Editing
So, I read this article:
How Much To Pay For a Book Editor
And it's fine. Well stated. Gives some pointers.
Just to clarify what we are about to discuss (in lieu of reading the article) these are the estimated costs they suggest:
~~~
For a 70,000-word book, your editing costs could be:
For a 70,000-word book, your editing costs could be:
- Developmental editing: $.08 per word, or $5,600 total
- Basic copyediting: $.018 per word, or $1,260 total
- Proofreading: $.0113, or $791 total
It’s easy to extrapolate from this what your total expected editing cost could be. Fantasy, sci-fi, and epic novel writers should be forewarned.
For a 120,000-word book, your editing costs could be:
- Developmental editing: $.08 per word, or $9,600 total
- Basic copyediting: $.018 per word, or $2,160 total
- Proofreading: $.0113, or $1,356 total
~~~
Keep in mind, many authors want all three services to make sure their manuscript is as clean as possible. Even the best writers need someone else to edit. WE ARE NOT SUBJECTIVE!Then the comments. Why do we fall down this rabbit hole? It's awful.
It starts with a few people saying that those prices are way too high. Hey, if you want to shop around, more power to you!
Then there is this asshole:
- I can’t think of a world wherein I’d edit a 70,000-word book for $560. In fact, I would delete the email that asked me to do that, because the author either didn’t value my time and skill or didn’t have a clue what professional editing is worth.
It is completely within your rights to both act that way and feel that way, but...
- For editors who are charging pennies for what should be hours and hours and hours worth of work: I am saddened that you would ruin the market for those who have the expertise and ability to charge what it’s worth.
Ruin the market? It's called free market for a reason. People are free to charge different prices. I feel this bullying of "you must charge this much or you aren't being taken seriously as a professional" is bullshit. I've seen it in the world of photography and heard about it in the world of balloon twisting. There is a certain amount that covers cost of supplies. Presumably no one is going to charge less than overhead. That's just bad business. After that, we're talking intellectual property, non physical goods and people can charge LITERALLY whatever the want. I don't even think you have a right to an opinion about what they charge. You only have a right to an opinion about what YOU charge.
The thing is, maybe some of these editors actually recognize that writing requires "hours and hours and hours worth of work" for which an author has not been paid yet and may never BE paid.
- Here’s the deal, guys: editing is a tough job,
- and it’s worth every penny.
- If I’m going to edit a 70,000-word book, I know what I’m going to bring to the table that the cheap editors can’t.
Someone willing to charge less than $10,000 for a 120,000 word document isn't necessarily cheap. Just reasonable. Don't bash people just because it makes it hard for you to make more money per hour than an author will ever make as an author in their entire lifetime.
Same editor in another comment said this:
- I can assure you every reader knows you skipped out on professional editing while reading your books.
Which just pushes me toward seeing her arrogance. I absolutely believe that you know editing was skipped when the book has errors. I bet there are books that were not professionally edited that you CANNOT tell. Disclaimer: I am not one of those authors. Instead, my sister and I are learning a lot about editing (we both went to college, both write, and both enjoy learning) so that we can edit each other's work. I have that fortune...
I'll give you this, though:
- In fact, if you’re using a software for “editing,” that book is riddled with errors. Overflowing to the brim with them.
Some books almost make me cry. Editing software is STUPID, guys. Don't kid yourselves. If you don't know when the computer is wrong and you are right and if you're not willing to fight an inanimate object to prove your point, then you NEED an editor because you probably don't know as much about punctuation and grammar as you think you do and probably less about things like continuity and objectivity. Just saying.
It's like the time I was sitting in a writing group (which I have since left because, really, just... no) and there was this woman who had self-published in a dozen languages. Someone asked how many languages she speaks. "None," at which point her son jumped in to say, "You don't need to. You just use google translation services.
It's like the time I was sitting in a writing group (which I have since left because, really, just... no) and there was this woman who had self-published in a dozen languages. Someone asked how many languages she speaks. "None," at which point her son jumped in to say, "You don't need to. You just use google translation services.
The thing is, I've read a few books that went through an agent and a large publishing house and still escaped with multiple errors. What's up with that? It seems to happen more and more these days. Cringe! I've even found 3 in Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, the eBook version I just purchased so I could start reading it again. It's a problem! I can see one or two errors making it through, but it's been more prevalent. Get it together, people!
Artists
This just reminds me of the entire subject. I have compared writing to other independent artistry before. For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to compare to a painter. Both are creative endeavors. Both make investments of time, education, and ripping out the heart to present it to people who may very well stomp on it, then set it on fire without caring a whit about the artists as human beings.
There have been a lot of things going around pointing out that an artist may charge $1,000 for a painting because you have to consider their time, their mistake, their learning process, their investments.
Yet they paint and then they sell. That's kind of it.
Authors write. They may spend a year on a novel. Even if they wrote a whole novel in one month (NANOWRIMO), they may have been putting in more than 40 hour weeks during that month and once the month is over, it's not complete. Smart authors will edit as much as they can themselves before heading to an editor. This can take 2-3 more months. And what if they have a day job? That's a long day, every day. Now they have to send it to an editor who complains that anyone who thinks it should cost less than a couple thousand dollars is not professional. They edit, return the book, probably in a month (because if I'm paying an assload, I want it to be FAST!) and now it's the author's turn to sell it.
Lest anyone complain that artists pay for paint and authors use a home computer (which, to be fair, they probably already have for other things, these days) the next step of the author's process isn't free. Take synopsis and query letters, mail them paying for return postage as well. After mailing out 50, let's say, someone wants to see the manuscript. Hooray! Now they have to pay the postage of sending a box AND return postage. The publisher or agent rejects manuscript, sends it back, and if the author gets another bite, they send it all again. This is not cheap, guys!
And authors pay all of it up front with no guarantees and everything to lose. Tell me again how we don't value you as an editor when you clearly see authors as a paycheck, not of value as the people who create the literature from nothing and give us all something to enjoy!
And authors pay all of it up front with no guarantees and everything to lose. Tell me again how we don't value you as an editor when you clearly see authors as a paycheck, not of value as the people who create the literature from nothing and give us all something to enjoy!
