demoralizing than anything else. But it can also be helpful, depending on what your intentions are for your book.

So, definitely know what kinds of editing you want and don’t want before going into a conversation with an editor. And if they don’t know these terms, that’s a big red flag that they’re probably not as experienced as they say.

Get some testimonials. I for example have dozens online. I also have phone numbers and email addresses for my past clients upon request.