Hiring an editor to check your written work is a sound investment, especially if you are looking to build credibility for your writing, whether it be a blog post, book or other written content. You need someone who has the knack for spotting errors and inconsistencies in your writing, so you will not encounter any challenges when your work is published. If your published work has a lot of glaring errors, then you are likely to lose your target readers. As a result, all your effort and investment leading up to publishing your work will be in vain. Therefore, the importance of editorial services offered by an editing company can never be underestimated.

When searching for the right editing services to improve your written work, consider the following qualities to ensure you pick the best editor to help you create a more polished, professional and error-free masterpiece.

1. Experience – How much experience does the editor have in terms of writing, editing, and proofreading? Find out if a certain editor has enough experience in the genre you are writing about. Research previous jobs or projects he or she has been involved with. If your work is a science fiction, then consider someone with more than two years of experience in writing, editing, and proofreading stories of the same genre. Ask for samples of his/her work, including the original and edited works.

2. Credentials – Check the editor’s qualifications. Take note of the trainings and courses the editor has attended—these will show you how much effort the editor has put into improving editing skills.

3. Types of services offered to clients – An editing company may be the one of the best in the industry, but its services may not suit your needs. Look for an editorial service provider that offers exactly you need for your project. The following are the most common services offered by different editing companies and freelance editors:

• Proofreading – This involves checking written material for typographical and grammatical errors. You can choose to have all your errors automatically corrected or have them simply listed or highlighted so that you make your own changes.

• Publishing assistance – The main goal of this service is to get your work published. An editing company or freelance editor can help you by giving suggestions, making a proposal for your book, finding a publishing agent, and looking for the best publisher.

• Ghostwriting – Of all the services, this involves the most work, and of course, money. If you are not confident yet about your writing ability or have no time to write a novel, you can pitch your story idea or outline. Hiring a ghost writer to do the entire writing job for you gives you sole credit for the writing.

4. How long the revisions or corrections will take – Of course, you want an editorial service provider that can complete the job within a reasonable time period to help you meet your own editorial goals and deadlines.  This way you can also stay on budget.

5. Cost of the editorial services – Are the services reasonably priced? Determine how much is charged for everything before you choose an editor for your manuscript. Compare costs.  Make sure you are comparing apples to apples.

6. Ask questions, lots of questions.  The more complex the project, the more detail you need outlined.  If you have a single writing project, such as an article, you may not need as much information as you would for a small report, whitepaper or ebook.

Consider all these steps when searching for the right editor for your project.  Different editors offer different options and skillsets. Make sure you are getting the type of expertise needed to reach your writing project goals.