Editing Process: Working with Me
If you’re considering working with me or another editor but you’re confused about how the process works, look no further! This post goes through the steps of working with a book editor (specifically me—I can’t speak for everyone else). I hope this can calm your nerves and answer some of your questions about working with me.
Number of Rounds Editing
First off, there are three options when working with me—how many times will I see the document? One or two times? This affects the amount of collaboration, guidance, and in-depth editing you receive as well as deadline and price. Here’s how it works:
1 round: I edit the entire document once all the way through and send it back to you with the final invoice.
1.5 rounds: (Recommended for most people) I edit the entire document once all the way through and once only looking at problem areas.* You review the document between rounds to answer questions, edit the document, review my changes, etc.
* “Problem areas” refer to remaining changes, questions asked or answered by you, revised areas (by you), or any other areas you point out as needing more editing. For example, you might highlight a paragraph asking for advice to make it flow better. These problem areas are thoroughly edited, but the rest of the document is not since it already was on the previous round.
Editing Process
Step 1
So you’re thinking about working with me. You send an inquiry by email expressing your interest in my services. Here, I will normally ask for a sample of your manuscript and send a questionnaire, depending on how much information you gave me in your initial inquiry. It asks questions about your deadline, your genre, the number of words in the manuscript, if another editor has looked at it already or will look at it after me, etc. For tips on how to send an intro email to your editor, check out this post.
If you’d like, we can do a 15-minute consultation call to introduce ourselves, discuss your needs, and answer questions you have. This helps us both get a feel for what each person expects of the other. Totally optional. :)
I offer a free, 1,000-word sample edit at this stage so I can see your manuscript (for accurate pricing), and you can see my skill.
Next, I send you a quote with price options and available start dates.
If you approve those, I’ll send a contract. After I receive this document signed along with 50% of the total, you’re booked in my schedule!
Step 2
Send me your book all in one document (Google Doc or MS Word) on the start date so I can start editing on time.
I will send you periodic updates as I work on the manuscript. On the deadline, you will get your edited manuscript. Don’t worry if you see a huge mess! This is normal, and it’s probably not as many changes as it looks like. If you’re unfamiliar with Track Changes (for Microsoft Word) or Suggesting Mode (for Google Docs), review the videos in this post!
Are you actually allowed to reject a change an editor makes?
Of course! If you don’t like something and you want to keep it as is or change it to something else, that’s totally fine! I absolutely respect writers who have a strong opinion and fight for their voice, as long as they keep in mind two things:
The editor is not out to get you. The editor is here to help you see things that can be confusing to readers. You might think the editor is wrong in marking something as confusing, but keep in mind that if an editor is confused by something, it’s likely that some of your readers will be confused by it as well. It doesn’t really matter what’s right or wrong if the reader isn’t going to understand.
The editor marked it for a reason, so if you’re going to reject the change, please leave a comment explaining why you want to keep it the way it is. You absolutely might be right in keeping it as is. But if I’m cleaning up your document after you’ve reviewed it, and things that I marked wrong are still there without comments, I’ll think it was a mistake on your end, and I’ll mark it again. So please leave a comment or send a separate email to explain your thoughts. I’m happy to talk things out, but there needs to be a conversation for that to happen.
Step 2.5
At any point while you have the document, you can request a 30-minute Zoom call for free to talk out any changes and answer your questions. Totally optional.
When you’ve reviewed all comments and changes, send the document back to me (the editor) for the clean-up round of editing, if you requested 1.5 rounds.
What if the contract only has 1 round of editing but you really want me to look at the book again to clean it up? Just ask! We’ll add that .5 round to your contract right away.
And what if the contract says 1.5 rounds but then you get the book back and think, “Nah, I can take it from here”? Let me know and I’ll take that .5 round off the contract. We can always adjust the contract!
Step 3
For 1.5 rounds:
At this stage, I will see the things you accepted and rejected along with any comments you left. If there are still issues or something needs more discussion before we can decide on something, I’ll probably email you about it. We can continue discussing over email any remaining issues until every problem has a solution. Then I send the edited version back to you along with a final invoice! Now your manuscript is ready for the next stage of publishing (probably another type of editing or formatting)!
For 1 round:
You’re done! Now you move to the next step to publish your book—another type of editing, formatting, etc.
That’s not so bad, right? So are you ready to get to work on editing? Send me an inquiry! If you’re ready for an editor, let’s chat! You can check out what it’s like to work with me as a proofreader here: Proofreading Process!
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