Has anyone had experience s/he would like to share in having an editor look at your longer manuscripts, either before submitting to publishers or contests or after not winning a contest or missing with a publisher or agent? I recently hired an excellent editor in Minneapolis, J.P. Hansen (who can work at any distance via the Internet), to evaluate and analyze the second unpublished volume of my short stories. In fact, the experience for me was very helpful and rather intense! It was both fair and pretty close to the bone (in ways I can define). I felt better for paying for his expertise (though less than it was probably worth) than I would have in asking for it as an indefinite favor. I plan to let him read the first volume, too, with its differences in structure and tone. His website is: https://sites.google.com/site/jphansen3/editing. Any other stories like this? Has anyone evaluated long mss.?
Marcy Dermansky (who I'm married to!) does this: http://marcydermansky.com/editing-services/ People seem to be very happy with the help they get from her.