Before the Age of the Independent Editor, literary agents and publishing staff were the first publishing insiders to read a proposal or manuscript. Today, however, the focus on business interests is so demanding and the volume of submissions so great—agents alone take in hundreds of query letters a month—that a writer’s work has to be white-hot before receiving serious consideration. In light of these developments, a writer may turn to an independent editor as the first expert reader in the world of publishing’s gatekeepers.

Another key role an independent editor plays is to protect writers from querying their prospects before their material is irresistible. Premature submissions cause writers needless disappointment and frustration. Your editor can zero in on the thematic core, central idea, or story line that needs to be conveyed in a way that is most likely to attract an agent and a publisher. In short, an editor of your own can identify the most appealing, salable aspects of you and your work.

Rates. “Good editing is expensive,” our venerable colleague Jerry Gross prudently notes. What kind of editing is good editing and how expensive is it? The Internet and other sources quote a wide range of rates and averages from a variety of editors. The numbers are not necessarily accurate or reliable. We’ve seen hourly rates ranging from about $25 to well above $200. Many factors account for this spread. Rates for copyediting are lower than those for substantive editing. Editors with a few years of experience at a local newspaper or magazine, for instance, don’t command the same rates as editors with decades of experience at major publishing houses. Moreover, standards in the world of book publishing are particularly rigorous because books are long, expensive to produce, made to last, and vulnerable to the long-term impact of reviewer criticism.

Process. Book editors are specialists. Every book project arrives on the desk of an independent editor at a certain level of readiness, and the first task is to determine what the project needs. A deep book edit is typically a painstaking, time-consuming process that may move at the pace of only three or four manuscript pages per hour—or, when less intensive, eight to twelve pages per hour. Occasionally a manuscript received by an independent is fully developed, needs only a light copyedit, and may well be ready to submit as is. In other cases, the editorial process may require one or more rounds of revisions. If you are hiring an editor to critique your work, you should be aware that reading the material takes considerably more time than writing the critique. Sometimes a flat fee rather than an hourly rate may apply, as appropriate to the project. Sometimes, as discussed below, editors will offer a consultation at no charge. A reputable independent book editor will be able to recommend a course of action that may or may not include one or more types of editorial services, and can give you a reliable estimate of the time and fees involved.

Many in-house editors have incoming manuscripts screened by an already overworked assistant. (The days of staff readers are long gone.) The only quiet time the editor has for reading might be evenings and weekends. We have known editors to take a week off from work just to edit a book and be accessible to their authors. These days, too, the acquiring editor may not do any substantive work on a book project under contract, leaving that task to a junior editor. There is also a distinct possibility the acquiring editor may leave the job before that book is published, and this can occur with the next editor, too, and the next, threatening the continuity of the project. All of which doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of hard-working people at the publishing house; it means that editors have more to do than ever before and must devote at least as much time to crunching numbers as to focusing on the writer and the book.

Independent editors, on the other hand, spend most of their business days working exclusively with authors and their texts. They typically handle only a few manuscripts at a time and are free from marketing and production obligations. An independent editor’s primary interest is in helping you to get your book polished and published. An editor of your own will see your project through—and often your next book, too.

Although sometimes an author and editor “click” very quickly, many editors offer free consultations, and it’s fine to contact more than one editor at this stage. A gratis consult may involve an editor’s short take, by phone or in writing, on sample material the editor asked you to send. But how to distinguish among the many independent editors?

Some editorial groups are huge, and they are open to all who designate themselves as editors; it might take some additional research to identify the members who are most reputable and best suited to your work. The smaller groups consist of editors who have been nominated, vetted, and elected, which ensures the high quality of the individual professionals. They meet with regularity, share referrals, and discuss industry developments. Your consultation, references offered, and the terms of any subsequent agreement can tell the rest.

Another way to find the right editor is to prepare your manuscript to its best advantage—structurally, stylistically, and mechanically. Jeff Herman’s annual guide, for example, is filled with directions about manuscript preparation, and it is a good idea to follow them. Asking the opinion of one or more impartial readers—that is, not limiting your initial reviewers to friends and relatives—is a great strategy as well. If you have the benefit of a disinterested reader, you may be able to make some significant changes before sending an excerpt to an independent editor. One more element to consider: editors often will take your own personality and initial written inquiry into account as carefully as they do your writing. Seasoned independents do not take on every project that appears on the desk; they can pick and choose—and, working solo, they must.

“A few years ago at Christmastime, a publisher hired me to reorganize, add text to, and edit a business manuscript by two high-profile authors. Over a year in the making, the very late manuscript was slated for publication the following fall. The delivered work was certainly thorough: about 500 pages worth of theories, including some very interesting brain and planet data. But despite a party of five’s involvement (two authors, one marketing executive, one business journal publisher, one CEO), there was no clear definition of what the book was about. And that is perhaps one of the biggest reasons independent editors are hired: They are not usually part of the initial “team” and therefore bring fresh, unbiased opinions. In this case, I found the theme buried in a phrase on page 26.

“After that I met with the authors for two days in a hotel suite to restructure and organize the manuscript and figure out what had to be rewritten. The entire project was overhauled in two months. Once the premise was defined, everyone involved concentrated on it. But that would not have happened if an independent editor hadn’t read the manuscript.” — Susan Suffes

“An in-house editor called me with an unusual problem. He had signed up an acclaimed author for a new book project. She had written a number of stories—nonfiction narratives about her life in an exotic land. The problem was this: some of the stories had already been published in book form in England, and that collection had its own integrity in terms of theme and chronology; now she had written another set of stories, plus a diary of her travels. How could the published stories and the new ones be made into one book?

“I decided to disregard the structure of the published book altogether. As I reexamined each story according to theme, emotional quality, geographical location, and people involved, I kept looking for ways in which they might relate to each other. Eventually, I sensed a new and logical way in which to arrange them. I touched not one word of the author’s prose. I did the same thing I always try to do when editing — imagine myself inside the skin of the writer. A prominent trade book review had this to say about the result: ‘One story flows into the next….’ ” — Alice Rosengard

“A writer had hired me to help with his first book after his agent had sold it to a publisher because he wanted to expedite the revisions and final approval of his manuscript. As a result of our work together, the book came out sooner than anticipated; it also won an award and the author was interviewed on a major TV news program. The same author hired me a year later for his second book, purchased by a larger publisher, and this book, too, entailed some significant developmental editing. At that point we learned the in-house editor had left the publisher and a new one had come aboard. This editor not only objected strongly to one whole section of the book; she also gave the author a choice: revise the section in one week or put the project on hold for at least six more months.

“From halfway across the world, the writer called me on a Friday to explain his publishing crisis, which was also coinciding with a personal crisis, and asked if we could collaborate closely on the fifty pages in question over the weekend. I agreed, cancelled my weekend plans, and we camped out at each end of the telephone and e-mailboxes almost nonstop for three days. He resubmitted the book on Tuesday, the book received all requisite signatures in-house, and a month later it went into production. This hands-on and sometimes unpredictable kind of collaboration with writers helps illustrate the special nature of independent editing.” — Katharine Turok

“In August of 2005, a young woman who had just been fired from her very first job contacted me. She wanted my help writing a book about her experience. I asked if she’d written much before and I suppressed my groan when she said she hadn’t, but what she lacked in credentials she made up for in energy and enthusiasm. She told me she had graduated at the top of her Ivy League college class and done everything right—good grades, great internships—to land a plum job at a consulting firm, but when she got there she quickly discovered that she didn’t know how to have a job—she lacked the tools to deal with sexist bosses; she hadn’t mastered PowerPoint; she believed her female coworkers would be supportive, not catty. She was determined to share what she’d learned to help other young women.

“As we worked together on her proposal, we not only structured her book but found ways to use her youth and inexperience in her favor—especially in terms of marketing. She built up her platform by writing for neighborhood papers, national newspapers, and eventually high-profile Web sites. All the pieces added up, the timing was right and she landed a great agent who secured a two-book deal.”
— Alice Peck

“My work on a book about a near-extinct species of birds was greatly enhanced when the author gave me a tour of a California estuary. Guided by his passion and on-site expertise, I was able to spot exquisite birds, hear bird-watching lingo, and see his high-end scope in action. Now I understood the thrill of what he was writing about, and was better able to help him communicate it.

“One of my most challenging assignments was to add action scenes to a memoir by an Olympic fencing champion. Here was a subject I knew nothing about. I tried to bone up in advance through reading, but my author had a better idea. Working his way across my living room floor, he sparred with an invisible opponent, demonstrating what he wished to describe in his book. I wrote down what I saw.

“As an independent editor, I have plenty of flexibility to work ‘outside the book,’ to literally enter the worlds my authors are writing about.” — Ruth Greenstein