Getting the Most Out of Your Editing Budget
(14-minute read)
Editing takes time and expertise. A good editor can be the crucial difference between a breakthrough book and a total flop. It’s important to value editors’ work and pay them properly, but everyone has a different budget. So, how can authors pay their editors fairly and spend less without compromising on quality? Below are my top ten hacks for authors on a tight budget. They’ll help you to avoid paying a professional for elements you could have covered for less.
1) Needless to Say
Confidence is key. If you’re writing a nonfiction piece, there’s little room for ambiguity. Avoid using ‘I think’, ‘I believe’, ‘In my opinion’, ‘really’, ‘just’, and ‘needless to say’. If you’re writing it, we can assume it’s in your opinion (and evidently not needless to say). Removing these miniature disclaimers will not only make you sound more legit, but it’ll also save you some dough because your copyeditor won’t have to remove them for you.
2) Repeat Offenders
The cleaner your manuscript, the less you’ll have to pay an editor to polish it up… but errors are bound to happen. There are a few regulars I see in almost every manuscript! Here are three of the most common:
Using numbers instead of words. Different style guides will suggest different guidelines for different pieces; it’s worth finding out which might best suit your manuscript. Consistency is key. There will be a few exceptions to the general rule, but you’ll save your copyeditor some time by having the basics covered.
Capitalising nouns (especially job titles). Unless you’re writing in German, nouns are generally uncapped. Of course, there are exceptions, but in general, my Teacher shouldn’t be capitalised and neither should your Manager.
Using wrong or inconsistent variations of similar words. Repeat offenders include (but are not limited to): practise/practice, fulfill/fulfil, focused/focussed, dependent/dependant, aeroplane/airplane, and compliment/complement. Find a list online of common muddle-ups like these and use the search tool on Word to find errors or inconsistencies in your manuscript.
3) Useful Tools
Speaking of useful tools, it’s worth running a spelling/grammar check before passing your manuscript to a copyeditor or proofreader. Word has a built-in editing tool, and there are other free ones online (such as Grammarly) if you don’t use Word. These won’t catch certain typos like double spaces and spaces at the beginning and end of lines that shouldn’t be there, but Word’s find/replace function is great for this. There are tonnes of other plugins (CompareWordList, ProperNounAlyse, TextSTAT, and PerfectIt to name a few), which are often free to use. These tools aren’t as thorough (or as human) as professional editors, so cannot replace them, but they can certainly lighten the load.
4) It Ain’t What You Got
Do you have any bookworm friends who owe you a favour? Ask them to have a scan of your manuscript. Often, people feel honoured to be asked and excited to see behind the scenes. Asking friends for feedback on your manuscript could save you a some cash on the editing process; they might call out holes in the plot, ask about elements they didn’t understand, or even pick up typos – errors you’ll no longer have to pay a professional to deal with. When you hand them your manuscript, it’s useful to also provide a list of questions you’re hoping to address, and detail the kind of feedback you’re after. Friends can be hesitant to provide constructive criticism, so be clear about what you’re looking for and ensure they have permission to be honest. You might also consider asking other peers such as those from your book group, study group, or workplace.
5) Never Out of Style
Save your typesetter some time by using the styling tools (top right in Word) rather than the formatting ones (top left) for stylistic elements (headings, subheadings, italics, etc.). Don’t try to pretty up your document by hitting enter a bunch of times to create spaces – this will only give your editing team the extra job of removing such spaces. Spend time learning some basic styling skills, or leave the line breaking to your typesetter. (Col Fink explains this further here on behalf of Hambone Publishing.)
6) First Things Sixth
There are a few steps you can take with your editing team before dishing out for the full edit:
Get a consultation and find out what kind of edit you need. Paying a proofreader to edit your manuscript is a waste of time and money if it ends up heading back to a developmental editor because of feedback you receive about plot holes at a later stage. Getting a professional opinion on what stage your book is at and the level of edit it needs will prevent this ballache. It might seem like an added cost, but it could save you bags of time and money overall.
Be upfront about your budget from the get-go to ensure you have the right fit with your editors. Discussing budget upfront will help to set your expectations and inform you about where you should focus your professional editors’ help and where you should focus your bookworm friends’ help. It’s helpful to know sooner rather than later if you have any misalignments here, and could prevent you from wasting time with people you don’t end up working with.
Ask your editor for a report of the first 5,000-10,000 words. This is called a manuscript evaluation; it’s like a large (paid) sample edit. It’s not something all editors provide, but it’s worth asking if you’re keen to save some pennies. In the evaluation, your editor will alert you to any pesky repetitive problems. Read their feedback and look through the changes they’ve suggested, then work through the rest of your manuscript accordingly, mimicking their edits. Once you’ve finished, send them the revised manuscript, which will (in theory) now need a much lighter edit than the earlier version might have needed. To be clear, this process is not to replace a professional edit, but to save your editor some time and therefore you some money.
7) Communication Is Key
Communicate your style choices with your editor before they ‘correct’ all of your y’alls to you alls (only for you to later veto such changes). Communicating your stylistic preferences with your editor before the edit will save you both a lot of trouble. You could even begin a stylesheet so your copyeditor doesn’t have to!
8) Time Is Money
Your time is valuable – don’t waste it! There are a million hacks you can implement to shave time off the writing process. Here are three of my favourites:
Use an up-to-date table of contents. This will give you a great view of the overall structure and enable you to skip to the section you want to work on with ease upon opening your document. It will also help you with my next tip…
Decide which part of your manuscript you’re going to work on before you open the document. Stop working on the first chapter; you have an entire book to write and, like titles, often the introduction comes together right at the end, anyway!
Use keyboard shortcuts. I won’t go into detail here because they’re very Googleable, but I will say Ctrl+F has added hours to my year, and I should probably start paying the Alt key as CTO of Intersect Editing.
9) Be Flexible
If possible, keep your timeline flexible. The editing process takes time, and you will always be charged more for a quick turnaround. Giving an editor months rather than days to edit your manuscript could save you hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars. Booking in advance may also save you a pretty penny; editors’ calendars are often booked out for weeks or months, and you’ll be charged more to be wedged in last-minute.
10) Treat It as an Investment
If your purpose of writing is to make money from book sales, don’t cut corners on the editing process. There’s no point in saving money on editing if it ultimately stops your book from selling. Putting money in at this stage will pay off in the long run. If you want your book to fly off the shelves, invest in a good editor.