EDITING FAQs: How Can I Pay You Less?

Save yourself some stress and some dollars

If you want to have your project professionally edited but are concerned about the expense, here are some ways to get the maximum value from your editing budget.

Use good writers

More than any other aspect of your project, the quality of the writing determines how long and how hard – and thus how expensively – your editor has to work. Whether you're a journalist creating your own work, or a project manager overseeing a team of writers, good writing always means less editing.

Having said that, here’s a caveat:

Get the facts right

It’s nearly always more efficient to have an “inside person” – someone within your business, company or department – do the writing, rather than an outsider who may not know all the facts. An unpractised writer who knows what he’s talking about always trumps a fluent one who doesn’t. Well-crafted phrases are of little use if your editor can’t understand what they mean. (This is especially important if your document must then be translated; see below.)

Give your editor only clean copy

It slows the editor down (and costs you more) if you send documents that are loaded with extraneous graphics, instructions to the printer, or authorial comments. For best results, make sure the editor has only the material you actually want corrected.

Onscreen is cheaper than paper

Editors still do work with pens on paper, and send their marked-up copies back to the client to be input by hand. But nowadays, more and more work is done directly on the computer: most word processing programs allow your editor to Track Changes for you to review and approve.

Onscreen editing is always faster, and also more accurate: a tricky problem need not be constrained by how many versions can be scribbled on a page before the result becomes illegible. Your editor can try various solutions, and choose the best. And when the text comes back to you, it’s certified clean and ready to go – without any further effort required on your part.

However, some clients still prefer to receive their edits the old-fashioned way, usually because they’re concerned about keeping changes under control. The disadvantage of this is that somebody must then input the corrections; and that “somebody” is usually either a clerical worker, who may not understand the changes or get them right – or else the person in charge of the project, who must abandon more important work for the task.

Editing comes first; translation comes second

Once your editor has cleaned up the document, then is the time to hand it over for translation. If the English is in good shape, your translator will have a much faster, easier job of turning the document into clear and accurate French. That saves you time and money too.

Keep control of the production process

If a number of documents have to be written, edited and translated, make sure that you have a properly organized system for keeping track of them. And if documents have to go through several revisions, always make sure your editor gets the most up-to-date version to work on.

(If you accidentally send your editor an older version of a document, and she works on it for three hours before you discover the mistake – yes, you still have to pay her for that time!)

Decide who does fact-checking

Reading through your material, an alert editor will often uncover some factual fuzziness that needs checking. Make sure there’s a process for referring these sections back to the original source – and then for reintroducing the corrected text into the editing stream.

Either have a style guide, or start one

Some aspects of language use are cast in stone, but many others are a matter of individual preference: there may be several “right” ways to do something. Because of this, many organizations have a house style guide that lays down the law on common grammatical issues (including which dictionary to consult, or which reference work is the final authority).

The advantage of this is that you don’t have to “reinvent the wheel” for every decision on phrasing or layout. If you’ve already encountered and solved many problems, a good style guide can save your editor a lot of time – and, again, save you a lot of money. If you haven't had a style guide in the past, your editor can start one for you, tailoring it to your personal or corporate requirements.

Choose your editing level realistically

Most editors are familiar with the situation of receiving material for “just a quick proofread” – and then discovering that it actually needs a thorough structural edit.

Material that genuinely only needs proofreading should emerge from the editor’s hands with no more than three or four minor corrections per page. Anything more than that is usually a copy edit in disguise. Once an editor has to move sentences or paragraphs around, that means it needs structural editing. And if the text is so poorly constructed that it can only be fixed by completely rephrasing it, you’re into rewriting.

Respect your editor’s judgment

The person best qualified to assess your project’s needs is your editor. Resist the urge to quibble: you wouldn’t disagree with your dentist if he told you your tooth needed filling, or with your mechanic if she said your brake pads should be replaced.

Similarly, when your editor points out any grammatical no-no’s or unfortunate wording, take heed. Never mind if your partner suggested that catchy phrase, or your department head wrote that paragraph herself. Your editor is your practice client – and if your wording makes her wince, it'll probably have the same effect on your real-world readers.

Sign a contract

When you hire an editor, the contract is the rule book that stipulates exactly what gets done, and when, and how, and for how much. Just like when you deal with any other independent professional, a contract ensures that both parties understand exactly what’s involved in terms of deliverables, responsibilities, conditions, deadlines and fees.

It should outline most of the points already mentioned: the desired format for corrections; the editor’s responsibility to refer material back, or to liaise with others; the level of editing required; the estimated number of hours for the project; the circumstances that call for exceptions; the time frame for the work to be completed; and the process for invoicing.

Follow all these guidelines, and your editing process should always be trouble-free and within your budget.