I've finally finished the 100,000 word fiction manuscript. It took 13 years but it's done. Whilst reading, editing, reading, editing time and time again, persistently, I tweaked and found stupid mistakes but I'm confident it is now ready for an editorial service to review. However, I find the cost prohibitive. I appreciate the size of the manuscript and the time it would take to give the manuscript the review I need, and it, deserves before submitting to a literary agent or publisher. Being on a fixed, pension, income means every quid matters. Even the lowest quotation is too high. Has anyone faced the same situation and financial restrictions? What did you do? what were the results?
Hi Ian,
I am currently a freelance editor working at a discount for the Summer. I don't like to be cheeky and promote my website on here since I'm sure that's not allowed. I've requested to connect with you so that if you'd like to see my website and testimonials from fellow authors, you can.
No obligations of course, but I know that editing can be extortionate!
I hope you find something that works for you either way :)
Good luck
You could contact The Literary Consultancy. They access grants for the
ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND FREE READS SCHEME
I was awarded a free read in 2017 which helped me no end in editing and producing my self-published memoir book, "Is it about that boy? The Shocking Trauma of Aversion Therapy.
This is not an editing, but if you have made mistakes your reader will find them.
https://literaryconsultancy.co.uk/editorial/ace-free-reads-scheme/
Something else you can try is to find if you have a local Writer's Group that you can attend. I did this and took my book 2 chapters at a time and the group members read through them and edited it for me as they went through the whole book.
I've self-edited two for that reason.
First was a self-pub, after a number of rejections. I'm lucky in that I've always been reasonably good with grammar and construction but it was a worry, although few reviewers criticised those particular things.
The second was published by a small publisher. By now I was pretty confident I had a reasonable idea of what I was doing though they did make suggestions for changes, some of which I amended, but others I argued against and retained.
The second book was far better than the first in all sorts of ways, but I expected that. For both, I had two Beta readers - the wife (sternest critic, who's not afraid to point out the tiniest discrepancy) and a friend who knows the historical period I write. I'd recommend you find someone who wants to read it, if you can, before submitting to an agent.
Every published writer I've spoken to insists you need an independent editor. They're probably right, but if your MS has been beta-read without issue, I'd submit anyway. If the story is good enough I don't believe a lack of professional editing would stand in its way. And if you end up self-publishing, you can always go back and re-edit if you think you need to.
Best of luck!