A Book Editor's Freelance Journey: Self-Publishing Boom

The first manuscript stayed on my laptop for 58 days. It was 41,000 words long, and it paid Rs 6,200.

That night I worked out the rate: about Rs 0.15 a word. I also noticed I had left the same word spelled 11 different ways across the draft while feeling like a pretty good editor.

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Who self-publishes, really

I had no idea how many people were putting out their own books. Retired teachers, office workers writing at night, a doctor turning his diaries into a novel. None of them had a publisher, so none of them had an editor.

And that gap is the opportunity. Writing a book is one skill. Spotting that a character's name changes spelling in chapter four, or that chapter nine does nothing, or having the nerve to say so, is a different one. Authors can rarely do it for themselves, because everything on their own page looks fine to them.

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How the first client appeared

A Facebook writing group had a post from a retired teacher looking for an editor for her manuscript. More than 30 people commented "inbox me." I did not. I posted a 500-word before-and-after sample in the comments instead.

She picked me. Later she told me everyone else had written some version of "I can do it." My sample showed her how I changed one line and why, and that was all she needed.

Cold LinkedIn messages did nothing. Twenty messages, one reply, and it said "will look at it later."

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What the work looks like

A book edit means two to three hours a day for four to six weeks. First comes a full read. Then a style sheet: is it "okay" or "OK", "Mom" or "Mum", how is a character's name written. I did not have one at the start, so after 41,000 words I had to scan the whole manuscript again. That cost me half a day.

Edits go in as tracked changes, with a short note beside each big one. I avoid writing "this is weak." I write something closer to "the reader may not feel the character's fear here, would one more line help?"

I used to believe an editor's job was catching mistakes. To be fair, that is only about half. The other half is protecting the author's voice. Once I cleaned one writer's sentences so thoroughly that they began to sound like mine. A week later she said, "This doesn't feel like me." I reversed all of it. Six hours, unpaid.

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The money

Project one: Rs 6,200 for 41,000 words, about Rs 0.15 a word. Project two: Rs 9,300 for 38,500 words, about Rs 0.24. Project three: Rs 11,400. Project four was a novel of 52,000 words that paid Rs 14,850, about Rs 0.29 a word.

I now quote Rs 0.45 to Rs 0.60 a word and ask for half upfront. Why half? In project two the author told me on day 22 that payment would be late because a shop had closed. The remaining Rs 4,650 reached me five weeks afterwards.

Across the last five months, my lowest month was Rs 2,400 and my highest was Rs 14,850. So this is not a salary. When one book ends, the next can be ten days away, or three weeks.

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Changes I made

First, a contract. My first job had nothing in writing, so when the author asked for "just one more round," I said yes. Now two rounds are included and a third costs extra.

Second, a limit on free work. I do 500 words and no more. I later found out one person had asked five different editors for 3,000 words each.

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One chapter I still remember

In project three, an author had spent nine pages on a single wedding scene. My first instinct was to cut it down hard. Then I wondered whether it might be the heart of the book for her. So I wrote a comment instead: "This scene runs long, but it may hold the emotional centre of your story. Could we get from nine pages to five without losing what matters?"

She went quiet for three days. Then a one-line message arrived: "You found the right one." That was the first time I felt like an editor and not a spell-checker with opinions.

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The tools, briefly

Nothing fancy. Word with track changes switched on, a plain one-page style sheet kept in a separate file, and a spreadsheet where I log chapter number, word count and hours spent. The spreadsheet matters more than it sounds. It is how I learned my speed, and it is how I knew project two had quietly run 14 hours over what I had priced.

I also read each chapter aloud under my breath once, which sounds silly but catches clumsy sentences that silent reading skips. My neighbour must think I talk to myself a lot.

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What the author actually pays for

Honestly, it is not your grammar. Spell-check does a decent job of that now. What authors pay for is a second reader who has no reason to flatter them. One author told me she had shown her draft to eight friends and all eight said it was lovely. She wanted someone who would tell her where she lost interest.

That is a small, slightly uncomfortable thing to sell. But it is also why repeat work happens, since two of my four clients have already asked about their next book.

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If you want to try this

Edit a friend's pages or some of your own writing first, and time yourself. My speed was about 1,800 words an hour at the start and is closer to 2,700 now. Work out your rate from that number.

Then make a before-and-after sample and post it in a writers' group. And keep a one-page style sheet from day one.

I am still unsure whether to push beyond Rs 0.60 a word. Yesterday an author told me my rate was "very low," and there was something odd in the way he said it, like he wanted to say something else...