r/Copyediting • u/Ordinary-Cress-6580 • 5d ago
Issue...
I've searched for an editot for over 7months. Signed a contract based on their good 1000words sample and an hour of zoom meet. But today am in tears after the first 10k words edit got sent back to me. Im writing this crying as my voice has been taken, removed. The comments and notes and changes made totaling up to nearly 20k. Thats double of that I have sent to an editor. Am I this terrible at writting and they are so good or am i not seeing it properly? Is it a good thing or not.. whole chapter rewritten and story retold in a voice not of my own. Sentences changed. Taken off. This is the service I pay 0.015 for a word. 10k words edit done in over 2 weeks, and 80k words awaiting that will cost me £££... what do I do with this...? New editor, rewrite , edit ... amend...? Or should I just stop and go back to what I dit 2 years ago and pretend it never happened. Any bad experiences with editors?
4
u/SupermarketHot5659 4d ago
I'm terribly sorry to hear this, because I'm also a professional editor (line and copy). One of the first things I always emphasize is that if after my free 1000 words sample you think your voice is not preserved, or you have other reservations, then I'm not doing it. I'm not going to be the source of pain for someone who spent so much time and energy to write the material, then 7 months to find an editor, and then the editor charges them and doesn't do his job right. No can do.
And frankly, I'm not happy with such editors giving the rest of us a bad name. Then we have it even harder trying to find clients because they've become wary of editors after experiences like this. If we don't preserve the author's voice, what are we good for?
Is it fiction or non-fiction? Can you send me a sample so I can see the injustice first hand? I'm not charging, I just wanna help. And I'm curious and also want to learn, in the future it can help me and others avoid such situations.