Never Hire the Wrong Book Editor With This 22-Question Checklist
Here are the 22 crucial questions to ask before hiring a book editor, based on a thorough questionnaire a prospective client sent me that covers major considerations when vetting professional editors for your self-published book.
The fundamental questions covered in this episode include: genre expertise, comparable books edited, and what excites editors about your manuscript, though many ghostwriters have NDAs preventing public client lists.
Voice preservation questions are critical, including how editors maintain your voice while strengthening clarity, pacing, and story structure. My process involves onboarding sessions, listening to podcasts if available, editing chapter one, then meeting to make corrections before continuing to ensure I capture voice accurately. This prevents the devastating mistake where authors hire editors, don't see them until the book is finished, then discover their book isn't what they wanted, requiring complete rewrites.
Practical business questions address turnaround time, flat fee versus hourly rates, availability, contracts, NDAs, communication preferences, and references. I work on flat fees including two passes and three 30-minute meetings, typically book two to three weeks out, provide contracts through client intake forms, sign NDAs since confidentiality is key, stay available via text for quick questions and email during standard work hours, and provide references once prospects shortlist me.
The dealbreaker question reveals what makes editors turn down projects. I'm easy to work with as a fellow author and creative who gives clients final say in their books, preserving voice while offering professional advice they can accept or decline because the author always has the last call on which content stays in their book.
Until next time, keep writing, dreaming, and creating—your book is waiting to be born!
Transcript
E58 Transcript
Never Hire the Wrong Book Editor With This 22-Question Checklist
Lynn "Elikqitie" Smargis (:Hey friends and future authors, this is Lynn, a Liquidy Smarges, ghostwriter and book editor, right for you. I'm excited about today's topic because this is actually a questionnaire someone had sent me to answer. So I am going to give you this questionnaire because I thought this questionnaire, this author made up was absolutely fabulous. And it's 22 questions you want to ask anyone you're considering hiring for a book editor. Because even though I didn't get hired by this person,
I love this questionnaire that he created because it covers all of the major things that you want to ask anyone who is a professional book editor, right? You again remember you don't want to hire your friends and family things like that. But before we jump into today's show, I want to really quickly share a client experience with you. I recently worked with a gal named Reagan and she needed some book coaching. So we did a book coaching sessions together and this is what she had to say about her.
experience. Reagan says, Thank you, Lynn, I truly appreciate the clarity you helped me to reach today, the most valuable parts surrounding the self publishing and design options you shared. I look forward to becoming a member of your online community to focus on other topics you have to share. Reagan, thank you so much for that review. And you can find that five star review and the 24 other five star reviews I have on Google My Business when you look up right for you. And if you would like to become a part of that,
that Reagan mentioned. I would love for you to be a part of it as well. You can go to school.com, it's S-K-O-O-L, and look up publishing for leaders. Now this community is currently free, but it's only gonna be free for the first 100 members and it's gonna fill up fast. So make sure that you join the community today. All right, future authors, do you have your pencil notebook handy? Because if you do, we're gonna dive into today's episode so you get one step
closer to self-publishing your book. All right, the 22 questions you want to ask before you hire a book editor. All right, and I am actually going to give you my answers to these questions. So not only do you have the questions, but you have the answers as well. If you would like a copy of this document, join my school community and I will post it in the general discussion for you to find it. Okay, so question number one, what genre do you most often edit? Have you worked on
Lynn "Elikqitie" Smargis (:I'm glad to share her information with you as a referral if you'd like. number two, can you name a few comparable books you've edited specifically memoirs or adventure narratives? I can't list all the books because as a ghostwriter, I have
an NDA with some of my clients. However, I do have a few books that are linked here and I link that in the document. Number three, what excites you most about this manuscript based on the samples? I said, my responses, it was well written. I love the way you told your story. You would be surprised about the amount of people who write a book and they don't have good writing skills, but it makes the work much harder and less enjoyable if someone hasn't written the book well. All right, number four, how do you approach preserving an author's voice while
strengthening clarity and pacing setups escalation and callbacks.
By having an onboarding session with the client, listening to their podcast if they have one, and editing a chapter, then meeting up with the client to make any corrections before moving on to the remainder of the rest of the script to ensure I have their voice. And friends, this is really essentially important. I have talked to so many people and so many clients who I have either re-edited their book or have done book coaching and they've had to rewrite their book because of this one mistake. They hire somebody and that person
They don't see that person until their book is finished or halfway through their book and their book isn't what they want, right? And so every time after I do chapter one, I meet with my client and say, hey, here's my revisions. What would you like me to change? Make sure to get your voice and tone correct and or is there anything I'm saying in here that you don't use like expressions? You don't use things like that, right? So once we get through that, then I have a very clear understanding of what my client is, you know,
Lynn "Elikqitie" Smargis (:We can also create a style guide just like I did and talked about a few episodes ago. Some of my clients want to create a style guide, some of them don't, but if they do want to create a style guide, I can do that for them and add that to the services that I provide. All right, let's go on with the questions. Number five, this manuscript blends humor, science, and emotional moments. How do you approach maintaining that balance?
If something feels off or not right, I'll tag the author and let them know. Then I'll make suggestions. If those aren't what my client is looking for, we can hop on a short call to iron out the details. Again, I always hop on a call after chapter one, but I also hop on a call typically midway through the book to make sure everything is going well and see if there's any further little corrections we need to make going forward. Because I'd rather know in the beginning and make those corrections going forward than finding out at the end of the book, my client didn't like my edit and then I get a bad rating.
and then they're not happy and then I'm not happy because my client isn't happy. So meeting up on a regular basis even with a book editor is essential. If your book editor is refusing to meet you at all, say no. That's a huge red flag. And I'm not saying like they have to meet you every week for an hour. I think that's obsessive. But meeting definitely after chapter one and maybe midway through the book and I usually meet my clients like before the last chapter is edited just so they have any other questions and then at the end
the process. I always meet them to clear up any other edits we need to clear up and we do that on real time in Zoom. So that's really helpful for my clients because then we have everything cleared up that they have a question on because sometimes I do an edit and my clients not like they're not loving that edit but they do want an edit but it's not the one that I made. So I we hop on that Zoom call and then we I say how about this or how about this and then we find a good solution to that edit and then we move forward. Okay.
What's your approach to self-deprecating humor? When does it work? When does it undermine credibility? It depends on the story, what you're trying to create, and the purpose of your book. Because this person had clearly a book with humor in it, and I'm reading his direct questions. So obviously, your questions would be specifically for your type of book, so you would have to edit this out a little bit.
Lynn "Elikqitie" Smargis (:It depends on the story, what you're trying to create, and the purpose of your book. Once I know these details, I can judge when and where this type of humor works for your story. Number seven, what is your philosophy on cutting material? How do you decide what stays and what goes? I use Google Docs and I make suggested line edits when I edit so the client can see the original copy and my changes. Clients can approve or delete my changes. When I work with clients, because I'm also an author and also a creative and also write my own books, I understand that this is an emotional process.
it takes a bit longer to work through and that's okay. I always make it a copy of make a copy of the author's original work that is shared that I work on because I want my client to have their original copy for reference. I never cut out material completely unless the client asked me to or the client approves that. I like to use an additional content document so I copy and paste any material that we decide not to use at that time so that you can use it in the future. Question number eight, how do you typically
flag suggestions and must fix issues by using the comment and or suggested edits in Google Doc. Number nine, how do you deliver feedback, track changes, editorial letter, margin comments or combination? Margin comments and suggested edits on Google Documents. can download the final file into a PDF or a Word document, whatever you prefer. For formatting, you typically want to use a Word document and not to format in the Word document, let's be clear. So you take the Word document and then you use that and upload it into
your formatter and or you can just copy and paste the material from Google Docs, which I've done before and put it in a word for a professional word formatter. Okay, we're not talking about using word as a formatter. You don't want to do that. Like I said in previous episodes. Okay, number 10, how many passes are included in your standard edit? What does each pass focus on? Two passes are included. First, we go through the chapter one, like I said before, and then once that's edited, then I do any round two of any edit.
and once those are complete, your edits are finished and we wrap up any small issues. And that's when we wrap up any small issues in that last one-to-one meeting. Number 11, do you offer follow-up consultation after I review your edits? Yes, that's what I just mentioned. And friends, if you are confused by any of this and you need support and you don't want to spend thousands of dollars in a self-publishing course, then what are you waiting for? Come and join me inside Publishing for Leaders today, just like Reagan.
Lynn "Elikqitie" Smargis (:in her comments because I want you to add author to your bio before the end of the year. When you join my new community in school, you're gonna find weekly tips and advice on self-publishing. Not only that, you get one group coaching session absolutely free every month. And if you don't get your questions answered in that group coaching session, no worries, because guess what? I have a coffee chat that's an informal coffee chat where you come and just ask me questions that you have about self-publishing. And I will answer.
them for you during our coffee chat once a month. So members also have access to past recordings so if you missed these some recordings that you want to see, no worries. Just jump in now and and join because it's free and you can watch those past recordings in the video vault. Remember jump in now because the first hundred members are free and complimentary and it's going to fill up fast. So go to www.school.com and search publishing for leaders.
Join today, the link is also in the show notes. All right, let's get on to question 12. The manuscript is currently 90,000 words. What's your sense of whether that's right for this genre? For fiction, this is standard. It's a bit long for nonfiction, but you have two options. You can publish this as two or three books or keep this as one longer novel. The current trend is for shorter books, although some stories aren't told well in two or three books. We can discuss this on a discovery call because here's the thing, my friends, you can't just say, hey, this is 90,000 words. Is it gonna work?
this X words, is it gonna work? It really depends on the content, okay, and how the person is writing it. And sometimes you can cut out large chunks of things, sometimes you can take out pieces and make it a lead magnet, sometimes you can take out pieces and create like an introduction with it. So there's lots of different things you can do to shorten a book. It doesn't mean you have to throw out work, it just means you can repurpose it into different things like blogs, right, or LinkedIn newsletters, whatever you wanna repurpose it into. So if you have a really big book and you need
to cut it down, it doesn't mean you have to throw out your work. You can just use it for something else. I'm a big believer in repurposing your content. What is a typical turnaround time for a manuscript of 85,000 words? And this was a developmental edit. So it's two to three weeks, depending on how quickly my client responds to any questions. some clients, like one client I have now is doing a developmental and line edit that typically takes me two to three weeks and it's taking us for three months because we've just been having some technical issues with her getting into Google.
Lynn "Elikqitie" Smargis (:and she also has a full-time job just like most of the people listening to this podcast. So she can only work on her book on weekends. So she has limited time where she can work on her book and then we had the holiday so that extended it. But typically if we don't have any issues with timing, it's two to three weeks.
Can you clarify what's included? I offer dev and line editing, that's developmental and line editing. If you would like a quote for additional copy editing, I work with another editor. We can tag team the client work. I can send you a proposal for all your editing. Do you work on a flat fee or hourly rate? I work on a flat fee and that includes the two passes and the three 30 minute meetings. What is your availability? When can you start? I'm typically two weeks out. So if you want to work on a book together, I'm typically two weeks out.
I'm really busy, I'm four weeks out. So right now in April, I'm about three weeks out right now. So if you want to work with me, definitely hit up a discovery call on my website, write4u.me. Get in as soon as you can and I can get your work done pretty quickly.
once I have you on my schedule. All right, 17, do you have a contract or letter of agreement? Yes, I have a general contract, so when my client fills out their client intake, there's a general contract on that that just explains very general things about working together. And my payment terms are half up front and half the week right as we're ending the work. Are you comfortable signing an NDA? Absolutely, I'm a ghostwriter, so confidentiality is key to my business. Number 19, if I have questions,
mid-edit what's the best way to reach you. For a quick question, clients can text me for other questions, they can email me, I'm available standard work hours during the week. Can you provide two to three references from authors you worked with? Yes, I can send them over once we are looking to move to the next step. So I'm not gonna send over references for someone who's just doing a general inquiry, but if someone says, hey, I've shortlisted you, it's you and like two or three other people, then I'll send their references.
Lynn "Elikqitie" Smargis (:All right, do you have a professional affiliations? Yes. EFA, I'm also professionally associated with Romance Writers of America, Well I'm at Valley Writers, and there's a couple others. 22, can you share before and after sample from a similar project? Yes, I can send this to you if you're looking to move to the next step. Number 23, what would make you turn down a project? A high maintenance client who wants to text or email me at 2 a.m. in the morning or all out.
of the weekend and expect a reply. You text me at two in the morning, that's fine because I have my phone on silent. It's not going to bother me whatsoever. But don't expect a reply at two in the morning. I will reply to you when I start my work day. Okay, someone who doesn't respond to emails.
A client who consistently asks me to do free work. A client who emails me daily with questions about work. That's totally unprofessional, right? To have an email once a week about a question or a text once a week or once every couple weeks, no big deal, right? But if you're emailing somebody every day, that's super unprofessional. I won't work with people like that. Okay.
who is misogynistic, demeaning, or disrespectful, I would not work on their project. I'm very easy to work with, friends. I'm also an author, podcaster, and creative, so you always get the last say in your book, right? And as I have read from other reviews, my client is my number one priority, so I always want to preserve your voice, and you always get the last call. So if I suggest an edit and you don't want it, you can say no, and my feelings are not gonna be heard. This is your book, right? It comes down to this is your book.
give you my professional advice. I will always give you what I think is the best way to move forward, but if you want to move forward a different way, that's your choice. And again, if you're looking for more support in your self-publishing journey and you want to talk to other people who are positive, who are moving forward, who like to chunk out their small goals and we want to celebrate wins, then definitely join me on my school community. That's school.com, S-K-O-O-L, and join the community for support.
Lynn "Elikqitie" Smargis (:and our complimentary group coaching sessions once a month and our complimentary coffee chats. I can't wait to see you in there. All right, my friends, I hope this has been super helpful in knowing the questions to ask. Again, join the school community and I will post this in the general discussion for you. If you don't see it there, please ping me inside of school and I will post that for you. Until next week, this is Lynn Aliquity reminding you to keep writing, keep dreaming and keep creating. Your book is waiting to be born.
