It’s a typewriter. Trust me, the auto-correct on these things sucks. You’d definitely need an editor.

For the “Too Long Didn’t Read” folks, this will cut to the chase.

Let’s assume you maybe want an editor … probably … perhaps. Okay, you’re thinking about it. As you’ll see from this website (if you take a look around) I’m a professional freelance editor, traditional and self-published author, freelance journalist, musician and sound engineer, and an audiobook narrator. I also do a mean roast chicken. If you’re seriously looking for an editor to work with you on your book (a very important distinction), and you can’t decide who you should choose, it’s easy – just send me a sample, I’ll edit it and send it back, and you can figure out if I’m the editor you need. You can scroll down this page to Do I Supply Samples to read more on that process. Otherwise, if you’d like more information, read through the rest of the stuff below and I’m confident you’ll find it useful even if it doesn’t convince you.

Now AI is here, why bother with human editors? Aren’t editors a waste of money now? 

If you’re an aspiring writer, or already self-published on Amazon or other platforms, no doubt you’ve been thinking lately, “What’s the point in trying to be an author? AI is writing everything now. I might as well give up because I can’t compete.”

Things can look pretty grim, and writers in particular are getting smacked in the face by the whole “AI” thing – along with musicians, artists … everyone creative. It doesn’t seem to matter if you’re trying to make a few dollars out of your writing, or it’s just a well-loved hobby, the problem appears to be that nobody will ever read it. That all-important “visibility” will disappear in a flood of AI releases. It’s really discouraging.

This is what I believe will really happen.

Here’s an important thing to understand about AI. By default, anything written by AI will become the same as everything else written by AI. That’s how it works. AI is trained by feeding it existing material so it can create something the same – so it can mimic those original stories or songs. Which is in turn fed back into the AI process to add to the database. Russell Davies of Doctor Who  fame recently described AI as “eating its own tail”. AI can’t innovate or do something unique. Sure, it can shuffle things around, but it can’t come up with anything from scratch.

So what will happen – sooner than you think – is that readers will begin to ask, “For goodness’ sake, where can I find something different? Something that isn’t the same old story rehashed over and over again?”

There will be a strong demand for innovation, originality and fresh ideas. Books and writing that will stand out from the AI crowd.  Books that are obviously NOT written by AI.

That’s when you’ll need a human editor.

Adding the human touch.

First up, I’ll acknowledge that there is a growing school of thought amongst self-published writers that editing isn’t worth the expense because so many readers don’t care. They don’t give a damn about commas and spelling and grammar as long as the story is great. It’s an interesting argument, and for sure there are some genres that have such a voracious readership that you can get away with … ah, murder. If you simply can’t see any benefit, or feel you won’t recoup the costs from any editing or proofreading, that’s fine. There are risks, but it’s fine. I wish you the best of luck.

But this is about quality storytelling and writing that stands out. That’s how we can stay ahead of the AI curve. Your stories and books need to be something new, or at least a new twist on a popular theme. That human touch is the innovation, the inspiration, the brain-storming factor that AI can’t possibly offer. An editor like myself can help you in thinking through your inspired ideas.

I’ve worked with writers who are technically very good at actually writing, but they need some help in creating a creative plot flow and appeal to their stories. If you often need a push in the ideas directions, I can help you. And I’ve worked with plenty of authors who are brilliant storytellers, but they’re terrible at putting the words on the page. If you identify with having some awesome tales to tell, except the writing process is a real obstacle, a good editor can help with that too. There may be some extra time involved, but by us working together, your dream can come true.

For what it’s worth, another alternative is that you are just a crap writer – you’re rubbish at the whole thing. In that situation, I’ll let you know … gently. Maybe you need to try some writing courses.

The Internet review system is a bastard.

This is a serious problem, and another reason for engaging an editor. A lot of reviewers on the internet – Amazon is the obvious example – just love to put the boot in. It doesn’t take much to prompt a savage one-star or, worse, a two-star review (because a lot of people ignore one-star and five-star reviews nowadays) with a comment like “This writer needs a good editor” or “I hated all the spelling and punctuation mistakes” and they punish you with a low-rated review. You might think, I’ve got a thick skin, who cares?  Well, Amazon cares … you’ll get a lower average rating, the dreaded algorithms will kick you in the teeth, and you get dropped lower and lower down the page in any search engine results. Amazon loves a winner, and it doesn’t like to pester customers with losers. Harsh, but true. Not using an editor can mean the difference between avoiding those damaging reviews or not. Yes, you can ignore them, but Amazon won’t.

You’re a writing machine.

What? You’re a one-person James Patterson book industry and you’re thinking you need an editor?  That’s not unusual. Like several authors I’ve worked with, perhaps you’re interested in constantly writing and releasing new books than by getting bogged down editing them? I’ve been a part of that kind of workflow – the business model, if you like – when it was my job to polish and fix early drafts while you get on with the new stuff. There are plenty of successful authors who easily recoup the costs of editing by releasing more books over a given period of time. It’s a skill though – pushing out book after book without burning out.

You’re going to submit to a Publisher or Agent.

If you’re going to try your hand at attracting a publisher or a literary agent, then you need an editor, no argument. Publishers and agents combing through their enormous slush piles of unsolicited manuscripts only need the smallest excuse, the slightest reason, to chuck your years of hard work in the bin and move on to the next submission. It’s not just about mistakes, but how much you care about the writing craft, and the effort you’ve made to present them with the best manuscript you can. Send them a mess of typos, errors and grammatical soup, and you can forget it. You apparently don’t care, so they won’t either. Trust me on this one.

Alright, I’m still reading this. What does it cost?

I try to keep costs to a simple formula. We’re talking US Dollars here since the majority of my clients are in America, but if you’re Australian (like me) we can haggle, because it’s not your fault if the exchange rate has gone down the toilet. For proofreading, you’ll normally pay 0.0060 per word, so the easy ballpark figure is US$60 per 10,000 words. For copy editing, it’s 0.010 per word or  US$100 per 10,000 words. Normally? When I assess your manuscript, if it’s going to take seriously extra time or work, we’ll call it a Line Edit and I’ll discuss this with you, and the quote might reflect that. It doesn’t happen often, and it guarantees you won’t get any nasty surprises on the invoice because we’ll have chatted about it beforehand. Bottom line – the prices above will most likely apply unless you want a Line Edit.

What genres do I work in?

I’ve done almost everything in both fiction and non-fiction, so try me. Science fiction, thriller, cozy mysteries, not-so-cozy mysteries, how-to books and lifestyle guides, and before you ask, yes, I’ve done period romance, millionaire romance … quite a few of the more traditional romance genres. However, I’m not interested in erotica, or what you might call the more explicit genres of romance. I don’t have a problem with these – whatever floats your boat – I’m just not interested in these styles. The repetition and formulaic approach means they’re not much fun to work on.

What sort of editing do you need?

There seems to be lots of different types of editing, like proofreading, copy editing, line editing, developmental editing, comprehensive editing … the list is long, and no one can agree exactly what each method of editing is supposed to provide. A good way of looking at this is how much you’ll allow the editor to do.  With a proofread, I’ll assume your MS has already been edited and just stick to the basics of typos and small errors. A copy edit is pretty thorough, checking everything, while a line edit gives me your permission to shift entire paragraphs or even chapters and question things like plot line, character development and your overall writing “voice”. Again, we’ll chat about this before any agreement is reached.

Do I supply samples?

Absolutely, it’s really the only way to properly assess if you will benefit from an editor. It’s a small risk for me – some people use editing samples as a kind of “free lesson” on how they should fix their writing. But for genuine enquiries, a sample is a must. Usually about 2000 words will do it, and it’s best to give me something from the middle of the book, not the start. I work in Microsoft Word and use its Track Changes function. On your end, any version of Word is okay – Track Changes works across all of them – but I definitely need a Word document. Beware, some specialist writing programs don’t Export a .docx file perfectly. Get in touch and I’ll explain more.

US or UK spelling?

It’s up to you. Some Australian/UK writers decide to use US spelling to cater for that market. I can help with that. General rule-of-thumb is the Chicago Manual of Style when you’re aiming at largely a US readership, or if UK spelling and grammar is preferred, that’s no problem. Most important, I always want to point out to authors that CMOS and any UK equivalent is primarily a journalist standard and sometimes shouldn’t be applied too strictly to long-form writing — especially when a writer’s unique voice and style, and a smooth narrative flow, needs to be taken into account.

As a copy editor I’m not looking just for poor spelling, bad grammar or missing words. I’m on the lookout for anything that might prompt those unfortunate online reviews or negative comments from a reader. As I said earlier, you know they can be merciless.

I’m always happy to discuss your editing needs in more detail. Some authors have concerns about genre-specific styles and standards that certainly need working through. It’s a difficult decision at times, and I can help guide you through any options.

To get in touch, you can use the Comments section here or send me an email at mailbag@graemehague.com.au. Please ensure the subject lines clearly state it’s an editing query – I get a lot of spam. And if you haven’t seen it elsewhere on this site, I’m in Western Australia on GMT +8:00 time zone, and people on the other side of the planet are generally twelve hours opposite to me.

Good luck with your writing, Graeme Hague.