When you might consider hiring a developmental editor
If you agree with any of the statements below...
it might be time to reach out to a developmental editor.
-I want to publish my article / chapter / parts of my dissertation / book, but I'm not sure where to begin.
-I know my advisor is not reading my dissertation work thoroughly because they have 500 other things on their plate.
-I have so many ideas, but I'm not sure how to organize them into a coherent, publishable piece.
-I desperately need someone with whom I can collaborate. Writing is lonely sometimes.
-I'm not sure how to navigate the publishing process.
-I need guidance as to how I can go forward with my article, book, chapter, or dissertation.
-I need someone to read my work and provide thorough, meaningful, and helpful feedback.
-I need someone to advocate for and support me.
-I need someone with expertise in writing but not necessarily in my field / area, who can help me understand how non-expert readers will interact with my text.
Reach out to me!
If I'm not the right developmental editor for you, I know many who could be.
What is a...? People You Can Hire to Help You Write
đď¸ What is a WRITING COACH?
A writing coach is an editor and mentor. Usually on a one-to-one basis, they help you to establish a writing practice, improve your writing and research skills, navigate the publishing industry, and connect with others in the writing community.
When might you need a writing coach?
If you are in a writing-heavy career (or identify as a writer) or you are enrolled in a writing-heavy educational program and find that writing is not coming to you as "easily" as you'd like, or is causing you a great deal of stress, hiring a writing coach could be very useful. You might also consider hiring a writing coach if you are a writer (e.g., a scholar, student, journalist, author, blogger, whatever!) and are seeking a support system, a collaborator, and/or someone who can keep you focused.
How much can hiring a writing coach cost?
This really depends on the person, their business philosophy, the services they provide, the type of writing you're doing, your experience, their experience, and many other things. Rates can range from $50ish to $500+. (Psst...I charge $60/hr. or "pay-what-you-can.")
𼣠What is a DEVELOPMENTAL EDITOR?
A developmental editor helps you, well, develop your writing by addressing the text's "big picture." They/we take a very thorough look at the text and give you feedback (usually both as comments throughout and in an editorial summary) on things like a text's overall organization and flow, pacing, plot, places where more information / elaboration / further explanation is needed, the strength of the argument(s) and evidence, and so on.
When might you need a developmental editor?
Once you've written your piece and now need some honest, engaged feedback from someone who understands how your genre works.
How much can hiring a developmental editor cost?
Again, this depends on whether you're writing fiction or nonfiction, what genre you work in, and what the topic (or, in academia, the field) is. For nonfiction work in the humanities/social science, editors like me charge between $0.04-0.05 a word (according to the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA)). So, for an academic article of about 10,000 words, a developmental edit might cost between $400-500. Some editors charge by word (like me), some by hour, and some by project, so pricing can vary here, too.
đď¸What is a LINE EDITOR?
A line editor looks at your piece at the paragraph and sentence level, addressing issues of clarity, conciseness, consistency, tone, flow, and point-of-view.
When might you need a line editor?
Line-editing comes after youâve addressed the âbig pictureâ items and are ready to work on how youâre saying what youâre saying rather than what youâre saying. In other words, when youâre happy with the overall structure and content and are ready to begin refining, youâll want to hire a line editor.
What can it cost to hire a line editor?
As with all other writing-adjacent hires, this one depends, too. In the humanities/social sciences, line editors charge around $0.04-0.045/word.
đď¸ What is a COPY EDITOR?
A copy editor addresses the nitty-gritty mechanical stuff in the text, including use of language, syntax, grammar, and punctuation.
When might you need a copy editor?
Youâre ready for a copy editor when the bigger elements of your text are ironed out, and the overall style and tone (line-editing things) are addressed. Typically, you'll want at least one round of copy edits before submitting your piece to a journal or publisher to ensure your argument, storyline, etc. comes through clearly. There is also at least one round of copy edits after you've resubmitted your article or book to a publisher or press for a second time (after all of the content issues have been dealt with / following your edits after peer review).
How much does hiring a copy editor cost?
Again, this depends on all of the aforementioned factors, but for the nonfiction humanities/social sciences realm, this typically costs between $0.03-0.04/word (slightly less than developmental editing).
đ What is a PROOFREADER?
Sometimes authors are thinking of "proofreading" when they really mean "copyediting." A proofreader looks at proofs, or the final draft, typically right before it's sent to press. A proofreader searches for typos, misspellings, missing commas, weird spacing between words, and all the other little errors that were missed in the last few rounds of edits.
When might you need a proofreader?
A publisher will hire a proofreader or provide a proofread as one of the very last steps of the publishing process. A good proofreader polishes the piece, making the form and mechanics of the piece as near to perfect as it'll get (the content is something dealt with in the developmental and, to some extent, the copyediting phases). If you're submitting a dissertation or thesis to the graduate school for archiving, a proofreader is a good person to hire in the month prior to doing this.
What can it cost to hire a proofreader? Again, this depends. For the humanities/social sciences nonfiction world, a proofreader might charge between $0.02-0.03/word, or slightly less than a copy editor.
đ What is an INDEXER?
An indexer creates the book's index.
When do you need an indexer?
Not all books have indexes (or indices), but for nonfiction books or something like a poetry book (with a first-line index or a title index), the indexing happens at the very end of the publishing process. This is typically done during the penultimate proofreading stage (when an author is addressing minor things an editor has pointed out). The text will then (again, typically) go through one last round of proofreading, this time including the index, before being sent off for publication.
How much does it cost to hire an indexer?
You won't always have to self-hire an indexer, but if you do, it might cost around $0.02/word for a nonfiction humanities/social sciences text. That means, for a text with 80,000 words, it will cost about $1600 to have your book indexed.
đ§ŠWhat are some other services Frazier-Rath Editing can provide?
Manuscript formatting ($0.03/word on avg. for my area)
Checking and fixing references (depends on how much work needs to be done; usually I charge about $200 for a pretty messy Reference section.)
Fact-checking ($0.05/word on avg. for my area)
Frazier-Rath Editing is committed to providing writing services like those listed here to anyone who needs them, no matter their access to wealth or institution funding. Please inquire about pay-what-you-can pricing.
Book Indexing, An Art
Iâve been doing a lot of book indexing recently, which is something I fell into unintentionally and have enjoyed immensely. I love developmental and copy editing with my whole heart, and have to also admit that indexing has become a favorite of mine as well.
Who knew? Life twists and turns in weird ways, and then youâre 38 with a PhD in German Studies and have your own business where you work with authors at (now literally) every stage of manuscript development.
Indexing is not just about ctrl + F-ing for certain words and writing down the page numbers where these words appear, though I certainly have experienced indices that have been constructed in this manner. Itâs super annoying because you want information related to that word, that concept, that person, that event, and what you get is, in most cases, a passing mention with no context or elaboration. It wastes your time.
A good index is one that directs the reader to the main ideas of the book in various ways: use of synonyms, field-specific terms and concepts, cross-references, and the inclusion of references to further information related peripherally to the topic are used to make sure that every entry is a helpful and useful one.
It takes A LOT of time to create a good index. A recent academic book manuscript I worked on took me upwards of 30 hours to construct, refine, and perfect. You must read the text in its entirety and take scrupulous and detailed notes before you even begin. Then, you must go back through each and every paragraph to determine what useful information is there, and how it relates to the various main ideas of the text. You have to discern who and what is important enough to index, and what and who is not. You have to put yourself in many readersâ shoes and consider how they might use the index, what words they will search for. Itâs an exercise in considering many perspectives, in determining the relationship between all sorts of information, and in weighing comprehensibility with utility and thoroughness.
Itâs a marathon of a project and takes a great amount of patience, and I really wasnât sure Iâd like it, to be honest.
But I really really do. Itâs an intellectual endeavor unlike any other, and learning how to do it has been a great challenge for me. Turns out, maybe Iâm an indexer as well as an editor. We certainly do contain multitudes, I suppose.
So, if you need someone to index your next book, you know who to reach out to now :)
Finding Balance in Business
As I build and grow Frazier-Rath Editing, Iâve struggled with how I can balance my need for an income and my desire to value my own time and skills in ways that companies and colleges Iâve worked for have not,âŚ
âŚwith my deeply-held belief that the amount of money you have access to should never determine how youâre treated, nor the quality and care you should expect.
Iâm very uncomfortable with the world of transactions, especially monetary ones, considering the devastating consequences of capitalism. (Thatâs a topic for our book discussion in April, to which all are welcome.)
I much prefer operating on the principles of collaboration, community, as well as mutual support and respect.
So, Iâve decided that although I set my rates in accordance with the guidelines put forth by the Editorial Freelancers Association, I will always offer a âpay-what-you-canâ option, accompanied by the trust in my clients that they will pay what they can, and the promise that I will never ask questions, nor pass judgment.
And I really, truly mean it.
This will allow me to do what I really love doing, while supporting anyone who is trying to get their ideas out there, no matter how much they can pay.
(I also decided that Iâm ok with the idea that there will be people who find this naive, stupid, or bad business. I donât really care. I live very seriously by the idea that you should live the way you want the world to be.)
So, if you think you canât afford someone toâŚ
help you fix your resume;
support you as you write that article or book you werenât sure you could write;
perfect that last draft;
strengthen that proposal;
âŚ
think again.
Generative AI Will Never Produce Good Writing
It all begins with an idea.
I worked in generative AI for as long as I could take it, and I just think it's very empty, ultimately.
It doesn't do empathy. There are no feelings there.
It doesn't exist in the real world. There are no experiences there.
It doesn't have relationships. There are no connections there.
It doesn't have subjectivity. It isn't "subjected" to subjecthood--it doesn't live (period.) under a government (it's not interpellated), in the world (it doesn't experience weather, climate, the rotation of the Earth, the revolution of the Earth around the sun), or among people, animals, nor plants.
It doesn't emote.
It doesn't get tired.
It doesn't get hungry or thirsty.
It doesn't crave.
It doesn't remember, memorialize, get nostalgic, recall, nor does it forget.
It doesn't laugh, cry, yawn, stare, blink, get sick.
It doesn't get violent, it's can't be cruel.
It doesn't get angry, nor does it seek revenge.
It doesn't touch, see, smell, taste, or hear.
It doesn't read. It doesn't think. It doesn't listen. It doesn't "do."
It doesn't play.
It doesn't (despite what certain people invested in generative AI might think or want others to think) do art. It can't do art.
My adult life has been devoted to the humanities, and I think what keeps drawing me in is that the core questions we continuously explore within the frameworks and through the lenses of the humanities are ultimately unanswerable.
What's so addicting about it, though, is that in every conversation, in every reading of some work, in every viewing of a film or a painting, in every interaction between a human and anything, in every moment---there is something new, something expansive, and something that adds to our overall understanding of humanity.
Generative AI produces boring stuff. Sure, when it's correct, it could be informative, but it won't explore with you...
it won't go on tangents, or go down rabbit holes, or make random associations.
If you want an empty essay, a polished article with no soul, a seminar paper that proposes nothing new, a resume that doesn't speak to humans (idk--I don't want to work somewhere that will only consider my resume if it has certain keywords that feed the bots), then generative AI is fine. It's a tool, but it's not your friend, your confidant, your collaborator, your conspirator.
If you want to write something that's intense, deep, thought-provoking, powerful, persuasive, and emotional, then find a human editor with whom you can...
collaborate
experiment and test out ideas
articulate and rearticulate to get to what you mean to say
learn
relate
connect
share
build trust.
For another take, see Joanna Brysonâs work, including this recent post on their blog, which includes further resources.