FOR EDITORS, PROOFREADERS AND WRITERS

Every author deserves to work with an editor who’s a great fit for their book.

​Commissioning editorial help means investing your money and your trust in someone you might never have met. It’s therefore critical that you choose the right editor.

Below are 7 reasons why I won’t be a good fit for you.

Fiction and non-fiction are different. Yes, there are conventions when it comes to spelling choice and grammar, but fiction often requires a nuanced approach that respects not just authorial style but character voice and environment too.

Specialist fiction editors deal with issues that a specialist academic editor won’t. For example:

> reviewing consistency of narration style and viewpoint
> ensuring dialogue evokes mood, voice and intention
> checking character-trait consistency
> evaluating shown versus told prose

And academic editors regularly tackle issues that fiction editors don’t. For example:

> cross-checking in-text citations against references
> checking tables, figures, images and captions
> reviewing complex chapter structures
> ensuring multiple heading levels are consistent and applied logically

But there’s something else. Fiction editors need not only to allow non-standard variants in grammar, punctuation and syntax, but embrace them. Why? Because that’s where the magic can happen.

I’m a specialist fiction editor. You don’t want me in charge of ensuring the references in your article on cross-generational sexualities, life course and ageing are formatted according to Harvard. Hire an academic editor instead.

However, if you struggle with point of view, or worry your chapters lack suspense, I can help.

Some fiction editors work across genres, which is absolutely fine. I choose to specialise in crime fiction, mysteries, thrillers and suspense.

Despite genre tropes – recurring themes that readers enjoy and expect – there’s no formula to writing great fiction, which means there’s no formula when it comes to editing these books either. 

For example, character voice, story arc, plot, and authorial style are just four reasons why Ian Rankin offers a different reading experience to Harlan Coben, and why both those writers’ novels have a different feel to them from Margaret Atwood’s books.

So why am I picky about genre? It’s simple. I have a fixed number of hours every weekday to devote to my job. I want to love every minute of working with an author. And so just as I choose to drink black tea because that’s how I like it, so I choose to specialize in crime, mysteries, thrillers and suspense.

If you’ve written literary fiction, romance, young adult, erotica or historical fiction, I recommend you work with an editor who loves to edit those genres. That way, you can be sure they’re invested in your book in the same way I’m invested in everything from the cosy whodunit, to the hardboiled police prodecural, to the high-octane thriller.

Of course, many novels are hybrids, for example:
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> romantic suspense
> supernatural mystery
> sci-fi thriller
> historical crime fiction

I welcome the opportunity to work on hybrids because they still tick my suspense and thrill boxes!

If you’re committed to getting your novel’s structure right before you do anything else, I commend you.

You clearly understand that there are different levels of editing, all of which serve a different purpose, and that big-picture work around plot and structure comes first.

I’m a specialist sentence-level editor, which means I come in after that big-picture work’s complete.

Line work focuses on the mood, rhythm and readability of your narrative and dialogue. It ensures your readers are captivated and love every minute they spend on the page with you rather than flicking to the end to find out whodunit.  

Editors like me focus on the following:
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> authenticity of phrasing and word choice in relation to character voice
> spelling, grammar, syntax, punctuation, hyphenation and capitalization
> dialogue expression: style, tagging and punctuation
> effectiveness of sentence-level narration
> character-trait consistency
> pace and flow: special attention to repetition and overwriting
> told versus shown prose
> cliché and awkward metaphor
> use of tenses
> layout guidance
> letter, word, line and paragraph spacing​
> chapter sequencing
> standard document formatting

Many professional editors get booked up fast and months in advance.

I recommend you start researching who you want to work with before you’ve finished writing so you know what their availability is. That way you won’t be disappointed.

I'm usually booked nine to twelve months ahead, so unless a client cancels I won’t be available to help you next week.

Bear in mind, too, how much time the novel edit will take. Two factors are length and complexity. These are ballpark figures, but I set aside the following for the types of editing I offer:

​> between 2 and 5 weeks for line editing
> between 1 week and 3 for proofreading

Developmental work might take an editor even longer depending on how much help a writer needs.

If you’re working with several editors at different stages, you’ll need to build time into the overall schedule to review their work and implement their suggestions.

Every author has a budget based on what they’re prepared to pay and able to pay. Every editor has a budget based on what they want to earn and need to earn to make a living.

Sometimes there’s a good fit; sometimes there isn’t.

Many editors (me included) don’t publish prices on their websites because each project needs to be assessed on its own merits.

And so while I can’t tell you what it will cost to have your novel edited without seeing a sample, I can tell you that if it’s 80K words long, it’ll cost you way more than a couple of hundred quid. 

My line-editing speed is around 1,000 words per hour depending on the complexity of the work. That's why I said above that line editing a novel can take between 2 and 5 weeks. 

Now stack that up against what any working person needs to earn to feed themselves, pay their rent/mortgage, and meet their taxation and insurance responsibilities every month.

The question is this: will someone who's willing to edit 80K words for £250 invest 80 hours on the project? If their average speed is similar to mine, they'll earn £3.13 an hour. That's not sustainable, which means corners have to be cut somewhere along the line. Unless editing is just a hobby and someone else is paying the bills.

This isn't a hobby for me and I pay my share of family expenses, so if you're looking for a bargain, I'm not the right editor for you. Instead, try one of the marketplaces that specialize in freelance services at every price point.

I’d love to tell you I’m perfect but, alas, I’m only human.

Most professional editors take pride in ensuring that they’re highly qualified. And even when we’ve completed our foundational training, we continue developing our skills throughout our careers. 

Some of us are members of industry recognized bodies with professional codes of practice. For example, I’m an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading. 

That means I’m professionally bound to do my very best for you. What it doesn’t mean is that I can make your book 'perfect'. That's because there's no such thing. 

Stylistic editing is subjective, and when it comes to fiction, there’s always room to bend the standard so-called rules of grammar and punctuation because it’s in the prose’s best interest.

A pro fiction editor can work with you to make your narrative and dialogue pop. Will a pedantic Amazon reviewer who knows nothing about literary devices agree with the decision to omit a comma in favour of polysyndactic rhythm? Possibly not. 

That doesn’t mean your editor made a mistake. It means fiction editors seek to balance sense and sensibility.

If you're looking for an editor who's practically perfect in every way, ask Mary Poppins if she's available!

If you best friend (or your mum or granny) has read your novel and thinks it’s ready for a final once-over, they might well be right … if your best friend (or your mum or granny) is a pro editor.

Your book will also be ready for a proofreader if it’s been through previous multiple rounds of editing – structural, line- and copyediting.

And if you’re very lucky, or very experienced, or very brilliant, you might have nailed everything yourself and be on track for a final round of prepublication quality control.

What you still won’t be ready for is a quick proofread. There’s no such thing as a quick proofread. Proofreading is meticulous work that focuses on every word, every sentence, every paragraph. It incorporates layout and consistency checks too.

It’s the last stage of editing but not a fast stage of editing.

Most editors can proofread faster than they can line- or copyedit, but I don’t know any who can whizz through a whole book in a couple of hours and be confident that they’ve caught most of what needs catching to a professional standard.

And so if you’re looking for fast, I recommend you consider the following:
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​> A manuscript evaluation: suggests structural improvements at story level
​> A sample edit: suggests stylistic improvements at sentence level

Both types of review will also give you a sense of how the editor works.

There's a teacup for every saucer according to my podcasting pal Denise Cowle's auntie! She's right.

​Sometimes a writer and an editor are a great fit; sometimes we're not. That's not a problem because there are thousands of writers and thousands of editors. Make sure you're working with one who's a great match for you.

If you're wondering whether fiction editing is for you, read this free 35-page guide to help you decide whether you're a good fit.

It's called Becoming a Fiction Editor and it's packed with information that will help you decide whether to take the plunge.

You'll discover why it's different from non-fiction editing and how to ensure you're ready to serve those who write fiction.
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>  Preparing for a fiction editing career
>  Types of fiction editing
>  Fiction editing training
>  Working with indie authors
>  Working with publishers
>  Being a visible fiction editor
>  Is fiction editing right for you?
>  A selection of free fiction editing resources

I hope you enjoy it! And don't forget to visit the Editor Resources page for lots more free advice, templates and booklets and webinars. ​

In this episode of The Editing Podcast, Louise Harnby and Denise Cowle talk to Rich Leder about writing screenplays and novels. Rich has worked with some of the biggest names in the movie industry. He shares what he's learned about Hollywood, TV and novel craft.

​Listen to find out more about

• The differences between writing a screenplay and novel from scratch
• Cooking for Cannibals: Being edited and receiving feedback
• Converting film to novel, or novel to film
• Primal, and why Nicolas Cage makes the perfect Frank Walsh
• Stage direction during the screenplay-writing stage
• Character descriptions, noise and environment, and writing a screenplay
• How does the editing process differ for screenplays and novels?
• How much is the author involved in the making of the movie?
• How long does it take to get a movie made? From treatment to option to production
• Impactful career moments, including how working with Sidney Poitier changed his life
  
  

About Rich Leder
Rich has been a working writer for more than three decades. His credits include 19 produced movies—television films for CBS, Lifetime, and Hallmark and feature films for Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Tri-Star Pictures, Longridge Productions, and Left Bank Films—and six novels for Laugh Riot Press.

He’s been the lead singer in a Detroit rock band, a restaurateur, a Little League coach, an indie film director, a literacy tutor, a magazine editor, a screenwriting coach, a wedding guru, a PTA board member, a commercial real estate agent, and a visiting artist for the UNCW Film Studies Department, among other things, all of which, it turns out, was grist for the mill.

He resides on the North Carolina coast with his awesome wife, Lulu, and is sustained by the visits home of their three fabulous children. 
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• Website 
• Amazon 
• Good Reads
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Pre-order Cooking for Cannibals here

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Music Credit
'Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/