Professional editors are expensive. You'll get no arguments from me on that one. Behind the scenes, editors constantly agonize over what rates we should be charging, trying to find the balance between being affordable and actually earning enough to pay our own bills.
And as much as editors try our best to be affordable, more often than not, a writer's budget doesn't extend far enough to make such a venture worth the pennies involved.
Developmental editing (my area of expertise) is the one aspect of editing that seems to suffer the most from this cost dilemma. Under ideal circumstances, every writer heading down publication roads would be able to hire a developmental editor to help them with the story and characterization aspects of their manuscripts, and hire a copyeditor to help with language and the line-level editing. It would be fantastic if every writer could benefit from the professional eye on how the narrative is constructed. But the cost of such a venture doesn't make it practical. So, writers need to think outside the box to find that help with editing.
Today, I want to explore some of the ways that you can edit your manuscripts cheaply without compromising your editing standards.
The ideas and suggestions presented here will depend on what stage within the writing process you are at. Some ideas are better suited for developmental editing, while others are intended for the copyediting phase. In addition, some ideas are better suited for the newer writer, while other ideas require some experience with writing.
Some ideas cost money, but the budgets associated would be much more manageable than editor's rates.
I need to preface this list by saying that none of these ideas replaces an editor. However, these ideas can make you feel more confident about your quality of writing and editing while working within a tight budget.
1) Work with critique partners and beta readers.
I will always be an advocate of working with critique partners and beta readers prior to hiring the services of an editor. More often than not, the issues that I tend to identify in a manuscript (in my professional standing) could have been identified by a skilled writer who is acting as a critique partner or beta reader.
Finding good critique partners is difficult and can take a significant amount of time on your behalf. However, if you are fortunate enough to find a good critique partner, they are worth their weight in gold.
Check out the blog post on critique partner dating for more ideas on where to find these elusive beasts.
2) Join a critiquing site.
If you are just starting down your writing journey, the critiquing sites like Scribophile are perfect for you. They work best for shorter works, but the feedback that you get often helps you to develop your narrative style, enhancing on your usage of show, dialogue, and other narrative devices.
Scribophile, in particular, is free to join, allowing you to post up to three pieces of your writing for critique on the free plan. The only cost involved is your time. Regardless of the plan that you are on, you need to earn credits to be able to post works for critique. And the way you earn credits is by critiquing the writing of others.
Even if you are a new writer, you can still offer valuable critique. You might not be able to provide concrete advice on how to fix issues, but you will be able to identify sections of writing that aren't working. You might not know why they're not working, but just the knowledge that a sentence is falling flat is a massive step in the right direction.
The hidden bonus of critiquing sites: as you critique more writing from others (the pre-published stuff that is still under development), you start to see the issues in your own writing… and you start to see how to fix it.
And you never know, you might meet your golden critique partner through that critiquing site.
3) Volunteer to be a beta reader for others or a judge for a local writing competition.
As I mentioned above, you might feel that you have nothing of value to contribute, but that's not true.
Writers are readers first, often coming to writing because of their love of story. Because of this, we know when things just aren't working. While the newer writer might not be able to diagnose exactly why a passage isn't working, just pointing it out to the writer is a vital part of fixing whatever is wrong.
And by reading pre-published works, you start to see how others manage their editing process, helping you learn more about your own editing process.
4) Join a critique group.
I can tell you from experience that this one is not for everyone. Just like finding the perfect critique partner, finding the perfect critique group can be difficult. But if you are new to writing, it's worth giving this one a go.
There are a range of online critique groups, and depending how active the writing community is in your local area, there might be a few in-person critique groups floating around too.
5) Join a writing discussion group… and ask questions.
Writing groups tend to be divided into two major categories: critique and discussion. And it will be through the discussion groups that you will glean the oddest detail that could be the key to unlocking whatever block was standing in your way.
The sharing of knowledge is one thing that I love the most about writing discussion groups. Even those who have been around the block a few times often learn new things from discussion groups, because everyone in the group is often reading different reference materials and trying different ideas.
6) Investigate writing competitions. Some of them offer feedback to entrants.
Don't be quick to dismiss writing competitions, even the ones that charge an entry fee. Yes, those who win are often awarded a cash prize, but there are some writing competitions that offer feedback to entrants. The feedback option normally comes with an added fee, but depending on who's providing that feedback, that added fee might just be worth it.
7) Pay for a manuscript assessment rather than a full developmental edit.
Obviously, this one involves money. But the time it takes for an editor to do a manuscript assessment is significantly less time than a full developmental edit. As a result, the manuscript assessment would cost you a fraction of the cost.
That said, you still need to have the writing skills and knowledge base to take full advantage of the comments that come back from that manuscript assessment.
8) Look into professional beta reading services.
This one will involve money too, but most of these services tend to be cheaper than a manuscript assessment from a professional editor. Those who offer professional beta reading services tend not to have any professional editorial background, but they still love books.
I've never used one of these professional beta readers myself, so I can't give you any insights on what you might expect, but the feedback you can get from a service like this could be just as valuable as that manuscript assessment from a professional editor.
9) Get a substantive edit on the first 10,000 words of your manuscript only.
While this won't help you with any issues that might be connected to your overall plot and characterizations, it will help you with the development of your narrative style.
It has been my experience that any writing-style issues identified in the first 10,000 words can often be found throughout the manuscript. Once the issue has been pointed out (along with a workable solution), most writers are more than capable of hunting out further instances of the problem and fixing them on their own.
Side note: This suggestion is NOT an invitation to take advantage of the free sample edits that some editors offer. Editors talk to one another, and when we get word of someone doing what we affectionately call a Franken-edit, word quickly spreads throughout the editing community.
My suggestion for the limited 10,000-word edit is about taking the lessons that you learn from the smaller substantive edit and applying those lessons throughout your manuscript. You still have to do the work.
10) Use an automated editing tool for copyediting.
While an automated tool will never be able to replace the valuable eye of a human editor, it is still better than nothing.
In truth, copyeditors use automated tools all the time to assist them with their editing. It's like using the spell checker or the grammar checker present in MS Word to help you catch the things that you might have missed, but you don't rely 100% on them. However, the automated tools that copyeditors use are so much more fancy. Even then, they still do a significant amount of their editing manually.
There are certain programs that editors favor over others, and if you have the finances, it is worth getting a license for yourself.
I have a lifetime subscription to ProWritingAid, which is a program much like Grammarly, but better!
11) Barter for services with those who are open to bartering.
Most writers have more skills than they know, and some of those skills are valuable. Bartering was the currency of old; it's time for bartering to become common again.
If you have a set of skills that editors might find of use, then see if you can arrange some sort of deal where you pay by way of services rather than money.
Maybe you're a graphic designer. Custom book covers are in high demand. And if you know how to work your graphic design magic on book interiors (print and ebook)… I can see the bartering fun now that will happen with that skill set.
Or maybe you're a web designer. Editors need websites too.
Or perhaps you know a thing or two about producing videos and audio. (If you fall into this category, reach out to me! I know what I'm doing, but editing video and audio is a tedious job and I hate doing it!)
Or maybe you too are a professional editor. Editors do edit swaps all the time!
My point in all of this is that while hiring a professional edit can be rather expensive, there are ways to get quality editing but at a fraction of the cost. You just need to be willing to put in the time and energy—and, of course, think a little outside the box.
So, do you have some suggestions on how to get editing done on a tight budget? (I'll write a post on self-editing tips at a later date if you're wanting to contribute ideas to that one too.)