Things to Know Before Hiring an Editor – A Brief Guide for First-Time Writers

So, you have completed the first draft of your book, and you have self-edited in the best possible way you can. Now, you know that you need to hire an actual editor to go through your draft. However, there are several questions you need to ask before hiring an editor.

Who Needs an Editor?

You might be an entrepreneur or a blogger looking for ways to scale your business through an ebook. Now that you have completed the book, you are trying to figure out how to get an editor for your book. You might as well have written a novel, and now you are looking for one of the best literary editors to help you polish your manuscript so that you can publish an error-free book.

Before hiring an editor, you should ask them a few questions so that you can make an informed decision regarding the fact that you are indeed hiring a good editor.

Editorial Background

The first question to ask your editor is about their editorial background. You want to assess whether the person in question is a professional editor or whether they are a retired English teacher who is looking to make some money during summer time. 

We have one problem with editing, which is the fact that we seemingly lack a formal certification process for people to say that they are certified by some really good institution. There might be training for sure, but there can be a lack of certifications. 

So, you need to find out whether that person has an actual editorial background.

Duration of Work 

When hiring an editor, you need to find out how long the person has been editing. Also, ask them about the kind of books that they edit. Ask them about their familiarity with the Chicago Manual Style or APA as these are kind of the go-to styles used in the trade publishing world. 

Past References

Another question to ask the potential person for editing your manuscript is about references. Now, this can be a tricky task because sometimes people are not allowed as book editors, book designers, or anyone who works behind the scenes of a book to say which books or the titles of books they have worked on.

So, just because the book editor doesn’t have their past work displayed on their profile or website – it doesn’t mean that they haven’t worked on a lot of books that are great and that have done well. 

Past Clients 

However, if you ask a book editor for some references, they should be able to point you to some clients they can talk to – even – if it is not about a specific book project. So, your book editor might not tell you the exact book titles of the book projects they have worked on, but they should be able to tell you about some clients they have worked with in the last year. 

You can then reach out to their past clients and ask them to tell you about their experience with the book editor in question. 

Be wary of someone who is not willing or able to do so. 

Process Details

Another question to ask the editor before hiring them is to ask them about what their process looks like. You can be upfront and tell them that you have never had a book edited before which is why you don’t have an idea about what to expect. 

Now, if they will be a good or a professional editor, they won’t hesitate to walk you through the process. A professional editor will understand that book editing is a collaborative process. They would want you and other clients to feel comfortable with every step of the editing process. 

So, the more you know about what is coming and what is happening – the easier it will be for you, as it will take away the fear of not knowing as much as it can. It is important to mention here that every editor works differently – so – the details of the process look different which means that the process outline for each editor will look different from each other. 

Communication is Key

When hiring an editor, you should look for someone who understands the importance of communication. Is this someone who wants to communicate by email, while you prefer to communicate through telephone?

During the project, while the editing is going on, will you be able to reach out to them and vice versa? So, you have to figure out their communication style before hiring them. All you need to do is talk to the person about their process, what it is like, and what it looks like. 

The goal is to get an idea or feel for it that seems like your working style matches their working style for a seamless collaboration. 

Editing Duration

When hiring an editor, you want to have a clear idea about the duration of their editing process. Make sure to ask them how long it will take. On that note, the simple answer to a potential time duration for the editing process is that it really depends on the manuscript and the project. 

If your book is short, it might take four weeks. If your book has more word count, it might take twelve weeks to edit the entire manuscript. Also, the answer will depend on the type of editing that you are looking for. More importantly, it depends on how clean your manuscript is. 

Self-Edit First Before Hiring an Editor 

You should never make the mistake of completing your first rough draft and hiring an editor because if you do so, you are only wasting your money. Make sure you have self-edited the draft, revised it, and you want to have incorporated feedback in that manuscript.

We cannot stress enough the importance of self-editing. All writers should have the ability to self-edit their first rough draft – no matter how daunting this task can be to you. You should try to clean the manuscript to the best that you can before hiring an editor. 

The more you go through your manuscript, the fewer and fewer your mistakes will become. Only, when you are absolutely sure that you have a clean manuscript, only then, get an editor and ask them to do the needful. 

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