cost?

There are a lot of members on this foroum who are capable second pairs of eyes.

Unless you plan on self-pubbing, you will likely be able to get away with the help of a beta reader. Stick around, get to know people, then post in the beta forum and let people know what you need.

When I first started trying to write toward publication, I paid an independent editor around $250 to critique a first chapter for me. It was really helpful--but I soon realized that I could join a critique group or find crit partners through AW or other writers' groups. I hope you'll post something in the Betas forum and find someone to help you for free!

Nice to meet you!

Here are the EFA sample rates. Obviously, people who aren't professional editors are probably going to charge less, but having a freelance editor edit your work before submitting it to agents or publishers is generally a significant investment of money for a very uncertain return.

If you want to publish more than one or two books in your life, your money might be better spent on acquiring the resources to learn self-editing skills.

(I say this as a freelance editor myself!)

Once you have more than 50 posts here, you can post your query, synopsis, and first few pages in the Share Your Work forums and get a second, third, fourth, and fifth pair of eyes for free.

Seconding ICE -- learn to self-edit if you're going to make writing a career.

Good beta readers are pearls beyond price, and just as rare. Some would say the same for editors. Catch-22 is: Until you're able to edit yourself, how are you going to know your editor is doing a good job?

Unless there's a pressing reason for you to get this book out fast (I WANT IT PUBLISHED RIGHT NOW!!!! isn't a pressing reason), I'd suggest you start reading books on editing and revising, at the same time honing your skills by commenting in SYW on other's work. You'll get more betas for your own stories if you show a willingness to reciprocate.

Once you've learned what's what, you'll be in a much better position to hire an editor, if you still want to. Until then, I'd invest the money in those books. (Gotta be a dozen threads around here to point you to some good ones.)

JacelynnFaye said:

Im too nervous to use any one of the adds online generally

Click to expand...

Good instincts. Anyone who advertises online is likely someone you don't want to deal with.

Last time I checked, way back around 2005, a freelance editor charges between three and five cents a word, depending on the depth of the editing requested. For a 100,000 word novel that is 3 to 5 thousand dollars with no guarantee that the book will get picked up by commercial publishers.

Still, as someone pointed out to me, if you have that kind of money and are looking for an education, then it might be worth the cost from a learning experience...

As always, check out the credentials of any editor as not all are created equal...

All this is good to know.