How to find the right editor for you
Editors come in all shapes, sizes, colours, genres, and specialisations. So how do you find the perfect fit for you and your book?
Firstly, let's start with genre! What genre are you writing in? Hopefully you already have an answer to this question. Because with literary direction, techniques, and devices you need to ensure that you're sticking within your genre and some are more prevalent within your chosen genre rather than the one you're trying to avoid. A (rather broad) example of this would be that in both fantasy and sci-fi, there's a system in place that is different and makes marks on your world in ways that your characters can interact, in fantasy that could be magic and in sci-fi that could be a complex super-computer. So when looking for an editor, you want to find the one who works with your genre as they'll know all the fancy stuff like literary devices, techniques and tropes like the back of their hand!
You can also go a little further and see if your researched editors have a portfolio of work or testimonials from published authors and see if they also match any sub-genres you are working in as well. However, this may not be the case for some, and you may wish to have conversations with them (we'll get to that in a bit).
Next, specialisations. What type of editing are you looking for? As stated previously, editors can specialise in certain tasks. I know of editors who prefer line editing over developmental editing, and other editors who prefer it the other way. What you are looking for at the time, whether that be developmental or line editing, manuscript evaluation, or even just proofreading, you should remember that it's fine to approach editors for just that service, but a lot of editors can and will also do any step of the editing process for you. While it is common for an author to pick an editor and stick with them, remember it is your choice.
Lastly, you've decided that you've found a good list of editors that could help you. The last step is to contact them, ask for a discussion or a call, and see if they're right for you. Does speaking to them open you up and let you get excited when discussing your vision? Does telling them about your vision for your book get them excited? Do you enjoy the conversation with them? If you can answer those questions with yes, and get the answers to any question you have from them, then you've found your editor!
