How Publishers Hire Editors
I should start with a disclaimer: I’ve never had to take an editing test. I’m at a point in my career where I’m kept pleasantly busy with my work for Dragon Moon Press, and my additional projects arrive through referrals—situations in which my work has already spoken for itself.
My experience with editing tests is from the other side, as an Editor-In-Charge. I’m now in a position to hire other freelance editors and delegate projects to them. I admit, it makes me very uncomfortable to do so.
I know the problems I’m likely to face in a manuscript. I feel confident that know how to ride the line between polishing up a sentence and moving it out of the author’s voice; what to mess with and what to leave alone. I know how to address an author in a friendly and non-confrontational way, yet still fight for an edit if it’ll make a stronger book.
I know my own level of attentiveness to detail. I don’t know anyone else’s, if I haven’t seen their work. Handing over a novel-length manuscript and hoping everything will be all right when I look at the proofs, isn’t a time-effective way to find out. Enter: the editing test.
An editing test should be an open-book test, because an open-book test displays your ability to find the answers you need, not your inherent knowledge. No editor edits in a reference-free vacuum. I don’t actually want to test how much you know. I want to test your ability to identify the things you need to check on, and your ability to use reference material to check on it. It’s more important that things stand out as “wrong” or “questionable” to you, than that you know offhand how to make them right. I don’t care if you know when to use “affect” or “as if it were” or if you can spell “Antietam”. I care that you know what to look up, and where to look it up. I care that correct words in incorrect contexts will stand out to you. I need you to be able to catch not only the obvious spelling mistakes, but the kinds of spelling mistakes that a spell-checker won’t find, too.
My editing tests aren’t straightforward grammar and punctuation multiple choice tests. I don’t request a writing sample, either. Seeing a finished product isn’t the same as seeing someone’s work, since I don’t know what state the manuscript was in before it came to them. I’ve edited some very clean manuscripts that have only needed a handful of corrections. I’ve also edited some manuscripts that have needed tough love. In my opinion, sending an editor a few pages or a very short chapter to mark up will paint a much better picture of that editor’s ability.
I want to see that all the spelling, punctuation and grammar errors are caught. I want to see if awkward or misleading phrases are recast or left alone. I want to sprinkle in a continuity error—maybe make someone stand, and then stand again once they’re already standing—to see if that’s caught, as well. I want to get a sense of the editor’s personality: are they going to be too timid to suggest changes, and simply proofread instead? Are they going to try to rewrite too much? Or will they hit that sweet middle ground?
How Writers Hire Editors
It’s important to note that, as a writer, hiring an editor is a very different process. An individual writer won’t be able to administer this sort of test to an editor. I’ve heard of cases where writers have tried to solicit a free “test” chapter each from a handful of editors, to end up with a finished product that’s been edited (or at least proofread) for free. Don’t do this. You will get an inconsistent book, and your name will be mumbled disapprovingly by a lot of annoyed editors who will never work with you again.
As an editor, I’m happy to look at a manuscript, or a sample of a manuscript. A sample is essential for me to provide an evaluation so that I can tell you what level of work the manuscript will need and what sort of rate I’d charge to do that work, but I won’t give free samples of the actual work.
Do ask for an editor’s credits and credentials. Ask if you can contact some of their clients for references. A good editor who has done good work and left happy clients behind them will have nothing to hide.
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