[Editorial Service] Editing for Authors

http://editingforauthors.com/
I see their banner above the forums; are they any good?

I don't know, but I have to admit this ad bugs the heck out of me, just like the serial comma one did. Would it really be a good thing for a reviewer to rave about the editing of one's book? To me, editing should be invisible. If anyone notices the editing...that's just not good.

But, that's just a cavil about the ad. I have no idea how good or bad their service is. I just know that if I used it, I wouldn't want that to be the thing a reviewer talked about. YMMV.

DreamWeaver said:

I don't know, but I have to admit this ad bugs the heck out of me, just like the serial comma one did. Would it really be a good thing for a reviewer to rave about the editing of one's book? To me, editing should be invisible. If anyone notices the editing...that's just not good.

But, that's just a cavil about the ad. I have no idea how good or bad their service is. I just know that if I used it, I wouldn't want that to be the thing a reviewer talked about. YMMV.

Click to expand...

Well if you look at the reviewer--who's reviewed a great many books and seems to be a fair one--"editing" is something she picks up on for many of her reviews, both good and bad. I'd say Editing for Authors outlines the editor's backgrounds really well, and it's clear they have relevant experience. ETA: As for how they do, I would suggest reading books edited by them, and perhaps talking to the authors they've worked with. ... good luck!

Editing for Authors? (merged into BR&BC thread)

Hi everyone, I haven't been here in a long time (busy writing my first book which is done) I wasn't sure where to
put this post, so perhaps this is the best thread.
I am halfway through my first draft of my memoir. I have
been torn as to how to find an editor, which I plan to be
ready for by spring. This second book is much different than my first poetry book, and being my memoir, I feel overwhelmed who to choose (so many to chose from)
I have spoken to some, who seem to be more focused on
payment up front than discussing my story. I noticed the
editors "Editing for Authors" on the sign in page here, and
since this is a recommended site for writers, I'm thinking
that perhaps they might be a good choice. The Developmental editing is what I will need, and I especially
like the free sample edit, which the other editors would not
do.
My question to anyone here is, has anyone used them? I am very interested in hearing your experience and how
your book turned out.
thanks
Mj

Are you wanting to self-publish or is this editing to be done in order to then query agents?

Have you got a link for this "Editing for Authors" service, Mjarabrab?

Maybe there is a link to it somewhere as a recommended service and I've missed it, but I'm wondering if what you saw was actually a banner ad? The ads at the top of the forum pages aren't endorsed by AbsoluteWrite. (EDIT: This was incorrect, see Medievalist's reply below.)

Thank you both for responding so quickly. First, yes I will
probably self publish with Createspace. I'm fifty eight
and not really familiar with traditional publishing, but at
this early stage perhaps I shouldn't rule it out. I have no
clue how to pursue that, but being back at this forum,
perhaps I can learn?!
And yes I did see the ad when I logged in. I don't know what a banner ad is but it fits what it looks like. I perhaps
have been duped into thinking that since it came up on this site then it's approved by them. Not too smart on my part
apparently.
Thanks again to both of you, have you any suggestions
for editing for memoirs?
glad to be back here and learning
Mj

EMaree said:

Have you got a link for this "Editing for Authors" service, Mjarabrab?

Maybe there is a link to it somewhere as a recommended service and I've missed it, but I'm wondering if what you saw was actually a banner ad? The ads at the top of the forum pages aren't endorsed by AbsoluteWrite.

Click to expand...

Some of them are; the Google ads aren't, (they have the Google symbol on them, tiny but there) the banner ads like the one for Editing for Authors are approved by Mac.

They're a legit service, with editors with trade publishing editing experience.

There's also this in the Publishing FAQs:

[Publishing Services] Service Providers

[Publishing services] What should I ask a prospective copy editor?

Medievalist said:

Some of them are; the Google ads aren't, (they have the Google symbol on them, tiny but there) the banner ads like the one for Editing for Authors are approved by Mac.

They're a legit service, with editors with trade publishing editing experience.

There's also this in the Publishing FAQs:

[Publishing Services] Service Providers

[Publishing services] What should I ask a prospective copy editor?

Click to expand...

Sorry for misunderstanding, I didn't realise the top banners were Mac-approved. That's very useful to know.

Mjarabrab said:

Thank you both for responding so quickly. First, yes I will
probably self publish with Createspace. I'm fifty eight
and not really familiar with traditional publishing, but at
this early stage perhaps I shouldn't rule it out. I have no
clue how to pursue that, but being back at this forum,
perhaps I can learn?!
And yes I did see the ad when I logged in. I don't know what a banner ad is but it fits what it looks like. I perhaps
have been duped into thinking that since it came up on this site then it's approved by them. Not too smart on my part
apparently.
Thanks again to both of you, have you any suggestions
for editing for memoirs?
glad to be back here and learning
Mj

Click to expand...

Oh AW has lots of authors of every age, so please don't let that alone limit your options This is a great place to learn about all of them! I asked about your publishing outlook because procuring an agent/publisher can/will get your MS edited without having to pay for it yourself, but there's nothing wrong with self-publishing, either.

In the meantime, reading Newbie Guide will answer lots of questions that you might not even know you have yet, as well as help you get around the forums. Feel free to post in some of the social forums (like Office Party) and get to know the community -- good to have you, and welcome back to AW

EMaree said:

Sorry for misunderstanding, I didn't realise the top banners were Mac-approved. That's very useful to know.

Click to expand...

Just the ones that are sans the Google symbol, that is the tiny blue triangle or G on corner. (The triangle links to the Google opt-out program).

You can always right-click and see where the image lives. If it's on Absolutewrite then Mac approved the ad personally.

The book covers/links on the top page are entirely Mac's whimsy. They're usually (but not always) affiliate links to Amazon or B &N.

Thank you Cella, I read the previous posts, and no one seems to have any information on them. What I need to do
is spend time reading on here and when my first draft is
ready (I've been working on it for two years, but have given
myself a deadline of spring to have the first draft completed as much as I know how, before I send it off
for the first edit. It just feels scary when you put so much
into a creative piece, and the end product needs to be the
very best written story that I can be proud of.
So, that said,
looks like I have a lot to read on here,
and maybe find an editor !
Thanks
MJ

I'd wait before hiring an editor. You might decide to try submitting to agents or publishers first, or post some bits in Show Your Work for crit (you'll need to have 50 posts first). Or you might find a beta reader willing to read it carefully and respond.

If you do decide to self-publish, hiring a professional editor with a track record isn't a bad idea.

See the Independent Editors page of Writer Beware for info on the pros and cons of paid editing, as well as tips on choosing an editor: http://www.writerbeware.com.

- Victoria

From Editing for Authors

Hi, everybody! I'm glad to see this thread is still going, and I thought I might weigh in here just to put in our two cents. I'm one of the principals at Editing for Authors, along with Erica Orloff. Our company is tiny--it's just us. So when an author works with us, they know who will be editing their book. We were founded in January 2012 and have since worked with dozens of authors to help bring books to publication or prepare them for submission for agents. This year, we also started conducting workshops at the James River Writer's Conference in Richmond, Virginia.

Most of our authors are self-published by choice and want to build a business, but a few have gone on to land agents and one or two publishing deals (as you all know, traditional publishing deals are the unicorn of publishing, so we're thrilled when it happens for those authors who want to traditionally publish). Many of our authors are repeat authors.

Having worked with hundreds of authors over the years (including before Editing for Authors), my best advice for people looking for an editor is this: get a sample. Definitely. Not all editors are good matches for every book, and the only way to really see how an editor will handle your project is to see what that editor actually does with your work. Referrals are fine when it comes to basic business practices, but they're not very helpful when it comes to insight into your own project. This is why we offer free samples: they're for us as much as they are for the authors. Editing is very personal and time-consuming; we form close relationships with the books we're working on, and it's awful for everyone when there's a bad match between an editor and a book. I would also encourage anyone who has questions about us to call or write me or Erica. We're writers ourselves, and we're always happy to answer questions or just get to meet new writers. And if you are looking for an editor, we'd be happy to do a free sample edit of your book so you can compare us to the other editors you're considering and see if we are a good fit.

And p.s., it's $0.017/word, not $.17/word. Our standard edit is two full rounds of editing with an editorial letter.

JonVanZile said:

And p.s., it's $0.017/word, not 1.7 cents/word

Click to expand...

Which of those rates do you think is higher?

Laura, Ha! This is why I'm an editor and not teaching math. Thanks for the catch, and clearly don't send us your calculus-heavy text. I edited the post ...

I used Editing For Authors to edit three books in my series: Disciple Part IV, V, and V.

While Jon is a nice guy and a decent editor, and I appreciate that he invented a hybrid content edit/copyedit rate for me, the guy never met a single deadline.

Part IV was only a few weeks late. During the editing of Part V he had a personal emergency, which I'm sympathetic to but the manuscript came back two months late and forced me to push back the release date.

He gave me a discount on that job and offered one on Part VI. I wanted to finish the series without having to shop for a new editor, so I took him up on it. Sent him the manuscript in mid-September hoping to see it back by the end of October.

Well, he sent me a full refund for Part VI on January 7th. Which is good, but not what I wanted.

I hope he can get his schedule under control. Until then, I can't recommend him if you've got a deadline at all.

L,

I'm glad you received the refund ... and I'm not writing to dispute your comment, but rather to offer my apologies once again for the delay in your project. As you noted, I had a family health crisis over the summer—my father died after a protracted illness, which required both caregiving and unexpected travel. Unfortunately, this had a serious ripple effect on my entire working schedule for the last few months and I'm still catching up. In your case, I would normally have referred your book to my partner, Erica Orloff, but because it was a series and I'd already worked on the first few, I wanted to provide consistency in your edit. We do not outsource any editing, so that wasn't an option. I take full responsibility for my scheduling issues. This is why I offered both discounts and ultimately a full refund, as well as finishing your edit without charge. Trust me that I do feel terrible about it and will take this as a learning experience.

Along those lines, we've also strengthened and changed our contracts to better protect authors from schedule slippage. I'd be more than happy to explain how this works, and while I do understand there's nothing I can say that will return the weeks you've lost, we do strive to conduct ourselves with professionalism and integrity.

To follow up, Jon did send me his edits for Part VI on the 11th -- thank you again for that.

Hi. I'm here to report my recent experience with this company. I wrote a note to them asking about their evaluation services for novel manuscripts. I received a boilerplate reply:

Dear Susan:
Thank you so much for contacting Editing for Authors. I wanted to let you know a little bit more about us and our process. You may not need that level of edit, which tends to be for those book requiring significant restructuring.

The usual edit we offer is a unique two-pass comprehensive edit. We strive to reproduce the best of what New York/traditional publishing once offered authors in terms of editorial, while putting our independent authors firmly in the driver's seat. On the first pass, we edit for the "usual suspects"--spelling errors, typos, grammatical mistakes, and so on. We edit in track changes so that our authors see every mark we make down to the smallest comma correction.

My response as follows:

I'm an English teacher and good at line editing, and I know others who line edit, so I don't need to pay for this. I'm looking for a developmental editor. btw, if this is subbed out to Jon, what credentials does he have working in the commercial or editorial business when it comes to commercial fiction? Working for tech firms or Hay House doesn't qualify him in my book, but I must be missing something? I see on Absolute Write he claims he has edited "hundreds of authors" but he doesn't point to a single commercial title. Why is that?

If you don't mind me asking, when was the last novel you or Jon edited that went from your edit to a contract with a commercial house?

Thank you.

I never received a response to this despite writing again, asking if I had done something wrong.

Were these inappropriate questions?

???

Susan,

First off, we're sorry we seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot. Your questions are absolutely appropriate, and we are more than happy to answer them. If you are who we think you are, you contacted us on May 14 inquiring about our most expensive edit. In our response, which you partially produced above, we said that you probably didn't need that level of edit and recommended a less expensive service, but of course we'd need to see a sample of your book. We never received any other email from you, or we would have promptly answered it. It's unfortunate you chose to address your follow-up questions in a public forum on a major holiday. If there was an email issue, you could simply have called our office during normal business hours at 954.788.4775. We are always happy to talk to writers, whether they're clients or not. Nevertheless, your follow-up questions are basic and we have no problem answering them at length:

1. We are primarily a self-publishing company, so the majority of our authors go on to self-publish, including many through our own self-publishing company (Dragon Tree Books). Others, however, have landed representation with very large literary agencies (including Donald Maass), won awards, and signed multi-book contracts with Amazon's Thomas Mercer. However--and this is key--we don't advertise these authors on our site out of respect for their privacy. As I'm sure you can imagine, many authors would prefer that their relationship with an editorial service is not a matter of public record. That said, we have testimonials on our site, and we do provide--privately--multiple authors who are more than happy to speak to your concerns or offer endorsements of our services.
2. Jon has been editing books for 20 years and has worked for companies including Health Communications Inc., Oxford University Press, Routledge, New York Times Company, Basic Health Publications, Tribune Company, and others. In addition, he has worked as a contract editor for all three of the leading self-publishing companies and ghostwritten books that have gone onto receive awards.

Most importantly, we never did a sample edit for you and you are not a client of ours, so it would be hard for us to comment on a project we've never seen. Our approach is simple: we offer a free sample edit, and the editor who does your sample is the editor who will work on your book. Our authors work closely with us and know their editor personally, and we make efforts to match the right editor with the right book. We are NOT an editorial mill--you work with one of the two principals. Finally, and this is what’s puzzling--we tried to talk you OUT of our most expensive edit into one that was less than half the cost. We take our ethical role as editors very seriously. As Erica pointed out in her email to you, most of the time the comprehensive edit does the trick. Recently, Erica edited a 300-page manuscript and had 150 detailed comments--plus the editorial revision letter. Our comprehensive edit is unique. It is not a basic line edit, but TWO edits, a revision letter, and usually in-depth comments (paragraph-length at times) on every page, or at least every other. So for HALF the price, we would have provided you with your edit, plus done two passes to ensure that your book was clean. If none of us ever made errors, we would not need proofreaders.

As we said, if you still have questions, please feel free to call our office tomorrow during normal business hours. We'll be happy to discuss our company, qualifications, and process in depth.

Mrs. Mig,

Spoken like an editor!

p.s. And by "spoken" I mean "written"