January 2025 - Speaker Report

                                                         Eva Barrows and Lila LaBine (January 2025)

                                                                Good Editors and How to Find Them

Many writers think of an editor as someone who fixes grammar mistakes, but editors can support writers in many other important ways, according to professional editors Eva Barrows and Lila LaBine. A good editor can serve as an objective outsider who helps writers clarify their ideas, improve their writing style, and see what they are missing when they’re deep into revision. Editors can be generalists or specialize in genres such as mystery or romance. The key is finding one that makes you feel comfortable and respects your work.

Editors can focus on big picture issues like story content and organization (story coaches, developmental editors) or details like grammar and sentence structure (line editors, copyeditors, proofreaders) and—depending on where you are in the writing process—you may need to work with several types of editors at different stages. There are even ghostwriters and book doctors available who will do hands-on work or even write the manuscript for you. Whether a writer plans to self-publish or use traditional publishing, an objective editorial eye is always a good idea to make sure the work you present to a publisher or agent is polished, said Barrows and LaBine.

When hiring an editor, writers should check to see if they belong to any editorial professional organizations such as the Editorial Freelancers Associate (EFA) (the-efa.org), the Alliance of Independent Authors (allianceindependentauthors.org), or ACES: The Society for Editing (aceseditors.org). These are also good places to look for an editor, as are websites like reedsy.com or simply word-of-mouth recommendations. An established professional editor should have a portfolio of past work and client testimonials readily available on their website. By looking at the type of work an editor has done in the past, a writer can better decide if they might be a good fit for their work. Many editors even offer a “sample edit” for free to show the level of editing work a writer can expect from them. To see if an editor’s prices are in line with market rates, Barrows and LaBine suggested writers consult the current EFA rates charts. 

When hiring an editor, it’s important to ask certain questions, such as what kind of turnaround time to expect and whether they plan to update you during the editing process. Clear and honest communication between editor and client is the main key to a good working relationship, according to Barrows and LaBine.