u/Ordinary-Cress-6580

I had hired an editor on the bundle editing service and in 7 weeks had 20k words edited, two batches of 10k. There were issues with the editing of the first 10k that had upset me, my voice was changed and edit made no sense but by the time I received thr edit I had sent the next 10k already. Between the first 10k edit until the second was nearly 4 weeks gap and from the edit of the second batch it was very clear that editor forgot the contents and story of the 1st 10k. I missed the comma and they edited the whole lot proposing nonsense. One of the main characters was a woman , whom has a clear woman's name yet they edit for my missed comma made her into a man. My original listed people in the found photograph: Women's name (lets say Lisa) a boy and a baby by the house. Edited read Lisa was a boy and stood holding a baby by the house. There were lots and lots more of edits that were useless... I had made a decision that i wont be using this editor again and hadnt sent any more for editing as firstly they take absolute forever and secondly their edits "suck" but i hadnt yet discussed it with either the head of the company or dedicated editor for mh book, I am due to pay the invoice for that second 10k editing but I dont feel its right as I will be scrapping all of their edits all together. How would it be best to approach this? Tell them in the email, list everything that gone wrong, email the editor or better just go straight to the owner of the editing company and tell them the editor they put on the project is useless and that am not going to pay for it. Or pay it and just forget and start over. I do not want them to give me another editor as I feel they model of work is such that it would take them months to edit full novel. And I have lost enough time already.

I have signed a contract for a package of editing with line, proofreading and formatting etc

Have had video call discussed everything and when was told to send manuscript in parts not full. The editing plan schedule was agreed with editor as 2weeks for 10k words editing as they busy, for 2 parts and when the rest 15k per week. The first 10k were returned edited after 3 weeks and was told its because it takes longer for the beginning, whe next 10k words not returned edited for nearly 4 weeks.

The 80k manuscript at such speed seems like would take 18weeks at least. Is this normal?

To me seems crazy and not that I had expected so I am starting to wonder it'll should scrap and start looking for a different editor although I liked their sample.

Thoughts and experiences?

Thanks!

I've written a psychological thriller

It took me almost two years. I've searched for an editot for over 7months. Signed a contract based on their good 1000words sample and an hour of zoom meet. But today am in tears after the first 10k words edit got sent back to me. Im writing this crying as my voice has been taken, removed. The notes and changes made totaling up to nearly 20k. Thats double of that I have sent to an editor. Am I this terrible at writting and they are so good or am i not seeing it properly?  Is it a good thing or not.. whole chapter rewritten and story retold in a voice not of my own. Sentences changed. Taken off. This is the service I pay 0.015 for a word. 10k words edit done in over 2 weeks, and 80k words awaiting that will cost me £££... what do I do with this...? New editor, rewrite , edit ... amend...? Or should I just stop and go back to what I dit 2years ago and pretend it never happened.

I've written a psychological thriller

It took me almost two years. I've searched for an editot for over 7months. Signed a contract based on their good 1000words sample and an hour of zoom meet. But today am in tears after the first 10k words edit got sent back to me. Im writing this crying as my voice has been taken, removed. The comments and notes and changes made totaling up to nearly 20k. Thats double of that I have sent to an editor. Am I this terrible at writting and they are so good or am i not seeing it properly?  Is it a good thing or not.. whole chapter rewritten and story retold in a voice not of my own. Sentences changed. Taken off. This is the service I pay 0.015 for a word. 10k words edit done in over 2 weeks, and 80k words awaiting that will cost me £££... what do I do with this...? New editor, rewrite , edit ... amend...? Or should I just stop and go back to what I dit 3 years ago and pretend it never happened.

I've searched for an editot for over 7months. Signed a contract based on their good 1000words sample and an hour of zoom meet. But today am in tears after the first 10k words edit got sent back to me. Im writing this crying as my voice has been taken, removed. The comments and notes and changes made totaling up to nearly 20k. Thats double of that I have sent to an editor. Am I this terrible at writting and they are so good or am i not seeing it properly? Is it a good thing or not.. whole chapter rewritten and story retold in a voice not of my own. Sentences changed. Taken off. This is the service I pay 0.015 for a word. 10k words edit done in over 2 weeks, and 80k words awaiting that will cost me £££... what do I do with this...? New editor, rewrite , edit ... amend...? Or should I just stop and go back to what I dit 2 years ago and pretend it never happened. Any bad experiences with editors?

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Looking for advise of those who did find an agent or got their novels to traditional publishing or tried and gobe self publishing. How did you do it, why and it tp how long it took you? Additionally, when did you start querying? Or at what point decided after trying to get into to do it yourself?

I have registered on reedsy months ago as that seems to be the main site or am I wrong?

My manuscript is at draft 7/8 and is currentlt being polished by editor in batches. Then the final amends, proofreading and formatting. A rough schedule exists for completion. I have had 15 beta readers and have ARC readers list for when its ready, but am not yet decided how and that I will do. Once its ready... I have an illustrator who'd do thr cover if I decided I need it but up to now I really kept it quiet and havent spoken about mh book apart from when looked at getting Beta readers in place. Should I be doing something? Authors website will be done, have fb and Instagram, threads too for pen name. While looking for beta readers went from 0 to 900 followers on Instagram but authors fb sits at 45 followers.

I am just wondering if i should start querying? Setting everything for querying? I have been looking at agents anf publishers and restarted with that they need and their querying processes.

Keep seeing self promos , posts with some bits of novels, chapters even, cover reveals etc. And from reading appears if I'm looking to try traditional publishing route I should keep quiet and not talk about my novel?

I thought of doing a few posts for awareness and grow audience but as its a debut I am still learning the ways people do it. Had followed a couple of authors from start to now 20k+ and 40k followers in their journey of writting and havingbecome published.. aftwr months and months of querying they ended going to self publishing as querying 80 or over 100 still had all standard rejections. Luckily they had their audience already by that point and seemed to have still been able to get their books to the right audience. Some querying rejection letters said they needed debut authors to have presence already in social media, maybe thats something that publishing houses and agents expect? Should I be doing something else rather than editing and working with my manuscript already? Using Canva for post creations or something else? I am definitely not the one to do some videos or reels talking and promoting, and i hardly share or post in fb or Instagram from my personal life so doing some marketing or getting the word out myself would be a challenge.

How did you do , that did you do? Success and not so much of stories and any tips or comments really welcomed.

Looking for advise of those who did find an agent or got their novels to traditional publishing. How did you find them and how long it took you? Additionally, when did you start querying?

I have registered on reedsy months ago as that seems to be the main site or am I wrong?

My manuscript is at draft 7/8 and is currentlt being polished by editor in batches. Then the final amends, proofreading and formatting. A rough schedule exists for completion. I have had 15 beta readers and have ARC readers list.l too for when its ready.

I am just wondering if i should start querying? Setting everything for querying? I have been looking at agents anf publishers and restarted with that they need and their querying processes.

Keep seeing self promos , posts with some bits of novels, chapters even, cover reveals etc. And from reading appears if I'm looking to try traditional publishing route I should keep quiet and not talk about my novel?

I thought of doing a few posts for awareness and grow audience but as its a debut I am still learning the ways people do it. Had followed a couple of authors with 20k+ and 40k followers in their journey and they ended going to self publishing after months and months of querying and rejections. Luckily they had their audience already by that point so maybe thats something that publishing houses and agents expect?

Am on the final edits of a debut thriller that I started writting in 2017 after visiting Iceland.

Professionaly edited, proofread, beta read and am having the biggest fear over it being published but never reaching or gaining audience. Many of those who read, including me, aren't leaving reviews.

Would you read a debut if its not recommended, has no comments?

Also I am weighing options between pen name and my own. My own is Eastern European, a mouthfull and I worry using that would affect interest.

I also have four work in progress manuscripts for thrillers based in Eastern Europe and Baltics- Estonia, Lithuania, Czech Republic and worry that readers just go with that become the standard USA, Canada, UK, Ireland based novels and that only a handfull would ever pick books with other locations.

I'd love to hear from readers perspective and to understand better that makes you choose your next book.

Am on the final edits of a debut thriller that I started writting in 2017 after visiting Iceland.

Professionaly edited, proofread, beta read and am having the biggest fear over it being published but never reaching or gaining audience. Many of those who read, including me, aren't leaving reviews.

Would you read a debut if its not recommended, has no comments?

Also I am weighing options between pen name and my own. My own is Eastern European, a mouthfull and I worry using that would affect interest.

I also have four work in progress manuscripts for thrillers based in Eastern Europe and Baltics- Estonia, Lithuania, Czech Republic and worry that readers just go with that become the standard USA, Canada, UK, Ireland based novels and that only a handfull would ever pick books with other locations.

I'd love to hear from readers perspective and to understand better that makes you choose your next book.

Am on the final edits of a debut thriller that I started writting in 2017 after visiting Iceland.

Professionaly edited, proofread, beta read and am having the biggest fear over it being published but never reaching or gaining audience. Many of those who read, including me, aren't leaving reviews.

Would you read a debut if its not recommended, has no comments?

Also I am weighing options between pen name and my own. My own is Eastern European, a mouthfull and I worry using that would affect interest.

I also have four work in progress manuscripts for thrillers based in Eastern Europe and Baltics- Estonia, Lithuania, Czech Republic and worry that readers just go with that become the standard USA, Canada, UK, Ireland based novels and that only a handfull would ever pick books with other locations.

I'd love to hear from readers perspective and to understand better that makes you choose your next book.

Am on the final edits of a debut thriller that I started writting in 2017 after visiting Iceland.

Professionaly edited, proofread, beta read and am having the biggest fear over it being published but never reaching or gaining audience. Many of those who read, including me, aren't leaving reviews.

Would you read a debut if its not recommended, has no comments?

Also I am weighing options between pen name and my own. My own is Eastern European, a mouthfull and I worry using that would affect interest.

I also have four work in progress manuscripts for thrillers based in Eastern Europe and Baltics- Estonia, Lithuania, Czech Republic and worry that readers just go with that become the standard USA, Canada, UK, Ireland based novels and that only a handfull would ever pick books with other locations.

I'd love to hear from readers perspective and to understand better that makes you choose your next book.

I am on the 5th draft of cultic psychological thriller with horror elements and started thinking about changing several elements in the story. Location being one of them. Initially I set it in remote Iceland town and cult The Nine, in the story had originally spread there from UK, from the satanic cult that had existed in UK- The Nine Angles. I had beta reader and another author whos really into cults, suggesting that relocating the story in to UK or Ireland would probably gain more audience, and interest due to the actual cult existing in UK, and that fiction cult expansion to remote Iceland could potential be a mistake. So I thought to see if anyone would share their perspective or opinions and if in their opinion it matters at all? Greatly appreciate all comments!

I'm writting a fiction novel and need help by someone Icelandic to make sure the names actually make sense.

The novels town has a harbour, and the volcanic caves/ mines.The town rebuilt by nine families on the cooled ashes, after eruption and floods had destroyed the original settlements. Name of town:

Muninnvik

Muniuvik

Daudavik ( dauthavik, Icelandic letter not on leyboard)

Draugrhofn

Surtrhofn

Surtrvik

Niuness

Another question. The surnames.. son, dottir. Protagonist is looking at the genealogy of families working out who could be from the original towns founding families. But like current resident Blikasson , wont definately be connected to Blikasson, lived 130years ago, or Helgadottir now not related to Helgadottir from 3 generations ago. The immigrant James Harper, who married Icelandic Anna Jonsdottir wont make her to Anna Harper, their child Eric can be called Eric Harper, daughter Liana Harper. Daughter Lianna married to local David Magnusson doesn't become Magnus but her child would be either Jon Harper or Jon Magnuson. How do you work out your genealogy and is there some archives I could dig in for examples?

Thanks!!!