Guide F2
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Working With Editors, Proofreaders, and Designers
How to find the right editor, proofreader or cover designer, what the contract should contain, how to brief them, and what to do when the working relationship runs into difficulty.
Introduction
The working relationship is a craft skill, not a personality trait.
The skills involved are learnable, and the most important ones are not complicated.
Commissioning a professional editor, proofreader, or cover designer for the first time is a practical skill that is rarely discussed alongside the craft of writing itself. Most writers arrive at it without preparation, without relevant experience of commissioning creative work, and without a clear sense of what good professional practice in publishing looks like. The result is predictable: briefs that are too vague, expectations that are never stated, and disappointment when the work delivered does not match what the writer had in mind.
The skills are learnable
The good news is that the skills involved are learnable, and the most important ones are not complicated. Clear communication, written agreements, realistic timelines, and the ability to give and receive feedback without either party becoming difficult: these are the foundations of every productive professional relationship in publishing, as in any other industry.
What this guide covers
This guide covers the practical side of working with the editors, proofreaders, and cover designers involved in producing a book. It addresses how to find the right professional, what contracts should contain, how to brief clearly, how to manage deadlines, how to handle feedback and revision requests, and what to do when the working relationship runs into difficulty.
A note from Nick
My experience of working with creative professionals comes largely from the other side. Earlier in my career I worked with actors, singers, dancers, and scriptwriters through a client who ran performing arts schools. The gap between how they thought and how I thought, as an accountant, was considerable. I found them infuriating at times: illogical, impractical, disconnected from the realities of running a business. They almost certainly found me equally infuriating. What I understand now, having spent years writing a novel, is that I have become one of them. The creative mind works the way it works. The practical skill is learning to bridge the gap rather than resenting it.
Finding the Right Professional
Due diligence before you commit
Anyone can call themselves an editor or a cover designer. Check before you commit.
The publishing services industry is largely unregulated. Anyone can describe themselves as an editor, a proofreader, or a book cover designer regardless of experience, training, or track record. Due diligence before commissioning any professional service is not optional. The cost of getting it wrong, in time, money, and the damage done to a manuscript, can be significant.
What to look for
A credible professional will have a portfolio of relevant work, verifiable references from writers or publishers they have worked with, and a clear description of the services they offer and what those services include. For editors, membership of a professional body such as the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) in the UK provides a baseline assurance of professional standards. For cover designers, a portfolio of commercially published covers in your genre is the most reliable indicator of suitability.
Genre and market experience matter significantly. An editor who works primarily in literary fiction may not be the right choice for a commercial thriller. A cover designer whose portfolio is dominated by romance covers may not instinctively understand what a crime novel needs on its front. Always ask specifically whether the professional has experience with your genre and request examples from that area of their work.
The sample edit or design proposal
Before committing to a full commission, ask for a sample. Most professional editors offer a sample edit of the first ten to twenty pages, sometimes at a reduced rate or without charge. This reveals how the editor reads your work, what they prioritise, and whether their approach is compatible with what you need. For cover designers, ask for a mood board or initial concept before approving the full brief. A small investment of time at this stage prevents a much larger investment going in the wrong direction.
Assess the sample on two grounds: whether the feedback or proposal is accurate and relevant to your specific manuscript, and whether the professional's communication style is one you can work with across a sustained project. Both matter. A technically excellent editor whose manner you find difficult to engage with is not necessarily the right editor for your book.
A note from Nick
Impatience has cost me in business. The instinct to move quickly, to get things done, to push past the awkward early stages of a professional relationship and get to the outcome, is not always an asset. In business I learned this the hard way more than once: through a poor hire made in haste, through a supplier relationship that went wrong because the terms were never properly established, through lessons about due diligence that I would not have chosen to learn but learned nonetheless. The publishing world has its own version of these hazards. The solution is the same one that eventually worked in business: slow down at the beginning, do the preparation properly, and the rest of the process runs more smoothly.
Contracts
Written agreements protect both parties
A contract is not a sign of distrust. It is a record of what has been agreed.
Why a contract matters
A contract is not a sign of distrust. It is a record of what has been agreed, and it protects both the writer and the professional when memory, circumstance, or priorities change. Working without a contract on the assumption that everything will be straightforward is one of the most common and most avoidable mistakes in the production process.
Using their standard agreement
Most publishing professionals will have a standard contract or letter of agreement they use as a starting point. If they do not, that is itself a signal worth noting. For significant commissions, particularly developmental editing and cover design, engaging a solicitor with publishing industry experience to review the contract before signing is not excessive caution. It is standard practice.
1
What a contract should contain
A contract for editorial or design services should specify: the exact scope of the work, defined clearly enough that both parties would agree on what is and is not included; the fee and the payment schedule, including whether a deposit is required upfront; the delivery date and what happens if it is missed; the number of revision rounds included in the fee and what additional rounds cost; who owns the work on delivery; and what happens if either party needs to terminate the agreement before completion.
The revision clause deserves particular attention. A contract that does not specify how many revision rounds are included leaves the fee open-ended and creates the conditions for disagreement. Two rounds of revisions is a common standard for editorial work. Cover design typically includes two to three concept rounds followed by refinement. Anything beyond the agreed rounds should be charged at an agreed rate, defined in advance.
2
Rights and ownership
For editorial work, the question of rights is relatively straightforward: the editor improves the manuscript but does not acquire any rights to it. The copyright remains entirely with the writer. This should be stated explicitly in the contract.
For cover design, the position is more nuanced. A designer who creates original artwork for a cover may retain rights to that artwork unless the contract explicitly assigns them to the writer or transfers them on delivery. Ensure the contract specifies that all design elements created for the cover, including any original illustrations or typography, are assigned to the writer on full payment. If the designer uses licensed stock elements, confirm that the licence permits commercial use on a published book.
3
Payment
Most publishing professionals charge a deposit of thirty to fifty per cent upfront, with the balance due on delivery or on acceptance of the final work. This is standard practice and protects both parties. Do not work with a professional who demands full payment upfront before any work has been delivered. Do not attempt to commission work on the basis of paying only on completion: a professional who cannot collect a deposit is unlikely to prioritise your project.
Agree the full fee, the payment schedule, and the currency before signing anything. If you are commissioning professionals in a different country, clarify who bears the cost of international transfer fees. Small administrative details left unresolved at the start of a project have a way of becoming sources of friction at the end of it.
Briefing
Time spent on the brief is time saved on revisions
The quality of the brief determines the quality of the work.
What a brief is for
A brief is the document or conversation that tells the professional what you need, what you have, and what success looks like. The quality of the brief determines the quality of the work more reliably than almost any other factor. A vague brief produces work that misses the target. A precise brief gives the professional everything they need to deliver what you actually want.
Briefing an editor
Tell the editor where the manuscript currently is in its development: what self-editing you have done, what feedback you have already received, and what you believe the main areas of weakness are. If you have specific concerns about particular sections, flag them. Tell the editor what type of editing you are commissioning and what you want them to focus on. Specify your genre and intended audience. Tell them anything about the manuscript's history that is relevant to how they should approach it.
Do not tell the editor what you want them to say about the manuscript. The value of a professional edit is precisely that the editor reads it fresh, without knowing what you intended. Give them context but not conclusions.
Briefing a cover designer
A cover brief should include: the genre and subgenre; the target audience; the tone of the book, whether dark, witty, literary, commercial; any existing covers in the market that you feel represent the right territory, and any that represent what you want to avoid; the title and author name as they will appear on the cover; and any specific visual elements that are important to the book, whether a setting, an object, or a character type.
Resist the temptation to art-direct the designer in fine detail. A good cover designer brings market knowledge and visual judgement that the writer typically does not have. The brief sets the parameters. The designer works within them. If the first concept is not right, the revision process is the place to redirect, not the brief.
A note from Nick
My experience of creative and commercial people working together is that the miscommunication is usually mutual. The accountant thinks the creative is being impractical. The creative thinks the accountant is missing the point. Both are partly right. What resolves it is not finding people who agree on everything but establishing, at the outset, a shared understanding of what success looks like and how disputes will be handled. That is what a good brief and a good contract do. They do not prevent disagreement. They give both parties a common reference point when disagreement arrives.
Managing the Relationship
Deadlines, feedback, and what to do when things go wrong
Delays, difficult notes and disappointing work all have a professional response.
Deadlines
Establish a clear delivery date in the contract and build your production timeline around it. Allow a buffer between the contracted delivery date and the date you actually need the work: delays happen in every professional service, and a timeline with no slack turns a minor delay into a production crisis.
If a deadline is approaching and you have not heard from the professional, it is entirely reasonable to send a progress check a week or two in advance. This is not chasing: it is normal project management. A professional who cannot communicate proactively about their progress is a risk to your timeline.
Receiving editorial feedback
Editorial feedback, particularly at the developmental level, can be difficult to receive. The editor may have identified problems with the manuscript that the writer was not aware of, or may have raised concerns about elements the writer is attached to. The professional response is to read the feedback carefully and let it settle before responding. Do not reply to a developmental editorial letter the same day you receive it.
Assess each piece of feedback on its merits. Feedback you agree with, act on. Feedback you disagree with, query specifically: explain what you were trying to achieve and ask the editor whether your intention is coming through on the page. Feedback you find yourself unable to engage with at all is sometimes the most important feedback you have received. Resistance to a note is often a signal that the note has touched something real.
When the work is not what you expected
If the work delivered does not meet the standard or match the brief, the first step is a calm, specific, written response that identifies precisely what is wrong and references the brief or contract where relevant. Emotional reactions, however understandable, are not useful and rarely produce better work. A professional who has delivered unsatisfactory work needs to understand specifically what has not been met before they can address it.
Most professional disputes in publishing arise not from bad faith but from a brief that was insufficiently clear. Before concluding that a professional has failed to deliver, honestly assess whether the brief gave them what they needed to succeed. If it did, and the work is still inadequate, the contract and the revision clause are your recourse. If it did not, the revision process is the opportunity to correct that.
When to walk away
There are circumstances in which the right decision is to terminate the relationship and, where possible, recover the deposit. These include: a professional who has missed a contracted deadline without communication or reasonable explanation; work that is so far below professional standard that revision cannot salvage it; and a professional who responds to reasonable feedback with hostility or becomes uncontactable.
Before terminating, review the contract termination clause. Send any notice of termination in writing, referencing the relevant clause, and keep a record of all communications. If a deposit is disputed, the contract is your evidence. This is why the contract matters.
Where to go next
For a clear explanation of the types of professional editing and when each one is needed, see The Types of Editing: What Each One Does and When You Need It (Guide E4, The Editing Room, available with a Ticket).
For an overview of the full production pipeline and how professional services fit into the sequence, see Managing the Production Pipeline: From Draft to Published Book (Guide F1, The Production Room).
To find vetted editors, proofreaders, and cover designers, visit the Authaurus Directory.
Your Commissioning Checklist
Six steps before and during every commission
Slow down at the beginning and the rest runs more smoothly.
1
Check credentials and genre experience
Look for a relevant portfolio, verifiable references and, for editors, membership of a professional body such as the CIEP. Ask for examples from your genre.
2
Ask for a sample
A sample edit of the first ten to twenty pages, or a mood board or initial concept from a designer, shows how they work before you commit.
3
Get it in writing
Scope, fee, payment schedule, delivery date, revision rounds, ownership and termination, all agreed before work starts.
4
Write a clear brief
Give context but not conclusions: where the manuscript is, your genre and audience, and what you want them to focus on.
5
Build in a buffer and check progress
Allow slack between the contracted delivery date and the date you actually need the work, and send a progress check a week or two before the deadline.
6
Respond to feedback calmly and in writing
Let difficult notes settle before replying. If the work misses the brief, be specific about what has not been met.
Before You Close This Guide
A good brief and a good contract do most of the work
They do not prevent disagreement. They give both parties a common reference point.
Working with editors, proofreaders and designers is a practical skill, and like any practical skill it improves with preparation. Check who you are hiring, see a sample before you commit, put the terms in writing and give a brief that says what success looks like. When something goes wrong, respond calmly, specifically and in writing. Most problems in these relationships start with something that was never agreed, and most of them can be prevented at the start.
What to do next
Where you are: Ready for editing, guide 2 of 5
Who first, and when.
1. Do this now
Write down which professional you will need first and when you will need to contact them. Good editors book up months ahead.
2. Read next
F1: Managing the Production Pipeline: From Draft to Published Book (Open). Next on your path. This puts every professional into one production timeline.
E4: The Types of Editing: What Each One Does and When You Need It (Ticket). Know which edit you are commissioning before you brief anyone.
H2: The Cost of Self-Publishing: What You Actually Need to Spend (Open). See what each professional is likely to cost before you commit.
3. Not sure?
Not sure the manuscript is ready? E6: When Is Your Manuscript Actually Finished?
Need a cover designer first? H4: Book Cover Design: What Works and What to Brief Your Designer
Going the traditional route? G2: How to Write a Query Letter
← Previous on this path: E4: The Types of Editing: What Each One Does and When You Need It
Next on this path: F1: Managing the Production Pipeline: From Draft to Published Book →