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Ask the Editor is a column for your questions about the editing process and editors themselves. It’s a place to bring your conundrums and dilemmas and mixed feelings, no matter how big or small. Want to be considered? Learn more and submit your question.
This month’s Ask the Editor is sponsored by The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Podcast. Step up your writing game and meet fellow writers with The Deep Dive Workshop, a 10-week series from the podcast hosts of The Shit No One Tells You About Writing. Each week you’ll hear from expert writers and editors, followed by workshops led by Bianca, Carly or CeCe.
Question
I’m a few pages away from finishing a first draft of a multi-generational novel that runs about 500 pages, which I plan to pitch to agents and traditional publishers. After two years of revisions and polishing, I feel the draft is in good shape (don’t we all?) but am wondering if I should pay for a professional editor to look at it or just get feedback from beta readers. Is an editor worth the money? Note that I have published a nonfiction book before with an indie publisher but this is my first novel. Appreciate your thoughts.
—Seeking advice in Pennsylvania
Dear Seeking:
I often joke that the least-popular answer in this business—and yet the one that applies most often—is “it depends.” That’s the answer to both of your questions, but let me elaborate a bit on each one.
Should I Hire an Editor?
Whether a professional editor might be useful at this point depends on where you are in your drafting process, on your goals for a particular manuscript, and on what type of edit you’re considering.
Where you are: Every author seems to define “first draft” differently—from the raw initial “vomit draft” to the first revised version that you’ve taken as far as you’re able to on your own. Judging from your description, it sounds like your first draft is the latter.
That can be a great time to seek an editor, if you plan to—but you asked about seeking beta readers at this point, and for my money (literally), that and/or critique partners is where I’d start.
Before you pay a professional the often thousands of dollars a developmental edit can cost, why not see how well what you’ve done on your own is working on the page through the eyes of some trusted readers? The feedback they offer may help you see any weaknesses in the story and fine-tune even further—and then you can determine whether to hire an editor.
Your goals and type of edit: I’m assuming (despite the rampant dangers of doing so) that you are referring to a developmental edit with your question. You mention that you are planning to submit this story to agents—some of whom may offer editorial feedback—and to seek a traditional publisher, where you will get developmental editing in-house. In that case hiring your own editor may not be necessary.
But that presupposes that your manuscript is solid and marketable enough to pass through these gatekeepers. That’s a hard thing to determine—but this self-editing checklist may help you assess whether you’re ready for prime time, as can feedback you receive from critique partners and beta readers.
And of course if you’ve been submitting and are getting only rejections or crickets, that may be another indication that you might strengthen the story with the help of a pro. As is your gut—I find most authors have an intuitive sense of when something isn’t quite working as well as they want it to, or that certain areas of the story don’t hold together as strongly as they could, even if they may not be certain what it is or how to address it. That’s where an editor can help.
You won’t likely need to hire a copyeditor for a traditional publishing path unless you have major grammar/spelling/usage issues that may negatively impact agents’ and editors’ experience of your manuscript.
For authors considering self-publishing, I highly recommend a professional developmental editor as well as a copyeditor and a proofreader so that their story and mechanics are at a competitive level with traditionally published books, which will have gone through these processes. Sometimes this applies to small presses too, some of which may not offer comprehensive or deep editing.
One thought specific to your situation I’d like to add is that while you don’t mention word count, 500 industry-standard formatted pages translates to about 125,000 words. While that’s an acceptable length for some fiction, higher page count means higher production costs, and publishers may not always be willing to invest the extra money in an unproven debut author (which you’ll likely be considered, as this is your first work of fiction).
That might make it harder to find a publisher, and a good development editor may be able to help you see how to tighten the story to a more marketable length.
Is a Professional Edit Worth It?
Your second question—is an editor worth the money?—has the same squishy answer: It depends.
A good, in-depth, constructive professional developmental edit is worth every penny of the often significant investment. It will pinpoint areas of weakness you may have been blind to, gaps you may not have seen because you are filling in the blanks in your head, and unclear or underdeveloped areas that may hamper a reader’s investment and engagement in your story.
A good editor will not just offer objective, constructive feedback, but will make it actionable, specifying why something may not be working as well as it could, and also pointing you toward concrete ways to address those areas—all, ideally, while respecting your vision and your voice and helping you get them on the page as effectively as possible. And it will improve your skills in these areas for your subsequent manuscripts.
But an unskillful edit is not only a waste of money, but can do more damage to your story and you as a writer than nearly anything else, potentially pushing your story in a direction you didn’t intend, diluting or hijacking your voice or vision, and even undercutting your confidence in your writing and yourself.
All edits—and all editors—are not created equal, and it’s of highest importance to carefully vet anyone you’re considering working with for their qualifications, experience, skill, and how well they “get” you and your intentions (preferably with a sample edit, which I usually recommend not hiring a developmental editor without).
Jane and editor Chantel Hamilton have a great guide here for making sure you hire someone who will elevate your work (and red flags to watch out for), I have tips here as well, including where to look for reputable editors. It takes time and effort to carefully vet an editor, but it pays off exponentially.
If you are self-publishing, a good professional copyeditor and proofreader will also rank among the best money you can spend. Readers can be brutally unforgiving of mistakes and typos, and unlikely to get past sloppy mechanics no matter how good your story is. As with development editors, make sure to hire pros with solid experience in your medium (i.e., book publishing, rather than academics or journalism, for example).
I’m not of the school of thought that every author needs to hire a professional editor with every manuscript—I know plenty of authors who have sold books without doing so. But if you’ve stretched yourself to the utmost and done all you can, and still have reason to suspect your story is not quite “there” yet, a good, reputable edit may be just the resource you need to push you across the finish line.
This month’s Ask the Editor is sponsored by The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Podcast. Step up your writing game and meet fellow writers with The Deep Dive Workshop, a 10-week series from the podcast hosts of The Shit No One Tells You About Writing. Each week you’ll hear from expert writers and editors, followed by workshops led by Bianca, Carly or CeCe.
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