Dear Purposeful Prose, I’ve been writing for myself and submitting short stories to publications for one and a half years. I usually stick to self-editing because I can’t afford an editor right now. How much of a job is it to be an editor? Since I’m editing my own work, I know it really well, and it feels like having an extra pair of eyes has set me back in the past. Doesn’t editing just create more work? That is an incredibly interesting question, and I’m grateful you asked!

Editor’s Note   My guest writer has been working with me for around eight years, now, and I couldn’t be more humbled that they’ve decided to stick with me for this long. When they approached me regarding this piece on horror writing, I’d often get updates on the ever-increasing page count. There’s little I could possibly love more than a writer who’s found their gold coins. Roy Peter Clark discussed writers and their gold coins in reference to their stories. Clark would encou

Dear Purposeful Prose, I put a job listing out asking for editors to work with me on my book. It’s a YA dystopian fiction novel, 75,628 words, and I think it’s well-written. When I posted about my work on social media, people were excited about it. I asked editors to send me a DM with their rates and websites. My inbox was flooded with spam and I’m sure some of them were written with AI. Most of the editors were asking for something into the thousands. I put a lot of work in