DEAR CRABBIT: what if I can't afford professional editing?

From a blog comment:

Dear Crabbit,
It would be great if you did a post on the best things we can do if we can't afford a full-editing service, Nicola. I'm on a strict family income and spending on my writing just can't take centre stage. I can save and build some money to use, and would love to know the best way to spend it to get the best advice for my work. I can see how important outside proof reading and editing can be, so I want to get it right with my limited resources!

Good question, especially since I was accused of giving bad advice when I mentioned that I'd paid very little for the editing of my short self-published books! To repeat: I wasn't advising anyone to skip the editing process and most of you know that I would never do that. I'm a constant champion of the need for published work to be properly edited, and that includes self-published work.

Editing in all its forms is a skill and an important one, or an important set of skills.

However, we are what we are and most of us would find it hard to pay the full cost of a professional editor. A self-published writer is entitled to cut whatever corners she wishes, and to cope with the consequences, which may be a flawed work. 

But I hope you want to avoid that. As a self-publishing writer, you want to produce the best work you possibly can. 

So, let's suppose that, however much you might wish to, you simply cannot afford the rightly substantial charges of experts and you don't have any expert editors amongst your friends who might give you "mates rates."

First, you need to be clear what the stages of editing generally are. Loosely:

1. Editing - a "global" edit, looking for "big" things such as: structural flaws, problems with characterisation, inconsistencies or unbelievability of plot, and stylistic hiccups and voice or pov issues. This sort of editor will point out the flaws and suggest changes. YOU make the changes. Editors will also point out smaller things that they happen to notice, but it is not their job. (If you are looking for more detail, you need to ask for the next editing levels.)
2. Copy-editing - a copy-editor checks for smaller errors, everything from inconsistencies and sentences or phrases that don't sound quite right to spelling and punctuation errors. A copy-editor would not be expected to make judgements about characterisation or plot.
3. Proof-reading - proof-reading happens after the copy-edited work is typeset (for printed books) or formatted (for ebooks). In practice, proof-reading may happen before ebook formatting but it can only be done on a "final" document because the proof-reader is also looking for layout errors and appearance on the "page". The proof-reader checks for typos of any sort, including tiny things such as a double character space (they must be single) or a word which is hyphenated or capitalised in one place and not another. A good proof-reader would notice small points missed by the copy-editor, but a proof-reader should not be expected to undertake that stage unless agreed. 

You can see that different skills are involved. Professional editors (etc) are trained in what to look for and how to convey that to the writer.

So, how can you ensure that your book is "clean" if you simply cannot pay a professional?

1. Quid pro quo - do you have a skilled friend who might do part of this work in return for you doing something for her or him? Bear in mind that for some part of this you could be looking at something worth several hundred pounds, but money isn't everything and it could be that you can dog-sit (a few times!), garden, cook, anything you can do that your friend can't or doesn't have time for.

2. Your writing group - again, do you have experts or even people with very good judgement and experience in your writing group who could share this work amongst them? OK, so it looks as though I'm advocating crowd-sourced editing; I'm not, necessarily: I'm talking about making use of the skills of your friends and doing the same in return. No, it won't be nearly as good as using a professional editor, but we've already established that you can't afford that. We are working with what we've got.

      A similar approach, if you don't have a writing group or they aren't keen to do it, would be to ask for beta-readers. Do choose them wisely, though: they need to be knowledgeable in the genre, honest but also sensitive, and you need to work out what to do when you don't agree... (I spoke about this in Write to be Published.)

3. Cut your cloth to fit your budget - work out what you can afford and pay for at least part of the process. For example, perhaps you could pay for a professional critique of the first 10,000 words. This could give you a great insight into what else needs to be done in terms of a) the global edit and b) your language and voice. You can then put those points into effect. (Please choose your consultant carefully. I used to do this but am not taking on more clients, but I do have two trusted colleagues who might be able to help you.)

     Or, if you've had masses of feedback from your critique group or beta readers and are confident in the overall aspects of your book, save your money for copy-editing and/or proof-reading.

     I recommend that you do not cut corners on the proof-reading stage, so if you have a small budget, set it aside for this. (Unless you have a genuinely eagle-eyed and willing friends who might be able to do a great "amateur" job.)

How much might you need to pay? Here are two useful things for you to read:

Editors are not highly paid 

Minimum suggested rates for freelancers

Hope that helps. Editing in all its forms is really important and, done properly, a highly skilled task. However, if you can't afford to pay a professional, you can't. This does not mean you shouldn't self-publish, just that you will have to work harder to find solutions, and you may not get a perfect result. Your readers may well be tolerant of lack of perfection - besides, we've all regularly found the odd error in even brilliantly published work that has been professionally edited. That is the case for every single one of my published and self-published books. There's a typo in Dear Agent now... 

No one is perfect. We all just try to be.