Seeking an Editor 

q       Contact potential editors well in advance. Many editors are booked two to six weeks in advance and may not be available on short notice. 

q       Provide the following information about your project:

Ö    Subject matter and length (number of double-spaced pages or total word count) 

Ö    Start date and due date 

Ö    Pay rate: hourly (with or without a cap) or flat fee. If you're not sure what a fair rate is, the national Editorial Freelancers Association has compiled an overall guide to common rates for editorial services.

Ö    Level of edit: developmental editing, substantive editing, line editing, copyediting, or proofreading

Ö    Whether you want the editing to be done on hard copy (marking changes on paper) or online (making changes directly in the electronic files) 

Ö    Style preferences—for example, The Chicago Manual of Style, Associated Press Stylebook, or MLA style; dictionary preference; in-house style sheet or stylebook

 q       Discuss the amount of editing desired:

Ö    Light, moderate, or heavy editing 

Ö    Editing, or simply querying, about substantive problems such as inconsistency of tone or character 

Ö    Fact-checking questionable items, or simply flagging them for the author to check 

Ö    Coding of manuscript for typesetting 

Ö    Any specific problems you want the editor to address or watch for, such as inconsistencies resulting from multiple authors or text reorganization 

 q       The editor may request a brief sample of the work to be edited (a representative chapter, for example). You, in turn, may want to ask the editor for an editing sample or references to help ensure that candidates have the skills you need.

  Once You've Chosen an Editor 

q       Sign a simple contract with your editor, spelling out the details of the project. This protects both of you. 

q       Have your editor work on a large project in stages (a chapter at a time, for instance). After each stage is completed, pay your editor, discuss any concerns, and decide whether to continue.

q      Let the editor know:

Ö    If the schedule for the project changes 

Ö    How you want the completed edit to be returned to you 

  Upon Completion 

q       The editor should provide you with the following:

Ö    A project style sheet outlining any decisions on style and spelling that they made 

Ö    A summary of any global problems or queries and suggestions for fixes, if applicable 

q      Payment: Most editors expect to be paid upon completion of the project or within 30 days.

Compiled by the Northwest Independent Editors Guild, www.edsguild.org.