Self-Editing vs. Working With a Pro Pros and Cons, no bullshit
Editing is one of the most expensive—and most debated—parts of the self-publishing journey. Do you hire a developmental editor? A copy editor? Can you do it yourself? At Hawthorn & Aster, we're not here to shame your budget or push you toward services you can't afford. We're here to give you the honest breakdown so you can make the best decision for your book, your wallet, and your sanity.
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Whether you're a debut author or a seasoned hand, you've likely already gone deep down the editing rabbit hole: who do you hire? How do you afford it? Is there a way you can do it yourself?
We're here to answer all your burning questions in our usual no-nonsense fashion.
First, let's talk about the elephant in the room.
Editors are Expensive
As an indie author, this is the biggest hang-up. Self-publishing is not cheap, and it seems like the prices are climbing daily.
It makes sense that you'd want to cut corners in any way you can. And after staring at your author spend spreadsheet and your bank account, the added cost can seem... well, unnecessary.
You wrote a book—surely you can edit it?
Self-Editing Has Its Own Hidden Costs
Now, I don't want to assume, but I'm sure a lot of you don't have degrees in English (or your primary language). I also don't want to assume, but I'm 99.999% sure you've been staring at your manuscript so long your eyes are starting to skip whole paragraphs.
The Key to Exceptional Editing
Impartiality
Market awareness
A firm grasp of language (not just grammar, but syntax, flow, rhythm, storytelling—craft)
And experience
So, Let's Say You Go The Self-Editing Route
There are a few things to keep in mind:
Don't dive into your manuscript fresh after you finish writing
Remember that editing takes multiple revisions—and requires focusing on different craft elements with each pass
You're going to want to familiarize yourself with the Chicago Manual of Style
You'll still want someone else's eyes on your manuscript before you hit publish
Diving into your manuscript too soon after you finish writing can be disastrous
We've all been there. We've been staring at our own words for what feels like days on end, and eventually everything starts to look like mud. Editing requires an impartial, rested eye. How else are you supposed to catch your mistakes? Not just grammatical ones, but plot holes and structural inconsistencies? Give yourself a few days between rounds. At least.
Some of the more successful self-edits we've seen have come from authors who take weeks—if not months—off after finishing their book before coming back to the editing stage.
This isn't for everyone, of course. But taking that hard step back to return with a fresh mind will work wonders.
Being patient with your editing will take you a long way—this isn't a one-stop shop
If a super polished manuscript was possible with only one round of editing, we wouldn't have specialist editors.
Manuscripts require specific attention at specific times. If you're going to self-edit, here's how we'd recommend going about it:
First pass: your developmental pass. Focus on your story only. Do your character motivations make sense? How clear is your timeline? Are all of your plots and subplots airtight? Have you threaded your breadcrumbs cleanly enough?
Second pass: implementing your developmental notes. No editing, just revising.
Third pass: We would recommend doing another developmental pass, honestly. But I know some of you are likely impatient, so let's call this your line editing pass. Focus specifically on your prose. Polish your sentence structure until it shines.
Pro-tip: If you can, read your book aloud. This helps pick out odd phrasing and run-ons!
Fourth pass: At this stage, if you're considering beta readers, now's the time. Your manuscript is hopefully airtight and polished enough that it's ready to see the light of day. Beta readers will give you real-time reader reactions so you know what areas shine and what areas could use some work.
After receiving feedback from your beta reader(s), now's the time to implement those changes.
Fifth pass: Light line-level edit, focusing on final copy editing. This is where you put on the final touches. Make sure your quotation marks are all facing the same way, and that you're using em dashes and semicolons correctly. Look for lingering typos or oddly phrased sentences.
Sixth pass: Proofreading. This is when you sit down and read your book as if you are a reader. Ideally, read it aloud to yourself.
Believe it or not, this is the bare minimum we'd recommend for self-editing authors.
Yes, it's a lot of work. A lot of time. A lot of cups of coffee and pit stops with the Chicago Manual of Style and Google (when you inevitably forget how language works at 3AM).
Now That You Have The Recipe, Let's Talk About The Limitations
The first and most obvious limitation: you're not an editor. You're learning a skill in a trial-by-fire situation. That's stressful. Especially since, after all of that, your manuscript will never be perfect—no manuscript ever will be.
Next, and quite possibly most importantly: sweat equity. People tend to undervalue their time—how precious it is and how much it realistically costs. Multiple rounds like this while juggling work, family life, and a social life can be exhausting (and all-consuming).
The Pros:
You save money.
You can recite your manuscript from cover to cover in your sleep.
You now have a caffeine addiction.
Now that we've laid out the realities of self-editing, let's dive into the pros and cons of working with an editor.
Working With a Pro: The Ups and Downs
With those several rounds of revisions fresh in our minds, let's take a brief pit stop to discuss what different kinds of editing there are and what is necessary (and in what situations).
Developmental (Big Picture) Editing: Assesses the manuscript from a storytelling perspective—characterization, motivations, plot, structure, pacing, etc. This is the editorial equivalent of handing your manuscript over to your gentle but very straightforward sibling who will say, "yeah, this part sucks, but you're onto something with the volcano scene."
Required For: Fantasy/Romantasy, world/lore-heavy stories (paranormal, horror, dystopian), stories with complex twists (mysteries, thrillers)
Optional For: Contemporary Romance, straightforward stories with minimal world/lore or plot twists
Not In The Budget?: Consider the following: a manuscript evaluation critique service (light developmental feedback at a cheaper rate), or a comprehensive beta read from a reader who is proficient in your market.
Line (Line-by-Line) Editing: Focuses on the craft and the line-by-line readability of your story. This is the editorial equivalent of subtle lip filler ("my lips, but better" translates to "my words, but better.")
Required For: Everyone—you cannot change my mind. But more realistically, debut or newer authors benefit most from a comprehensive line edit.
Optional For: Authors who've already worked extensively on establishing a voice and have a strong grasp of cadence and structure.
Copy Editing: The clean-up crew of editing. Copy editors comb through your manuscript and sniff out grammatical errors, wonky sentences, and wrong-facing quotation marks like truffle pigs. Their sole job is to make sure your manuscript is Chicago Manual of Style compliant and ready for print.
Required For: Everyone. Again, you cannot change my mind. You may sway me momentarily if you have a criminally good proofreader.
Not In Your Budget?: Consider enlisting an editor who also offers proofreading as one of their services. They are typically more expensive than a standalone proofreader, but their proofreading tends to land somewhere between copy editing and proofreading.
Proofreading: The polishing pass. Proofreaders will comb through the manuscript one last time to make sure any lingering errors are tossed into the incinerator. Optional, but always strongly encouraged.
There are many, many more kinds of editing, but for all intents and purposes, these are the big four.
The Benefits of Working With An Editor
Beyond the obvious fact that it's work you don't have to do yourself, you're also receiving a quality product from a professional who knows not only the craft, but the market.
Most editors provide additional documentation along with their suggested edits, often called "love letters," where they tell you about your story's strengths and weaknesses—and more than that, your strengths and weaknesses as a writer. It's an investment in not only the book you're currently working on, but any future writing endeavors. You're paying for skill and knowledge, and depending on how you implement it, you may become skilled enough that, as your career grows, you can skip some editing steps over time (with much practice, of course).
The Real Drawback? Cost.
According to Editor World, here's how the costs break down:
Developmental editing: $0.08 to $0.15 per word.
Line editing: $0.04 to $0.08 per word.
Copy editing: $0.02 to $0.05 per word.
Proofreading: $0.01 to $0.03 per word.
These prices are admittedly on the higher end, which makes working with agencies unattainable for most authors.
Indie service providers' prices tend to fall well below these. And, of course, there will be editors who fall somewhere in between.
Take our prices, for example (which sit squarely in the middle of indie editor prices across the board):
Developmental Editing: $0.02 – $0.025 per word
Line Editing: $0.02 per word
Copy Editing: $0.01 per word
Proofreading: $0.004 – $0.006 per word
And even still, depending on the length of your manuscript, these prices can stack up quickly.
As Much As We Always Encourage Authors to Pinch Their Pennies
We have to be fully transparent—editing is one of those services where if it seems "too good to be true," it likely is.
There is a difference between affordable and criminally low. Let us explain:
Lower prices can signal a few things: inexperience (editors who are looking to break into the market), deliberate undercutting (undervaluing other professionals in the space, deliberately or not, to earn more clientele), or, more nefariously, editors who aren't putting much sweat equity into their service—meaning they're cutting corners using AI tools, or, in the worst case scenario, feeding your entire manuscript through AI to polish it for them.
We always encourage our authors to exercise caution when looking into any service provider. And while we plan to write more extensively about how to find the right editor for you at a later date, here's a quick checklist to make sure your work (and your dollar) are being kept safe.
Ask your editor for the following:
Their experience: How many published titles have they worked on, and in what genres? Are they comparable to yours? If they work in an entirely different genre, they may not be the right fit. If they won't provide substantive proof of who they've worked with—and aren't transparent about just starting out—that's a sign they may not be right for you.
Their pricing model: How much do they charge, and how is it calculated? What does the service include?
Their feedback style: Some editors are very dry, and some have a lot of personality. It's better to know upfront if you "vibe" with them—editing is one of the most vulnerable stages in the publishing process. You should always feel like you're in safe hands.
A sample edit with track changes enabled: If you see blocks of text changed all at once (as if they've been copy and pasted), it was likely fed to AI.
Both Directions Are Entirely Valid
Whether you decide to self-edit or work with a professional is entirely up to you: your bandwidth, your skillset, and your bank account.
As we've discussed before, indie authors are being priced out of the market, and we're deeply aware of how the costs of self-publishing add up.
In an ideal world, would we love to see you work with a professional? Yes. We're not going to hide it—for your mental health, for the integrity of your book, for your reader's experience.
That said, editing is the most expensive part of the process and it is simply not affordable for everyone. Our job is to be transparent and to provide helpful tips and tricks along the way.
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