How Much Does a Book Editor Cost?

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Regardless of which publishing path you take, you will need to edit your manuscript. There are many benefits to working with a professional book editor—they can help prime your novel for successful querying or polish it in preparation for self-publishing. But how much does it cost to hire a book editor? In this video I go over what factors contribute to the cost of a book edit and how editors calculate their rates so you know what to expect in your investment.
 
MORE WRITING ADVICE:
 
HOW DO BOOK EDITORS SET THEIR RATES?
02:35 – Type of editing
04:40 – Manuscript length
05:02 – Your needs 
05:41 – Editorial experience
06:17 – Calculating baseline rates
 
ABOUT ME: 
My name is Alyssa Matesic, and I’m a professional book editor with nearly a decade of book publishing and editorial experience. Throughout my career, I’ve held editorial roles across both sides of the publishing industry: Big Five publishing houses and literary agencies. The goal of this channel is to help writers throughout the book writing journey—whether you're working on your manuscript or you're looking for publishing advice.
 
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MUSIC: 

[cjpreach]

I have worked with an editor. We began with a 90 minute consultation via video chat, where we did a thorough overview of my novel. She also critiqued about 1, 500 words of my novel, as well as one of my short stories. It was a very good experience because her input helped me sharpen my focus on the weaker points of my writing. As I continue work on my novel I am making fewer of those mistakes. Thanks Diane.

[GeorgeMiller-jyje]

Thank you so much for this much needed explanation Alyssa, to the people entering this world of finding an "Editor" & a "Ghostwriter". It can be tough and there are some shady people out there. I was lucky to have my book written and published through "Writers Of The West" and that saved me a great amount of time and hassle and paid like $1000 for editing a 200 page manuscript which was a pretty sweet deal!

[NicoleWilbur]

Last year, I got a "first 50 page" editorial assessment done for $1500 (including $450 for a market analysis and Reedsy fees). She reviewed the first 50 pages, a 9/10 page synopsis, and character descriptions. The feedback was incredible: the 50 pages and synopsis with inline comments, 33-page editorial letter, some market analysis, and an hour long consultation. She was actually the editor for Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn, as well as many Dan Wells novels and I had a great experience! The feedback was super helpful in solving some big problems with the story - and I loved she gave possible solutions to plot problems, rather than just listing them. It really helped with the brainstorming :)

[joehavermann]

I just love that sweet, silly dog in the background of all of her videos.

[daviddarlingauthor]

I have found a genre specific editor is invaluable... my first editor didn't understand military terminology, and I ended up wasting lots of money. Spend the money to get someone qualified, knows your style of work and get references! (sample edits are great to have as well).

[vandini]

A good editor deserves good payment. Thank you for the insight! 💛

[UrbanSwagger]

I've had partial edits done with Alyssa (first 10 pages) and Lorin Oberweger (first 3 chapters). Their feedback has been extremely helpful.

[xChikyx]

i've quoted a few editors, and their prices have ranged from $9K to $24K, for one single book, 350K words, developmental edit (ironically tho, the cheapest quote was one that included copy, developmental, and proofread). Even then, $9K is so much that I decided to self edit my work instead

[literallyjane]

I wish more people knew this. I once had an author offer me $100 to edit their 100k word novel. x.x Great video Alyssa!

[rowan]

Paid over 3000AUD for my first two books. Since I sadly have dyslexia and partly think in German, so I had to get the best editing available. But since I have quit the self path, I only go for the basic one to fix my grammar and anything else to make it good enough for agents. This of course is much cheaper were I pay less than 500AUD.

[JohnMartin-jfsn]

Thank you for doing these videos. I wish you worked in my genre, science fiction/ fantasy, but perhaps someday I will write something else. Oh, and you have an adorable dog.

[andeeharry]

Depends on who you go with....Editing can be quite pricy, since there are many of them and you have to work with them a few times

[johnparnham]

I had a children's manuscript assessment done and it was worth the money. I didn't agree with everything he said but it did make me reconsider certain aspects of my story. I write middle grade so it's important that what I write is of good quality. So, that was a positive experience. I have just received my copy editor 'manuscript and it's been enormously helpful, but I have to admit that I should have waited until I was sure that it was ready to send. I was a little hasty and impatient. On the plus side, she had done a good job and I, 'm pleased with what she's done. It's my task now to apply what she's done to my manuscript which will take a while.

[zanemarion]

I do my own editing and had a professional proofreader give sample edit of opening chapter of a novel. Quoted me for $3, 000 for 100, 000 word count novel. And that is last editor you go to. It the cheapest type editor you can hire also. How much work will they have to do is mostly what they go by. If they have spend more time then it cost you more money. Less work equal less money you need to pay.

[vandini]

A question please:
I hunted your site for your exact price range but couldn't find anything clearly. Please help me out. I would really like a ballpark figure.

[PatriceStorm]

I think editors deserve to get their $ I just know I'm not able to afford one just yet but wanted advice about getting one. So I'm a full on creative type who never was good at spelling or punctuation. I started in poetry so transitioning to writing stories feels hard at time. I feel like you have these restraints on when writing a story versus poetry. I'm not saying you should spell incorrectly in a poetry book. Though I believe less people would care if they got your meaning. I have many ideas for stories so I'll start with building an outline. Organizing my stories has helped me out so far. I think it could also help an editor see where im going so they'll be clear on the flow of me stories. Unfortunately I also have other things I'm working up against recently which I think an editor would help with. Currently a family member who was a teacher has been editing my stories but as they've aged I've noticed they aren't catching all of my mistakes. So its clear I'll need a bit more help. Thanks! 👍🏾

[martinsadl]

I'm subscribed to your channel, Alyssa, and your guidance, tips, and links, are most helpful to me as a first time novelist. You're friend on the sofa, seems to have stopped paying attention to your advice 😊.

[codingwithguyfranciscopoli]

Too much, and it's a crapshoot. Had an issue with one editor who kept missing deadlines. I finally gave her an ultimatum, and she finally delivered last-day, last-minute. As you can imagine, the results were scattershot or just sloppy.

[babavee]

I fully understand the human side and function of a professional editor. Having said that, their reading and understanding of your manuscript is subjective.
In the final submission to an agent it is of course imperitive that grammar, punctuation, spelling and tense, etc.. is correct. Whether your tale is marketable, is another story.
One of the essential things, is proof reading.Checking all of the above and your phrasing.
Tell me, why should I, or anyone, pay for this service when AI will do it for free?

[captaindeadpool]

now I feel odd to have my 94k work novel edited for 80, and a 105k word novel before that edited for 113.
Edit: Both were on fiverr and the 94k one was primarily a line editor.