I am a Newb. Yes, with a capital “N.” When I started writing in August 2019, I started at zero. Thanks to Meg Latorre and Jenna Moreci, I got the basics on writing from YouTube (BookTube) right some quick.

I am still a Newb, but I have learned a lot. I still watch BookTube videos, but I find them of limited use at this point. Most repeat the basics to catch views from “new” newbs. 

[Tip: Search for Mary Adkins, Book Fox, Write Better Fiction with Shirley Jump, and John at Falstaff Books for further reading and instructional YouTube videos.]

Yet, I still watch enough videos that I know the questions that are repeatedly asked: “Why pay for an editor? Can’t I do it myself? I have an English degree!” The simple answer is “No.”

[It's the summer of 2025, and …] I am at the point of deciding on a professional editor for EXTINCTION SPECIES. I am also tired, and frustrated at how slow the overall progress on my book is. [Hint: It’s about to get slower …]

But you cannot send a query letter (a cover letter) to a literary agent that explains how your novel is not quite finished. How your novel is not quite ready and ask them to fix it: “It’s fantastic; it just needs the grammar, spelling, punctuation, and the ending fixed.” I have heard that such things happened way back when, but now it needs to be a complete, ready-to-go manuscript. 

It is mind-blowing to me that I wrote a novel, and I’m at the point of looking for a professional edit. Even though it has taken years of work to get to this point, it doesn’t seem real. 

Speaking of, back to the point …

But it is real. So, let us start with the basics. Why pay for a professional edit? Writers release work without getting a professional edit, and it shows. All too often. You may get away with that if you're self-publishing. But, you shouldn’t; it will come around and bite you on the ass. I always hesitate before purchasing a self-published book. Thank goodness for Kindel, reading a preview of a book can save not just money, but your sanity. 

I am still a Newb when it comes to writing, even after almost seven years in. You can learn the basics by reading writing books and watching AuthorTube videos. And writing. A lot of writing. You can take online classes, join writing clubs, etc. But there are limits to learning by yourself. 

And most importantly, there are things that only an experienced professional will catch. 

I had sample edits from a half-dozen editors. They ranged in price and depth of the edits. Some—the cheapest and simplest—were easy to dismiss. I am not aiming at a half-assed self-published type mess after all this work. I lost count of how many full self-edits I did, somewhere around twelve … yes, part of the problem, no doubt.

I spent a lot of time reviewing and implementing each sample edit, comment by comment. This gave me real-time experience of what editing my manuscript would be like with their edits. This resulted in multiple edits of the first two or three chapters before I could proceed with my final (hah!) self-edit of the remaining manuscript.

After narrowing it down to two editors, and agonizing over the final decision, I realized something. It just popped into my head one day. The sample edit that was the most annoying and difficult to implement—was the one that resulted in the most improvement to my manuscript. So, after all that, the decision in the end was simple.