Part #2 of our chat with editor @HeatherOsborn LUV: You have worked as an editor at an established romance publisher and launched your own editorial service. Can you tell us about your services and how you work with authors? Heather: Having been involved in the romance industry in one way or another for about 20 years now (eep!) I truly feel as though I have experience with almost every facet of romance publishing, especially the editing side. The majority of my business is in editing, and I offer a wide variety of services based on author needs. From something as simple as a beta read, where I offer a short written critique with no actual line edits, to something as comprehensive as a 2 round line and content edit, I have options for most every budget and type of writer. Another pretty big part of my business is editing for the Big 6 (or is it 5 now?) publishers on a freelance basis. In those cases I do not deal directly with the authors. Instead, I interact with the production department or the in-house editor. That said, the thoroughness and quality of my edits do not vary depending on the type of client! As far as how I work with authors, initially I feel them out about what they are looking for in terms of edits or author services, discuss the options and my rates for each type of service and make a plan with scheduled turn in dates for the manuscript, etc. Obviously sometimes things happen and books are late, and I try my best to have flexibility built into my schedule to accommodate these types of issues. On initial booking, I do not charge placeholder fees, but upon receipt of the manuscript I typically request 50% of the total fee up front, with the remaining 50% due on completion of the edits. For the most part, I charge based on word count, so authors can easily calculate the total cost before I even start. I also want to note that I am happy to do a sample edit for an author so they can see if our styles gel. I typically will do 10 pages or 1 chapter (whichever one is shorter) for no cost. I want clients who are happy and satisfied, and it’s better to find out we’re compatible up front, rather than 70k into a book edit!

Posted by LUV Team at 2023-10-17 19:00:16 UTC