editing can be expensive.

before sending your work to an editor, here are some tips to help reduce your expenses. 

be sure you have a clear understanding of:

your audience:

for whom are you writing?

your purpose:

why are you writing this book or project?

end goal:

what kind of final product do you want (a chapbook, a manuscript, or a roughly edited text)

your aesthetic:

do you have a personal style sheet, what type of formatting choices have you made (e.g. lower case, spacing, punctuation, standard grammar)

do some leg work:

1. spell check your document
2. use grammarly.com's free services to catch some diction errors (all of their suggestions may not be right for you, but it will help give you an idea of what you're working with)
3. if you have a collection of stories organize them, either chronologically or by theme 
4. get an estimate, be realistic about what you can afford. the typical full-length novel or book costs about $500 to do a substantive edit.
5. consider getting one chapter edited at a time to break up the cost 
6. save a draft of your work in its original form for future reference (if you use google docs the revision history can let you look back at past incarnations of your work)

After Attending Suzanne's Contemplative Writing Presentation at the Latino Authors and Writers Society, July 20, 2012:

Need to tell you how phenomenal your research is on the writing process. I know your book will be well received. It's funny, because I had a writing assignment on a topic due for this week. I was laying down, and, low and behold, it came to me. Assignment completed. So thanks Suzanne. I trusted the system, and it worked. 

Victoria Grant, Novelist