Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A Should one invest in a professional editor before querying?

Let's say you have completed a novel. Since you're not totally naive, you have also complete a few drafts, where with "few" I mean at least more than two. You are at a point that your book seems ...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4mo ago by Mithical‭

#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-13T11:56:53Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/47770
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T12:52:53Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/47770
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T12:52:53Z (almost 5 years ago)
Let's say you have completed a novel. Since you're not totally naive, you have also complete a few drafts, where with "few" I mean at least more than two.

You are at a point that your book **seems** good; while it could certainly be better, you - the author - need some external input on how to fix the last, hopefully few, issues left. Let's imagine that doing another draft by yourself is not feasible at the moment just for the sake of the question.

## Do you call in a professional editor or you start querying to publishers?

I understand that this might seem like a no-brainer. If you book isn't the best it could be, you should (ideally) query. Yet, in my limited understanding, major publishers are supposed to give you at least some kind of editing service.

**Related:** [At what point does an author deal with an editor?](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/959/at-what-point-does-an-author-deal-with-an-editor?rq=1)

**Edit** : I've just noticed a very similar question from 8 years ago. I'm adding it as related. My question seems slightly different, but I may be wrong; please see if it's a duplicate.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-09-02T13:48:55Z (about 5 years ago)
Original score: 6