5 Reasons I’m Not The Right Editor For You

Hiring an editor is one of the ultimate acts of trust. You’re investing your hard-earned money and handing your book baby over to an essential stranger. The process is understandably terrifying.

When you make that commitment, you deserve to be working with an editor who is as passionate about your project as you are. After all, your editor becomes a member of your team.

Not every editor is the perfect fit for every project. That doesn’t mean they’re not a good editor, and it doesn’t mean you’re not a good author. But hiring an editor is sort of like getting married. You want to make sure you’re a good fit before you walk down the aisle.

Here are a few reasons why I might not be the right editor for you.

You’ve written a sci-fi or a fantasy novel

There are a lot of nuances when it comes to the fiction genres. They all have their own tropes and expectations. It’s important that your author understands these and is intimately familiar with them.

I don’t read sci-fi and fantasy, so I am the furthest thing from an expert in these genres. In fact, I think the last time I read a fantasy novel was when I finished the Harry Potter series at fourteen years old. It wouldn’t make any sense for me to offer expert advice on your incredible fantasy novel.

Instead, I dedicate my time to working on the genres that I read. I am always up to date on the latest trends, and I have a deep understanding of the reader’s expectations in these genres. That’s why I limit my work to crime fiction, thrillers, mysteries, police procedurals, and romances.

Your book is an academic text or nonfiction

There are elements of writing nonfiction that closely resemble fiction writing. In fact, my favorite type of nonfiction books are the ones that feel like I’m reading a story, not just being presented with facts.

But just because I can help you with the structure of your thriller doesn’t mean I can help you with the biography you’re writing on a real-life serial killer.

There are elements of writing academic and nonfiction texts that are very particular. They require fact-checking and very specific structure. I’m just not the person to help you accomplish this.

While I do occasionally work on the creative memoir when the author wants it to read like fiction, I would say that for the most part, if you wrote an academic text or a nonfiction novel, you want to find an editor that specializes in those things.

What your novel needs is a copyedit

Copyediting is editing at the sentence level for mechanics. This is the type of editing that people are often thinking of when they hit the internet and type in, “I NEED AN EDITOR!”

Unfortunately, I don’t offer this service.

When I was a newbie editor, I did offer copyediting. I’m trained in it and am actually very comfortable with the mechanics of writing. I felt like offering copyediting was just a service that made sense for my business.

But I HATED it.

I cringed every time a request came in for a copyediting quote, and I had to force myself to work on those projects. I finally realized that since this is my business, I didn’t have to offer a service I hated! So, I happily took copyediting off my docket and never looked back.

If your book needs a copyedit, I have lots of references for editors who both excel in that area and love to do it. I’m happy to recommend one of those!

You want your manuscript returned the next day

Editing is a time-consuming process. Developmental editing is a VERY time-consuming process.

I like to be able to dedicate myself to a project. This means I typically won’t accept a project that has an incredibly fast turn-around time. Not only does my schedule book up in advance, but if I’m rushing to finish a project, I can’t do as many passes or write as many notes as I might want to, and your book deserves my best work!

As part of your consultation, we’ll discuss your timeline expectations, and I’ll be honest with you about whether or not I can fulfill them. In most cases, I like to have at least four weeks for a developmental edit, three weeks for a line edit, and two weeks for evaluations and sensitivity reads. Depending on what other projects I have on my schedule, I might need longer.

I will make the occasional exceptions, but we would need to discuss it together before I could to the project.

You’re not open to hearing about your novel’s weaknesses

I know that we all think our books are perfect. But if your book really was perfect, you probably wouldn’t be wasting your time and money on hiring an editor.

My job as your editor is to identify the weaknesses in your novel and help you improve them. If you’re not willing to accept that there might be weaknesses in your work, it’s going to make it very difficult for us to move forward.

I will NEVER make fun of you or your work, nor will I think you are any less amazing because you might struggle with maintaining consistency in tense. My job isn’t to judge you, it’s to help you.

And remember, in addition to identifying the places you need to improve, I love pointing out the places where you excelled. I will always comment on what you’re doing well and places where your manuscript really sings so you know what your strengths are, as well.

There is an editor out there that is perfect for every manuscript. You should never settle for the first editor that pops up in your search results. Make sure you find an editor that is a good fit for your manuscript because your book deserves that!