Behind the Scenes: Six Steps to Find an Editor

written by Betsy Flak on 2017-07-17

All right, today we're going to dive into some behind-the-scenes matter: choosing an editor.

But first a little background about me. I'm a bit of a control freak. It's part of the reason I haven't pursued the traditional publishing route. I want to keep control (and the rights to) the world that I created. I want to choose my own cover designers, my own formatting, my own marketing strategies, my own editors. Yes, this is a ton more work for me, but I'd rather trust myself to get things right--and do all the research that goes into getting things right--than a big publishing house who may or may not care about the success of my book. Like I said: control freak. (Side note: I have no idea whether said big publishing house would ever be interested in me or my books. I've not pursued them and they've not pursued me.)

And now to the point: the process I go through when looking for an editor. As a reminder, this applies to steps 6 and 7 ("Editor edits" and "Editor proofreads") of my nine step publishing process (see below for diagram).

Without further ado, here's how I find my editors in six steps:

1. Define my ideal editor. What are the attributes of this mythical person? My answers: Price within my budget; One-stop shop for all my editing needs (evaluation, developmental, substantive, etc: for more details on different types of editing, go here); Experienced in my genre; Quality editing; and Offers free sample edit.

2. Compile a list of potential editors. For me, this involved looking at my favorite writing blogs' suggestions (example: The Creative Penn's list) as well as asking for recommendations from some writer Facebook groups that I'm in.

3. Evaluate each editor based on the ideals identified in Step #1. I of course used an elaborate spreadsheet system where I first noted all the details in a spreadsheet then converted that to numbers that I could use in an adaptation of a solution-selectrion matrix (a tool I used back in my engineering days). Because I love a good, time-sucking analysis. :p

4. Based on the evaluation, narrow down the list to a reasonable amount to request sample edits from. For me, this was about five.

5. Request sample edits. Most editors will offer a sample edit ranging from the first 500 words to the first chapter. None of mine cost me money, but some editors do charge for sample edits. The ones on my list that did charge for sample edits usually got cut anyway, either because they were too expensive or because they were too busy to edit my work when I needed them to.

6. Evaluate the sample edits and choose! I asked myself questions like: Do I agree with what the editor is saying? Do I think he/she is bringing up good points that will definitely make my book better? Did the editor highlight anything I disagree with and am unwilling to change? How many of their comments fall into this bucket? How has the communication been with the editor? Am I comfortable? Note: This was probably the easiest step for me since it was more of a gut feel of "Will I be happy working with this person?" than anything else. Plus it was fun to see what different editors thought. I of course also noted each editor's comments in a spreadsheet to compare and contrast directly because, again, I love a good analysis.

And that's it! Bam, find a new editor, easy as that! (Ok, ok, maybe it wasn't that easy with all the research and sample edit reviews...but it seems a lot easier in retrospect!)