I think you'll be able to get it done with that amount. There are plenty of editors more expensive than that, and definitely ones cheaper than that, but $10 per thousand words isn't an insulting rate to offer an editor for a copy edit, so you should be all good.
You edited your post for grammar—a copy edit would have done that for you :) You could say the copy edit hammers off all the rough edges (not story-wise but writing-wise) before you do the thorough line-by-line edit.
Can depend on the piece and how much certain aspects matter to you. Polished products in most fields require a lot of professional hands and a lot of money altogether. For books, it could be developmental editing, copy editing, line editing, cover design, publishing, marketing campaign elements—all of which writers MIGHT be able to pull off themselves if they've taken the time and effort to learn but are often entrusted to reliable pros in each field.
It's definitely possible to get an editor for that price. At my current rates, I'd charge a bit under your budget and I've been editing professionally for almost ten years. Just be sure to get a few sample edits and don't go with the cheapest option. Many editors, myself included, also offer payment plans. Good luck!
Yes. I've had good editors with good reputations from Reedsy for about $10/k. You'll have to search around, and ask them to do a sample edit of your first page/pages so you know whether they'll be a good fit (remember, an editor can be great for others but a poor fit for your project.)
$0.01/word is definitely well in the ballpark for a professional copy edit. Much more than that is overcharging unless the manuscript is in really bad shape.
Mine start at $0.008 ($800 for 100k) for example.Â
The EFA "industry rate" is basically overpriced union rates that most indie authors would balk at. (Like $4,000 for a 100k line edit) Even my most successful clients (landing in the top 100 of the store) wouldn't pay that.Â
How confident are you in your self-editing skills? If you're pretty confident and this is more of a final pass for things you missed, cutting corners might be okay.
If you need more support than that (no offense whatsoever, we all have different strengths) then definitely shell out for the more thorough job.
And of course, most people use AI for this now, right? I'm an old timer so I'm not as familiar with those details.
I hate to say this too, because this is not a beta reader's job, but there are also a few beta readers who don't mind marking up SPaG issues along with their read. I happened to find one, and it's very much appreciated. When I beta read I tend to ask the author if they mind if I mark those too, because I can't not see them. Again, though, that's a brain glitch that's obsolete in the age of Grammarly and whatever, and also not a beta reader's actual job.
Lol, no, most people don’t use AI for this, unless you consider MS Word’s spellcheck feature or Grammarly to be AI. I’m sure some have tried it, but in the end, most editing is still done by people, although there are different levels of detail you can pay for. Purely spelling or grammar issues, maybe AI can be helpful, BUT it will still miss too many things. Everything else requires a human.
I do consider Grammarly, PWA etc to be AI, so that's what I'm referring to. I don't think anyone is literally having a human check their grammar nowadays except dinosaurs like me 😅
Those programs still miss too much, in my opinion. I think ya good to use them, use a few different ones, read it yourself two or three times, and then use a copy editor.
It's not an insulting rate, by any means. Not all editors will work for that, but if you sent me a sample that was halfway clean, I wouldn't balk at that, and I've been doing it for about a decade now. Just go for it. You're not trying to lowball or devalue the work.
I think you should be able to find someone depending on the word count and genre. Do your due diligence though. There are a lot of 'editors' with zero training or experience except for 'I've always loved reading ' or 'I wrote a book.'
It's reasonable. I'm an editor and charge £0.01 per word for a copy-edit/proofread all in, so the same price. I'd need the manuscript to be fairly clean, though; if it were chock full of grammar, punctuation, spelling and syntax errors it would take more time and thus I'd need to charge more to reflect that. For really clean manuscripts I charge 0.008 - I always ask to see it first and do a sample edit to make sure both of us are happy to proceed.
I know I'm on the cheaper end of the spectrum, though - but it works for me.
Your saving is not half of the "standard rate". The EFA "industry rates" are just 10 people replying to a survey a while ago and all editors upvote each other and parrot that chart in subs like this to convince authors to open their wallet more than they're willing to. Can people start shouting this from the rooftop and stop being taken for fools?
Could be enough, big changes in editing, previously best editors could charge a lot, new ai tools make up for a lot of incompetence or inexperience, so cheaper editors could use tools to give better results (heavy rewriting, revision or even proofreading is time intensive, new tools can at least do all the simple stuff, grammar spelling punctuation;) look for fantasy editors that can do high level critiques on plot development. However do a few rounds yourself, most new authors make all the same mistakes that are easy to spot and fix). For example, normally I couldn’t work at this price, but if I used ai to do all the proofreading quickly, I could just focus on high level structural insights, less time so I could charge less. (Right now I charge a lot more but I do heavy work). People will say ai could never replace a skilled editor, I think it will be better in less than a year; because even a great editor won’t really fix or change enough, many books need heavy revision, ai tools will let authors quick fix the tone and style, but not quite yet the crucial structure. If someone works for less, they probably aren’t doing enough; most editors are self employed and don’t offer guarantees or refunds. But I’m not suggesting spending more, I’d focus on studying craft for a few weeks, common basic writing mistakes etc, focus on your book as a product, how does it compare to other bestsellers in your field, how is it different and why is it different, what are they all doing in the first few chapters that you are not doing, is there enough suspense, intrigue, conflict; google scene or chapter checklists; focus on boosting the description and detail so the scenes feel more real. I know that’s all exhausting but it’s valuable… otherwise, if you’re unsure, just proofread it well and get it out to beta readers, make it free on wattpad or something, at least the first few chapters, get some honest feedback from the right readers.
Yes. My editor charges about $450 for a copy edit of this size. I don’t know a single self published author who pays more than $700ish for editing unless they’re a hybrid author who is used to traditional publishing having more involved edits.
Then you must only interact with authors who work with pretty cheap editors. I do this full-time, nearly all of my clients are self-published exclusively, and it's about $1k a book on average. $700 isn't quite slave wages, but it's pretty darn cheap for a full novel.
I usually charge about $1,200-$1,700 to copy edit a book, although I will charge as low as $400-$800 for a proofread. My rates are low compared to the editors I network with.
I think you'll be able to get it done with that amount. There are plenty of editors more expensive than that, and definitely ones cheaper than that, but $10 per thousand words isn't an insulting rate to offer an editor for a copy edit, so you should be all good.
I've seen a lot of copy editors in the $6 to $12 per 1000 word range, very feasible!
Complete noob here. What is copy editing🙋? Edit: Grammar
You edited your post for grammar—a copy edit would have done that for you :) You could say the copy edit hammers off all the rough edges (not story-wise but writing-wise) before you do the thorough line-by-line edit.
Ah, I see what you did there👌. What other people will a manuscript need to pass through before publishing. What are there roles.
Can depend on the piece and how much certain aspects matter to you. Polished products in most fields require a lot of professional hands and a lot of money altogether. For books, it could be developmental editing, copy editing, line editing, cover design, publishing, marketing campaign elements—all of which writers MIGHT be able to pull off themselves if they've taken the time and effort to learn but are often entrusted to reliable pros in each field.
Thank you,. Much appreciated.
A copy editor is someone who checks the grammar, sentence structure, and punctuation among other things.
It's definitely possible to get an editor for that price. At my current rates, I'd charge a bit under your budget and I've been editing professionally for almost ten years. Just be sure to get a few sample edits and don't go with the cheapest option. Many editors, myself included, also offer payment plans. Good luck!
Yes. I've had good editors with good reputations from Reedsy for about $10/k. You'll have to search around, and ask them to do a sample edit of your first page/pages so you know whether they'll be a good fit (remember, an editor can be great for others but a poor fit for your project.)
$0.01/word is definitely well in the ballpark for a professional copy edit. Much more than that is overcharging unless the manuscript is in really bad shape. Mine start at $0.008 ($800 for 100k) for example. The EFA "industry rate" is basically overpriced union rates that most indie authors would balk at. (Like $4,000 for a 100k line edit) Even my most successful clients (landing in the top 100 of the store) wouldn't pay that.Â
How confident are you in your self-editing skills? If you're pretty confident and this is more of a final pass for things you missed, cutting corners might be okay. If you need more support than that (no offense whatsoever, we all have different strengths) then definitely shell out for the more thorough job. And of course, most people use AI for this now, right? I'm an old timer so I'm not as familiar with those details. I hate to say this too, because this is not a beta reader's job, but there are also a few beta readers who don't mind marking up SPaG issues along with their read. I happened to find one, and it's very much appreciated. When I beta read I tend to ask the author if they mind if I mark those too, because I can't not see them. Again, though, that's a brain glitch that's obsolete in the age of Grammarly and whatever, and also not a beta reader's actual job.
Lol, no, most people don’t use AI for this, unless you consider MS Word’s spellcheck feature or Grammarly to be AI. I’m sure some have tried it, but in the end, most editing is still done by people, although there are different levels of detail you can pay for. Purely spelling or grammar issues, maybe AI can be helpful, BUT it will still miss too many things. Everything else requires a human.
I do consider Grammarly, PWA etc to be AI, so that's what I'm referring to. I don't think anyone is literally having a human check their grammar nowadays except dinosaurs like me 😅
Those programs still miss too much, in my opinion. I think ya good to use them, use a few different ones, read it yourself two or three times, and then use a copy editor.
That's good to hear. I feel like a relic, reading things with my squishy human eyes and brain. 😅 So I'm not the only one out there.
It's not an insulting rate, by any means. Not all editors will work for that, but if you sent me a sample that was halfway clean, I wouldn't balk at that, and I've been doing it for about a decade now. Just go for it. You're not trying to lowball or devalue the work.
I think you should be able to find someone depending on the word count and genre. Do your due diligence though. There are a lot of 'editors' with zero training or experience except for 'I've always loved reading ' or 'I wrote a book.'
It's reasonable. I'm an editor and charge £0.01 per word for a copy-edit/proofread all in, so the same price. I'd need the manuscript to be fairly clean, though; if it were chock full of grammar, punctuation, spelling and syntax errors it would take more time and thus I'd need to charge more to reflect that. For really clean manuscripts I charge 0.008 - I always ask to see it first and do a sample edit to make sure both of us are happy to proceed. I know I'm on the cheaper end of the spectrum, though - but it works for me.
You should attempt to copyedit yourself first
Your saving is not half of the "standard rate". The EFA "industry rates" are just 10 people replying to a survey a while ago and all editors upvote each other and parrot that chart in subs like this to convince authors to open their wallet more than they're willing to. Can people start shouting this from the rooftop and stop being taken for fools?
Could be enough, big changes in editing, previously best editors could charge a lot, new ai tools make up for a lot of incompetence or inexperience, so cheaper editors could use tools to give better results (heavy rewriting, revision or even proofreading is time intensive, new tools can at least do all the simple stuff, grammar spelling punctuation;) look for fantasy editors that can do high level critiques on plot development. However do a few rounds yourself, most new authors make all the same mistakes that are easy to spot and fix). For example, normally I couldn’t work at this price, but if I used ai to do all the proofreading quickly, I could just focus on high level structural insights, less time so I could charge less. (Right now I charge a lot more but I do heavy work). People will say ai could never replace a skilled editor, I think it will be better in less than a year; because even a great editor won’t really fix or change enough, many books need heavy revision, ai tools will let authors quick fix the tone and style, but not quite yet the crucial structure. If someone works for less, they probably aren’t doing enough; most editors are self employed and don’t offer guarantees or refunds. But I’m not suggesting spending more, I’d focus on studying craft for a few weeks, common basic writing mistakes etc, focus on your book as a product, how does it compare to other bestsellers in your field, how is it different and why is it different, what are they all doing in the first few chapters that you are not doing, is there enough suspense, intrigue, conflict; google scene or chapter checklists; focus on boosting the description and detail so the scenes feel more real. I know that’s all exhausting but it’s valuable… otherwise, if you’re unsure, just proofread it well and get it out to beta readers, make it free on wattpad or something, at least the first few chapters, get some honest feedback from the right readers.
Yes. My editor charges about $450 for a copy edit of this size. I don’t know a single self published author who pays more than $700ish for editing unless they’re a hybrid author who is used to traditional publishing having more involved edits.
Then you must only interact with authors who work with pretty cheap editors. I do this full-time, nearly all of my clients are self-published exclusively, and it's about $1k a book on average. $700 isn't quite slave wages, but it's pretty darn cheap for a full novel.
Geez I spend about 1400
I usually charge about $1,200-$1,700 to copy edit a book, although I will charge as low as $400-$800 for a proofread. My rates are low compared to the editors I network with.
Michael Fedeson on Reedsy edited mine for around that cost and I was very happy with the results