How do I find/hire an editor for a nonfiction legal story?

Creative non fiction?....Ah, that would make it fiction then....right? Cause it makes it sound like some of it is made up.

Or do you mean like True Crime/true story type?

I guess it's the genre that is throwing me.

Remlig,

Have you tried to find beta readers in your genre instead?

Remlig,

Is it really a memoir, but you are trying to fit it into something else? What kind of law is it?

I think there is a forum here for advertising for beta readers. You just give a description of your work and say you are looking for someone who is interested in reading your genre.

By the way, how many agents did you query?

If it's a book about legal cases, it must have a theme. I would advertise at local colleges for beta readers who might be interested in reading a book on legal cases with your theme. You might find a law student or two interested who write as well.

As for finding an editor, if that's what you want, I would suggest to keep looking for someone who edits legal nonfiction.

As for secrecy and the internet, many people at this forum beta read and keep confidentiality. You might just want to put a call out in the beta reading forum and share details via email or private message.

Good luck on finding what you need!

REMLIG said:

I have found this forum isn't so anonymous and the information posted here goes all over the internet and it here for forever and a day. Anyone can find it in a google search.

Click to expand...

AW's Share Your Work section is password-protected and hidden from search engines, so you're safe to post your work there if you want to. It could be that you're getting rejections because your writing needs work: posting an exerpt in SYW will highlight that for you, if it's the case. You need a minimum of 50 posts in order to start a thread there.

REMLIG said:

Yes, my manuscript has a theme so to speak. The cases all tie together in a neat little package. But I do need a professional who know the ins and outs and if I'm lucky might have an in with a publisher. I guess that just wishful dreaming...

Click to expand...

You don't need in "in" with a publisher if your work is up to scratch.

I called several professors regarding finding a student to read or edit my work about a year ago. It lead me nowhere. Students here in Florida are lazy and the half a dozen professor I spoke with couldn't find one interested students. They are all too busy with their studies.

Click to expand...

If someone who thought I was lazy and unreasonably busy with my own work wanted me to read or edit their work for free I wouldn't take it very well.

REMLIG said:

Where do editors hang out?

Click to expand...

You might try the Editorial Freelancers Association. You can post a job listing there for free, or consult its directory of members.

http://www.dgliterary.com/freelance-editors.html

http://www.bookdocs.com/editors/

Hope this helps!

A student with no experience in commercial publishing isn't going to be any better at editing your work than you are.

Remember, "editing" isn't just a fancy name for a spelling-and-grammar check.

Your book is absolutely "true crime." Some bestselling true crime books have been about financial crimes, from books about Bernie Madoff to the engaging book God Wants You to Roll, about young con artists targeting small church congregations.

In addition to the good suggestions you've gotten, I am going to recommend The Editorial Freelancers Association's job listings (you can post a job listing for free) and member directory. I know that there are a few former attorneys-turned-editors among the EFA membership.

Just checked out the links and was wondering. Have these editors been veted? Are they reliable and honest. I mean no offence to editors in general but if someone is asking me for money I'd like to know if they can be trusted. Sadly, we live in a suspicious world and I for one have been burned in the past.
Thoughts? Comments? Thanks.

Telford, I don't know. But before I'd employ anyone I'd want to see their CV, to check that they had relevant experience. That would work here.

You could also check out what the membership requirements are for joining the EFA, or any other association whose members you're considering employing. That would be useful too.

Thanks Hack, I'll do that.

telford, if you're in Australia you probably should be looking at Australian editors, not US editors. The EFA is an organization for professional editors working in the US.

But what Old Hack says is right on for every locality--get a resume/cv and references from clients.

EFA has a good screening process and so does http://www.book-editing.com/

You have to be 100% on the tests the latter sends to applicant editors or they won't take you on.

Keep in mind that if you want feedback, then you've enough rep points to upload excerpts to this site's Share Your Work forum.

Also keep in mind that most new writers are paranoid that someone will "steal" their work. However, you won't be a victim of theft until AFTER you've sold and the book's a success. No one is interested in swiping from the unpublished.

You can hire an editor to do a "content" edit, but it's a waste of your money to ask for feedback when you can get it for free from other writers, family and friends.

Who is your audience for this book? If it's intended for the general reading public, then you need regular people not law students to look at it and let you know what worked and what didn't.

Then you rewrite. Then get more feedback. Then rewrite again.

You won't need editing help until after all that. You can't be impatient. Even if you choose to self publish using Kindle or CreateSpace, your book is competing with professional level efforts and has to be just as good if not better.

This thread answered a lot of questions for me too. The links are awesome thank you so much everyone.