first: oh my god do not pay someone please find someone in it for the love of the game like a friend or a mutual that you know is really into a ship/trope the same way you are so you can go buckwild. like, i have paid people/offered to pay people but it's because i had a relationship with them and was like hey can i send you $ for coffee/little treat money as a thank you. alternatively, i think that there are people who donate their time/services via FTH and you can bid on people via FTH as well, if you really feel moved to exchange money for services.

my #1 suggestion is to find your sicko friend that you bounce all of your ideas off of and ask if they can read your draft for you. if you're in a new fandom or don't have a lot of friends in your fandom—and this is really scary for some people—message a writer that you really admire and be like hey, i really like the way you write and if you'd be interested, i would love for you to read this thing for me. and if that fails, well like. idk you could message me because i'm not doing anything with my life until august.

for a relationship to be good, i personally feel that you need to have a conversation on what the expectations are: tl;dr are you, the writer, looking for a cheerleader? or do you want someone to red pen?

be upfront with what you're sending this person. i.e. what are the important content notes to know before going into this?

tell them what you're looking for: basic spelling/grammar/clarity reading? do you want feedback? do you need help with a certain plot point or picking apart characterization? do you need a second brain for a specific research thing that's been tripping you up? (my favorite thing.)

send them the doc in a shareable link: google docs, proton docs, ellipsus, whatever. my god, do not share your ao3 login with them. my recommendation is that you do not let them make hard edits but you toggle suggestion mode to on.

once that's in their hands, let them know what your turnaround is if you have one. if you're trying to make a fest deadline, let them know. if you're like me and just need someone to tell you that it makes sense before posting (and you want to post in the next few hours), let them know this too but give them some lead time!

when the edits come back to you, you can decide what you want to keep, or you can discuss some of the notes. then you post. yay!