I’ve been looking at lists of editors who work on self published projects. One of the glories of self publishing is that anyone can do it. One of the worst things about self publishing is… anyone can do it. Apparently, this also holds true for editing.

The first editor I saw on the list had a website, so I went to check it out. The Welcome page was the first page the reader was taken to. It only had two links. Both were broken.

When I went back to the site where the editor had listed her services, I saw comments pointing out that the links were broken. They had been left months before. Not a sign of an editor who cared about details, even for her own business. I realize the editor might be too busy to fix problems like that, but it makes her look careless about the details. Not something that would make me want to work with her.

Another editor’s website looked presentable, except again there was a problem with the details. She wrote things like, “I provide two types of edits.” And then she listed all three of them: 1) X type of edit 2) Y type of edit 3) Z type of edit.

I understand no one can be expected to edit themselves and do a perfect job. But surely an editor should know this too, and to take it into account when creating a website that is almost the only thing I have to judge them by.