Recently, I joined the ranks of Etopia Press – an up and coming publisher in romance and YA – as an acquisitions editor. I am loving them already, and I really think they are going places.
But here’s the thing, and I have put a warning in a couple of places on my website about it and I think it is worth reiterating here. It is very important to realize that many freelance editors also work with publishing houses. This does not mean that by paying for services from such an editor your work will automatically be accepted by a publisher that the editor is associated with. It won’t. In some cases it won’t even be considered, because of the possible perceived conflict of interest.
No publisher wants people to believe that they can pay to get published, unless they are a vanity publisher. Don’t know what that is? Here’s a good description.
Vanity publishing is okay if you want to publish something you think a small select group of people would be interested in, for instance a family history and you are happy to pay to publish it. There are lots of companies doing this, make sure you do your research and find out exactly how much you are going to need to pay, and what you are going to get from it. Publishing a novel to tell a story and present it to the world for sale as an author is a different thing, and there are different ways to do it, all of which pay you, rather than you paying them. See my post on publishing channels.
So if you want to sell to Etopia Press, query me, don’t hire me. However, if your work needs a professional edit before you feel it will be ready for a publisher to consider, and you want that publisher to be Etopia, please check in with a place like the Editors Association of Canada for another freelance editor. It you want to offer it to someone other than Etopia Press, I’m your gal. Please make sure that any editor you work with is as open regarding this issue.
Nancy
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