As part of a contest prize, I've received a significant discount to work with a professional editor. Even with the discount, it's still pretty expensive and before making this kind of investment, I was wondering if you had any advice. Is working with a professional editor worthwhile? What will I get out of the experience?
Do you have any advice?
Best,
Unedited
Dear Unedited,
It's difficult to know how to answer this question without knowing where you are in your career and what your plans are for your book. But I'll do my best!
If you're planning to self-publish, then 100% you should use a professional editor.
If you're looking to polish up an MS before querying agents, then it's not quite so cut and dried. There is a lot you can do on your own and with a few well-selected critique partners and beta readers. And given most agents are fairly editorial, once you get an agent you're likely to do at least a couple of rounds of revision with her before the book goes on submission.
If you've been querying and have not had any joy yet, maybe working with an editor will help bring your book to a place where it's strong enough to attract some interest.
Or maybe you're just not sure exactly what's not right about the book, but you know there is something wrong. In that case, an editor could be really helpful. I recently worked with a freelance editor for the first time on a book like this. I really liked the last third of the book, but knew there was something not quite right with things before that. The editor I worked with talked me through the issues she saw with the story and gave me some useful ideas of ways to fix them. I found it a really useful process and something I'd never had from an editor at a publishing company. It made me really excited to dive back into my MS!
That said, if you're not prepared to do the work, it's not going to be worth paying for an editor. You need to be open to ripping your story apart and putting it back together again. You also need to trust the editor and they are not all created equally. Make sure whoever you choose to work with has a solid track record and if you can, get a recommendation from someone else who has worked with them.
If you can, talk to the editor before you commit so you know how they like to work and if that's going to work for you. If you're someone who likes to get feedback in writing and the editor prefers a conversation over Zoom, then maybe this isn't the best fit. If you're paying for this, you need to make sure you're going to get out of it what you need.
Hope that helps!
X O'Abby
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