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:
- Look in the acknowledgements section of books that you really like in your genre for the name of the editor. Then contact them.
- Ask for referrals from other authors who LOVED their editor.
- 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 is a 5-time #1 bestselling author and creator and facilitator for the eBook Bestseller Bootcamp for aspiring self-help authors.