How Long Will That Take?

I recently had a job where the person, I will call her Starfire, wanted the book edited in five weeks. This was not a big book, so I said sure. No problem--I could do it in 2-3. Then, Starfire told me she actually had a hard deadline of two weeks. She misunderstood something with her marketer and so there it was, could I still do it? Now, this made me a little nervous, but again, it was supposed to be the "final edit" so I agreed.

Beloved readers, please do not tell a freelancer that they are doing a final edit unless at least two other pairs of eyes, aside from your own have seen it. Now, there are some exceptions to this rule--many of these exceptions have PhDs from accredited universities and currently are involved in research. These people, because of their career choices, have to constantly self-edit and therefore a few read-thrus by them is actually about where I would expect a final edit.

For time comparisons, a final edit is quick and easy. If all I have to do is check spelling and grammar, I will get through a massive amount of book (even an entire book) in one day. I knew that this author needed more than that because she specifically asked me to check thematic issues, but even then, that does not mean complete rearranging and doing developmental rewriting. The same book that may take only a day to grammar check in a final edit, can take up to a week to proofread (final edit plus formatting), up to a month to do what I thought I was going to do--final edit plus a few comments to be fixed and then another quick edit and formatting. However, this book needed a lot of help. It needed what is called a developmental edit (read: it needed to be completely rewritten in parts: giant parts). [Note: these are the average times it takes me. Many good freelancers may require more time.]

What really amazes me is the number of teachers who use me to edit their book, and who have absolutely no idea about basic writing skills. At the same time, these are the people who are most likely to expect a quick turnaround for their "well-edited" work. No, you cannot use "can't" in formal writing. I can use "can't" in my writing because I know when and where it is acceptable to break the rules. You do not so you can't. (Did you see what I did there?) Yes, you must be consistent in your punctuation. (Where did you say you taught at?) No, you may not use spaces between paragraphs for the paperback version of the book. These rules should, in my opinion, be basic knowledge, but even our high school English teachers do not have a clue about these rules. (Hence my English teacher wall of shame.)

I have come to believe that high school teachers who are used to gazing at high school students' awful papers and blanking out most of the bad parts of these horrid things so that all their students do not have to completely rewrite or get an F. These teachers apparently think that this is similar to what an editor does, and since they can get through 30 kids' papers in one weekend, an editor should be able to do the same. There are editors like this (most of them probably are either only high school graduates or are actually High School English teachers who are editing on the side)--generally if you check an editor's samples you will see how many errors he or she will find. I average 70 per page or about 50 per page on some of the cleaner works that have been through the editing process. I am not going to skip anything from serial commas to dangling modifiers, but if I send you the work to accept/reject changes, and you reject most of my changes (including those involving dangling modifiers and the subjunctive case), the second time I go through it, I am not as thorough. Why? Because all of those errors would have already been caught and because I am not going to keep telling you to change something you do not want to change. Further, although I do leave comments sometimes concerning basic grammar rules you may have forgotten, you have paid me to edit--not to teach you English. It takes a lot of time to write out comments and I have no clue what you know (and it is just a typo) as opposed to what you don't know (although I am willing to be most English speakers neither know or understand the subjunctive case). It is always best to ask if you don't understand a change rather than outright reject it.

So, I got the work from Starfire and started reading it. The first chapter was a mess, but the message was coherent, and so I just rearranged a bit and cut a bit and made it into three chapters. It was at this point that I was informed her 150 page book had to be 300 pages so "please don't cut anything." Period.

Beloved readers, if you do not want me to cut giant sections out of your book--sections that are incoherent, sections that tell me your life story in a book that is not about your life, sections that explain in great detail about how to change the oil in your car in the middle of a book titled "Top Ten Celebrity Makeup Secrets"--then you have two options, (1) Do not put this stuff in your book; stick to the topic at hand; focus; make sense; or (2) Do not hire me. Sadly, no one who hires me even thinks that they may be the subject of my vandalism in the name of producing a good book. But, keep in mind that I have cut giant sections and rearranged entire books of some of those same PhD writers whom I would consider very good at their craft. What is the difference between them and the average Joe? For the most part the PhDs listen...for the most part.

So, after Starfire's chide about cutting things, what was I to do with the inconsistencies and incoherence? I told her to rewrite two chapters by herself instead of deleting it giant sections of it and trimming out the fat. Keep in mind that I did not come on board with knowledge of the problems in the book--it is rare to ever do this. The first chapter (the one you might see before you are hired) is ALWAYS the cleanest, most well-written piece of literature that an author can produce. It is like brushing your teeth before you go to the dentist.

The problem with having her rewrite it is that it took four of those precious few days I had to do the book. The other problem was that she then wanted to add three more sections in to other parts of the book because she was so worried about page count after fixing this section. At this time, there were then only 9 days left and 12 chapters to go through. I set to work. This time instead of hacking and slashing, I hacked, slashed and completely rewrote chapters all by myself. It took me three days to finish the entire book, and I knew I would not get very much time to fix anything else when she returned the book to me this time. But as I was approaching the last chapters, I discovered something unique. Whereas most of the chapters had pretty much continued on the same theme and style with slight variances here and there, the last two were out there. (1) I think she was trying to hard to finish at this point in her writing journey; and (2) she must not have read through the whole thing even though she said she had put it through several edits. Now, as for me editing, I was out of time, so I thought, hey, we don't need these chapters--CUT. :)

Of course it came back and she wanted me to specifically rewrite them, by myself. It had taken her four more days to accept and reject my changes this time. I had exactly two days left and now I had to rewrite these chapters on top of that. And I did, buuuuttttt--the problem was that she had yet again added in more content to the final chapters when I sent them to her. The last chapter (like most non-fiction last chapters) was a conclusion and yet she had now introduced an entirely NEW concept into this chapter!

Beloved readers, please finish your book before you send it to anyone to be edited. Yes, editing (especially the first developmental edit) means that your book is not really done, but I had almost finished editing. I had already edited that chapter in full and had no reason to go back through it except for my final editing sweep, which as I already said, I would not be checking developmental things carefully at all. But, although few people can write well on their own, even fewer understand the finer points of formatting and styles. She did not, of course, and so when she added this in, it stood out like a sore thumb as I glanced over the pages. (Again, see what I did there.) A new concept does not belong in the conclusion, but I had already done that part of the editing. So, that new concept only got checked for spelling and grammar--it was not as if she were taking many of my suggested cuts anyway. Even doing this, I still had to stay up most of the night to finish the job.

Beloved readers, if you feel you need to introduce an entirely new topic into a book, in the conclusion nonetheless, after the first phases of editing are completely done, do not do it. Write a sequel. Put all that other stuff I cut out that you love into that sequel. You have paid me (or some freelancer) to edit your book. We have done that. Imagine if you were a janitor, and you just finished mopping the floor and went to clock out. Then, your boss came up and threw eggs all over that floor you just mopped, came over to you and told you that you cannot clock out until you mop the floor and clean up the eggs. That is what you are doing to your editor. Even if you plan to pay extra money for this (which no one has ever offered), do you really think the janitor wants to go back and clean up your mess after he or she had just finished cleaning up the mess?

I can pretty much tell which books I work on have amazing potential to sell well (with the right marketing plan) and which books no amount of marketing is going to help. Some books I work on are poorly written, but (1) if I have not been paid to rewrite them in the entirety, I will not do it as a general rule (more because I have a schedule and deadlines and have not budgeted my time for this) and (2) even if you do pay me, I do not have the final say over the book--you do. No matter how many edits and changes I make to your book for the better, you can reject all of them if you like. Some people are like that--they want an editor to help them feel better and give them an "A" for C or D work. I am not a high school teacher. I home-schooled my kids until junior high, but I did not allow them to get away with that rubbish. My kids went to school and came home amazed at how much easier it was than the home-school I put them through as I polished my curriculum.

I, as you know if you have been following me for any length of time, am not a sugar-coating-it kind of girl. I will not do that. I am blunt and honest. I have read tens of thousands of books, and I know that as difficult as it is to break into traditional publishing, it is more difficult to write a New York Times best-selling, self-published book. Because selling self-published books is hard, I want to help you by turning your C or D work into A work. But I cannot do that if you will not let me, and I also cannot do that if you do not give me enough time to help you.

If you think you have a good book that is well-edited, you should always plan to have it edited at least a month before the release date or the date you need it to be finished per 100 pages. This gives your editor time to deal with any problems that may arise. I would only cite two weeks for it, but under certain circumstances it might take longer even if I cited that time. This jobs was one of those where I needed more time but did not have it. If you need a developmental edit, you should plan 3-6 months in advance. The freelancer must do the edit and return it to you and wait until you get it back to him or her before advancing to the next part or the next stage.