I've seen two posts in the last two days asking about how much editors cost, so a reminder that this term "editor" is not a catch all, and there are really 3 to 6 editorial passes that happen on most books, each by a different person! (They're not always all done by "editors").

There is no right or wrong answer for how many passes your book needs. But if you don't know all the possible passes, you might end up asking a professional for the wrong service -- this can be costly if you are self-publishing.

1. Developmental edits. This is where an experienced editor does a manuscript assessment and makes revision suggestions.

In trad publishing this might be the editor who acquired your project; it might not be.

In indie publishing it could be a paid editor, a CP, or yourself.

Dev edits vary wildly in terms of value added to your book. (Don't @ me, it's true; I've read trad pubbed books ruined by an intrusive dev editor's ideas; and we've all read indie books that thought they had this pass but did not.)

Finding the right editor is like dating.

BUT the right dev edits can take a book from good to great, and unearth a story you the writer gets VERY excited to write. When you find that editor, they are worth their weight in gold.

How much should you pay as an indie? Complicated question.

If you find the right editor who is a real partner in figuring out what story you want to tell, find a way to build your business to afford that editor. It will pay off in the long term.

If your business is not yet profitable, this pass can be bartered with CPs.

2 and 3. Beta reads and sensitivity reads. Full disclosure, I don't use beta readers, so my thoughts on where they fit in the process is academic only. But any editorial pass that is looking for feedback that might change the story should happen here, before line edits.

If you or your publisher wants to hire a sensitivity reader, first of all, you should pay them well for the potential trauma they may experience in that work. And second, DO IT BEFORE THE BOOK IS SUBSTANTIVELY DONE.

Otherwise you're just looking for a gold star.

Depending on your writing style, these first few rounds may also include a round of self-editing layered in. That's still all under the "revisions" or "dev edits" umbrella IMO.

A lot of editing a book is in re-writes! Moving to the next rounds too quickly skips some good stuff.

4. Line edits. I see a lot of indie editors offer this service and call it dev edits. *shrug* Having experienced both, I dunno. I like to recognize they're separate passes and affect the story differently.

This is the first pass "in line comments" red pen type of editing.

5. Copy edits. Second verse same as the first...BUT NOT REALLY. Where line edits will spark re-writes on the line/paragraph level, and trigger biggish corrections for themes and arcs, copy edits are fixing errors on the page.

But from some editors, they look the same-ish.

Again, cost is variable, and how much you should pay is complicated. (NOTE: How much an editor deserves to be paid and how much YOU SHOULD PAY THEM are two separate questions.) I'll come back to this.

6. Proofreading. This is a final single pass looking only for typos and missing words (and other obvious oops, like the exact same sentence in two separate places). It's the cheapest kind of editing, and not a replacement for all of the previous passes, however you get them done.

So in order, other than beta reading and sensitivity reads, these go from most expensive to least expensive, generally speaking. A robust dev edit takes more time than a line edit, which is more intensive than a copy edit, which takes longer than a proofreading pass.

If you don't have this framework clear in your mind, you might not know how to budget your editing dollars when you start self-publishing.

If you aren't open to being creative in how to get these passes done, you could end up paying too much.

I'm an open book about how much I have paid for editing (from nothing to A Lot, and I've been happy with both decisions), so if you ever have any questions, I'm just a DM away.

Indie authors: I don't want to provide specific dollar amounts for what is "good" because some editors charge more than others, based on their experience, and they are often worth it.

But if you can't afford them, there is time for that in the future!

A final thought on this: we all need a different combination of the above. The editorial process that works for someone else may not be for you. I'm an emo mess who needs to do a lot of story revision before a book is ready for line edits; others need more line-level support.