Editing Your Book: Do You Really Need an Editor?

Creative writing – like old age – is not for the fainthearted. How long has it taken you to write your book? As a writer myself, I would guess at least several months, and possibly even several years. You’ve struggled to put your heart and soul into that manuscript. Maybe it’s a self-help book; maybe a memoir, or other non-fiction. You may have written poetry, or a cookbook. Perhaps you’ve ventured into the world of your imagination and produced a novel. Whatever it is, your book is an extension of YOU.

You’ve certainly read over every single page at least a hundred times, and you’ve revised and revised the text, over and over. Probably you’ve had a friend or family member read your final draft, to pick up any misspellings or grammatical errors. And now, you’re ready to go – time to have your book formatted and published!

Hang on, just a minute.

Have you ever bought a book with a very attractive cover and an interesting blurb on the back, only to find it disappointingly hard going when you began to read? Did you have trouble following the points the author was making? Did you have difficulty “seeing” the characters, getting a feel for who they were and why they acted as they did? Did you even finish the book – or did you put it aside, meaning to get back to it, but somehow never motivated to do so? 

It’s a pretty good bet that book was not professionally edited.  It may have been published by one of the smaller publishing houses, or even self-published.

Books coming out of the major publishing houses have the benefit of professional editing, as part of the contract between the author and the publisher.  (Most authors who work with major publishing houses have agents, who negotiate these contracts. An agent’s fee, of course, adds considerably to the cost of producing a book.)

Now that the Internet makes it so easy to self-publish, more and more writers are turning to this much less expensive and less time-consuming way of getting their books into print and out to their potential readers. And many of them are looking at professional editing as an unnecessary expense in the production of their books. “Hey, I can edit this myself,” they think. “I read a lot, and I talk a lot; I can certainly put a sentence together. And I’ll save quite a few bucks by just giving this one more careful reading, and then I’m good to go!”

Professional writers agree that their editors are critical to the success of their books. It’s almost impossible to be objective about one’s own writing.  You’re too close to it, too involved with it: you need an objective eye to help you make your book the best it can be. New York Times best-selling author Diana Gabaldon (whose wonderful Outlander series has countless fans worldwide) put it beautifully. In one of her books, she thanked her editor for “ever-necessary vigilance against those hordes of errors that breed in the gutters of books, hatching out into the light of day when the covers are opened” (The Outlandish Companion, 1999).

One of my clients told me recently that he believed his book never would have been finished if he hadn’t had the services of a professional editor. “When I’m on a writing roll,” he said, “I just want to keep going, moving ahead, getting my story told. If I have to stop and worry about fixing it up, putting in the commas, trying to vary the vocabulary, I lose my train of thought. I lose my story’s momentum. I just want to get the story down, and then turn it over to you to polish it up for me. I’m a storyteller, not a critical editor. I’ve been thinking about this story for ages, but when I actually started to write it, I realized I needed someone who knows what they’re doing to make it perfect.”

Well, then, what does a professional editor do that’s so special? There are five main services a top-quality editor should provide:

1. Basic Proofreading. Your editor should make sure that spelling is flawless, and that punctuation, grammar, word usage, and paragraph indentation are all correct.
2. Copy Editing.  Of enormous importance is that your editor should make certain that your own unique “voice” is maintained, despite any editorial changes. These may include line rewriting, vocabulary variation, and limited reorganization where necessary, to ensure that the text flows smoothly and consistently. The final version should read the way you want it to read.
3. Editorial Comments and Suggestions for Clarification of Text. Your editor should make suggestions about improving the clarity of your narrative. Finer points of style may be addressed as well.
4. Final Proofreading of Formatted Book. Look for an editor that includes this service in an editing fee. Many editors don’t provide this service at all, and many others charge a separate fee for proofreading after the book is formatted.
5. Frequent Communication with You, as the Work Progresses. Your editor should keep in touch with you, probably by e-mail, throughout the progress of the editing work. The two of you should be working as a team to perfect your manuscript. When edited work is submitted for your approval, your editor should be willing to make any changes you request, at no additional cost to you.

Look around the Internet at some of the websites offering editorial services. You’ll find quite a variety of quality out there. Some editors charge by the page; others charge by the word. The latter is probably better, since pages submitted can vary in the number of words they contain. Make sure you would be getting the services you need, and that you can communicate well with any editor you may be considering.

Then, once you have all the necessary information, you make the decision: will you edit your book yourself, or have it professionally edited? It’s up to you. You are The Author!

Good luck to you in producing your new book, and may it be as perfect as possible in every way!

Betsy Gordon
Site Partner and Senior Editor
http://www.PublishingGurus.com