How to choose a book editor
Work out which of the four edits you need first — that decision matters more than the choice of person. Then shortlist three from the CIEP directory or genre referrals, pay each for a sample edit of the same 3,000 words, and choose on how it feels to be edited by them, not on their client list.
Red flags in an editorial quote
One of these is a conversation. Two is a decline. All are things authors have been caught by.
- A price quoted without seeing any of the manuscript.
- 'Editing' offered as a single service, with no named pass.
- Any promise about agents, sales, reviews or publication.
- No sample edit offered, or a free one that is suspiciously long.
- A rate far below CIEP suggested minimums — usually inexperience or outsourcing.
- Payment in full upfront, with no staged milestones.
- No written scope: how many passes, how many queries, what the deliverable is.
- Vagueness about turnaround, or availability starting tomorrow when good editors are booked months out.
- A sample edit that rewrites your voice rather than clarifying it.
- No answer on whether AI tools are used in the work, or evasion when asked.
A separate free preview: A free outside view of your own pages
A separate editorial preview of one extract; it does not read the whole book or do the specialist job this page describes. Send up to 5,000 words. You get back what the draft appears to be doing to somebody who wasn't there when you wrote it, the strongest thing in it named, the exact place a reader starts to drift, and three revision priorities in order.
A separate editorial preview of one extract; it does not read the whole book or do the specialist job this page describes. An AI-assisted read of your own pages. Not a human edit, not a line edit, and not a scored report.
Decide the edit before you choose the editor
Almost every disappointing editorial experience starts here. An author who needs a structural read hires a copy-editor, gets back a clean and correct manuscript with all its problems intact, and concludes that editing is overrated.
Describe your actual problem in one sentence and match it to a pass. Readers get bored in the middle is developmental. It's correct but lifeless is line. I keep finding inconsistencies is copy. It's typeset and I'm frightened is proof.
Where to look, in order
The CIEP directory. The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading. Searchable by specialism and genre; Advanced Professional Members have passed an assessment. This is the most reliable British starting point and it is free to search.
Referrals from authors in your genre. Check the acknowledgements of three self-published books you admire. Many name their editor, and a referral gets you a faster reply.
Reedsy. Curated, largely ex-trade, more expensive, genuinely vetted.
Writing groups and genre associations. The Society of Authors, the RNA, the Crime Writers' Association and their equivalents all have members who will point you somewhere sensible.
What not to use: general freelance marketplaces where anyone can list as an editor at any price. The saving is real and so is the risk.
The paid sample edit is the test
Portfolios tell you what other people's books became. They cannot tell you what it feels like to have your sentences handled by this person.
Send the same 3,000 words — not your best 3,000, a representative middle chapter — to three editors and pay each £75–£150. Then read the three versions side by side and ask: does this still sound like me, only better? Are the queries intelligent? Did they catch the thing I was worried about?
One of the three will usually be obviously right. That clarity is what the £300 bought.
What a fair quote contains
A named pass. A price, with the word count it assumes. A turnaround and a start date. A defined deliverable: tracked changes, a style sheet, a report, a call — say which. The number of queries or rounds included. And staged payment, typically half on booking and half on delivery.
CIEP suggested minimum rates are the sanity check, not the price list: proofreading from around £31.92 an hour, copy-editing and developmental work higher. An experienced editor charging well above minimum is normal. An editor charging far below it is telling you something.
About Your Book Pro
Your Book Pro is a book-writing platform built in Britain. Start with an idea, notes, half a draft, a podcast, or a finished manuscript, and use our purpose-built AI tools for planning, feedback, editing, proofreading, cover designs, and to create print-ready files. Writing is totally free: you can type, upload or speak your book as much as you like, and use only the editing tools you need with Plus, or go unlimited with Pro.
Produce world-class drafts at the fraction of the cost of hiring a human editorial team.
Every account starts with 1,000 welcome credits, and a plain export of your own words is free.
Each guide says plainly when a person does the job better than AI. Guides on legal topics are general information, not legal advice.
Before you hire anyone, two things here are worth doing. Ask the Editor — the pill that stays in the top corner while you work — answers the specific question you have right now: is this opening working, is this structure sound, is this chapter earning its place. It is the cheapest way to find out whether you need a full edit at all.
And the Editing Suite runs the passes in order on one manuscript, so you can arrive at a human editor with the obvious problems already gone. Editors price on the state of the manuscript, so this frequently lowers the quote as well as improving the report.
What we don't claim: an editor who has sold books in your genre knows what an acquiring editor in London will respond to this year. That judgement is real, it is specific to people, and it is worth paying for when the book is going to agents.
Ask the Editor a question
Upload a manuscript written anywhere
Email me my free review linkQuestions people ask
- How much does a book editor cost in the UK?
- £400–£900 for an assessment, £1,500–£4,800 for a developmental edit, £800–£2,000 for a line edit, £800–£1,600 for a copy-edit and £400–£800 for a proofread, for a full-length book.
- Should the sample edit be free?
- Pay for it. Free samples select for editors who need work, and paid samples get the editor's real attention. £75–£150 for 3,000 words is normal.
- How far ahead do editors book?
- Two to three months for good freelancers, longer around the autumn. Ask about the queue in your first email — availability tomorrow is itself information.
- Can I use the same editor for every book?
- Yes, and it gets better each time — they learn your habits and your style sheet carries over. Use someone new for proofreading, though, since fresh eyes catch more.
- What if I can't afford an editor?
- Get an assessment rather than a full edit — £400–£900 for a diagnosis is the highest-value editorial spend there is. Then do the revision yourself and put the remaining budget into a proofread, which is the one readers notice.