You’ve revised and polished your manuscript, which your critique group has been helping you tweak, and perhaps you’ve even received feedback from a beta reader. You could now run it through the publishing gauntlet, or in view of the stiff competition in the industry, you could take one more step in refining your story. You might consider hiring a freelance editor to give your manuscript a review by one set of professional eyes.

One difference between an editor at a publishing house and a free lance editor is position. When your manuscript is chosen for publication, the in-house editor has thoughtfully selected it from among the many in his/her pile, therefore that editor already loves the concept and is invested in what you have written. In the case of a freelance editor, the editor doesn’t have to like the manuscript in order to work on it and it may not…