- Self-publishing your first book?
Well, one of the key people that you're going to want
on your team is a copy editor
'cause you want to put out
an absolutely professional finished product, right?
Well, how do you hire one?
Stick around, I've got tips
to get a fantastic copy editor for your project.
Hey there, I'm Julie Broad,
founder of Revenue Training Inc.
and creator of havemoreinfluence.com
I'm also the author of two self-published books,
More Than Cashflow and The New Brand You.
Now, I can tell you that neither one of these books
would have been a success
or something that I'm actually really proud of
if it weren't for my fantastic copy editor.
Now, how did I hire her
and what does a copy editor do?
I'm so glad you asked.
That's what I'm gonna cover today.
So why don't we take a look at what a copy editor does?
This is the person who pours over your manuscript.
This person looks at sentence structure,
grammar and punctuation.
A good copy editor is also looking at consistency,
wordings, headings, subheadings.
An editor should never change the voice of your work
but they should enhance it.
What does a copy editor cost?
Well, let me just give you a quick ballpark
and then I'm gonna tell you how to find a fabulous one.
My first book, More Than Cashflow, was 65 thousand words
so to give you a sense,
my copy editor charges $25 per one thousand words,
$25 per hour to cut content
'cause sometimes you end up with a whole lot more content
than you need.
And the final proofread is $15 per one thousand words.
So on my first book, I paid her about $2500.
My second book, The New Brand You, wasn't as flushed out
as my first book was
and it also started off fatter
than it ended up in the end
so she had to cut quite a bit
and I had to pay her to edit those initial 86 thousand words
so it ended up costing me $3610 to get this book edited.
Sounds expensive but without it,
it would not be a professional product.
It would not be something I'm proud of.
Without her, it wouldn't be something
I would want to publish so it was money well spent.
But how do you get a copy editor
who is worth every penny?
Well, here's how I found mine.
Step one, well, first of all, you're gonna go online.
At least, that's what I did.
Now, there's sites where you can go to hire copy editors
like upwork.com
I found mine through a British Columbia,
the providence where I live in Canada,
a British Columbia Editor's Society
or Editor's Association page.
Here, let me just put it up here for you so you can see it.
So I found a list of editors here
and I would do the same approach on Upwork
if I was going to use Upwork.
So number one
is going to this online site.
I'm now going to filter it using some specific criteria.
Now, my books were non-fiction books
in the business category
so first thing, I want an editor
who is comfortable and experienced in that category.
So as you can see on the Editor's Association,
there's filters you can use.
In Upwork, you could just use searches, type in the words.
So first is to review them and find the ones
that have worked on a project
that is a similar type and genre
to the one that you're working on.
Once you've got that list,
now start going to their websites,
going to Amazon and seeing books that they've worked on
and start to dwindle it down to ideally five people
who have worked on similar projects,
have great testimonials on their website
and just seem like they're a good fit for your project.
Now, send an email to each of them.
You don't want to make it too long
'cause you want them to actually read it
but you do want to briefly introduce yourself
and your project.
Give them a sense of how large it is and your timeline.
This is really important because you want somebody
who is available to work on your project
in the timeline that you're striving for.
Now, both of my projects, editing took twice as long
as I had planned and as I had hoped
but that really wasn't on my editor.
It was on me because remember,
it's not just the time it's gonna take them to edit.
You then have to review all their edits
and send it back to them at least one more time
so if you're busy,
editing can drag on for a lot longer than you think.
To select your editor from this short list
of three to five people,
you're going to send each of them
the same two pages from your manuscript
so they can get a sense of your work
and then they can edit it and send it back to you.
So now, when you get these pages back,
what are you looking for?
Well, for me, I was looking for added value.
I wanted insightful suggestions from them.
I didn't want them to change the voice
but I did want them to kinda note
where there might be an idea to improve,
elaborate or even potentially just cut this out.
I wanted suggestions.
I also wanted to test their attention to detail.
So to do that, I used the Merge document function
in Microsoft Word and I compared them
and some of them
didn't catch all the mistakes.
My editor caught them all
and gave me great suggestions to improve
the two pages that she read
then I also just read their comments.
Some people were very opinionated
and I didn't really like that.
I wanted people to come at it objectively
and share their opinions
but I didn't want to feel like their opinion
was being forced on me.
So overall, it was kind of like a gut check
or a am I gonna get along with this person
when I have to work with them for two or three months?
If there's a clear winner, go with them
unless their pricing is just way too high for you
but in general, if you can find a fantastic editor,
they're probably worth the price they're charging you.
If there hadn't been a clear winner,
I would have then evaluated them based on price of course,
availability and then I would have done more research
into the reviews.
I would have gone on Amazon
on the books that they've worked on and read the reviews
and if there was comments against the flow,
against the structure,
grammar, things like that
'cause Amazon reviewers can be really nitpicky,
I would then probably lower my rating of that editor
because while the editor can't really control the content,
at the end of the day,
my editor added so much value that I can tell you
that there won't be comments about that.
Yeah, somebody might find a couple spelling mistakes
but that's probably not my editor's fault.
That probably happened in layout or something that I changed
that wasn't edited by her at the very very end.
So a few mistakes is one thing.
Regular comments or a few comments
about structural issues in the book,
that would lower my rating of the editor.
Once you have your winner, let them know.
Reinforce your timeline and then try to stick with it
because they'll plan their projects around your timeline.
I couldn't be happier with my editor
so I hope that you find an excellent one as well.
If you have questions, go ahead right here in YouTube.
Just go ahead and post a comment
or come on over to havemoreinfluence.com
Grab the Broad Thoughts newsletter
and just hit Reply to any one of them with your questions
and I just might shoot a video
to help you out with your self-publishing
or marketing and branding questions.
Cool?
Cool.
And of course, if you like this video,
do give it a thumbs up.
It makes me happy.
Lets me know that I'm spending my time well
shooting these videos for you
and hope to see you here again next time.
Bye.
Folks, turn on the mic.
It makes a better video.
Okay.
(calm music)