The question is usually asked as though software and editors were substitutes at different prices. They're not: one is exact about mechanics and the other has judgement, and the money is best spent where judgement is required. What changes the arithmetic is how much of the mechanical work you've already done, because that determines what an editor's hours go on.
What each is good at
| Job | Tool | Person |
|---|---|---|
| Finding every instance of something | Exact | Unreliable |
| Counting | Exact | Not worth their time |
| Deciding which spelling is right | No | Yes, with you |
| House style | Partly | Yes |
| Whether a scene works | No | Yes |
| Timeline coherence | No | Yes |
| Whether readers will follow it | No | Yes |
| Consistency of invented vocabulary | Exact | Slow and expensive |
The first and last rows are why doing the mechanical work first saves money. An editor cataloguing your invented terminology is being paid professional rates for something a scan does in minutes, and their attention is finite.
The sequence that gets the most from a budget
- Do the mechanical checks yourself. Terminology, markers, formatting.
- Settle the decisions those checks surface, and write them into a style sheet.
- Send that style sheet with the manuscript.
- Spend the money on the judgement you cannot supply.
- Do the verification pass yourself afterwards.
Step three is the one editors most appreciate and authors most often omit. A style sheet turns hundreds of potential queries into zero and moves the whole engagement onto the work only they can do.
If the budget is zero
Do the mechanical checks, use free text to speech for a listening pass, and find beta readers. That combination covers a surprising amount, and the gap it leaves is professional-level polish rather than basic correctness.
The Novel Kit is the mechanical half of step one: proper nouns and unusual terms with counts, from the whole file, in minutes. It replaces none of the judgement, which is stated in full in what a manuscript scan does not replace.
A practical next step
Before hiring anyone, run the mechanical checks and write the style sheet. The same money then buys more of what only a person can give you.
Sources checked
- How to prepare a manuscript for a proofreader
- How to hand an editor a cleaner manuscript
- What a manuscript scan does not replace
Frequently asked questions
Is this really a choice?
Only when the budget is fixed. The better framing is what to spend money on and what to do yourself, since tools and people are good at different things.
Which should come first?
Do the mechanical checks yourself, then spend on a person for what remains. That way their time goes on judgement rather than on cataloguing.
What if I can afford only one editor?
A proofreader, if the book is structurally sound. A developmental editor, if it is not, and you will know which.