Editor Service for Sci-Fi Projects?

Join an online critique group. It's cheaper (most are free) and usually better, especially if you try a group like Critters.

I'm an editor by day, and I'm the first one to say that the best thing you could do is do your own editing. If you're not positive your story is the strongest it could be, it's probably not.

I agree with Dave: joining a critique group is probably going to be your best bet. But most likely, readers will give you overall feedback (does the story work overall, etc) as opposed to copy edits (grammar, punctuation, consistency, style). If you need to brush up on grammar, and CHICAGO 15 is too daunting (this is the bible of style in the publishing industry), I recommend the more user-friendly GREGG REFERENCE MANUAL.

As an example of expenses, when I did freelance editing, I charged $2/page for copy edits, $3/page for developmental edits, and $4/page for both, for 12-point Courier New, double-space. (And I stuck on an additional $30 fee if people didn't submit their work properly formatted.) I'm not sure what rates are anymore. (I also don't do freelance editing for individuals anymore; one of my clients simply didn't pay me.) Note: you may find that some freelancers will insist on 50% upfront.

Anyway, good luck with this.

question: if you post it for critique, say, here on the 'share your work' board for the genre, does that interfere with any 'first rights' or whatever a publisher might/would insist on having? that is, for a short story, would having it available online pose a problem with an editor?

Pretty sure it does, preyer. This is a public board. Technically, posting a story here would count as first-electronic. Then again, I'm not a lawyer. You may want to ask Jaws or one of the other big lawyerly fish here.

I would be happy to edit a science fiction or fantasy novel (especially if it's a romance) for the rates dragonjax quoted. And I would definitely insist on half upfront, I too have had problems with freelance clients just not paying.

If anyone wants to start a group of fsf-specific editors, let me know.

Joining a critique group can be a terrific way to get good feedback on your story, and more importantly, your writing. You have to be careful to be in a group with serious writers, though, for it to be valuable to you. A place that helped me immensely is Hatrack.com, the website of Orson Scott Card. There are writers' forums there that are habited by serious students of the art and craft of writing speculative fiction. The boards are handled in such a way that first electronic rights are not compromised (read the FAQ there before diving in), and the constructive criticism I've received there has been invaluable. The critique group I'm now a part of is composed of people I met on the boards there.

http://critters.org/

1) You won't get one person's opinion. You'll get several.

2) Many of these people are established writers

3) It's free.

4) One of the best things I've ever done for my own writing is critiquing the writing of others.

Magna, if you do your research, you can get editing for about $1-$2/Page. But you should always ask other writers about their experience with the particular editing service, to check whether the company is legitimate.

I'm under the impression that what you really need is somebody to critique your work and not some editing service. Because advances are at an all-time low, most genre authors can't afford to do anything but self-edit their work.

I second (or is that third or fourth?) the vote to join an online crit group.

Personally, I've found that I learn a lot more from critting other people's works than I do from reading crits given to mine. It's a valuable tool, and it's (usually) free. It will help you much more over the long term to improve your work than hiring someone to edit for you.

To protect your rights, make sure you join a group that doesn't offer public access to your works or the crits. If the number of people who can see your work is limited - ie, password protected or the like - then it's not a problem.

My husband and I, both scifi writers, have a critters forum set up at http://www.speculative-fiction.com/ if you'd like to check it out.

preyer said:

question: if you post it for critique, say, here on the 'share your work' board for the genre, does that interfere with any 'first rights' or whatever a publisher might/would insist on having? that is, for a short story, would having it available online pose a problem with an editor?

Click to expand...

The "share your work" board requires a password, I think, so that might stop rights from being used up by posting there. I'm not entirely sure how it works, though.