How to Prepare to be Edited: Research the Market
Lesson 5 from: Build A Great Writer-Editor RelationshipHeather Saunders
How to Prepare to be Edited: Research the Market
Lesson 5 from: Build A Great Writer-Editor RelationshipHeather Saunders
Lesson Info
5. How to Prepare to be Edited: Research the Market
Lessons
Class Introduction
03:57 2How to Prepare to be Edited: Overview
03:22 3How to Prepare to be Edited: Beta Readers
08:40 4How to Prepare to be Edited: Proofread Your Own Work
13:29 5How to Prepare to be Edited: Research the Market
03:52 6How to Prepare to be Edited: Set Budget/Timeline
05:16 7How to Pick the Right Editor for Your Project
03:08 8Levels of Editing
11:04Lesson Info
How to Prepare to be Edited: Research the Market
We spent time with self reviewed, now we're gonna research the market. Current market rates. Now, it can sometimes be a little jarring for new writers to learn market rates. There's a lot of novice or hobby editors out there who are more than happy to edit a full book, for hundreds of dollars. Because, they have the time and because they enjoy it. However, I always recommend starting with the Editorial Freelancers Association. They have published rates and it starts at about $30 an hour for proofreading, up to about $55 an hour for a developed mental or substantial edit. The hours will of course depend on how long the work is. But it's important to know that these rates aren't the hard and fast rule. There often a starting place for negotiation and most editors actually agree it's the low end. So, being prepared and having a budget set will help once you know where you should start. Now obviously, an experienced, specialized editors will charge more. They've spent time, they've built t...
heir expertise, they'll be able to give you a deeper review perhaps than some other editors. So their time is valuable and they're charging accordingly. Then you have to make sure you've planned enough time for someone to actually review the work. The longer it is, the more lead time you need. Novels can be booked months in advance. Actually, one of my close editor friends is booked through April. She is completely solid, if you want her to look at your work you're looking at June, maybe, depends on what comes in. Short pieces, essays, short stories, journal articles, more around a month. These things are obviously shorter so it takes less time to do a through review and to go over the edits and resolve all the queries with your editor. Any time there's a fast turn around it will be reflected in your budget. There is a rush fee. People are giving up their weekends and their nights to get this done for you when you need it done. And so, this will be reflected in the budget. So, I would say, start looking for an editor well before you think you need one. Because, once you've gone through and found the right editor, which we'll talk about, you have to go through the negotiation process. You have to go through the contract phase, and then you begin the work together. I'm just curious about the relationship with the editor of like, to begin it, like the first chapter. Let's say, you don't know how they're going to, how they're going to edit and if it's a good fit for you, how you learn and how you can correct. How does that work exactly? Most editors are always willing to do a free sample edit. You give them a piece of the work, always from the middle. Please don't send anyone ever, the beginning or the end. You've focused the most on these places so there going to be your best writing. Pick something from the middle that you kinda breezed through and send this. Obviously, you could probably send the first five to ten pages for a full length manuscript. You'd send shorter snippets for shorter pieces. The average is about five pages for a book, that people will do a free edit on. And they will approach it as if it was the paid project. They'll do the changes, they'll enter the queries and you can see what your work would look like if it was edited by them. And is completely, I would very highly recommend getting a number of people to do sample edits, but send the same piece. You're not going to be able to find how people view your work and edit your work differently if you're sending out different samples. If you send the same five pages to five different people, you'll be able to find who you'll actually work better with. You'll be like, well this person changed too much and this one changed too little, and this one was actually almost right, but this one really gets my voice. And as much as you can make those comparisons of those reviews with the same piece of writing.
Class Materials
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