Is academic editing really expensive? Can you afford it? Or more to the point, can you afford not to work with a professional editor?

Academic editing is a painstaking and time-consuming process. It requires a lot of skill and experience. An editor doesn’t just polish grammar, but they also spend time correcting the tone, arguments, structure, and often spotting factual errors or omissions. All of this comes with a cost of course.

When you work with a professional editor, however, it is important to think beyond the monetary cost. You are also getting loads of value for the money spent – you are getting an ally to help you shepherd your material to publication; you are saving time in the long run, by avoiding delays and having someone ensure your work gets through peer review more quickly; you are ensuring that your work is read and fully understood by its target audience.

The returns on investment for academic editing include:

• Improved acceptance rates for journal articles and grants.

• Better grades or assessments on PhD or Master’s theses.

• Improved reputation for your work among readers and peers.

Investing in short-term help, then, is likely to pay dividends long into the future, often far outweighing the initial cost of editorial assistance. Editing isn’t a luxury, but is a professional tool that can be wielded to your advantage. Your research matters, but it may not be fulfilling its potential.

I make my prices very transparent on my website here, but if you’re unsure about the general costs of editorial work, the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) provides a useful tool to estimate the cost of having your work edited: https://www.the-efa.org/rates/

Even if the price of editing a full book, for instance, seems out of reach, the reality is that many institutions and research funders provide financial support to help faculty or students publish.

Academic editors tend to be flexible too – if you want to exclude the bibliography to keep costs down, for example, then that’s perfectly fine. If you want to break the work up into different chapters or sub-sections, over a period of months, they will probably still want to work with you. I also offer a discount for students and for working on larger bodies of work.

Ultimately, if you don’t ask about prices and possibilities, then you’ll never be sure if you can afford an academic editor. For that reason, get in touch and we can discuss it.