10 Places to Find Copy Editors for Hire

Hiring copy editors is a great way to ensure the content you publish is the best it can be. 

What is a copy editor?

A copy editor is an editor that edits copy to improve readability and ensure it’s free of errors.

Copy editing is often mistaken for proofreading. While a copy editor may check for spelling and grammar, the final checks for these small errors happen during proofreading.

Copy editors pay closer attention to clarity, tone, consistency, transitions, and structure flow. However, in many cases, copy editors will also take care of proofreading.

Why hire copy editors?

Businesses hire copy editors to ensure their content is clear, consistent, and error-free.

When it comes to SEO, Google only wants the best content at the top of search results. One factor they use to determine the quality of content is user experience. Content that is hard to read and full of errors is less readable and provides a bad user experience.

Copy editors will catch mistakes and other issues with your copy so that your content provides a pleasurable reading experience for users.

10 websites to find copy editors for hire

1. Writing Studio

Writing Studio is a content writing company that also offers copy editing as a service. They have expert copy editors specialized in different fields (i.e., law, medicine, finance). 

To work with Writing Studio, you get in touch with them and tell their team about your requirements. Then, after confirming the details of your order, your content will be edited and delivered to you.

The delivery time is 1-3 business days, depending on the quantity. 

2. Upwork

Upwork is a freelance marketplace where you can find copy editors for hire.

You create a job with your specifications (such as proposed fixed or hourly rate, job details, and location preferences). Then, applicants will apply for your job. Alternatively, you can invite freelancers to your job post and start a conversation.

The great thing about Upwork is that you can see the ‘job success score’ from freelancers’ previous jobs and testimonials, which reduces the risk of a bad hire.

3. Wordy 

Wordy is a professional copy-editing and proofreading service.

They edit copy for Fortune 500 enterprises down to small businesses. This includes web copy, academic text, books, and more. They have three tiers of pricing, $.039 per word for 8 hour delivery, $.052 per word for 4-hour delivery, and enterprise plans and pricing for large organizations.

Wordy offers an intuitive platform for submitting content to be edited, making the process easy.

4. LinkedIn 

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network and can be a great place to find copy editors.

You can either Google “copy editor LinkedIn” or search for “copy editing” in LinkedIn’s search bar. You’ll find many professional copy editors available for hire.

You can then connect with them and start a conversation. Alternatively, you can post a job on your LinkedIn company page and have copy editors apply directly there.

5. Fiverr

Fiverr is a freelance service marketplace for businesses where you can find many copy editors for hire.

You browse through offers that freelancers have created and filter them by seller details, budget, delivery times, and other options. Then, you can directly hire them based on their specific copy editing offerings, pricing, and previous reviews. 

Fiverr has a reputation for being ‘cheap’ (which it can be), but there are definitely skilled professionals on this platform who can be found on ‘Fiverr Pro’.

6. Reedsy

Reedsy is a platform where you can connect with professional copy editors to help editor your book.

Reedsy has over 100 copy editors on their platform ready to edit your book. To get started, you create an account, and then you can begin connecting with copy editors for your project.

The only drawback is that Reedsy is specifically for book editing and not other types of copy. 

7. Indeed

Indeed is one of the largest job websites. There are thousands of copy editors browsing jobs here looking for work. 

The majority of jobs are employee roles instead of fixed-term freelance jobs, but there are freelance ones. If you’re looking to hire a copy editor as a permanent in-house member of your team, Indeed is a good place to look.

To start, you post a job with your specifications and wait for applicants to apply.

8. Crowd Content 

Crowd Content is a content writing service that also offers copy editing as part of its services.

They offer a ‘self serve’ service and a ‘managed’ service. The self-serve service allows you to personally connect with editors, while their managed service is for clients with high-volume editing requirements. 

Crowd Content has affordable editing pricing at $.03 per word and is entirely pay as you go. 

9. Compose.ly 

Compose.ly is a content writing service that offers writes various types of content. They also offer professional copy editing as a service.

Their copy editors help ensure your content is free of simple grammar and punctuation errors and help correct tone, clarity, and word choice issues.

They look to make changes to help make your message as consistent and clear as possible without sacrificing your tone of voice.

10. Scribendi 

Scribendi is a proofreading and editing company that provides fast and affordable copy editing.

They have been around since 1997 and have a large pool of copy editors ready to edit your content. They can edit academic text, business and blog text, essays, and other personal documents.

Scribendi charges between $30 to $70 per 1,000 words depending on the type of content and the desired turnaround time. 

How to hire copy editors

There are a lot of places to find a copy editor.

Some are editors are great; some are sub-par.

Here’s how to find the best ones for your needs.

Ask how they charge 

In most cases, copy editors will either charge per hour or per word.

The advantage of per word and why this is common is that it’s easy to budget for. This fixed pricing model keeps things simple. Using a per word rate is especially useful if you’re dealing with large and consistent volumes of content.

Finding a copy editor that charges hourly may be a more suitable approach if you’re working on a personal project such as a book.

How fast do they respond? 

Excellent communication skills are an essential trait of a copy editor or any team member for that matter. 

Quick response times are crucial for editors. A writer may have several days or weeks to write content, but editors often only have a few hours or days to edit content. Often, deadlines are tight, so you’re going to want someone who replies quickly to confirm things.

Request to see before and after samples of their work

Similar to finding copywriters for hire, it’s good to request to see some samples first.

A copy editor will send you a sample of a document before and after being edited. This way, you can understand their editing style, competence, and the type of changes they make. 

Start small to test the waters

Whenever you’re hiring an editor, it’s great to start small. 

You may have 100 articles that need editing, but if you haven’t worked with a particular editor before, try starting with one piece.

Then once you’re happy with their work and the way you work together, you can proceed with a larger order. 

What’s their industry background?

Suppose your content is technical (e.g., about how nicotine affects the hippocampus in the brain).

In that case, you’d ideally hire a freelance copy editor that is also a subject matter expert. This way, they won’t accidentally make any edits that change the factual accuracy of your text. 

Do they also offer proofreading?

Often a copy editor will be checking for spelling and grammatical mistakes too. Still, it’s worth asking if they ensure spelling and grammar will be correct as part of the service they offer.

In some cases, they may charge an additional rate per word to proofread your content thoroughly. 

What’s their availability and turnaround time like?

It’s important to establish a clear understanding regarding turnaround times. 

Ask your potential copy editor how long it takes them to edit 1,000 words or get an estimate of how many words they can edit per week (e.g., 25-30,000).

This way, you can make a better judgment if they’re a good fit based on the amount of content you regularly require to be edited.

Make a shortlist 

Once you’ve found a range of editing providers (freelancers or companies) that seem to fit your requirements, create a shortlist, and select a few that best suit your needs.

Then after testing all of them with a small sample, make a judgment as to which editor or team of editors would be the best fit for your needs.

The bottom line

Hiring a copy editor is essential for any company or organization looking to publish the best content possible. They give you the confidence to know that your content is polished and error-free.

Hopefully, this article has given you some ideas on finding copy editors and how to select the best ones.