Hiring an editor can be one of the hardest things to do as a writer. It often means: trusting someone to understand what you are trying to portray in your writing, leaving yourself open and vulnerable to critiques, biting your tongue when the editor tells you something about your story doesn’t work and the hardest of them all, the idea of someone cutting sections of your book (which often feels like someone cutting chunks out of your heart). Because for most writers, writing can often feel like opening up a vein—it’s a big part of whom we are.
However, I can’t stress enough how important it is to have a professional editor look at your book once it’s finished. And by finished I don’t just mean that you’ve finished the writing but you’ve also gotten it as tight as you can (spell check, grammar, story structure). And I’m not just talking about self-help publishers with the purpose of offering you an editing service for signing up for one of their publishing packages. I’m speaking of an editor who can be a grammatical and story editor as well as someone you can hopefully build a relationship with.
Even with hiring an editor, it’s important that you do your homework. The editor I used for my first book asked me to send them my first 150 pages and based on the feedback she would provide, I would be able to use those notes to edit my last pages.
That process has helped me to become a better writer but it took awhile. My first big-girl job (and by big-girl I mean for a large company in a large city, i.e. New York) was at Citibank on Wall Street. My manager begin to let me write memos to the department but before they were sent out, they had to first go through the red-pen test and those red marks scared me. But eventually I begin to look forward to them because they helped me to become a better business writer.
However, years later when I decided that I wanted to be a writer, seeing red marks throughout my novel were frightening and overwhelming. My first thought—there is no way I can do these changes that she’s asking and it took over a year for me to get over that fear.
But now I know that what she did as an editor: the changes, the cutting, even the scolding of my continuing habit of telling and not showing or the over usage of adverbs has made me a better writer. And now with the beginning of my 2nd novel I know what to watch out for.
Editors can be expensive and as writers we often don’t have a lot of money especially those like me who’ve decided to leave a well paying job to finish that novel. But these days searching the Internet can also provide help.
Though I am not a huge Facebook person, often I can find free advice from editors on the site. Only a few months ago, I ran across an article from an editor on suggested ways look for small errors and mistakes by using the Ctrl F button to find over use of words, such as; believe and felt or words ending in ly. But any great editor, one who is going to turn your story into a sellable book, is worth more than their weight in gold.
Bounty paper-towel let’s you know that their towel is better than the cheaper brand—it can pick up a mess with one swipe. The same goes for a great editor. A great editor can help you create a great product to send to agents or publishers. But if you decide to go the less expensive route--no editor at all or doing it yourself, you may end up with a cheap product or in this case a poorly written book. So I implore you when it comes to your success as a writer, don’t short change yourself!
