Hiring an editor is easy. Keeping one is the hard part.
We run an editorial team in Norway. Every week we hear the same story: a creator hires an editor, things are great for two months, then the editor vanishes mid-sponsorship. Here's what we've learned about not letting that happen to you.
You're ready when
You don't need a schedule or a spreadsheet to know it. If any of this feels familiar, it's time:
- You film content that never ships because editing stalls.
- Uploads slipped from weekly to whenever.
- You spend more time in the timeline than in front of the camera.
- You have the money to pay someone but keep telling yourself "next month".
The freelance circus
Most creators start on Fiverr, Upwork, or a Discord server. It works, until it doesn't:
- You interview five editors, pick one, they ghost after invoice two.
- The good ones are booked out for weeks.
- Every editor edits in their style, not yours. Same feedback, ten times.
- No backup. One holiday, one sick week, and your upload schedule dies.
- You end up project-managing the editor on top of making content.
Hiring is the easy part. Keeping the relationship alive for a year is the hard part. Most people underestimate this by a lot.
What a good editor needs from you
The editors that stick around are the ones you set up to win:
- A style reference. Three of your favourite past videos, plus two channels you'd love to look like.
- A clean folder structure. One folder per video: raw footage, audio, thumbs, deliverables.
- A brief per video. Working title, target length, intended hook, keep/cut notes. Two minutes to write, hours saved on revisions.
- One feedback channel. Not DMs. Not scattered voice notes. One place, timestamped.
- A finish line. One revision round included. Editors need to know when it's done.
What it actually costs
Rough ranges. Yours will vary by region and complexity:
- Basic long-form: €50 to €100. Cuts, pacing, simple text and zooms.
- Heavier long-form: €80 to €200+. Effects, sourced B-roll, complex structure.
- Short-form (you provide the clip): €15 to €40.
- Short-form with VOD sourcing: €25 to €60.
- Thumbnails: €10 to €50 depending on composition.
If someone quotes €5 per long-form, you are the QA department. That is not a saving.
Managing without becoming a manager
Three habits protect the relationship once you have one:
- Batch feedback. Watch once, write everything down, send once. No drip-feeding notes across the day.
- Feedback the pattern, not the frame. "Cut faster in the first 30 seconds" trains an editor. "Trim 0.4s at 00:12" does not.
- Pay on time, every time. The reason your favourite editor left is almost always this.
When a managed service is the right call
Hiring one editor solves editing. It doesn't solve everything around editing. Somewhere between "I have an editor" and "I have a team", you stop wanting to also be the recruiter, PM, and bookkeeper. That's the point we exist for. A managed setup gives you:
- A dedicated editor matched to your style, plus a backup for holidays and sick days.
- Project management, briefs, deadlines, delivery. Handled.
- One contact instead of a Discord full of freelancers.
- Predictable pricing per deliverable, not per hour of chaos.
- Scale up shorts, thumbs, or a second weekly upload without hiring again.
The trade-off: you're not the cheapest option any more. You're paying for the thing that keeps you posting.
Ready to hand this off?
NOT Editing is a managed editorial service for creators. Long-form, shorts, thumbnails and project management, run by a dedicated editor with a backup, so you can go back to recording.