What to think about when hiring an editor

Quite early on in my writing, I understood there were things my friends and family couldn’t do for me. One of those things was teaching me how to write. That’s when the word editor came into the picture.

But before I could have anything to do with editors, I needed to take my writing as far as possible on my own. I read books about it, gathered tools, and fine-tuned the writing on my own. If I didn’t, I would waste a lot of money having someone tell me the basics when what I wanted was to spend money on a pro teaching me the detailed work I couldn’t learn on my own.

The important lesson for me was not hiring an editor to fix my mistakes. Instead, I hired an editor to help me highlight my faults so that I could learn from them. If I let someone else mend the cracks, I wouldn’t have gotten the most important bits out of the editing process.

Finding an editor is easy, but finding one that could see the voice I was writing in and who got the message of what I was trying to do was more difficult. There are also different types of editing services out there, and here I had to ask myself what I wanted to get out of the work.

The first editor I had when I was just learning how to write a book correctly looked at the big picture and taught me to see the structural issues. This cost quite a bit, which is why it was important to me. It wasn’t just a fee I would have to continue paying every time I came to that part of the story. Instead, I used the money to learn and to prevent making the same mistake twice.

When trying to find an editor for your work, it’s important not to be afraid to try out different ones. Because editors are people like anyone else, some will understand your needs and style better than others. Do they edit your genre? Have they worked on editing a first-person YA before? Are there recommendations from other authors within your genre?

You have to weigh your needs with what you could gain. Learning how to become a better writer by paying someone to critique parts of your manuscript can be invaluable to an author, and maybe even cost less than a writing course. Maybe letting someone fine-tune your blogs could save you the time you need to finish your book.

Lisa Amenya from Upwork is helping me proofread my blogs, and she’s not only fast, effective, and friendly, she understands my writing and doesn't try and alter my voice. Whatever reason you decide to get the help of an editor, don't be afraid to give it a go. It might lead you to find someone who can help you become a better writer, not just for this book, but for your entire career.