Differences Among Publishers That Hire Freelancers

Over the course of my career, I’ve work as a freelance developmental editor for a number of publishing companies. This has been a good way for me to get regular work without having to stress too much over marketing.

But there are some differences among the types of publishing companies that hire freelance editors.

A traditional publisher is a royalty-paying publisher that licenses books from authors, usually through the intermediary of a literary agent. In this scenario, an author queries an agent, asking them to represent their book. If the book is accepted for publication, the agent gets a cut of the royalties, or the amount earned by the author. This is typically 15%. Most books are not accepted for traditional publication. Traditional publishers farm out most of their copyediting and proofreading work, and a lot of their developmental work, especially in nonfiction.

Hybrid publishers are companies that require payment from the author to publish their book, but the publisher does the work of creating the cover, editing the manuscript, uploading it to various retail sites, and so on. This is an option for authors who do not want to deal with all the details of self-publishing. These companies hire freelancers to handle all aspects of editorial, from concept to proofreading.

Book packagers produce books for traditional publishing companies. They will do all of the editing, cover design, and so on and then the traditional publisher publishes the book under their imprint. This is very common for licensed books as the packager coordinates with all of the companies involved. Like hybrid publishers, packagers hire freelance editors for all aspects of editorial.

Some book packagers are also hybrid publishers.

All three of these types of publisher need freelance editors to work with them.