If you’ve ever been shopping for an editor, or if you are currently shopping for one, you may have noticed that most editors offer to edit a few free sample pages, often between 2 and 5. Have you wondered why that is? There are a few reasons, and they benefit both the author and the editor.
- It gives the author a sneak preview of the editor’s work.
When parents are looking for a daycare, nanny, or babysitter for their children, they tend to go through a long vetting process. These people will have an influence on their children, so choosing the right carer is important. It’s much the same with your work. Your manuscript, in whatever form it’s in, is your baby. You created it and it means a lot to you. It’s important that you vet the person who will be in charge of your words for a short while.
All editors are different. While we use many of the same processes, follow the same grammar rules, and check the same style guides, our editorial judgment and approach is vastly different. It’s important that you find the editor that polishes your words while respecting your voice. You want an editor whose approach you can rock with, basically. The sample pages give you a glimpse into that editorial judgment.
2. It gives the author an idea of what the process will look like.
If you’re a first time author, you may be gazing in awe and confusion at the publishing world. Getting your work edited may be slightly scary if you’re not sure what to expect, but the sample edit can help ease that fear. You’ll see what the page looks like after it’s edited, how much a part of the process you are, and how your editor wants to work with you, not against you. You can see what a query looks like, and how your editor communicates different things to you. I, personally, like to leave little happy notes scattered between my queries to show you what I love about your work!
3. It gives the editor a sneak preview of your work.
As I’m sure you can imagine, editors have seen all kinds of writing. Everyone can be a great writer, and we don’t like to turn anyone away, but sometimes, well…we just may not be the editor for the job. Or we need to prepare to be the best editor we can be for you. Me getting a few pages of your work helps me to see if I’ll be an asset to you, or if maybe I just don’t understand your writing in a way that I can give it my all. It also gives me an idea of your favorite language and style, so that I can familiarize myself with it for the big edit.
4. It helps the editor come up with an accurate estimate.
As an editor, I need to give you two estimates: time and money. You may have a deadline that you need to stick to, and the sample edit helps me to see if I can adhere to that. If you don’t have a deadline, the sample edit gives me a way to gauge just how long it will take, and therefore give you a good budget estimate. Some manuscripts don’t require a lot of work on my part—I can do a light clean up, dust a bit, maybe a vacuum, and be done. Others need a bit more attention, be it on the prose itself or because the content is quite heavy.
5. It helps us decide if we’ll be a good team!
The author/editor relationship has to be a close one. Like all good relationships, ours has to be one built on respect and communication. I need to understand and support your vision and authorial voice, and you need to understand that a second set of eyes—especially trained eyes—can always help a text. We share the same goal of getting readers to love your work, so we need to be compatible team members in achieving that goal. The sample edit gives us a no-strings-attached way to test that relationship out before the full edit begins.
Whether you’re writing a novel, a self-help book, a series of blogs, a podcast…the list goes on, you will want an editor that you trust, that understands and supports you, and that makes editorial decisions that you believe in. Utilize the free sample edit and see if this editing fox is right for your project!