Odd thought

[CharlesEBrown]

After starting on four books between three sites where I kept thinking "This would be great if they had a decent editor; it's 'good enough' but could be better" I found myself wondering if maybe I should offer my services AS an editor... Not sure what kind of rates would be reasonable or if people would be interested but it's something I'm seriously considering.
I may not be the best, but I'll probably be cheap enough for most to afford... Maybe.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

I think it's normal. Webnovels are like first drafts anyway. However, I never really see people on SH making a WN and then making a final draft. As for editing, I don't know how many SH authors will hire one. @BearlyAlive does editing, I believe. Maybe he will know something?

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Probably will have more luck on RR.

 

[BearlyAlive]

Editing is pretty tricky to put a price tag on. Depending on the kind of editing you want to offer prices can and should vary. Developmental and environmental editing, aka. plotting out a story, lore, or worldbuilding is as much editing as being a human spellchecker.

If it's just grammar and spellchecking, you can either do a flat price per chapter, a per-word price, or a combination of both. Think about what you can offer to enhance the experience and then about how shameless you want to be about it. Professional editing prices are insultingly high since the market is pretty much free, anyone can call themselves an editor. I've seen people successfully charge 25$ for spellchecking an A4 page...

I translate and edit professionally for games, and I always include the editing fee in my translation since doing bad work leaves a bad aftertaste. For a clean translation, I'd charge 3ct or 4ct editing fees per word, depending on how complex the text and editing are.

For novels, I set the prices lower, since it isn't my main gig. I charge up to 2,5ct per word and almost always round down a few bucks to get clean round numbers. But that's my problem of being too generous. Up to 5ct per word would still be on the cheaper side of "professional" editing.

 

[John_Owl]

I think it's normal. Webnovels are like first drafts anyway. However, I never really see people on SH making a WN and then making a final draft. As for editing, I don't know how many SH authors will hire one. @BearlyAlive does editing, I believe. Maybe he will know something?

I'd love to publish my two complete novels. The issue is affording an editor that is actually capable of editing AND willing to comb through sex. As it is, I may just end up publishing them as they are, then releasing a 2nd draft at a later date.

As it stands, I use grammarly free because that's all I can really afford for now.

For novels, I set the prices lower, since it isn't my main gig. I charge up to 2,5ct per word and almost always round down a few bucks to get clean round numbers. But that's my problem of being too generous. Up to 5ct per word would still be on the cheaper side of "professional" editing.

dude, for your 2.5ct price, my just finished novel, Lay the Dragon, would be 2865. Now, if you mean US$, that's WAY beyond my price range lol.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I'd love to publish my two complete novels. The issue is affording an editor that is actually capable of editing AND willing to comb through sex. As it is, I may just end up publishing them as they are, then releasing a 2nd draft at a later date.

As it stands, I use grammarly free because that's all I can really afford for now.

dude, for your 2.5ct price, my just finished novel, Lay the Dragon, would be 2865. Now, if you mean US$, that's WAY beyond my price range lol.

Sex scenes are hard to edit (or write, for that matter), especially if there are a lot of them - either the would-be editor gets into them and doesn't catch errors, or gets sick of them and their eyes glaze over...

Could give a chapter a shot to see if I have the ... ahem ... stamina for it...

 

[John_Owl]

Sex scenes are hard to edit (or write, for that matter), especially if there are a lot of them - either the would-be editor gets into them and doesn't catch errors, or gets sick of them and their eyes glaze over...

Could give a chapter a shot to see if I have the ... ahem ... stamina for it...

You're welcome to. They're all in my sig, and the chapters with sex scenes are clearly marked. And I've never found them all that difficult to write. I view it as little different from writing a fight scene, in the sense of fast paced, raw action descriptors. If you're not interested in the series themselves and just to see if you have the "stamina" I'd recommend my one-shots novel. They're all edited to the same level by me with grammarly. that is to say, not perfect, but a far cry better than a raw first draft.

 

[JayMark]

I do my own editing. You know what they say about the writers who do their own editing: "They are a typo fool."

 

[FleecedSheep]

Editing sucks, I'd much rather keep writing, but I need to occasionally double check my work. I do know that a lot of famous authors tend to have significant partners, be it a wife or husband, as an editor. Seems a bit like a cheat code.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Over on SubStack I was told that a lot of writers make most of their income as freelance proofreader/editors when they start out.

 

[Jocelyn_Uasal]

Not a bad idea but just step one. You've gotta first decide what kind of editor to become, what content or genre you'll specialize in, and how much to charge. In general, a copy editor makes about a nickel per word.

This is important because different genres need different attention and have different uses for the same punctuations and so on.

For example, the average TTRPG webnovel probably doesn't care how a dash is used so long as it looks good in the context, a dash is a dash is a dash. But personally, if I had an editor mix up an em and en dash in my historical-tragedy then I'd go find a different editor.

 

[theInmara]

We're defintely occasionally in search of a good editor. Almost can never afford one, but when we can we have no idea where to look.

Most of our webnovels are definitely first drafts, though. But we'll get to editing them ourselves, if we can't find someone to help us, when we take them to print, which is absolutely the plan.

So, yeah, you'll probably have some kind of a market.