How long should edit take?

Kingson · Jul 10, 2018

Generally speaking, approximately how long do you all think a professional, experienced, freelance fiction editor should take to complete a heavy copyedit/line edit of an 80K word commercial fiction manuscript? I'm just looking for a range (X months to X months).. Thanks.

cornflake · Jul 10, 2018

Kingson said:
Generally speaking, approximately how long do you all think a professional, experienced, freelance fiction editor should take to complete a heavy copyedit/line edit of an 80K word commercial fiction manuscript? I'm just looking for a range (X months to X months).. Thanks.

Depends on the editor and how busy they are -- you can ask for a timeline when you hire someone. Personally, a week to two, but depends on how busy.

Gillhoughly · Jul 10, 2018

I know that P.N. Elrod can do that length in 3-4 weeks.

Harlequin · Jul 11, 2018

80k would be four weeks for the editor I used last year. 100-120k about six weeks. Etc.

If it's like nonfiction editing it'll also depend what shape your MS is in. Stuff that needs a lot of work and/or is very complicated, can take agessssss.

Kingson · Jul 11, 2018

Okay, thanks.

alkin · Jul 13, 2018

Good info. From what you said, we can set the editor's speed at 20k words per week.

How long should edit take?

Kingson

cornflake

practical experience, FTW

Gillhoughly

Grumpy writer and editor

Harlequin

Eat books, not brains!

Kingson

alkin