A Question About Freelance Editors

[Synicism]

I'm hoping I can get some publishers and some editors to field this one.

What is the demand like for an editor's services in the d20 market? Are there any publishers out there who contract out their line editing and rules editing to freelancers?

Editors - what's your take on this? Is there much to do from a independent contractor's perspective? Or have you found that most publishers keep things in house?

Thanks much,

 

[Frilf]

All of our stuff is edited in-house. However, I do believe there is a substantial, growing niche in publisherland for *GOOD* freelance editors for both English language usage and d20 rules. In many products I have seen, companies would have been well-advised to get a decent editor. It just makes a publisher more professional and saves a lot of time typing up unnecessary errata pages

Just my .02, though I believe Monte Cook, Clark Peterson, and many other top d20 publishers would agree with me on the value of a good editor. They can make all the difference in the world!

Cheers!
Ian

 

[Steve Conan Trustrum]

I've worked with a few people who edit for many companies (and actually managed to act like an ass to them, but hopefully that's been rectified ), and I've seen them do editing in the d20 community as well as in other systems. The one that comes to mind immediately is Spike Y Jones; he's editing some of the stuff I'm writing through a contact with another person I met while she was editing some of my stuff. I've been seeing Spike's name on things since 4E Champions.

Hell, I've even managed to wrangle some editing work by emailing some publishers and saying things like "love the book, too bad about the editing" because the editing was, quite frankly, so bad that it very nearly made me decide not to buy anything more from that company.

So, yes, there are still places for the indy editor, if you can find them and manage to make some contacts along the way (not to mention show yourself to be competent enough to make it as an indy).

 

[Jim Butler]

Editing is one of those things that I prefer to be handled by an in-house editor who is familiar with the house style, has a firm grasp on the rules, and a strong grasp on the English language. It's also one of those elements that frequently gets overlooked when people put things together.

We use a combination of in-house editing (Steven Schend) coupled with a review of the editor (by myself and the rest of my design team). It's more of a symbiotic relationship.

You can read more about our views of the editor's role in teh creative process in the Editors' Guidelines at our website. You can find them in the Company section.