What to Look for in an Editor Before You Hire One

A good editor knows the rules and when a book needs them bent. Asking about the style guide shows you both.

What to look for in an editor comes down to two things: whether they keep their own knowledge of the language current, and which style guide they treat as their core source of truth. A low price and a friendly sample edit tell you very little about either.

Plenty of authors hire on price or a pleasant sample alone, and the field gives them no credential to check instead.

I’m Daniel J. Middleton, and my editing work goes back to 2002, when a Brooklyn-based press first hired me to proofread a novel — over two decades of learning exactly where a manuscript still needs work before it’s ready for readers.

This piece covers why a license isn’t the right yardstick, how to check whether an editor is current, the one style-guide question worth asking, and why a rigid editor is a warning sign too.

Why Can’t You Judge an Editor by a License or a Credential?

Because the field doesn’t have one. Editors aren’t licensed or regulated the way doctors, insurance agents, and other professionals are. There’s no required continuing education and no license to renew in order to keep practicing.

That means the real dividing line isn’t a credential. It’s whether an editor keeps their own knowledge current without anyone requiring it.

How Can You Tell Whether a Book Editor Is Current on Changes in Language?

Editorial conventions change as the language does. New words enter common usage, and spellings shift. Three examples show that “current” is something you can actually check:

• Internet losing its capital I. The word became internet as it settled into ordinary usage.

• E-mail becoming email. The hyphen dropped out as the word became routine.

• “Each other” and “one another.” The older convention reserved “each other” for two people or items and “one another” for three or more. That distinction has loosened in current usage.

An editor who’s still applying the old versions hasn’t kept up, and that’s worth knowing before you hire them.

What Should You Ask a Prospective Editor About Their Style Guide?

Ask which style guide they treat as their core source of truth. It’s the most useful single question you can put to an editor, and the answer should weigh directly on your decision.

Different guides serve different domains and don’t fully agree, though they overlap heavily. Academic writing, news and journalism, magazine writing, and book publishing each lean on a different core guide. The Chicago Manual of Style is the usual anchor for book publishing and the AP Stylebook for news, for example.

An editor working on your book should be able to name the guide they rely on and say why.

Why Is an Editor Who’s Rigid About One Style Guide Also a Warning Sign?

Because an editor who’s too rigid about any single guide can be as much of a problem as one who’s out of date. Many books and genres need a house style pulled from a blend of guides, flexed to fit that specific book’s own literary symmetry.

A rulebook applied without judgment doesn’t know when it’s fighting the book. So listen for both halves in an editor’s answer: a clear core guide, and a clear sense of when they’d depart from it.

Hiring an editor means judging two things no license can certify: whether their knowledge keeps pace with the language, and whether their judgment bends to the book in front of them.

What Should You Do Before You Hire an Editor?

Ask the style-guide question directly, then watch whether they can also explain when they’d depart from the guide for your book. Their answer will tell you something a price quote can’t.

If you’re weighing editing options, my current service rates show each editing tier and what it costs.