Self-publishing:

Finding an editor

Once you go rogue, you lose some of the valuable things that a publisher provides. Self-publishing means you have all the freedom in the world right? You want to sleep today? Good. You want to blow up the neighbors’ cat? Good. You want a great book? Good. Look inside your toolbox, you have a big wrench in there called a checkbook.

That will get you an editor. I know you could send out your book without another set of eyes. Or, have your spouse who knows he has to continue to live with you and is willing to lie for that privilege, edit your book. Your Mother loves you too much. You love your prose more than your children and you won’t cut its legs off. 

Necessity. That itch has the new model of self-publishing filling opportunities like popsicles in July. I found several editors who have also gone rogue and hung a shingle on a WWW. signpost. They offered a free sample edit of the first ten pages of my manuscript along with pricing based on word count.

I emailed off my babies and wished them well in the world knowing they would come back unchanged to daddy. After all, who knew the story better than me? They rolled back in and they were redheaded stepchildren. Some of them were belligerent.

However, they were smarter now. Some were enhanced and clear and bright eyed and happy. This one guy removed the marbles from my mouth and still kept my voice. I hired him and have been thrilled with my new grown up and scrubbed clean child. That editor is John VanZile, of Editing with Authors.com. Fantastic editor.

You have two questions. How much and where do I find this finishing school?

For a 100,000 words; $600 to $3500 depending on the editor and what services you want such as sentence structure, plot and story development, general editing or proofreading etc. I chose to do a general edit and my cost was under Two Thousand.

Where to find them? Google is a wonderful thing. I recommend Editing for Authors.com. In addition, a site that you can query several editors at once is:

www.book-editing.com

And where do you find information on all things writing? Why www.absolutewrite.com. It’s where all your new friends are talking.