Something to Consider Before You Hire a Book Editor

Like eating fire, writing takes a healthy balance of confidence and humility.

I know, because I do both.

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We have to be confident enough in our work to share it with others on any level. And yet we must be humble enough to make the necessary changes when we receive feedback. When it comes to eating fire, for what it’s worth, my humility bows to the element and it’s self-confidence that makes the act possible at all.

But this isn’t Fire Eater’s Digest. We’re here to talk about writing. Having just self-published my first novel, Girl on Fire, I can look back at the years that led up to its actual birth (and final bill). It's time to reflect on what I did right and what I will change when I go through the process again for book number two.

First, it should be noted that I’m frugal, although I think it’s important to invest in one’s art and creativity. After working with a few beta readers I wanted honest feedback on my novel at that point. I asked a friend (we'll call her Gwen) with professional editing experience if she’d be interested in taking a look at the work. We agreed that I would pay her $100 for big-picture suggestions. “Don’t worry about copy editing it,” I remember saying because I figured she would have some major feedback on plot points and characters. I expected that she would tell me anything that was “wrong” with the work so that I could fix it before presenting it to agents or self-publishing it. What I got back, after much back-and-forth past our agreed deadline, was a copy-edited version of my novel, with less than $100 worth of feedback about the story itself.

I wrote the check, made Gwen's edits, and moved on.

[The Lie I Told Myself About Self-Publishing]

After working with a couple more beta readers who gave both constructive and supportive feedback, somehow I got to the point where I felt all the novel could possibly need would be simple grammatical fixes that I might have overlooked. Now I realize that was completely hilarious.

I did eventually hire a professional freelance editor that wasn’t someone I knew. Together, we worked through a few more rounds of complete edits with massive changes that, while painful at first, brought the best out of my story. The markups were honest and ruthless. Just as importantly, my editor supported the project in a way that helped me stay the course through completion. Actually, a beautiful friendship has come from our working together.

My advice for you, dear fellow writer, is to make sure that your story is as close to perfection as you could dream. Do what your friends, writing partners, and beta readers say to do (perhaps) and let it sit for a while, then come back to it with fresh eyes. Then hire a professional to work with you on it. If possible, work with someone who isn’t in your circle of friends to begin with; that way there won’t be any hard feelings if things don’t go the way you anticipated.

I'm still friends with Gwen, by the way. I chose to look at the situation with humility and understanding that perhaps I wasn't clear enough, or perhaps we should've had a signed agreement, or perhaps I made a mistake in my choice to begin with. It was just part of the challenge of self-publishing, and that's okay. You'll experience challenges in your writing path, and you'll either overcome them and succeed or you won't. The good news is that you haven't given up—I know because you're reading this.

Keep writing and rewriting, and stay humble and confident.

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