So anyways, I realised the other day that I haven’t contacted my editor yet to book in this year’s edits – not that I’m anywhere near finishing the first draft of I Want You Back just yet. I’ve found that if I set myself deadlines – much like I would have if I were contracted to a traditional publisher (remember, we talked about that last week) – I work towards meeting those. If I don’t have deadlines, I tend to drift rather aimlessly – and that isn’t good if you have, like I do, a production schedule to meet.

I was telling someone about it the other day and they asked the question I get asked more often than you’d think: how did you find your editor?

It’s a good question. To begin with, I had in mind a few considerations:

• I wanted to work with someone who had worked on commercial fiction in the traditional publishing world
• 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 to improve my craft

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 their website links and made a list of people that I thought I’d like to work with. 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. Now, excuse me while I get back to the business of writing – my deadline is now locked in.

Want to know more about the editing process? You might also like What To Expect From A Structural Edit and What To Expect From A Copy Edit