The 5* Biggest Fears about Tech Editing (Pt. 2)

*based on anecdotal evidence.

Tech editing can seem like an overwhelming, scary process. While I have clients who are always eager to get input from an editor, I’ve also had several clients who are unsure their patterns are ready, who have had less than great experiences with a previous editor, or who just aren’t sure the process is ultimately worth it. While these fears are perfectly understandable, they don’t have to be permanent.

In Part 1, we looked at fears around the editing process itself. In Part 2, we’re looking at more existential fears – the relationship with the tech editor, and whether tech editing is even worth the money.

4.       I don’t know if I’ve found the right tech editor for me.

Editing is a collaborative process and like any collaborative process, a good working relationship is important. Additionally, every editor, like every designer, has their own process for working through a pattern and communicating edits.  Not every editor’s process is going to be compatible with every designer.

If you’re looking for a new editor, feel free to reach out to them to ask questions about their process: how far in advance should you book patterns, what format will their edits be in, how do they prefer to communicate and what hours are they generally available for questions, etc.  Many of us are happy to hop on a call with you if that’s easier than discussing via email.  And if you try out an editor and find their process isn’t quite what works for you, it’s fine to keep looking.

You also don’t have to have the same editor for all your patterns! Maybe you love how one editor handles sweaters but they don’t seem as comfortable with socks (or don’t do socks at all); it’s absolutely fine to spread your patterns out among different editors to get the best results for all your patterns.

5.       It’s not going to be worth the cost.

The financials on pattern production can surprise many new designers. The market for individual patterns as of 2024 runs around $7-8 US a pattern. While tech editing costs can vary considerably depending on the type of pattern and the individual editor, if we just use my recent jobs as an example, toys and accessories total roughly $50-150 per pattern and sweaters total $250-400.  A designer would need to sell somewhere between 20 to 50 patterns just to cover the editing costs. It is understandable, then, that many designers wonder if they can just skip the editing step and try to do the best they can proofing the pattern themselves.

However, it’s important to consider how much of the indie pattern market is based on word of mouth. People like the look of a pattern, buy it, and then recommend it to friends, or they post about it on social media. And while the finished object is the primary reason people buy a pattern, if the pattern is frustrating to follow, or has typos or other errors that the knitter has to figure out for themselves, they are not only less likely to recommend it to others, they are less likely to buy future patterns from that designer.  Paying for an editor is not just an investment in this one pattern, but an investment in your reputation as a designer of quality patterns.

Acknowledging the economic realities of the situation, though, there are a few options you may consider if you need to reduce your editing costs:

1.       Consider submitting to a magazine which has its own tech editors. Knitty is one of my favorite examples for this because they love seeing first-time designers (they publish crochet patterns as well!), but there are multiple magazines which work this way. This gives you the opportunity to go through the tech editing process with the magazine covering the editing costs (just be sure to look for any submission style and formatting requirements and follow them carefully).

2.       If your editor charges an hourly rate, proof your pattern as much as possible ahead of time so your editor doesn’t spend billable time fixing simple typos. (Check out my Proofing 101 series for some additional proofreading tips and tricks.) You can also chat with your editor ahead of time and ask for the editor to flag errors that are simple but potentially time-consuming to fix and leave them for you to correct; for example, if you skipped a row number and now an entire section needs renumbering, the editor could just make a comment that says “you need to renumber from this row” and not correct every single number themselves.

Did this series help address any of your fears around tech editing?  Are there other fears you have that weren’t addressed? Speak up in the comments!