Something about how I found my editor…

So anyways, I started the re-write for Big Girls Don’t Cry yesterday.

I’ve printed up the version of my manuscript my editor’s mark-ups. The plan is to cross through each one as it’s dealt with. Because most of the changes that need to be made require the insertion or re-ordering of scenes and chapters, I’ve popped it all back into Scrivener- it’s much easier to find and move whole portions of words around.

It’s a method that worked for Baby, It’s You, so I’m hoping it will work this time around too.

I was talking through the process with someone at conference last weekend, and was asked the question, ‘how did you find your editor?’

Whilst I previously popped this up on the Tracey Hamill site (when I was considering using a pseudonym) I figured that could also be something you’d be interested in…so here’s what I wrote then…

To begin with, I had in mind a few considerations:

• I wanted to work with someone who had worked in traditional publishing of commercial fiction
• I wanted to work with someone who had worked with indie authors
• I wanted to work with someone who had worked with chick lit/commercial women’s fiction
• I wanted to work with someone who actually enjoyed reading chick lit and women’s fiction
• I wanted to work with someone who I thought would also be in my target audience
• I wanted to work with someone based in Australia
• I wanted to work with someone who “got” my voice and my story and who could help me make it all come together
• I wanted to work with someone who I could work with…yes, that does make sense…and who I could work with in the long term
• Armed with this information I went looking.
• I popped the search term “freelance editor” into Linked In
• I put the request out on Twitter
• I read the acknowledgement pages in books that I really enjoyed
• I googled the terms “freelance editor” and “how to find an editor” and landed on the Freelance Editors Network.
• I checked out the website for NSW Writers Centre (of which I’m a member).

Then I went through profiles, checked out the links, until I found a few that resonated with me. Then I emailed them.

Price was an important consideration, of course it is- self-publishing is a business, and businesses have budgets- but ultimately, ticking the boxes above were more important to me.

There you have it.

Who do I use? The delightful Nicola O’Shea from EBookedit.com.au.

Until next time….