Book copy editing services

[ralphkern]

I have re-released my book on Amazon for the last month and a half and am pleased to be getting great reviews with one reoccurring negative theme: The dreaded editing.

I have, so far, made more than enough off of it to be able to run it through a professional editor and am quite happy to reinvest that money back into the book. The ideal way round? nope, I accept that, but as anyone knows, editing can be expensive so whilst I wasn't in this gig to make money... now I actually am, I feel obligated (actually it's more than obligated... I want it to be the best) to use some of that money to polish my work to an even higher standard.

I've done a fair bit of googling and come out with two services I am considering for copy edits:

Bookhelpline: which appears to be a relatively new start up. They have no examples of SF in their testimonials but are quoting £600 for the job with the caveat that they may reassess that as they go.

First Editing: Seems to be a bit more established, they have a slick website saying they give it two passes and are quoting £720 fixed fee and a reedit guarantee.

I have sent both of them 1500 word examples and am satisfied with both of their work. Both also sent the work back within 12 hours.

My initial thoughts were to go with the cheaper option but the fixed fee and guarantee is also quite enticing.

My questions to your good selves is:

1. Has anyone had experience with either of these two companies? (They do appear quite high on searches for editors so imagine more than one of you has stumbled onto them)
2. Can anyone recommend anyone else for copy editing who they have had good personal experience with?

I am not really after content editing. I am happy with the story, structure and pace of my novel.

**I see their was a post on this, but back in 2012 so taken the liberty of opening this one**

 

[barrett1987]

Not much help but side question. How many words is 600/720 pound getting you?

 

[ralphkern]

104000 words.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Have you thought of contacting Boneman? He runs an editing service which, I think, includes line ediitng?

 

[Glitch]

Have you seen the thread in the workshop ?
http://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/537929/

 

[ralphkern]

I've just emailed Boneman on his website. I did Glitch that was the 2012 one that I mentioned.

 

[Gary Compton]

Chris Penycate is also excellent and very reasonable.

 

[Nick B]

Think I may have to purchase your story Ralph, it looks like my kind of book Good luck with the editing, let us know how it pans out too.

 

[ralphkern]

Thankyou Quellist. I'd be honored, but if I can just ask that you wait till its been re-edited that would be awesome. When its done I'll message you and send you a copy over (depending on format - I think there are certain readers you won't be able to receive it on).

I've now got a whole decision to make whether to pull it entirety... where I would have to sacrifice the sales rank (which is everything when it comes to visibility and is high at the moment) and reissue it fresh, or leave it up and accept that I've lost a star due to grammar but maintains the rank and therefore visibility (and not to mention means people who have purchased it already will then be able to update it - which strikes me as the more ethical option).

 

[Jo Zebedee]

The second - honour your customers. They'll appreciate it and it'll stand you in good stead in the longer term.

 

[ralphkern]

Yes, that is my instinctive view. These chaps have paid for the edit in essence, so if they choose to read it again then they can get the benefit.

 

[GDobkins]

I could be wrong;
But it seems that this book has been offered and removed twice already and I would almost guess that that might indicate to some that the writer is dodging bullets here because I have to wonder how many bad reviews you have dumped that way. It could be none because the 16 or so that you have now could be considered many for some first efforts. But that question will always loom large.

I would leave it and that way you are insured that if they are inclined the ones who rated it two and one star might gain a copy of the edited version. Having ratings and reviews that are negative are much more instructive than no reviews at all.

Personally I think ducking out and sending those reviews to limbo would almost seem a bit unethical.
But that's just me.

 

[ralphkern]

I could be wrong;
But it seems that this book has been offered and removed twice already and I would almost guess that that might indicate to some that the writer is dodging bullets here because I have to wonder how many bad reviews you have dumped that way. It could be none because the 16 or so that you have now could be considered many for some first efforts. But that question will always loom large.

I would leave it and that way you are insured that if they are inclined the ones who rated it two and one star might gain a copy of the edited version. Having ratings and reviews that are negative are much more instructive than no reviews at all.

Personally I think ducking out and sending those reviews to limbo would almost seem a bit unethical.
But that's just me.

Agreed Dobkins. My thought process's were merely ruminating over the fact that those reviews penalizing for the issues a pro editor would pick up would be addressed.

I have decided, instead of removing, to place an 'Open letter' style short comment either after the book description or on the forum section of the page thanking people for their support of a new SP author, assuring that the issues highlighted have been addressed and that the earned money has already been earmarked for a professional content/copy edit of the next books so they are 'complete' upon release.

The first removal was to pull myself out of using Draft2Digital who charge an additional 10%. As the vast majority of sales come from Amazon and frankly it's easy enough to manage oneself I would rather keep that 10%. I still use it for the other Ebook providers but their sales are miniscule in comparison to Amazon.

The second removal was in relation to a comprehensive rewrite taking some months.

Unless your talking about the live updates I've done with this edition in which the book is 'merely' updated, but kept live, therefore the reviews are kept on.

As I say, not the ideal way to do things by any stretch, but as a zero capital project, this is the way for me. The truly unethical thing, in my eyes, would be to just take those earnings and go on holiday rather than reinvest back into the book.

 

[ratsy]

Good on you Ralph for trying to make it better. I checked it out on Amazon and the reviews are generally positive, where it relates to the story so that's good news. The sales look decent and can probably only get better with an edit. Keep at it

 

[ralphkern]

Cheers Ratsy. And touch wood they have been. It suggests to me there is a vast community of SP readers out there who get through new stuff voraciously and thankfully are willing to take a punt!

Having looked at some of the more established SP authors older reviews, I can see that many seem to have already beaten a similar path to the one I'm taking; Staging professionalism into their work as they earn. The proceeds of the first being shot back into it and also being used to launch the second in a more professional manner.

 

[ratsy]

I suppose it's like a new business venture where you roll the profits into the company, you don't take money out until it's well oiled.

 

[ginny]

It definitely says something that you are attempting to fix the problems.

On the other hand I feel it's a bit over the top for someone to complain about British English not being grammatically correct.

It makes a person ashamed to be associated with others in the US of A.

So I'm hoping that you are only fixing the real problems.

 

[ralphkern]

Absolutely Ratsy, this first project isn't done yet.

I was thinking 'But I am British?' at that one.

But equally, all feedback is a gift. When I look at my sales breakdown, US readers must account for 95% plus of the buyers and as such, it is something to consider. Whilst I can't really think of any examples off hand from my book, as they probably snuck in subconsciously (or through ignorance of the Americanism). Going on, for example about putting stuff 'in the boot of a car' may be a bit distracting to the majority of my readers. Things like imperial versus metric measurements would likely be another thing - lbs mean nothing to me, but Kilos does etc.

I must admit it's not a point of criticism I'd lose any sleep on, and if that was the sole problem I'd be very happy, but I do consider it part of the learning process. Not that it's particularly blue, but I am steadfast on referring to a particular part of a persons anatomy using a 'r' and and 'e' rather that with a double 's' though.

 

[tinkerdan]

I'm all for fixing what you have and not trying to do a total reissue because some people might not want to rewrite the review you blow away.
::as for the other::
I would guess that for some British-isms it's a combination of the complaints I saw there.

Such things as 'was sat' and 'was stood' which look like extra 'was' hanging in and a strange use of sat and stood.
I'm pretty much used to those; but whilst we're on the subject you might want to count how many times you use whilst when it could be while and how many times you actually use while.[I don't know that you do other than you just used whilst.] That's a more subtle one that is like finger nails on chalkboard to some people.

There is also the usage of z where s is but all of that is like trying to tell manufacturers who use metric to use measurements that everyone understands. I think some people are being hypercritical for nothing and would have the devil to pay when tables turned on them.

 

[Nick B]

Thankyou Quellist. I'd be honored, but if I can just ask that you wait till its been re-edited that would be awesome. When its done I'll message you and send you a copy over (depending on format - I think there are certain readers you won't be able to receive it on).

I've now got a whole decision to make whether to pull it entirety... where I would have to sacrifice the sales rank (which is everything when it comes to visibility and is high at the moment) and reissue it fresh, or leave it up and accept that I've lost a star due to grammar but maintains the rank and therefore visibility (and not to mention means people who have purchased it already will then be able to update it - which strikes me as the more ethical option).

Thanks Ralph, i use kindle app on my phone so it'll be fine, message me when you have it edited and its back up, let me know how the editing goes too
Would it be rude to ask how many copies you have actualy sold? If you'd rather not say thats fine, i'm just interested as we have decided that once our first novel is finished we are going to give ourselves a set time limit to try to get an agent/publisher. If we don't, we will SP ( and continue trying to get a pub while working on the next book) .