Daniel Adorno asked Michael J. Sullivan:

When you first started out self-publishing your books, did you edit them yourself or hire a freelance editor? Just curious since I've heard indie authors who go either way on editing.

Michael J. Sullivan Hey Daniel,
I think editing is EXTREMELY important, especially for self-published authors as you need to be twice as good to get half the credit. I did a lot of editing and it involved both unpaid editors (my wife, friends, fellow authors) as well as hiring freelance copy editors. In general editing breaks down into a number of "types" and I used different people for different things.

1. Structural/content editor - these are the people that look at the story as a whole. They concern themselves with "big issues" such as character motivation, plot, and pacing. They don't care so much about "the words" used to tell the story but rather focus on the story being told. For this I primarily use my wife, Robin, who is an exceptional structural editor. I wouldn't suggest "hiring" this out as structural editing is (a) very expensive and (b) hard to find, and (c) is subjective and a bad structural edit can hurt rather than help the book. One of the things about self-publishing is being able to get your book "into shape" using your own resources (which may include fellow writers).

2. Line editors - don't look at the story - they look at the words telling the story. They might point out awkward sentences, highlight repetition, and offer better word choices than those originally written. The copy editors I hired did a bit of this, but didn't really touch every line. The concern is always whether the line edits are altering the writer's "style" and you should "interview" line editors by giving them a few pages to edit and see how heavy or light handed they are. It may be that you want a heavier hand in this respect than I did. The editors I hired tended to go light on this aspect and I liked that approach.

3. Continuity / fact checking editors - these are the ones that make sure you don't use Buzz Armstrong (a mish-mash of Buzz Aldran and Neal Armstrong), or that your characters changed hair or eye color or even cases where they left the room but are later talking or leaving again. These kinds of things are often found through beta reading. Again, the editors I hired had a good eye toward this as well. But I wouldn't say it was the primary thing I hired them for...it was a "bonus" when they found something but not what my main area of focus was.

4. Copy editors are the ones ensuring your book follows conventions of the language. They usually work against a "style guide" that lays down the law for capitalization, serial commas, when numbers are spelled out and when they are numeric and a whole host of grammar issues (noun/verb agreement, tense, typos, etc). This is where I spent my money on freelancers. There are a lot of copy editors available and they are (a) easy to find (b) relatively inexpensive and (c) well worth the investment. If you "shop around" you can find qualified people who will charge $350 - $500 for a 100,000 word novel. These days I use the same editors that my big-five publishers use and it runs me $1,000 - $1,2000 for 100,000 words.

That's probably more than you wanted to hear, but I thought I should be comprehensive in the answer.

5. Proof readers really aren't editors. They are the ones who read a book after it has been "laid" out and they are looking primarily for formatting issue. Was there an extra line? Does a hyphen show up at the start of a line rather than the end of another. Does the font change for no apparent reason? They also are the last bastion for catching errors that the other 4 might have missed - was there used when their was meant? At the stage they are seeing the book only VERY minor changes can be made (because it might mess up the whole thing). So in general they won't ask for rewrites but they may remove an extraneous word or add a missing one.

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