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Post by Daniel on Dec 7, 2018 18:15:26 GMT -5
From what I understand, she gives a detailed analysis at the chapter level and specific suggestions on what you could do to improve the story. As I say, I've never hired her, but she has posted about some of the work she's done and it sounds quite thorough. Intimidatingly so.
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Post by Dennis Chekalov on Dec 7, 2018 19:35:01 GMT -5
I always wondered how it works. Let's say, how many words of comments would I get per 1000 words of my text? How useful would be these comments? Yes, many editors offer free samples, but it would be unfair to ask for a sample just because of my curiosity. How many words of comments per 1000 words of your text would you expect (provided that these comments would be useful, of course)?
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Post by Daniel on Dec 9, 2018 7:35:39 GMT -5
Words of comments per thousand words of manuscript? That's an interesting metric. My initial reaction was, "I don't think it works that way," but realistically, if I sent over a 80K manuscript and coughed up five grand, I'd expect a bunch of words of comments in return.
In the end, though, I'd be more concerned with the quality of the response than the quantity. If I received a few targeted comments that I believed would substantially improve my story, that would beat receiving a ream of seemingly useless editorial. In a sense, what I'm willing to pay for amounts to training. A good critique is more than just an analysis of the story at hand. A good developmental editor also teaches you how to be a better writer. The things you learn from one manuscript review should help you produce better work in the future. To me, that is how an editor proves his/her worth.
Suzy may have some insight here. She has been traditionally published and has worked with "real" developmental editors.
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Post by reveries on Dec 9, 2018 12:29:50 GMT -5
There's no fixed rule on this because it depends how chatty the comments get. My developmental edit for my first book with a major publisher was about 2500 words for a 100K manuscript, but that included big quotes from the text.
On a later book, another developmental editor did both an overall letter approx 5000 words and a few dozen comments using tracked changes.
But the really important thing isn't how long they take to say things but whether they know what they are doing. Oh, and you really want a developmental editor who will schedule a phone/skype chat to discuss your ideas on revising the book.
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Post by Dennis Chekalov on Dec 10, 2018 0:32:18 GMT -5
It's very interesting, thank you. Bot now I have another question. I do developmental editing myself, and I write at least 300 words of comments per 1000 words of the manuscript. I try to make it as "non-chatty" as possible, but there's always a lot of things to say — the plot, the setting, the motivation, etc, etc. Recently, I wrote 2.6K words of comments for 3k of the text. Yes, there were quotes and such, but still. 2500 words for a 100K manuscript? Am I doing something wrong? Well, now I am really puzzled.
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Post by reveries on Dec 10, 2018 7:08:27 GMT -5
How many comments there are obviously depends how much work a manuscript needs - it doesn't take long to say a chapter is great don't touch it. What I don't understand is why you were asking how it works, and were talking about asking editors for samples, if you do developmental editing yourself. That gave the impression you were asking as someone considering hiring an editor.
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Post by Dennis Chekalov on Dec 10, 2018 13:54:25 GMT -5
Just trying to learn a bit more. Different people have different expectations. For me, it's important to know what people want. And it was the most recent topic when I opened the forum  |
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