The place is a mixed bag.
I can speak primarily about the way things were not too long ago. (Vagueness, sadly, is necessary here.)
The editing was not shipped overseas. Believe me, they would do it if they could. But they kept trying to send that type of work overseas, and they kept having to redo it.
They will tell you they have editors experienced in various areas, and they would not be lying.
What they will not tell you, however, is the turnover is absolutely obscene. More about that later, but what that will mean for a writer is you will need to hope you get someone good. That's probably no different from any other place.
If you don't get someone good, you might be in trouble. At one time, there were people who could "patch" or even mask bad work. I am not sure if that is still the case.
Back to the turnover: Because of it, there is a chance you will work with people who either have not been there long or, to be blunt, have no business being there. Also, like too many companies today, the people who stay are often the sycophants and suck-ups and not the best people. One cause is low pay. Another cause is the company's complete inability to organize and delegate work effectively. The people who know what they're doing eventually realize how flawed the process is, and if they get the chance, they bail.
Also, you should hope really hard that your work will not need proofreading after the editing portion is complete. The place cycles through proofreaders like they are underwear. The hordes who walk through the door are trained poorly. Thus, chances are good you will get an overly eager proofreader with lots of borderline queries. The company discourages that, but it still happens. If you are really unfortunate, you will get to answer a few of those queries.
Worst of all, the place will sign people to a free-lance proofreading contract, and then one or two things will happen: (1) The person will get work with no prayer of turning a profit. It will require so much time that the rate will plummet to pennies a page. (2) The person will never see a dime for the work and then will be told he or she is free to stop working for the company if he or she is unhappy.
What this means for the writer is you might have a proofreader who is unhappy for the reasons mentioned above.
Unfortunately, I cannot comment on how much of the bill is inflated because of the inefficiency and the high turnover. It's possible that the company eats all of that excess cost.
In short, the place is amazingly disorganized, and the situation with the proofreading contracts alone should have raised some eyebrows well before now. All of that being said, you might be able to submit something, dodge the many obstacles the company creates, and get some decent service.
P.S.: The company does screen applicants with an editing test. Used properly, it could be a decent tool for evaluation. Unfortunately, the company does not use it properly. People who score below a certain level are not hired; that part is good. But the people who make it past the testing then are either anointed as gods or pigeonholed into whatever area is the company's glaring need du jour. Some of that stems from the company's chronic disorganization (see above), but some of it could be avoided if the company would bother to do more than assign a grade to the test. Instead of pinpointing the areas of need or strength, the company makes a bunch of snap judgments. After that, it will never change its mind. Even people who do well in several areas fall victim to the company's frequent binge-and-purge cycle.
Despite all of that, you will have a few people who stay, either because they are afraid to leave, or they learn that most of the other "publishing" companies in the area make the place look like a model of efficiency. I don't know if Sagamore Publishing has been discussed at this site, but that place is a textbook example of the "bumpier path" that people in the area hope to avoid.
