All writers need another set of eyes. If you haven’t figured out how to grow them, you’d better consider hiring an editor for your marvelous manuscript before considering publishing.
Sure, if you’re going with a traditional publisher, they will have their editorial team go through your book. But they expect your manuscript to be clean and accurate through and through before they will even consider it for publication. Always hire a good book editor before submitting your manuscript to any publisher or publishing service.
You’ve probably already found out that most pay-to-publish companies will edit your manuscript for an additional fee. But I have to tell you that from what I hear and observe, these editors do little more than run your manuscript through spell-check. I would not trust them with my manuscript.
Hire your own editor—someone who is accustomed to editing book manuscripts. Preferably hire someone who is also familiar with your topic/genre and the whole publishing field. You’ll get a whole lot more for your buck.
It’s not cheap to engage the services of a good editor. An editor will charge anywhere from $500 to $5,000 (or more) to edit a manuscript of 30,000 to 150,000-words depending on the shape of it. I suggest getting an estimate and a sample edit from several editors. Asking for references is always a good idea.
Hiring a good editor is so important that I recommend authors start saving up money before they start writing the book so they’re prepared when the time comes to shop for a good editor.