Author-in-Training- How I Used Reedsy to Find Editors for my Indie Novel

Last month, I talked about three different kinds of professional editors you may use as an indie author: developmental editors, copy editors, and proofreaders. For Red and Black, I knew I wanted both a copy editor and proofreader, but when I began my self publishing journey, I found myself at a loss. Being new to the process, I felt like I was ripe for being taken advantage of. An editor may have a nice website, but what did that really say about the quality of their work? Hiring a professional editor isn’t cheap after all, and that’s because it’s important. Wasting my money here could result in putting out a sub-par book to the masses, which is the last thing I want to do.

Which brought me to Reedsy, a website I first found out about from The Creative Penn. Reedsy is a marketplace where writers (mainly indie, but traditional as well) can solicit the services of editors, and designers (including cover art and typography), as well as publicity and marketing experts. You can also find ghostwriters and web designers. The site is highly curated, only accepting the top 3% of applicants, so you know that people coming into Reedsy have already been vetted. On top of that, users provide reviews of their experience on a five-star scale. So if anyone’s been a problem in the past, you know about it.

The way the website works is pretty simple. You head over to the Marketplace section and let them know what you’re looking for. For example, when I was searching for a copy editor, I was able to specify that I was looking for someone that had experience with urban fantasy, which is what my superhero book most resembles. I must admit, when I did my first search, I was just a wee bit disappointed. Only eight results? Fortunately, once I actually dug into the recommendations (each editor has a profile that displays a resume of sort, including previous works), I felt much more positive. One of the benefits of being so curated is that all of the results were high quality. I didn’t have to dig through piles of garbage in order to find gold.

From that point, you can select up to five people that you would like to work with (I chose three). You’re required to fill out a quote that includes some pretty basic information, like word count, genre, and what kind of a timeline you’re working on. In addition to that, attach a sample of your writing (the first 3000 words, if I remember correctly). Once the sample edit is complete, the editors will send it back to you, alongside a suggested price and time frame. You pick the one (if any) you think will work the best for you, and then your off! The money is automatically charged to your credit card on the agreed upon dates (the payments are usually broken up over the course of your collaboration), and the rest of your communication happens through the Reedsy messenger function.

So the question remains, what did I think of the experience?

Petty damn good! I’m happy to report that I found both a copy editor and proofreader. Both were friendly yet professional, communicative, and really knew their stuff. The website itself is super easy to navigate, and the payment process was error-free. I really liked how they sent you emails a few days before your credit card is charged. The editing process can take multiple weeks, meaning you might forget when that payment is supposed to come out. The extra heads up was a nice touch and is indicative of how the site wants to create as smooth of a process as possible.

There are a couple of drawbacks, from what I can see. For one, the process of hiring professional editors is expensive in the first place, and Reedsy does charge a ten percent fee on top of that. So if you’re struggling to scrounge together the money, then that additional fee may prove to be a bit much. Also, on the boring adult front, the topic of taxes doesn’t appear to be addressed anywhere on the website, which is really something I should have figured out before hiring anyone. Ah well, plenty of time to straighten that out before tax time.

Ultimately, I was really happy with my experience with Reedsy, and I will be using the marketplace again in the future. If you would like to try out Reedsy, please consider using this link. Reedsy isn’t sponsoring this post or anything, but for everyone I bring on board that hires a professional, I get $25, which is sure to be super helpful!

Reedsy is a great service, that addressed many of my concern as a new writer. I hope you will find it just as useful.

Author-in-Training: Three Types of Professional Editors for Indie Authors

Last week, I talked about three different types of first readers-alpha readers, beta readers, and writing groups. These are great (and free!) resources that I used to help get my novel, Red and Black, to a higher level of quality than I could achieve on my own. But even after seeking advice out from friends and colleagues, Red and Black still wasn’t in a publishable state. For that, I needed professionals.

You may find yourself wondering why. I mean, my first readers were all kick ass. Why did I need to pay professional editors to mark up my book even further? This has a lot to do with the nature of self publishing. As indie authors, we are expected to perform all of the steps that would normally fall to a traditional publisher. And traditionally published works go through multiple layers of editing, both with the writer’s agent, and the publisher itself. And just like how most of us non-artsy folk wouldn’t consider opening up Photoshop to make our own covers, unless you know the Chicago Manual of Style front to back, you really should hire a professional to do your editing. And even if you do have a pretty good grip on the rules and regulations, you still should consider hiring some sort of professional. Once you’ve read over a manuscript dozens of times, little things like misplaced commas and repeated words just don’t stick out like they should.

There are a lot of different types of editors out there, but for the purpose of this column, I’m just going to go into the big ones: developmental editors, copy editors, and proofreaders. What you chose is going to depend on your experience as an author, and the needs of the manuscript in hand.

Here’s the breakdown.

Developmental Editors– If you’re new to writing in general, then you’ll probably want to consider a developmental editor, who can help you with large concept issues such as plot structure, characterization, pacing and flow, and how your book fits into the expectations of your genre. The software of your book rather than the nuts and bolts. Developmental editors typically jump in after you’ve done drafting and some editing on your own, but I’ve also heard of editors that provide assistance even earlier in the writing process. As far as the cost goes, like with all professional editors, it can really vary. One numbers I’ve seen thrown around in multiple locations is 1-3 cents per word, but given that I did not use a developmental editor for Red and Black, I cannot confirm this. So don’t be surprised if I’m a little off on this one, money-wise.

Copy Editors– Copy editors bring things to a more technical level, being concerned with grammar, punctuation, and word choice. All the small things that are likely to trip up your reader. My copy editor was also really good at pointing out repeated words, capitalization errors, and the fact that my word processing software had inserted the wrong type of apostrophes. She also commented on POV slips, and a few pacing issues. Even after having multiple people go through my book (including myself!) I was shocked at the amount of errors she was able to catch. Most resources I’ve checked report that copy editors typically charge between 1-3 cents a word, and this lined up with my experience.

Proofreaders- This is the stage that I’m on right now! Proofreaders take care of the really nitty-gritty stuff, such as misplaced commas, capitalization errors, and any spelling/grammatical problem that have managed to slip through. Just because your copy editor didn’t notice them, doesn’t mean a random reader won’t. I’ll never forger reading one of the early Harry Potter books and discovering a case were Professor Snape had been shortened to “Snap.” I’ve heard it say that proofreaders typically charge up one cent a word or so. This has lined up with my personal experience as well.

If it’s your first time thinking about professional editors you’ve probably taken a look at the costs provided above, done some mental math based on the word count of your novel, and are now quietly (or not so quietly?) weeping into your hands. Yes. Hiring professionals to edit your novel is awfully expensive, and is one of main reason why it took me so long to come around to self publishing. After all, I don’t usually write in the nice, compact 50-60k range you’ll see a lot of self published novels settle into. 90-100k all the way!

But despite the shock of seeing my savings account dramatically decrease, I have yet to regret the money I’ve spent on my professional editors. After all, I want people to take me seriously as a writer, and the best way I can communicate that is with a book with a high level of polish. And while the numbers may seem high for something similar to what your beta readers do for free, you need to keep in mind what you’re really paying for. Not just the hours they spend combing through your manuscript, but for all of the experience they’ve accrued over the years to get to this level of expertise. And that’s worth something.

“Okay, okay, Nancy,” you may be saying. “I’ll consider it, but where do I find these people?” As with much in this digital era the answer is, “the internet!” A lot of freelance editors have websites where they list their clients, costs, and availability. Which I, as a newbie indie author, found completely overwhelming. This is why I ended up using Reedsy, a curated website of professional editors, cover artist, formatters, etc, as a resource. If you’d like to check them out, their website can be found right here. If you’d like to learn more about my experience with Reedsy specifically, I am planning on writing up a post with more details in the upcoming month. Please considering subscribing to my blog to learn about this in your email. There’s a handy dandy link on the left hand side of my home page for that.

But until then, I need to dive back into these edits. It’s back to the world of misplaced commas and stray grammatical issues for me!