How to find a good editor for your book

How do you find a good editor for your book? Judy from Australia wrote “the trickiest thing I found about writing and book self-publishing in the non-fiction genre is editing and finding an editor.”  Thank’s Judy. I’ll give you a few tips in the video.

The best ways I know to find a good copy editor—one who is professional, fast, proficient, affordable, and most of all, doesn’t lose your authentic voice are these:

  1. Look in the acknowledgements section of books that you really like in your genre for the name of the editor. Then contact them.
  2. Ask for referrals from other authors who LOVED their editor.
  3. Ask me for a referral. I’ll be happy to refer you an amazing editor who meets all the criteria above.

One thing I didn’t talk about in the video is using gig sites like fiverr.com to find a good editor. While editing gigs are a-plenty on these sites, finding a good one is a crap shoot. If your budget doesn’t allow you to hire a recommended professional editor then this may be a good option. Here are some tips for hiring gig editors:

  • Find one whose first language is your language
  • Look for one with lots of 5-star ratings and read the comments
  • Try them out with a short sample such as your introduction or first chapter to assess the quality of editing and turnaround time
  • Do this with two or three editors and compare results

If you have no budget for editing then ask a friend to help you (again, quality may suffer) or see if you can trade services with a professional editor.
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Geoff Affleck

Geoff Affleck is a 5-time #1 bestselling author and creator and facilitator for the eBook Bestseller Bootcamp for aspiring self-help authors.

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