Completing your manuscript is a huge achievement and you should feel extremely proud of yourself! You are well on the road to becoming a published author. Unfortunately, there’s still a lot to do before the manuscript will be ready for print, although this will partly depend on whether you are self-publishing or submitting your manuscript to publishers.
Why Use a Professional Editor?
If you have decided to self-publish, one of the things that will need to be done is having your manuscript edited and proofread. This is an important step in the development of your book, as it will greatly improve the reader’s experience of your book and how much they enjoy it. You should definitely have at least two rounds of editing if you can possibly afford it, as different types of editing address different issues in your writing.
Some editing, such as developmental editing, looks at the big picture and spots problems such as plot holes and the pacing of your work. On the other end of the spectrum, there’s proofreading, which is much more detail-orientated and focuses on grammar, spelling and punctuation, as well as the consistency of headings, for example. If you are unsure of the different types of editing, I have a blog about this here, which should help to explain the levels of editing your manuscript might need.
However, professional editing can be very costly, especially once you factor in the multiple rounds required. Why spend more of your budget on this? Self-publishing is already expensive so, to cut costs, you might be tempted to do it yourself or have a friend do it for you. Don’t.
If you try to do it yourself, you will not be looking at it through objective eyes or even fresh ones. You have been working on it for ages and already know exactly what you mean to say or show in your writing, but would it be so clear to an outside reader?
You will also be understandably attached to what you have written and not want to rewrite or even remove certain parts, but this may improve the manuscript as a whole. In addition, it is hard to spot grammar and spelling errors in your own work, as you are so used to seeing them there and know what the sentence should say that it is very easy to just skip over the mistakes.
Alternatively, a friend may not already know the book and can’t fill in parts that are missed out, but they will probably not be objective. In addition, they won’t have had the same training as an editor (unless they are one!) so they might not be looking at the same things.
An editor doesn’t just check for grammar and spelling issues – although they do this too – they also look for consistency of names, places and plot, as well as sentence structure – what works and what doesn’t. As explained above, a lot of what your editor does will depend on what kind of editor you are using.
How Can You Prepare Your Work for an Editor?
As has been said, editing is expensive! Ultimately, it should be a worthwhile investment that will improve sales and reviews of your book, but budgeting for it upfront can be difficult. There are many ways you can make the burden a bit easier, one of which is by preparing your manuscript before you send it to an editor.
The less work there is for the editor to do on it, the less they should charge, if you get a quote based on a sample of your work. Obviously, this won’t work if your editor only charges by the word, but they may still offer different levels of editing at different prices and could suggest a lower one.
There are a variety of ways to improve your work before you have it edited. One very good way is to go back to the idea of editing it yourself – but still getting it professionally edited after! However, you should be able to catch a lot of errors just by looking back over it and using a spelling and grammar checker on it. These are far from perfect but can make a good starting point and pick up most major mistakes.
Another way to self-edit is to re-read your manuscript, trying to imagine that you are a first-time reader who doesn’t know anything about the plot. You may find it helps to make notes of what you know so far from what you have read, then seeing if there’s anything that seems like a plot hole. You may find that a key detail or scene is missing at the start, so some later events don’t really make sense.
You may also be able to get a fellow writer to look over your writing, in exchange for you reading their book. They can then give you feedback on the plot and any errors they notice and whether there are inconsistencies or grammatical errors. Having author friends can be very helpful at times like this!
Wrapping Up
Hopefully, you are now clearer on why you would use an editor and how you can save a bit of money by correcting the simpler errors yourself. Remember that you can ask an editor what they can offer for a certain price to help keep things within your budget. They may well be able to offer a compromise of reduced services that fit in your price range.
Once you are working with an editor, don’t be afraid to ask questions! Most major changes should be explained, but if you are unsure of anything, do ask. Next time we will be looking at setting up as a company to publish your self-published book, so do come back for that in two weeks. Good luck with your manuscript!
Want help proofreading your work? Contact Carmine Proofreading for a friendly, professional service from a qualified proofreader.
Email: CarmineProofreading@gmail.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarmineProofed
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