New Writer Seeking a Recommendation

Mel006

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I scoured these forums trying to decide where this post belonged, and I landed here. Please direct me to the right place if I'm in fact wrong.

I was considering using the CreateSpace editorial evaluation services for my novel when I happened upon some information stating the services weren't worth the price.

I was wondering if anyone here had found a good editorial service. I'm not looking for grammar correction as much as overall opinions on flow, theme and some more of the high-level work.

Thanks!
 

Ferret

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It sounds like you need a beta reader. Lots of people here will do that for free. Beta swaps are common, too. I suggest you make a post in the beta readers section.

Added: Libbie's recommendation is good, too, and you can always do both.
 
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Libbie

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You can get lots of great feedback right here for free! Many of the folks on this forum are published authors and/or professional editors. Scroll down the main forum page to the Share Your Work forum. the password is "vista."
 

Nick Blaze

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I scoured these forums trying to decide where this post belonged, and I landed here. Please direct me to the right place if I'm in fact wrong.

I was considering using the CreateSpace editorial evaluation services for my novel when I happened upon some information stating the services weren't worth the price.

Common consensus is that you should never pay for your book to be edited. Rather, publishers pay for editors to edit your book. You should personally edit your novel, have others read it and give feedback, but don't spend a penny on anything but stamps and printer paper.

I was wondering if anyone here had found a good editorial service. I'm not looking for grammar correction as much as overall opinions on flow, theme and some more of the high-level work.

Thanks!
We do things like that for free here. We're not professionals, so don't expect professional reviews, but beta readers read novels and provide very valuable feedback and opinions. They're not there for grammar or spelling, but for flow, theme, voice, plotholes, etc.
 

pattyjansen

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Any private individual who gives plot/flow feedback on novels and gets paid for it has a vested interest in keeping the customer happy. There is a huge potential for the valuation to be on the 'soft' side. People like being told their work is good. An evaluation service has no financial interest in the end product, just in selling their service.

Long story short, if you feel the absolute need to spend big $$$ on manuscript evaluation, make sure that the service is accredited and reputable.

Alternatively, join an online workshop, use beta readers, gain lots of friends worldwide, all for free.
 

Charlie Horse

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I'll do it for one dollar less than the best deal you find. Unless of course you do find someone to do it for free, in which case I won't be paying you to evaluate your manuscript.
 

SaraFMC

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I'll second Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, it's excellent.

Also: editing is a subjective business. Agents will ask for edits. Editors will ask for edits. Different people may want different things. If you pay someone to edit your book, it may not be to the taste of whoever comes next. Make your manuscript as good as it can be for your own tastes, and then shop it. Save your cash, spend it on books and postage.

I would go even farther, and say that these days, it pays to learn basic copyediting, because publishers have been laying off the professional ones left and right, the remaining ones are often overloaded and able to do less for each author, and the cleaner you can make your manuscript, the better. The Copyeditor's Handbook by Einsohn is great, it has exercises and answer keys for self-teaching, and did a lot for my technical prowess. I think it's improved my style as well.
 

EditorDylan

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This may sound biased but I am the Editor-in-Chief of an online literary arts magazine, Splash of Red, and a freelance editor with its sister site FreelanceEdit.com. Feel free to check out either site to get an idea of the kind of work I do and peruse the freelancing site. My fee is very competitive and it is a full edit from grammar and spelling to flow, characterization, plot holes, structure and more. I hope this helps.

Kindest Regards,
Dylan Emerick-Brown
Editor-in-Chief, Splash of Red; FreelanceEdit.com
 

Jamesaritchie

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Again, trust you own opinion. Start hiring people, or start relying too much on the judgment of other readers, and it never ends.
 

aruna

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There are many threads on this very subject here on AW; do a search. For some published authors, including me, an editing service has been an invaluable help in getting feedback and, eventually, getting published. I prefer, for reasons of my own, to pay a reasonable amount to a good editor than ask someone to do it for free. There are some very reputable services available, especially in the UK. Good luck.
 

dgaughran

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I will join in the chorus of approval for Renni Browne and Dave King's book "Self-Editing for Fiction Writers."

I tried a few books like this and couldn't get them to work for me. This did the trick.

Self-editing is a very, very important skill that you must learn as a writer. It takes time, it takes practice, but then so does good writing, and it's something you must be prepared to learn if you are serious about this.

Beta readers are an essential resource too - someone you can show your stuff to who will help you with constructive criticism.

You should only consider an editor after you have exhausted the above, and then only in certain circumstances.

Don't use an editing service as a way to skip learning self-editing. It won't work and you will waste your money.
 

Old Hack

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As Aruna says, this has been discussed at length here many times.

My view is that editorial agencies can be very useful for some writers but not for others: the big thing is what you do with the advice that you receive.

If you use it solely to improve that one book then you're paying a lot of money to improve one book which might never get published. Can you afford to spend that money with no guarantee of ever making it back?

If you use the feedback to learn how to improve ALL your work, what to look out for when you're revising, and how to write better overall, then you're going to get far more value for money from the service, and in that case I'd say it could well be worth trying.
 

Phaeal

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I'm with the learn-how-to-do-your-own-editing school, with optional beta readers if you can find some who really get what you're trying to do. (In which case, you can learn a lot from beta-reading their work in exchange.)

To the excellent basic text, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, I'd add my favorite, The Fiction Editor, the Novel and the Novelist, by Thomas McCormack. Idiosyncratic but brilliant, and it addresses deeper issues of fictional structure that I've rarely seen discussed.
 
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I will join in the chorus of approval for Renni Browne and Dave King's book "Self-Editing for Fiction Writers."

I tried a few books like this and couldn't get them to work for me. This did the trick.

Me, too! I've actually just started reading this one, and it's already proving helpful. Glad to add my recommendation to the list.

I'm of the opinion that the only one who should be paying for editing is the publisher (note: for those reading who are the writer *and* the publisher, this means you pay for it; I'm just talking in a general sense). If you're continuously paying thousands of dollars (which is what you'll pay, if you're getting content editing worth having) for each book, you're losing a substantial percent of the income you'll get if/when you're published. That said, what Old Hack wrote about using what you learn that once to improve all future work makes sense, too...

I like beta readers (find some smart ones you trust, and *listen* to them even when you don't like what you're hearing - in fact, that's probably when you need to listen most). Crit groups are OK, like Critters or OWW, but they tend to be slow in getting the crit of a long work done. Beta readers, or novel swaps with other writers, can be huge though.
 

authorgirl1485

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Yeah, they do a good job with beta reading here. Plus, I sold my manuscripts without needing a paid freelance editor, so it really isn't worth the price when approaching a traditional publishing company. (This assuming that you are like me and clean the manuscript for six months with a copy of Prentice-Hall Handbook for Writers at your side.)
 

rsullivan9597

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As a general rule of thumb the "extra services" of all the organizations like CreateSpace, iUniverse, Xlibris, etc are WAY OVERPRICED and staffed by people that are not steller in the business. I would turn to other sourcs than them for any of these types of services.
 

Old Hack

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I don't know about the prices involved: but the level of editorial expertise has been very low in the books I've seen which have been edited by those companies. It's more of a basic copy-edit than a real, structural edit and as most books need a strong structural edit before they're copy-edited, it doesn't represent good value for money to me no matter what its price.