How to get your book edited on Freelancer.com

Books are a vast source of knowledge and information. In today's digital world, blogs, websites, videos, etc. have become alternatives to books. So, it has become essential for books to be of high standards to face the competitive alternatives. Also, the number of authors and books has grown umpteen times in the past decade. This raises a concern for authors on what needs to be done to get their book to stand out among the multitude of similar books.

Writing a book is a Herculean task. So, if you have completed writing a book, pat yourself. Whether you are a novice or an expert in writing books, it is valuable to get your book proofread and edited, before you publish your work as an eBook or a printed book. 

A professional editor improves your work and makes your book a high-quality product ready for publishing. Though it may appear to be a simple task of spelling check and grammar check, there is much more to editing. 

The automated spell check tools and grammar check tools have their own limitations. For example, spell check tools would not identify if the word "reversed" is misspelt as "reserved". As an another example, a grammar check tool would not identify if  "Hang him not! Spare him." is mentioned as "Hang him! Not spare him.", which looks very similar but is opposite in meaning.

Apart from the above, an editor is responsible to check if the flow of the content fits in the overall context. 

Oversight is a common problem while reading a book you have written. It’s not easy to review your own writing without prejudice, especially when you’ve been working on it for a long duration. Also, having a second pair of eyes to review your work is prudent to avoid any possible misinterpretation by the readers. It ensures that reading between the lines doesn't imply any unintended meaning. Moreover, there are a number of commonly confused words which could creep in irrespective of your expertise. An editor would help you correct any such mistake in your book.

It's not every day that you complete writing a book and need a full-time long-term editor to polish your work. So, a freelance editor would be a great choice to edit your book. There are a number of editors available on Freelancer.com to improvise your book without burning a hole in your pocket.

Firstly, you would need to finalize the type of editor you need. If you need just a spell check, grammar check, punctuation check and proper indentation, then a proofreader would be enough. This is the best choice for editing small documents like a resume.

If you are in the initial stages of writing a book and in a dilemma whether your book is going in the right direction, you can hire a beta reader. The feedback from a beta reader can be extremely helpful to see if your book would be interesting to the audience or not. It gives you a chance to change your style of writing and incorporate the feedback from the beta reader.

Developmental editors would come to your aid if you are stuck in developing the plot for a novel. They can guide you in taking your story forward.

The aforementioned editors would be needed optionally if you are not confident or stuck in bringing your book to completion. On the contrary, a content editor can help you improve your book after you have completed writing it. Content editors verify all the aspects of writing. With novels, they read the story and make necessary changes to the characters, plot, flow of story, etc. 

So, if you’re looking for extensive editing, a content editor is a great option. They will look at everything in your work. This will ensure that the content is engaging and of high-quality. 

After you have created a Freelancer.com account, there are two ways to identify a editor for your website. Firstly, you can post a project. Secondly, you can start a contest. The difference between the two is clearly stated here.

To hire an editor, posting a project is the better choice. You would get bids from various freelancers. So, you can select the best one to suit your needs.

It is an excellent approach, wherein you detail your requirements, your range of budget, and then choose the best freelancer.

To follow this approach, here are some important points to ponder.

Hello Freelancers! Good day! I am an author based in California, U.S.A. I have completed writing my second novel "The enemy-turned-friend". Though I am confident that the novel is free from any grammatical mistakes, I would like an editor to suggest any improvements to the novel and make it more engaging to the audience.

You may get many bids as soon as you post your project. So, here are some effective steps to identify the best-suited editor for your book.

1. Read each bid carefully first. You can question yourself - "Has the freelancer understood the project?". Secondly, you can think - "Does the bid look like a standard template copied over?"

2. The next factors to consider are the budget and the time requested to complete the project. 

3. Next, see how relevant the profiles of the initially shortlisted freelancers are.

4. If there is still a dilemma on the apt editor for your website, consider the reviews, certifications, and portfolio of the freelancer. 

After you award the project to the selected freelancer and create Milestone Payments, you can request the freelancer to regularly upload files to show the progress of the project. You can review it to ensure that the editing is of high quality and meaningful. You can release the milestone payments as agreed with the freelancer. This will ensure a pleasant and professional work experience.

When you release a full payment or an amount exceeding the original project budget, the project will be marked as complete. Finally, you can rate the freelancer and give feedback.

In this way, you can get your book edited following the project approach. Next, here are the steps if you pursue the contest approach.

Contests help you judge the quality of the editor by looking at the sample work. You could start a contest to identify the best editor based on a chapter of your book. Then, you can hire the winner directly and get your entire book edited using the project approach.

To pursue this approach, here are the important points to ponder.

1. Choose a meaningful name for the contest. Here is an example. 

2. Secondly, give a clear explanation of your expectations. 

Here is a sample contest template you can build upon.

Hello Freelancers! Good day! I am an author based in California, U.S.A. I have completed writing my second novel "The enemy-turned-friend". Though I am confident that the novel is free from any grammatical mistakes, I would like an editor to suggest any improvements to the novel and make it more engaging to the audience.

As part of this contest, we expect you to edit only the first 3 pages of my book.

The winner will get an opportunity to work on the project of editing the entire book.  

The steps to start a contest are similar to that of the project. However, for the above step, you need to choose the Start a contest option.

You can check the contest entries and rate them. Also, answer any questions of the freelancers on the public clarification board. After the contest deadline is over, choose one freelancer as the winner of the contest. Finally, you can choose the same or another freelancer to work on your entire project.

If there are any questions, Freelancer.com, one of the most trusted freelancing marketplace, offers customer-friendly support.