Editors–Who Needs Them?

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Editors–Who Needs Them?

August 20, 2014 by meleigh53

If you’re a writer, you spend hours, days, weeks and sometimes months on a project. After you have your rough draft down, you pour over your manuscript paragraph by paragraph, line by line, and yes, even word by word.

You tear each sentence apart to bring out the true essence of what you want to say. You check your spelling and grammar, while cursing spell check for inaccuracies. You hunt down every “its” and “it’s” to make sure you have them the right way around.

After you finish with the third, fourth, how ever many drafts you’ve done, you’re fairly certain your work cannot be improved. It is ready for submission

Where does an editor come into all this?

As the author, you know your back story, so when you come to a portion of your story where this is important, you have no problem.

Your readers will. And that’s one reason you need an editor. They don’ t know the back story either. They’ll be as confused as your readers, only they can put a note in the margin and ask, “What were you thinking?”

The editor has no emotional bond to your story, while you have invested in every word. You can’t bear to cut any of it out. Your editor is a sadistic bitch who can’t wait to trim out the dead wood. You won’t see those repeating words and phrases that will drive your readers crazy. To your editor, they are like neon signs flashing in the night.

You may have a beautiful, wondrous, and magical story to tell, but I can guarantee that if you let an editor help you, it will be even more fantastic. You’ve done your job. You’ve written the story, but you are blind to some of the problems it contains. Let your editor do the job they’re good at now–putting the spit and polish on it.

Who needs an editor? Anyone who writes. Yes, I know it’s your baby, born of your blood, sweat, and tears. You will probably cringe when you see all that red ink bleeding down the page. But if you’re honest, you’ll realize that what was once a good book is now a great one, thanks to your editor.

Your publisher will appreciate the fact that someone has gone over it before it went to their in-house editor. They will probably make a few changes even at this stage, but their work will be easier and your book will make it to print faster once they have it.

Especially if you’re self-publishing, have a professional look at your work. Even if you only send them part of it so you can see what sort of corrections they would make, it can be a big help.

If you’re writing a college paper, a book of poetry, non-fiction, anything at all, an editor would help. Trust me. I didn’t want anyone to touch what I’d written, but I’m glad I changed my mind. Having an editor go over that first manuscript taught me a lot.

There are many editing services out there. You can look them up online or in the back of any writer’s magazine. I use RuleBreaker Editing. I can hear the deep, dark, ominous chuckle every time she gets a new manuscript from me and it makes me cringe. I know she will turn it red, but it’s getting better. I’m beginning to catch mistakes before she does, at last part of the time.