Introduction To Self-Publishing: 9 Tips On Finding A Suitable Editor For Your Books
Based on the pros attributed to self-publishing, most authors aren’t thinking twice about self-publishing their works. It’s said that in a room of 100 authors, 97 are confident about using self-publishing methods. At the same time, one would probably go in the direction of traditional publishing. And what of the remaining 2? They’re part of the percentage who are still yet convinced by either of the two publishing options.
One thing is sure: there’s a significant need to edit your work before publishing. Self-publishing gives you ultimate control over your book, but you still need to employ other sets of eyes to help you sieve out words and aspects that don’t belong in your book.
No matter how good your editing skills are, it won’t bode well to edit your entire book on your own. Your eyes are bound to miss errors a professional editor won’t.
These words are by no means intended to make you doubt yourself or your capabilities; it’s just a simple fact that while it’s entirely possible for you to write a great book, it’s improbable you’ll be able to edit it just as well.
With that being said, you might be wondering the reasons that make this self-publishing option so great that many authors opt for it. Well, let’s walk you a little bit through both options at once!
The Price
Self-publishing
Sometimes, self-publishing on platforms like Amazon can help cut costs of publishing your work. However, some authors would hire custom publishing houses or professional writing services help with most of the work--even hiring ghostwriters; this way, authors would most likely spend between $50,000- $200,000. The exciting thing is that you will keep the profit from each book sale.
With Traditional Publishing, the publisher would pay for your book: sometimes, advance payment is made, usually between $10,000- $50,000 if you’re new. Nonetheless, if you don’t write the book, you’ll give back the payment to the publisher. Also, you get a ‘share’ of any copy that’s sold, and that’s if you get royalties. Otherwise, the publisher gets to keep most of the cover price.
Editing
Self-publishing
No one controls your ability to get your book published; you’re the final judge. Knowing this might give some sense of liberation. Still, most professional writers know the importance of employing another set of eyes to peruse their pieces. Like it or not, it’s somewhat exhausting to write a book, let alone go through it alone time and again. That’s the reason you would need an editor, even if you’re a professional yourself.
With the traditional publishing method, you’re sure they’ll have a team of professional editors in place. Sometimes, they ask that you bring on your editors unless your writing is clear to all.
Publishing
Self-publishing
Unless you hire consultants or have published before, self-publishing on platforms like Amazon can take a bit of time; considering options such as your book cover design, listing on the sites of significant booksellers, figuring out ways to get your book on store shelves, etc
Publishing a book traditionally has you covered from start to finish on all the steps required in publishing. The reason is quite apparent; publishers already know ways to get it done. Still, ths can take time.
Promoting Your Work
Self-publishing
Self-publishing your book means you are responsible for promoting it; this can be challenging if you’re not famous. Usually, authors spend a significant part of the publication time watering the ground in e-newsletters and building their social media presence on social media platforms. They also utilize other ways that would help form a platform for promoting their work.
With traditional publishing, most publishers have a team of promoters who are well connected as well as enthusiastic. However, it works well with more prominent publishing firms as they would have better resources than most average companies.
Knowing how much you can gain and how much time you can save from self-publishing your work, you’ll need to know some of the Dos and Don’ts associated with it.
The Dos And Don’ts Of Self-publishing
Designing Your Cover
It’s easier to say “don’t judge a book by its cover” than actually to abide by the rule. Your book’s cover is the first insight for your book to your reader. And unless you’re a known writer, get a professional designer or anybody who knows the first thing about cover designs. Even known writers use professional designers.
Typefaces
“Novelty” typefaces such as comic sans and chiller indeed do not belong in books. They can have their ways with emails, but your books need to look professional. Typefaces like Electra, Garamond, Jenson, Bembo, and Caslon give a professional look that your readers need.
ISBN
The International Standard Book Number, ISBN, belongs only to one book. Don’t try to play smart or save money by using it for another of your books. Why? Because a book’s ISBN works solely to identify the book’s format and edition.
Editing
While you’re most likely to go through your book again, once or twice, you might not catch all the errors that may be there. So, don’t go editing your book yourself.
What you should do is to have another pair of eyes do the editing for you. Be sure to find someone who has a background in editing. A professional would be just great.
And, now, to the order of the day: Finding the right editor for your book. You must know that there are forms of editing you need to consider before hiring an editor. They’re discussed below.
Types Of Editing
The Line Editing
A line editor is meticulous in looking out for errors and providing polished sentences. For this, they ensure that there’s a proper flow between paragraphs and sentences and analyze your lines for content, choice of words, and sentence structure.
The Developmental Editing
The developmental editors concern themselves with the big picture. They generally handle character development, the structure of a book, and content editing. And this is both for fiction and non-fiction books.
The Copy Editing
The copy editor is responsible for spotting grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors in making sure that there’s consistency all through.
The Proofreading
Proofreading is often the final part of editing a book before publishing. A proofreader would generally go through a book to spot formatting issues, typographical errors, and repetition or omission.
Finding The Suitable Editor For Your Books
It’s hard to find a good editor if you’re conversant with writing books. It’s even harder to find one to work with when you’re new in the field. Whatever the case, you need to know the factors or tips to help you choose the suitable editor for your books. Here are nine great tips:
Like we’ve classified above, editing comes in different forms: copy editing, developmental, line editing, and proofreading.
Being expressive about how you need your book to be edited is the first step. There’s even an option of beta reading. It involves employing a volunteer or paying an editor to read your draft and give feedback before you finally submit it to a professional editor. It helps in shaping the story.
If you’re editing your first book, it’s advised that you use more than one form of editing; developmental and copy editing. Some editors offer you the service of ghostwriting too. However, some editors may have different words to describe these editing forms, be sure to seek clarity.
Determining your budget allocation for editing your book is an essential step to finding a suitable editor. Some editors charge per word and hour- the reason you need to know your word count or page count, as sometimes, the editor might decide to work with either.
Also, if your work is a non-fiction piece, then editing will cost more because it would involve complexities. You may want to include the cost of fact-checking too. Find out how much editing you may need and the type an editor offers.
In all, the editing cost would depend on the kind of editing you’ll need, the experience of the editor, and the time your book will take to get done.
With many software programs for writing manuscripts, most editors try to be conversant with as many as possible, with Google docs and Microsoft word at the front line. However, there’s a need to find out the software an editor would be using to edit your book, so you can easily trace the changes they’ve made.
Test driving editors can be helpful. One way to do this is by sending them a page to edit to see how well they can do the job. Or you could send an editing quiz to different authors while using an answer key to determine who’s best for the job.
An editor who’s conversant with your kind of writing would know just what to look out for and how to make changes or corrections. The same way most writers specialize in niches is the same way editors do. It would be best if you work with someone who would understand your work
Yes, attention to detail. You’ll discover this about your potential editor using fine print in the job description you’ll be sending them. Something as little as adding a random requirement in connection to a post you made. See if they’ll read through it all; it saves you time and helps screen out some applicants. In addition, using more than one editor is the way to go.
Send them a copy of your manuscript and have them give you feedback. Usually, they’ll have thoughts in your sample or synopsis; that’s one way to determine the editors’ styles.
If you’re in a writer’s network, be sure to ask for referrals. It would go a long way in saving you time. Also, you get to go through the works they’ve done, especially if they’ve worked with the person who referred them.
Another option would be asking your potential editors for references from their former or recent clients. Oh, and be sure to reach out to those clients as you’ll have important questions you’ll need their answers to.
Professional editors are what most authors look for. So, if that’s what you want, be sure to find out how long they’ve been working as editors.
Suppose they’ve worked with traditional publishers, as most have. In that case, you’ll need to know how long, as it will help you to determine their level of acquaintance with the trends and their possible connections. If they’re acquainted with the “bestseller” tag, then you know it’s an added advantage.
While searching for someone who would get you the best job at the best deal--a professional, don’t leave out the chance to try a newbie. Sometimes newbies pass all the editorial tests, but because, for some reason, people go for names and reputations, they decide to ignore them.
Well, aside from saving cost by hiring a newbie as your book editor, it would also urge them to do an excellent job for you. The simple reason is that they see you trust them regardless of your many professional choices.
Finding the right editor can be tasking, especially when there are no required certificates for the job. However, with the steps listed above, you’re sure to find just one that’s suitable for you.
A sure way to save you the stress is working with an editing agency such as Publish Pages Services. We are a team of professional writers, and we’re confident you will find the perfect editor for your book, no matter your niche or editing style!
We see to it that your book turns every surfer or store browser into a buyer!