Greetings and welcome to another edition of Editor AMA! I asked my followers on Instagram if they had any questions for me about writing, editing, or publishing. Without further ado, let's explore the queries that have sparked your interest.
(Jump to a question by clicking the links below.)
Should fantasy be believable?
Yes! And I don't mean that fantasy should be realistic. That's not the same thing, because some things about fantasy—such as dragons and shifters and magic—simply aren't real. Not in our world, anyway.
No, fantasy should be believable in that readers should be able to suspend their disbelief. This means that readers are willing to abandon their understanding of the real world in favour of accepting and engaging with the reality of your made-up world. Your world should be designed in such a way that things like magic, or dragons, or whatever your story is about are plausible according to the reality in which they exist. This means being consistent and logical with your own rules. Not doing so creates plot holes and damages immersion.
To read more about writing believable fiction, check out my blog post all about it.
If I didn't like an ARC, should I review it?
The answer to this is completely up to you. Do you want to review it?
You actually aren't obligated to review any book that you read, whether or not its an ARC. Me saying that might ruffle some feathers, but the reality is that it is against the terms of service on most platforms to offer products, money, or services in exchange for positive reviews.
Therefore, an author can't demand five-star reviews, can't request that you don't review if you didn't like the book, and can't ask you to delay reviewing if your rating is below a certain threshold. Any author caught doing so may be considered to be artificially inflating their rating, and that can result in penalties from the platform they're listed on.
If you're worried about your low rating harming the book's success or hurting the author's feelings, it's kind of you to be concerned, but don't fret. As long as you phrase your review kindly, negative reviews are just as helpful as positive ones to an author's success. They provide legitimacy to the positive reviews and allow potential readers to get the full picture. Besides, something you disliked might be someone else's bread and butter!
What qualifications do I need to be a beta reader?
None! Authors work with beta readers to gain a market's perspective on their product, not a professional's. They want to ensure that the story is understandable, that the plot makes sense, that the book isn't boring... Things like that! You don't have to know anything about story structure, or world-building, or characterisation to be a good beta reader.
If you say, "I kept getting those two characters mixed up," that tells the author that those characters could be more distinctive; it's up to them to figure out how to achieve that. Or if you say, "I wanted to skip this part," the author knows their engagement is suffering and can work on things like their pacing and tension. Or maybe you end the book and think, "What? That's it?!" That tells the author their ending was probably an anticlimax and could do with reworking.
As long as you are interested in the book, your opinion will be valuable.
Why is professional editing so expensive?
Editing is one of the most expensive parts of the publishing process, if not the most expensive part. I have an entire blog post about this subject, which you can find here. But there are two ways that we can look at this: from a wage perspective and from a "professional" perspective.
From a wage perspective, let's use the EFA's 2024 editorial rates as a guide. Copyediting an 80,000 word manuscript at 3000 words per hour would take around 27 hours. At the UK's minimum wage, that would be £308.88 ($401.23). Line editing a manuscript of the same length at 1600 words per hour would take 50 hours: £572 ($743).
But those figures are the bare minimum, which brings me to the "professional" perspective. Editors are professionals. Those figures above don't take into account the editor's expertise, their years of education and experience, the extras you might recieve on top of your edit (such as style sheets or casual advice), or even the costs of running their business.
Some editors, like myself, try to keep our rates as accessible as possible to indie authors, but if you simply can't afford an editor, that's okay. Working with several rounds of beta readers, critique partners, and even apps like ProWritingAid will help you a long way.
What should I do if I can't afford a cover designer?
Not to worry! If you can't afford to commission a custom cover for your book, you have a few options:
Search for a Designer Within Your Budget: Like editors, cover designers charge a range of prices for their services. Those of us who have been in the game for longer and have award-winning covers to show for it will usually charge more. Newer designers or those with smaller portfolios might be more within your budget. You can find plenty of designers in Facebook groups such as...
Look for Premade Covers: Premade covers work in a pinch when you're looking for a quality book cover on a budget—or in a rush! They cost less than custom covers because they're usually less specific in their details so that they can apply to the story of any author who decides to give them a home. This also means they're designed to be marketable, as artists stay on top of trends for this type of cover. Use any of the links to Facebook groups above to browse artists and their available premades!
Create One Yourself: Many authors are choosing to go down this route at the moment. Apps like Canva are making the cover design process a lot more accessible. You could also try Photopea—an online dupe of Photoshop. It might take a few hours of fiddling, but you could still come away with something you're proud of.
Whatever you choose, remember that your book cover doesn't have to be permanent. Further down the line, you might choose to re-cover your books for special editions, to take advantage of a trend, to upgrade, or even just because you feel like it.
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