If you’d like to avoid the embarrassment and shame associated with publishing ca-ca, I can’t recommend the editing process highly enough. Editing professionals get paid to study your manuscript, point out problems, and, sometimes, offer corrective suggestions. Unlike your mother or girlfriends, these are people who’ll have no trouble telling you the cold, hard truth.
There are primarily two types of editing services in the publishing world. The first is holistic editing. The second is copy editing.
Just as holistic medicine considers the whole person—body, mind, spirit, and emotions—in the quest for optimal health, holistic editing considers the whole manuscript—structure, flow, style, and tone—with an eye for soundness and readability.
Holistic editors look for the gaps that need filling, scenes that need chopping, and themes that need supporting. They notice if that important character mentioned in the first chapter disappears for two hundred pages, only to magically reappear. They spot the breaks in the narrative perspective, the dialogue that sounds stilted, and the need for backstory. They read for redundancies, inconsistencies, and believability. You get my drift. Their job is to call attention to these things, and make recommendations. Depending on the editor, these recommendations may be very broad—for God’s sake, do not think of publishing this yet—or very specific—you may want to get rid of the nursemaid, who serves absolutely no purpose.
Unlike holistic editors, copy editors will go through your manuscript line by line. These are the folks who’ll fix your punctuation, grammar, and spelling. A writer may be skilled at explaining a procedure or depicting a scene, but the copy editor is the one who makes sure the syntax is smooth; that the writing adheres to the conventions of grammar; that the wording is proper and precise, and the punctuation, appropriate and correctly placed. He or she may also suggest some reorganization, recommend changes to chapter titles or subheadings, and identify lapses in logic or sequential slip-ups. Working through your manuscript, a copy editor will make detailed notes about every problem encountered. When you get your manuscript back, you’ll likely find a bunch of “red ink” (corrections) in the document, and a long list of queries in the margins.
A query, by the way, is a diplomatic suggestion for fixing an identified problem. For example: “Hey, you might want to consider taking the horns off the dog. Not sure dogs have horns.” Or, “Do you really want to say that his balls were blue? Maybe you should change the color.” It is up to you, the author, to incorporate the suggested changes, or not.
Because of the detailed, time-consuming nature of the work, copy editing is more expensive than holistic editing. You can expect to pay two to three times as much for the same manuscript. Thanks to the collapse of the publishing industry, there are some wonderful professionals out there who can be found on the Internet. Plug in the keywords “copy editors” and see who comes up. As always, it pays to be wary. Ask for references and work samples.
Regardless of the complexity of your genre, or the method you choose to publish your book, you’d be wise to hire a copy editor. If you’re aiming to be published by a major house, you’ll want to provide them with a clean manuscript, one with all of the major bugs worked out, unless you enjoy being snubbed. Even if you self-publish, don’t make the mistake of putting half-baked ca-ca out into the world simply because there’s no one stopping you from doing so. The goal is to be taken seriously as an expert and/or writer, not illicit pity.
Most of these things are easy to fix. Fix them. Pay the money. Separate yourself from the junk.
NOTE: If English is your second language, you’ll eventually need to pay for a copy editor, no ifs, ands, or buts. There’s no simple way around it. Start planning and saving for it now.
As the old credit card commercial states: Editing services? A few hundred bucks. The truth? Priceless!
P.S. If you’re looking for a good editor, let me know and I’d be happy to recommend one.
