How to Choose a Good Editor
If you’re an indie author, in particular, you likely know that a professional editor is part of the investment. But it can be hard to know which editor to choose. How do you know who is going to be a high-quality editor, and how do you know they’ll be the right fit for your book? This post will address both the traits of a good editor, as well as how to assess whether or not an editor has these qualities and whether or not s/he is a good fit for you specifically.
Traits of a good editor
Timeliness
Especially if you’re working with a particular schedule for a given project–whether you’ve announced a release date, plan to submit a project somewhere by a certain date, etc.–it is important to have an editor who can and will get your project scheduled and edited in a timely manner. Many editors will have an average turnaround time posted on their services page; if you’re approaching an editor who doesn’t have it listed, ask about his/her turnaround time when you reach out for the first time.
An editor should also be timely in their communication, not only the editing itself. If they list a window in which they generally reply to queries, you should only give them a day or two past that before following up. Likewise on a deadline; if they haven’t reached out to you by the deadline they gave you, follow up a day or two later. If they push a deadline back more than two or three times–especially if they push it back multiple times without explanation–I would strongly recommend not working with them again. If they respond quickly to a follow-up, you may not have a problem, especially if they offer an explanation/apology for the delay. However, you don’t want to work with an editor who makes a pattern of going past their deadlines, and it’s even better to find an editor who takes initiative to reach out first, offer as much warning as possible about delays, etc. and does not require you to be the one to follow up with them. Trust me, it’s way less stressful that way.
Now, it’s obviously important to remember that editors are people too, and sometimes things happen. Unexpected delays pop up, tech glitches, time gets away from us sometimes. Again, it’s a matter of what sort of pattern a given editor exhibits, and how they communicate about it. Which brings us to my next point…
Communication
You need to have a communicative editor. You need to be able to discuss timelines, expectations, questions, etc. smoothly and promptly. If your editor isn’t receptive to questions, won’t be honest about concerns, is flaky with scheduling, never explains delays, loses track of things said in past conversations, etc., you’re going to have a very hard time working with them. An editor should prioritize the author-editor relationship and the improvement of your project according to your vision, and that is going to be reflected in how they do or don’t communicate with you as the author.
I generally look for communication to begin on an editor’s services page. I want to be able to clearly see what type(s) of edits they offer and on what genres, their pricing, whether or not they offer sample edits, and their turnaround time. If they offer more than that right out front, I’m certainly not going to complain. If they hide their prices, in particular, I’m unlikely to move forward with a query. What everyone is looking for upfront is different, though, and you can always ask questions with your query (and should, if you have questions). This, too, can be a great way to get a feel for an editor’s communication style, as you’ll get to see their direct response and how they handle questions.
Familiarity with your genre
Generally speaking, you should look for an editor who has experience with your project’s genre. They’re going to better understand genre conventions, the unique strengths and pitfalls of a given genre, even writing style in cases where that is impacted by genre. A contemporary editor might be excellent at what s/he does, but that doesn’t mean that s/he will know how to balance the communication of worldbuilding in your fantasy novel like a fantasy editor would.
Now, if you find an excellent, adaptable editor who doesn’t list your genre as one of their primary genres, but they’re willing to work with you and you’re happy with their work, you’re welcome to choose to work with that editor anyway; you just need to know that they may or may not be able to give you as much genre-specific feedback.
It’s also important to note that different levels of editing offer more flexibility than others. Your developmental editor should definitely be familiar with your genre. With copy-edits, genre familiarity is much less critical. Line edits fall somewhere in the middle, as they often do.
Understanding of authorial intent
Perhaps even more important than finding an editor who understands your genre, you should seek out an editor who understands and supports the authorial intent in your work. Now, this is not license to find an editor who never kills your darlings; some things really do have to go, and part of the purpose of hiring an editor is to have someone who can look from the outside and see what is and is not necessary in your project. However, an editor who doesn’t understand your pacing choice, isn’t helping you highlight the theme you were driving at, or tries to rewrite your narrative voice is not going to be the best fit for making your project the best it was meant to be.
There is a difference between an editor who recognizes your intention with a story and helps you trim back what’s weakening that intention–whether your voice is a little too flowery, your intended theme is hidden behind mismatched thematic elements, or your pacing needs to be evened out to do its best work–vs. one who clearly doesn’t get it and is editing from a place of what they’re seeing from a different vantage point, not what they see when they stand in your shoes.
There is a balance to this. As I’ve already said, an editor who understands your work will not automatically affirm every choice you’ve made with your book; that would defeat the purpose of what an editor does. There is also nothing automatically wrong with an editor pointing out what they see from an outsider’s perspective, so that you can understand what your book is actually communicating to readers vs. what you intended for it to communicate. If you’re aiming for Theme A but all that’s coming through on the page is Theme B, that’s important to know so that you can adjust accordingly–whether that means rewriting to support Theme A or realizing that Theme B is actually the core theme of your story. But an editor will convey such observations differently if they understand your intent (with an attitude of, “I can tell you were aiming for X, but I’m also seeing this bit of Y here that you could draw on”) than they will if they’re missing the boat (without acknowledgment of the X you were aiming for, just treating Y as the obvious intention). It’s a bit hard to describe the distinction, but I’ve seen it happen–from both sides; try to be aware of whether your editor is offering edits that enhance the story you were trying to tell or whether they seem to be missing the point of what you were going for. You may sometimes need space or a second opinion in order to assess this effectively, without instinctively taking a defensive posture and assuming any change is a strike at the heart of your story!
Personal fit
This last point is the most subjective–and an editor who doesn’t check this box isn’t necessarily a bad editor, just the wrong editor for you (or for this particular project). You and your editor should get along, their editing style should be one that you click with and can apply well, and they should be invested in your project alongside you.
Getting along can be interesting, because liking someone on a personal level doesn’t guarantee you’ll get along with them as an editor, and vice versa. But you should at least be able to have a smooth professional relationship for the duration of your project, and if you find an editor you like as an editor and a person (or even friend), all the better! Those are the author-editor relationships that tend to stick and lead to working on multiple projects together (which means fewer instances of trying to assess new editors. Phew!)
Editing style is going to differ, obviously, from editor to editor, just as writing style differs from author to author. My editing style, for example, is heavily focused on drawing out description and emotion for the reader, building the reader-story connection through strong prose, and offering possibilities to get an author thinking about options for putting my suggestions into practice. That works great for some authors, but it’s not what every author is looking for. As an author, you will want to look for an editor whose style of feedback is the right balance of critical and encouraging for you, highlights things you’re especially prone to miss, offers enough information for you to feel like it’s actionable, etc. You may or may not ever find an editor who’s a perfect fit in all of these areas, but some will be a closer fit than others, and those editors are going to be the most helpful to work with and the least frustrating.
An editor should be invested in your work with you, because it’s their job to make the story more of what it was meant to be. Their job is to take what you’ve written and make it even stronger and more effective, which means they have to care about the story and what you’re doing with it. This may look like “Oh my goodness this project looks amazing I would love to work on it with you!” and other hyper-enthusiastic comments, but that’s not going to happen with every project and a lack of jump-up-and-down excitement doesn’t necessarily mean the editor isn’t invested. If your editor is spending their time on your project, expressing appreciation for your work, offering thorough feedback, etc., that editor is just as invested as the one who oohed and ahhed over your last project–it’s just expressed more moderately. What you don’t want is an editor who says, “Yeah, sure, I’ll work with you,” but misses the point of the story, offers surface-level feedback, gets it over with as speedily as possible, etc. Again, the examples are not the absolute rule–you might have a great editor who happens to work quickly and offers thorough feedback on a quick turnaround time–but it is a matter of the pattern exhibited by the editor.
Assessing an editor
Now you know what to look for in an editor. The question is, how can you assess whether or not an editor has these qualities before you invest with them?
Unfortunately, you may not always be able to thoroughly vet an editor before you get started. Some editors who are a so-so fit won’t clearly be just a so-so fit until they’ve edited your whole book, and some editors may be very good at preliminary communication but drop the ball on the actual project and prove themselves to be unreliable editors. (I’ve been in both scenarios, as an author.) But there are some ways to minimize the negative experiences by assessing the following:
Public platform
There is an editing group I follow on social media that is made up of lovely people I appreciate very much but whom I would never hire to edit my work because their social media is constantly riddled with typos. Likewise, there are editors I appreciate as people whom I wouldn’t hire because I’ve seen their published work and it doesn’t give me confidence in their editing work. Looking at an editor’s public platform and past work can be a good way to determine whether or not you want to try working with them.
As with many of the points in this post, there is a balance to be struck. A typo here or there doesn’t mean the editor is horrible at what they do, and it is good to be aware that an editor’s past work is not only reflective of their skill but also how much of what they suggested was adopted by the author. But, again, patterns are useful to note.
My previous discussion of an editor’s services page can also be applied here; an editor’s services page can offer insight into how forthcoming they are and how they communicate with prospective clients.
Initial communication
If an editor’s platform is free of red flags and you decide to proceed with a query, the initial communication with an editor can be indicative of the relationship moving forward. Is the editor timely in his/her response? Does s/he have a pleasant tone? Is s/he receptive to questions? Is s/he open about his/her strengths and weaknesses as may relate to your project? Does s/he seem enthusiastic about the project (or at least not passive)? Do your schedules align properly for your project?
Sample edits
Sample edits can be such a great tool for figuring out whether or not an editor is the right fit (ideally, for those on both sides; an editor should want what’s best for your project and should know if their work is not it). A sample edit is short, which means you can easily figure out whether or not an editor is going to follow through on a deadline without waiting on a full-length project, but ideally long enough for you to get a feel for their style of feedback.
Fair warning, the efficacy of a sample edit can differ from project to project as some sample pieces may be extra clean, weighted toward a particular type of writing (dialogue, prose, etc.) or otherwise only a mediocre representation of the whole–whether the whole of the author’s project or the whole of the editor’s feedback. However, they are generally a good litmus test for both the editor and the author to get a feel for whether or not they’re going to be able to work together well–and they can make or break a partnership. I lost a potential client once because I had technical issues with the sample edit and followed up too late to remedy it before the client went elsewhere. I’ve also been in the position of author and written off an editor for tardiness with a sample edit. Timeliness and communication, especially, are particularly easy to gauge in most sample edit situations, and they at least enable an editor and author to determine whether they will be a really bad fit on a project even if they don’t always expose so-so partnerships (in terms of editing style, etc.) upfront.
In short, sample edits are ideal for weeding out the worst partnerships before you commit to a full project, which is enough to eliminate any major frustrations from the editing process in the vast majority of cases.
There are my best tips for finding the right editor for your book. Please comment if you have questions or feel like there was anything I left out! Do you have any tips and tricks for finding the right editor?
Looking for a speculative fiction line editor? I’m taking on projects from now through May! Check out my full services page to learn more or book a sample!