Hiring an editor too soon wastes time and money.
by Anne R. Allen
Learning to write books is hard. Earning money from books is even harder. So some writers figure they’ll bypass the expensive stuff like hiring an editor.
This is not a good idea if you’re planning to self-publish. We are all blind to our own mistakes. And newbies especially need help in shaping and polishing a book.
But what if you’re going the query route? Do you need to hire an editor before you start sending out a book to agents and small presses?
What an Editor Can (and Can’t) Do
Newbies often aren’t clear about what editors do. When I worked as a freelance editor, I was amazed by the number of people who came to me with over-inflated ideas of what I could do for them.
They’d arrive with collections of transcriptions of court proceedings, notebooks full of verses and random jottings, or stacks of old letters they wanted me to make into a commercially viable memoir or novel.
One potential client actually brought a pillowcase full of ancient cassette tapes and dumped them on my dining table and asked me to “edit” them into a book.
I had to tell these people I couldn’t help. Editors polish a manuscript. They don’t create it.
There are people who spin raw verbal straw into book gold. They’re called ghostwriters. If you have a story to tell and don’t feel you can do it yourself, a good ghostwriter can do it for you. I can recommend an excellent ghostwriting service–Your Memoir–where M. Summerfield Smith works with many clients (some high profile) to turn their memories into books.
But a ghostwriter does more (and costs more) than an editor.
Unless you have deep pockets, if you want to write a book, it’s best to take writing courses, go to conferences, join a critique group and write it yourself. (For memoirists, here’s my post on writing memoir.) Then hire an editor.
The Term “Editor” has Several Meanings in the Book Business.
1) The “in-house” editors at publishing companies
These can be managing editors, who are often also acquisitions editors: the people who decide what manuscripts to publish. They don’t work directly with authors, but manage the editors who do.
Then there in-house copy editors, content editors and proofreaders, whose job it is to polish the manuscript for the marketplace. How much work they will do on your manuscript depends on the house. According to agent Jenny Bent, the amount of hands-on work they do, “varies wildly from editor to editor…because many editors simply don’t have the time or desire to actually edit.”
You’ll probably get more editing from some smaller and mid-sized literary presses than you will from the Big Five. But there, too, the policy varies wildly from one editor to the next. I’m lucky to have had great editors at all four small presses who have published me.
No matter what the size of the publishing house, by the time a manuscript lands on an editor’s desk, it needs to be as polished as the writer can make it. It’s not wise to assume “they’ll fix it later.” Agents do a considerable amount of editing these days, but they don’t have time to teach their clients to write.
So do make sure your ms. is well proofed and correctly formatted before you send a requested partial to an agent or small press.
2) Freelance Editors
Anybody can set up shop as a freelance editor. So make sure whoever you hire has some bonafide credentials. Some have actually worked as in-house editors and others have worked for literary agencies or are even former agents. Others have studied creative writing as well as English grammar and some are authors themselves.
If you decide to hire an editor, do your research and be clear in your goals. You don’t want just any out-of-work English major. If her specialty was the Cavalier poets, she probably won’t be much help in tightening up that psychological thriller.
If the editor doesn’t have a good knowledge of the publishing industry, your money can be wasted. I’ve seen “professionally edited” manuscripts that are ridiculously long, or contained song lyrics (prohibitively expensive) or copyrighted characters.
Mostly you want an editor who knows the business. Preferably somebody who knows what’s selling now and how to write for today’s marketplace. The best way to find a good editor is by referral from satisfied clients.
And there are many kinds of freelancers. Most do all kinds of editing, but some specialize.
a) Proofreaders
Proofreaders do a careful once-over of your ms. looking for typos, grammar boo-boos, disagreeing tenses and squabbling subject/object clauses. They can also pick up inconsistencies and those bizarre things we do like changing a character’s name halfway through the manuscript.
My favorite typo is leaving out articles. A good proofreader keeps my prose from looking like bad translation from original Russian manuscript.
Every author needs a proofreader. Or several. Hiring a professional is the best way to get a piece proofed, but you can also trade proofing with a trusted fellow writer.
But don’t hire a proofreader until you’re absolutely sure the book is polished and ready to go. After any substantial revision, you’ll need to proof it again.
b) Copy Editors
Often “copy editor” and “line editor” are treated as synonymous, but a line edit can be more thorough than a copy edit.
Copy editors do the proofreading stuff in more depth, plus look for inconsistencies in spellings, character traits, and general continuity stuff. (Where a character gets into a Lexus on page 10 and gets out of a Rolls Royce on page 11.)
They will also flag things for fact-checking or getting permission for use.
c) Line Editors
A line editor does all of the above, plus they address awkward phrasing, changes in tone, diction, overuse of words, confusing phrases, repetitions, and over-writing. They will also recommend cuts or additions and rewrites of weak language, clichés and other things that need improvement.
You don’t want a line or copy editor until your book is pretty well shaped and complete or you’ll have to hire another one after you do more rewrites.
d) Developmental or Content Editors
A developmental editor–sometimes called a “content editor” improves the overall quality of a book. They look at pacing, plotting, characterization, focus, plausibility, organization, tightening, and sharpening. They may tell you to cut your prologue, consolidate characters, start your book in a different place, and remove unnecessary scenes. A good developmental editor can cut a bloated 150K word novel into a sleek 90K word page-turner.
This is what in-house editors used to do, but don’t have much time for anymore.
e) Writing Coaches
“Book Coaches” or “Writing Coaches” are not always editors, although they may help with editing. Writing coaches are part therapist, part editor and part private tutor. For people who are new to writing and need help with motivation and creating good environment for writing, a writing or “book coach” can be really helpful.
Most new writers don’t have the money to hire a coach, but if you do, it can be wonderful to have somebody in your corner when you have self-doubts.
Most writers learn their craft through workshops, extensive reading, critique groups, and conferences. Writing coaches are a luxury, but often a major time-saver.
Beware Hiring an Editor too Soon
Those wannabe writers who brought me pillowcases full of cassette tapes and stacks of scribbled journals were really jumping the gun. They were trying to hire an editor before they even wrote a book.
But it can be just as counterproductive to hire an editor when you’re struggling with your first “practice novel.” Too many newbies hire editors when what they really need is a few basic writing classes and some knowledge of the industry.
Most agents I’ve talked to say you don’t need to hire an editor before you query. Do have that book self-edited and proofread, but an agent wants to know how well YOU write, not somebody you’ve hired.
She will almost always want more edits, as will your in-house editor, and if people have paid for a pre-query edit, they tend to balk at changing the manuscript again.
If you do hire an editor before you approach agents, don’t say in a query your work has been “professionally edited.” That suggests you’re probably a beginner who doesn’t have the skills yet to go pro.
The number one mistake new writers make is trying to publish too early. With the self-publishing revolution, the problem has become much worse, because now they can publish whatever and whenever they want. A lot of writers feel they can dash off anything, then hire an editor to clean up the mess, then blame the editor when it doesn’t sell.
But no amount of editing can fix a book that is seriously flawed or amateurish. Hiring an editor isn’t the same thing as learning to write. And learning takes time.
Where Do You Find an Editor?
The best way is word of mouth. Nothing substitutes for a satisfied customer. One who is selling successfully is best, obviously.
A lot of self-published authors will sing the praises of their editors, so visit their blogs. Or ask a favorite indie author for a recommendation.
As of this month, I can recommend my editor, Mark Williams, who has recently hung out his shingle as a freelance editor. (More info below.)
If you don’t have a glowing recommendation from a friendly author, a great place to look is Reedsy, a site that lists all kinds of author services and provides lots of author support and information.
Hiring an Editor is Expensive, So Don’t Waste Your Editor’s Time.
The standard pay scale for editorial services is posted by the Editorial and Freelancers Association.
Some editors charge by the hour, some by the page, and some by the type of job. Plan to spend from five hundred to several thousand dollars for a book-length manuscript.
But this is why you really don’t want to hire an editor to teach you the basics of grammar or storytelling (or transcribe a pillowcase full of cassette tapes.) So join a critique group, get some beta reads, and workshop that book as much as you can before you contact an editor.
If they have to spend all their time hunting down wayward apostrophes or dealing with substandard punctuation, they’re not going to be able to deal with the big picture items where you most need help.
Who should hire a Freelance Editor?
The people who benefit most from a freelance editor’s work are:
- Self-publishers. If you’re not working with a publisher, you absolutely need to hire an independent editor before uploading your book. Most writers are blind to our typos and our own pet crutches and quirks. Longtime pros generally only need a line editor, but a fairly new writer should get a developmental edit. I’ve tried to read way too many indies who only hired a proofreader. It’s not enough.
- Experts whose primary field is not the written word. This includes self-help books by psychologists or medical professionals, specialty cookbooks, local history, etc. Some people think nonfiction is easy to write. But it’s not easy to write well. They will probably need a thorough edit before querying or publishing.
- Memoirists who have a unique, marketable tale to tell, but don’t want to spend years honing writing skills for one book. They will need a developmental editor, and may need several edits before they query or publish.
- Writers who have been requested by an interested agent or publisher to give the book a polish. Many agents will ask a writer to hire an independent editor at this stage. (But don’t hire one who is employed by the agency, because that can be a major conflict of interest.)
- Novelists who have polished their work in workshops and critique groups, but after many rejections, can’t pinpoint what is keeping them in the slush pile.
***
Red Flags to Watch for When Hiring an Editor
There are scammers who charge big bucks and then simply run a book through spellcheck, so do a search at Writer Beware for names. Writer Beware is also great for in-depth advice and a list of some hair-raising editing scams. Here are some warning signs:
- Extravagant praise and promises. Anybody who guarantees you a place on the best-seller list is either crooked or delusional.
- Claims that publishers require a professionally edited ms. Not true. It’s also not true that an edit guarantees a read.
- An agent or publisher who recommends their own editing services or gives a specific referral. Beware conflicts of interest. In the 1990s, Edit Ink scammed writers by giving agents kickbacks for referrals and even setting up fake agencies to tell queriers they’d get representation if they used Edit Ink’s expensive, useless services.
- Knowledge of your genre. You need somebody who’s familiar with your genre. Conventions that are required in one genre, like romance, can be poison in something literary or action-oriented. Nonfiction needs to be edited differently from fiction, as well. Some editors are knowledgeable enough to edit any kind of book, but most specialize. Here’s a fantastic in-depth piece on how to hire a romance editor from Cate Hogan.
- Direct solicitation. Scam editors sometimes purchase email lists and blitz the writing community with emails. Beware if they’re gathering a huge number of clients. Good edits take time, so mass-editing is going to be minimal and pretty useless.
- Sales pressure. “Limited time offers” are rarely good deals.
- No client list. You should be able to get a list of clients if you ask.
- No sample edits. Most editors will offer a sample edit of a few pages before any money changes hands. This protects them as well as you, because they don’t have to take on something they can’t fix.
***
A good editor can make the difference between a successful book and a dud. Choose your editor carefully and work until you have a marketable project.
And most of all, don’t hire an editor too soon. Editing is polishing, not re-writing. First you have to put in those 10,000 hours that Malcolm Gladwell says are necessary to learn a craft. That’s a lot of hours. Go write.
by Anne R. Allen (@annerallen) June 4th, 2017
What about you, scriveners? Have you used a freelance editor? What kind of experience did you have? Have you ever been scammed by a bogus editor?
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Thanks, Anne.
“But no amount of editing can fix a book that is seriously flawed or amateurish.” Excellent point. Nobody can turn mud into gold. Yet.
Your comment about big publishers caused a nod at my end. I’m thinking of one Random House book with so many typos and formatting errors that I almost didn’t finish reading it. Big Five doesn’t necessarily mean great editing.
Kathy–Formatting is a separate issue, but that’s one the Big 5 still have a lot of trouble with. When you spend $10+ for an ebook and the formatting is lousy, you really feel ripped off. That’s why I buy very few Big 5 ebooks. And yes, they do have a lot of typos these days, too.
I remember a $50 coffee table book about Edith Head that had a typo on every page. A real, honest-to-God typo that any spellcheck could have caught. Then there were the two books in Oxford University Press’ Library of Latin American Literature that had a number of typos in them, as well as questionable word choices by the translators.
The publishing industry, like many, have ill-educated employees, or people who simply make mistakes.
Of course, there’s a lot more indifferent editing in self-published books, but the better authors are catching on and either hiring proofreaders or crowdsourcing the editing to get the more egregious errors pulled.
Editors are there to make it better, not fix it if it’s completely broken or create what doesn’t exist.
I’ve enjoyed working with the editor with my publisher.
I also know several great editors and through my author contacts, could find dozens more if need be.
Alex–I probably should have said that a group like your Insecure Writers Support Group is a great source of info on editors and other book services. Go where writers congregate to get the skinny on good editors (and bad ones to avoid.)
The writing community is not very friendly if all you want is copy editing and not developmental editing. When I first started looking for a copy editing, I asked for the usual recommendations. I was amazed that everyone gave me names of editors who only did developmental editing. I’m not sure the writers understand the different types of editing. All the ones recommended looked like other writers who decided they could edit and were not qualified. I saw many only had developmental editing, which made me wonder if they knew how to copy edit, which in term made me wonder if they were really that good at developmental editing.
I went to a con panel on editing, thinking I might find an editor from the panel. They asked me before the panel what I was looking for, and I said, “Copy editing.” Big mistake. During the panel, they sternly lectured that “Everyone needs developmental editing,” clearly directed at me. Another writer had an outright meltdown to me because I’d chosen copy editor, lecturing me that I wasn’t doing the best for my book.
Do take the time to understand the different forms of editing. Most of the recommendations to do developmental editing come from the editors themselves, who have an obvious investment in the process, and from beginning writers, who are most likely recommending it based on other beginning writers recommendations.
Linda–You’re right. Many writers don’t have a clue that there are different kinds of editing. And you’re also right that many authors who hang out their shingle as editors don’t really know much about editing either.
I like working with Mark Williams because he gets it. As he says on his website: “a seasoned writer just wanting a fresh pair of eyes to look over their final draft is going to be a lot less work for me than a newbie author making all the rookie mistakes that newbie writers make (and yes, I made them all too – we all have to do our apprenticeship!).”
Some editors treat all authors like newbies. Most seasoned authors only need a copy-edit.
Thanks, Anne, for a very helpful and informative posts, and to all the commentators so far who have also ‘added value’.
I recently read a book I really liked. The word ‘discrete’ was used several times, and each time what was actually meant was ‘discreet.’ I wrote the author a friendly letter pointing this out (as well as letting him know how much I enjoyed his book.) He wrote me a sincerely appreciative letter back thanking me. He said the book had been through many proofreadings, edits, etc., and yet nobody had caught that. Just goes to show you…
Tricia–That kind of mistake makes me cringe for the author. It was very kind of you to clue him in. Brave too. Some authors can be so childish when it comes to hearing about their mistakes. Thanks for being a good reader-citizen. 🙂
When I first started publishing my LGBT books and my WWII gay romance series, I was lucky to find a terrific small press publisher, JMS Books, who provides each writer with an editor who does both content and copy editing. I’ve been amazed at how professional this publisher is to work with. Right now I’m working with a first class editor on a memoir about my mom. When I saw the title of today’s post I couldn’t believe how relevant it is to my current situation. I absolutely recommend having an editor because you miss so much the first time or even the tenth time around. Editors ask questions about the book’s chronology, character inconsistencies, sections that can be tossed and where you need to add more information for the reader. These are often questions you’ve never thought about but will stop the reader in her/his tracks. I’ve been so lucky in my writing career to always have the services of an editor whether freelance as I do now, or part of the publishing process in-house. Great post, Anne. And so valuable to beginning and developing writers. Paul
Paul–When I saw your name I realized I left out another very different kind of editor–the ones who edit literary magazines and anthologies–which is what you’ve been doing for a couple of decades now, as well as being an author yourself.
I do think good editing is one of the perks of being with a small press, which is why I’ve stuck with small presses most of my career. And when you find a good editor, you don’t want to let go!
Best of luck with your memoir! .
Thanks so much, Anne. You know I forgot all about the editing I’ve done. Thanks for bringing that up. Must still be chemo brain. 🙂
I laughed out loud at this line, Anne: Anybody who guarantees you a place on the best-seller list is either crooked or delusional.
One of the problem I’ve heard students tell me is that they are leery of hiring editors because it is in the editor’s interest to praise you, so that you will feel good about them and recommend them to others. (A house editor doesn’t have that conflict of interest.) So I think your point about trusting your editor and seeing sample pages is very important.
Melodie–I fear you’re right about some freelance editors giving praise instead of edits. There may be an epidemic of it in the age of indie publishing. I’ve tried to read so many amateurish books and later seen the author on social media talking about their “editor” and I say to myself “That book was edited?” A good freelance editor will tell you what needs fixing, even if it hurts (which it usually does.) But maybe they’re more likely to get new clients if they don’t do the hurty part.
Thanks, Anne, for this informative post. I especially applaud the idea that an editor isn’t there to teach you how to write.
In my experience over the past 5 years or so I have encountered a glut of first-book writers who show up with a rough first draft, asking for a ‘copy edit’. I also often encounter a writer who hasn’t furthered their writing education beyond whatever they learned in high school. Some might have taken a creative writing class in college… These experiences have altered my developmental approach to where I push the writer toward an assessment, which essentially covers all the broken structure problems, as well as many, many writing problems. I urge each writer to perform rewrites, give guidance and suggestions, and then wait to hear back. I rarely do — mostly, it appears, because returning for a more detailed edit means more money.
It appears that the route to self-publishing only includes a few hundred dollars for editing, very little effort for self-education or self-editing, and the belief that editors ‘fix’ books.
It’s frustrating to be committed to supporting authors in producing the best iteration of their book, and then have to hack through inaccurate perceptions of editing, poor writing skills, and vastly underdeveloped manuscripts.
Apologies for what may sound like complaints, but I also see the chosen image for a post on editors (wizened old dude) which pushes the idea that editors are old-fashioned and …. nevermind. :o)
I do have the fortune of working with excellent writer/authors who love their craft, pursue self-editing with zest, and respect the role of their editor. These wonderful creatives bring me well-written manuscripts, nearly ready for agent/publisher queries. The process we utilize is a bit of everything. I check the fine details of proofreading, as well as any little hangover developmental or copy editing issues. We collaborate to produce a new iteration for a final polish — completing a journey that ends in publication with one of the vibrant small presses.
Going back to my little hermit-ness now — just felt I had to speak out to the reality that there are two very different versions of book authors nowadays: the pro, serious, well-educated and the passionate, but under-educated newbie. Both are passionate about their work, but the educational difference creates a completely different editor experience — for both sides.
Thank you for your always thoughtful and thought-provoking posts!
postscript: Thanks for the tip-of-the-hat to Reedsy. Have been working through this venue since inception, with a positive experience —
Tiger–Your experience explains why Linda Maye in the comment above had such a negative response to her request for a copy edit. And I’ve had experiences similar to yours. People who’ve written an unpublishable mish-mash and want to hire me to line edit or “just proofread.” I had to turn stuff like that down, because I didn’t want my name associated with the book.
I think what we have here is an example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. The least competent writers are the most confident in their abilities. Unfortunately.
Offering an evaluation of the book first is a great idea. It protects the editor as well as the author. If you see that the author is still in the early learning stage, and doesn’t know it, you can turn the project down and save yourself a lot of grief.
I’m sorry you don’t like my picture. I chose it because I thought it was funny. The editor as boogieman. I usually choose pictures that are ironic or funny. That’s my humor. It may not always translate.
I’m glad to hear that your experience with Reedsy has been a good one. They’re a very professional outfit.
Thanks, Anne. On the image choice — I see the humor and relate to the boogieman idea — I’ve just binged House of Cards, which I’ve never seen, for the past several days before starting the month of projects — I believe this has put a negative crease in my mind — or the lack of sleep… :o)
I like Ruth’s additional thoughts on genres and editors. I am very strict about this, as I believe each genre has special little quirks that must be in place to fully satisfy reader expectations. I know historical fiction, YA/NA, Fantasy, etc. but not true crime, and though I could be tempted due to my previous background in police work, I am simply not familiar with that genre.
Thanks again — I’ve sent this post to all my networks as a ‘must read’.
Maria
Thanks for sharing, Maria!
I have to watch House of Cards in small doses. Not a lot of humor there. 🙂
I want to add a note about genre and style to Anne’s excellent post. If you’re writing a thriller/mystery, be sure to find an experienced editor who specializes in those genres. Ditto horror, romance, sci-fi, etc. They will know the market and be expert in guiding you through questions of pacing, tone, voice, setting clues, dialogue, creating emotion, and meeting reader expectations.
The second item to pay attention to is style: Decide whether you prefer a light (or firm) hand to work on your manuscript. There is no right or wrong here but style definitely matters and the sample 2000 word edit will tell you what you need to know. For example: a writer who cares about language and aims for complexity and an editor who prefers a more direct, declarative approach won’t work well together.
Ruth–Both important points. I did mention genre in my “Red Flags” section. There’s a link to a post about choosing a romance editor. Editing romance is a very different skill from a editing a thriller. Romance is all about balance in the pacing A thriller builds with a steady drumbeat, but a romance has more delicate ups and downs. Some editors can edit several genres but they need to have read extensively in them all.
And I’m glad you brought up editing style. Some writers feel attacked when edits are presented in a matter of fact way. They need a gentler touch. Especially for a new writer, it can be important to find an editor who can communicate with kindness as well as find fault. Thanks!
Great article, Anne. I learned much of this through writers groups and workshops (often given by publishers).
One tool I’ve become a big fan of is grammar checkers like ProWritingAid. My English fundamentals are not the strongest and I still make goofy errors regularly. Tools like this are much better than in word processors. They check style, cliches, sticky sentences, diction, alliteration, and more.
My own routine is to write, then rewrite multiple times until it’s “smooth”, then run it through the grammar checker. This suffices for a blog post but for longer works going to press, it’s just prep for the editor.
I also know the tool is not enough as I still have readers sending me typos in blog posts.
Fully agree on checking background. A friend recently suggested to me they should become an editor – they notice typos in the paper after all. They dropped it when I pointed them to Fiver. (laughs)
(also not place to find a professional editor)
David–Grammar checking software drives me batty, because it’s so often dead wrong. The idea of a robot made by some college dropout in Silicon Valley “correcting” my grammar makes me furious.
But for somebody who’s not a grammar nerd like me, I can imagine it might be helpful. Just don’t take them as the ultimate authority on anything. But it’s probably great to run it through before the ms. goes to the editor.
Hiring an editor on Fivrr? Yikes. I guess you’d get what you paid for. 🙂
And yes! There is a whole lot more to editing than noticing typos!
A key takeaway for newbies should be that an editor is not an optional part of the publishing process. Cringe-worthy errors like wrong words (I even saw “shears” instead of “sheers” in a very well known author’s book, creating the mental visual of rows of scissors hanging in front of the window), duplicate sentences, and punctuation errors are all too common these days. As smart authors, we need to do what we can to avoid these dips in quality. Thanks, Anne, for the great resources and a great recommendation!
Carmen–Haha! I love the image of a curtain of scissors!
Just this morning I was about to Tweet a Medium post on how to research literary agents, when I saw the title said “How to Research Literally Agents” People with autocorrect REALLY need to proofread.
Yes, we all need a second set of eyeballs to go over our work!
We only get one chance to make a first impression. I do, however, need a literally agent. None of these faux agents for me.
Carmen Haha!! 🙂 Literally agents are much better.
Carmen speaks truth. As an audiobook narrator/producer who is regularly reading first chapters of potential project, I can vouch for the importance of a good editor. Sadly, I pass on books due to a lack of editing at a rate of at least 30:1. Editing is a very good thing and it’s so very sad when someone’s dreams have no chance of growing wings because no editor was hired.
CS–You bring up a very important point. These days, authors need many income streams. One of the most lucrative is audiobooks. If your book isn’t well edited, narrators are not going to sign on.
Don’t let your book die a tragic death in obscurity when an edit might make it a masterpiece!
Thanks!
Aw, Anne, I liked your editor image. So Dickensian! And as to his perceived curmudgeonliness (hmmm…not a first category word, I fear), I hadn’t felt that at all. So I went back up and studied him for a moment, and I see a quiet but deep humor in his eyes.
Tricia–I’ll bet you have a good relationship with your editor! 🙂 Finding out of copyright images that are just right for a post is always a challenge. These days I look for them in old paintings. This guy grabbed me with that intense look.in his eyes. I figured nothing would get past him.
Not sure if you want this kind of comment or not but I highly recommend Marcy Kennedy marcykennedy@gmail.com . Terrific eye for voice, POV, and character inconsistencies. Interestingly, for me, I was so buried in the process that I made the same mistakes repeatedly throughout the draft.
Ken–Thanks for the recommendation. As I say, word of mouth is the best way to find a good editor.
I’ve only used an editor once, and sadly, they were hired too soon in the process. The editor themselves were very good (freelance writer/editor who was briefly a stablemate at my one and only publisher), but in hindsight, my manuscript really wasn’t ready for an editor even after three rounds of editing. Twas a very expensive lesson to learn (which I’m still paying off on) as that particular manuscript is currently sitting in my slushie pile. Some day it will be revisited, if only because the mistakes made in that will have long gone been corrected in the subsequent stories that I’m currently writing.
GB–Experiences like yours are exactly why I wrote this post. I see this happen all too often. When newbie writers get an edit too soon, everybody loses. Editors who try to shape a raw manuscript into a readable novel end up spending way too much time, and the author spends way too much money.
This is one of the most helpful posts, Anne. I found my first editor in the RWA magazine and she really was so helpful for content as well as all the rest of the grammar-ish items. I have learned so much from the content editors – the most helpful people for my writing. I cannot see the forest for the trees after I finish a novel and have edited the heck out of it myself, so I am a firm believer in getting someone else’s professional eyes to finish the job before I feel it’s ready.
Patricia–I can imagine that RWA is one of the best places to find editors who really “get” romance. It’s a specialized field and the wrong editor can take out exactly the elements that a romance reader is looking for. You’re right that a second pair of eyes is absolutely necessary. None of us can judge our own work. We see what we imagine is there instead of what is actually on the page.
After reading this, I came across a message from Stephen Campbell of The Author Biz podcast. He’s talking this week to developmental editor and writing coach Alida Winternheimer.Seems like the perfect follow-up to your post.
http://theauthorbiz.com/how-to-find-the-right-editor-at-the-right-stage-of-your-author-journey/
Thanks for the link, Bill! Great podcast and I tweeted it and got an invite to visit and talk about blogging!
Thanks for the explanation. This makes a lot of sense. I asked several people to read my non-fiction manuscript for clarity, and then asked a girlfriend with a good eye to proofread for me (I miss things in my own manuscripts unless there’s a good deal of time since the last read-through). My publisher’s first editor suggested cuts and changed the introduction. They outsourced the proofreading and I discovered I sometimes use British spellings!
Sad to say, I’m not at the stage yet where I’m ready for an editor; I write short stories and don’t have enough good ones for a collection yet. But when I do have an editor, I definitely want one who can and will catch everything that needs to get caught, though not a despot as far as final decisions go. Is that a lot to ask?
Tricia–I forgot to mention the lovely editors at literary magazines and those are editors you ARE ready for. Collections of short stories are a hard sell, but individual stories can be a goldmine. You should be sending out those stories and finding them homes. Maybe they’ll even win some big bux in a contest! Some magazine editors go in for heavy editing and some don’t, but getting your stories in print is the best first step to a writing career.
“Eliminating the middle man” might work for used car salesmen, but not writers.
M.C.–True indeed.! 🙂
Love this post, Anne! I transitioned from in-house editor to freelance a few years ago and found client referral and sample edits were big factors in helping new authors determine if I’m the right fit or not. I’m also a writer, and one thing I wanted to add is that, even being a writer and working as an editor, I still need an editing team for my fiction. Just like your Russian oopses, I have my blind spots and they are many, from indulgent narrative bloat to my where I mean me, or it’s when I mean its and done even realize I’ve typed the apostrophe. You know, that said, I’ve found the best storytellers I’ve worked with have the most typos. My theory: their mind is immersed in storytelling, and when one wanders in that dimension, typos happen!
John–I love your theory! I do think when the mind is “in that dimension” is when we make the most typos. I find I often type homonyms, which means I’m somehow hearing the words in my mind. They’re often very childish, like “sum” for “some.” So I figured that it’s my “inner child” who’s telling the story.
And yes, everybody needs an editor, even editors. I’ve worked as an editor, but that doesn’t mean I can see my own typos. I’m often completely blind to them.
Thanks for the insight!
Well done–thank you! Sharing . . .
Fantastic article, concise and thorough (and well edited!). Thanks so much.
Anne, thank you for this excellently informative post. Of course you knew it was precisely what I needed at the very momentI stumbled upon it. Time to move my manuscript forward with a huge amount of great advice here I am more aware now. Have a great weekend Ellen. .
Ellen–I’m so glad to hear this was helpful. We can do a lot of self-editing before we send a piece off to a professional editor. This makes life so much easier for the editor and it can save you some big bux.