Working Between the Lines: Freelance Editors
I’m very grateful to freelance editor David Carr for allowing me to use the handout for his talk at the San Francisco Writers Conference. It’s a concise, excellent overview of working with a freelance editor.
Q: DO I NEED AN EDITOR?
A: DO YOU WANT YOUR WRITING TO BE CRISP? LOGICAL? DISTINCTIVE?
David Carr ? www.MovingWords.Net
Moving your words, so your words move others
Freelance Editors have different skills
Writing Coach – supports timelines, the writing process, and working through blocks. Helps establish perspective: Is this project relevant to your life and the world? To your heart? Is it worth the investment of time and money?
Developmental Editing – helps elucidate basic ideas into a meaningful structure that will impact the reader as the author intends
Outlining – before the writing begins: develops the logical order of your concepts. The more detailed and refined the outline, the faster the writing can proceed. Outlines are flexible and the process can be informal and open-ended
Structural Editing – of a completed draft: arranges the content so the reader is offered necessary information in a logical sequence. Builds proportion and strong characters.
Voicing – gives a specific stylistic tone and consistency throughout the text.
Ghost Writing – writes the text from ideas and research the “author” has gathered.
Copy Editing – cleans up grammar and precision in word choice in a completed text.
Bringing out the best in you
Moving you forward from where you are – and pulling you from the bog when you’re slogging.
Working with an editor can be enjoyable, educational, and personal – a true collaboration.
You, the writer, are in control – of content (by frequent communication) and cost (by agreement) and timing (with reasonable periodic deadlines).
You, the writer, own the content and have the right to confidentiality.
Questions to ask yourself
How much help do I want?
Do I want someone to collaborate in developing the material?
Do I want someone to teach me to write well?
What help do I want?
Do I want to give over what I have – whether research material or rough draft – and not look at it until it is ready for my approval?
Do I want to approve one (or each) chapter before allowing my editor to move forward?
Questions to ask an editor before you commit
What do you do as an editor? (see the Skills above)
Are you conversant with my subject?
If not, your writing is likely to end up logical, clear and accessible to a broad audience.
If so, that can help for esoteric subjects. You don’t want to pay your editor to learn a strange language/map, if there is another qualified editor who knows your material.
Can we meet in person? (This is important for some writers, while others can work comfortably by email and phone or skype.)
Can we collaborate – on style, content, details, research?
Costs
How do you charge?
What do you need in order to give me an estimate?
How firm is the estimate?
When do you require payment?
What happens if I don’t like the work you produce for me? (Approving one chapter at a time is a way to prevent this.)
Will you wrestle with me to give me the product I want?
Questions to expect an editor to ask you
Where do you think you are in the process?
What do you want me to do? (Collaborate? Structural analysis? Help develop, then guide the writing? Ghost write? Clean up the writing?)
Who is your audience?
What action or feeling do you want to inspire them to?
What is your personal goal for this project?
If you have completed a draft, do you have a chapter outline (so that as I read, I can tell you are approaching your goal logically)?
To create an estimate, you will need to send … (this will depend on the piece, what needs to be done, etc.)
How much work do you want to do yourself? (“Track Changes” is fine for some projects. With others, penciling hard copy first is better. On these, you can save money by inputting changes yourself.)
Do you want me to send you each chapter when I am done? (I recommend that at least the first one be haggled over until the editor knows exactly what you want – then the editor can proceed with confidence to the end without further delay and interruption from the writer.)
What is your time frame? (This may be the first question!)
May you find an editor who keeps you passionate about your book!
David Carr Moving your words, so your words move others www.MovingWords.net
SF Bay Area 510/232-3098
David Carr has been editing fiction and non-fiction since 1988 with writers as far flung as China and Thailand, as well as with doctoral students in the Bay Area and New York. He works collaboratively with clients to bring forth their passion and vision – with clarity, coherence, and in their distinctive voice. David is dedicated to projects that value, expand, and connect our human hearts – offering his own heart, counseling experience, and creativity to bring forth the brilliance of both the writing and the collaborative relationship. He is associate editor with Volcano Press.
©David Carr 2010
