I Think I'm Getting Ready to Do Something Dumb (and Expensive)

[Rhondazvous]

I’m a member of the Alliance of Independent Authors. I contacted a supposed to be professional editor that they listed as a partner. Her website looked good. She uses the editing manual that’s a standard in the publishing industry (Chicago Manual of Style) and unlike any of the other editors that I’ve researched, she has a master’s in English.

Everything was looking good until she did two little things that are giving me pause.

1. She charges on a scale depending on how bad my manuscript is. I sent her the first 700 words of my manuscript. First, she recommended a deluxe service that I know I don’t need. When I asked (for the second time) about the basic service she gave me a quote near the top of the scale as if my manuscript is in really bad shape. I know this isn’t rue. I have a masters in English as well and I have been through my manuscript carefully. I’m just hiring an editor because it’s impossible to proof read your own work. And please don’t suggest I read 78 + thousand words backwards. I’ve tried it. It’s not going to happen.
2. In her second email to me she accidentally wrote like like when she meant to say look like.

I have serious doubts about paying this woman several hundred dollars. But I don’t know what else to do. She’s the best match among the partners listed by the alliance. Editing fiction is different from editing articles or essays. For instance, in the Chicago Manual of Style an ellipsis has spaces between the dots . . . While in the MLA (a style manual for academic work) there are no spaces… Word’s spell check won’t find typos that result in real words. Like when I left the l out of the word public.