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Hey y’all!

Time for our next weekly guild discussion. This week we’ve got Jane Maree from Meraki with tips to help us prepare for a professional edit. (If you’re not sure if you need a professional edit, check out Josiah’s great article on the topic.)

 

If you’re pursuing publishing, whether traditional or self published, a professional editor is a must.

I’m not talking about the editor that the publishing house pairs you with, as I don’t have much personal knowledge to share on that. I’m talking about the (freelance) editor you hire to make your book ready for either self publishing or pitching to literary agents/house editors.

 

I also don’t want to claim to be an expert on this topic. I’m just speaking from my personal experience as an editor working with my clients, and as a friend of several other editors.

 

First of all, I’m going to quickly define the editorial terms I might reference to in this article (or that simply might be helpful for you to know).

There are two groups of edits: the content edits, and the technical edits.

The content edits deal with the theme, characters, plot—basically all those ‘big issues’ of the story.

The technical edits narrow it down to the sentence structure, the wording choice, showing vs telling, and all the way down to grammar and punctuation.

 

For the most part, content edits are in one big section, but technical edits come in several different categories.

Line edits. The editor will be looking at choppy sentence structure, confusing sections, showing vs telling, and those sorts of things.

Copyedits. Here, the editor will check for bad structure, phrasing, some capitalization, inconsistencies in tense, and other such details. Some editors also include spelling errors, typos, grammar, and punctuation as a part of their copyedits.

Proofread. This edit is the most fine-tuned of the technical edits. It’s where your editor will catch any final improper grammar, typos/misspelled words, punctuation, capitalization, and formatting. It can be very similar to a copyedit but is even more focused on the smallest details.

 

 

With all those definitions out of the way, I’m going to look at a few things you need to make sure you’re on top of before and during a professional edit.

 

Edit your book as thoroughly as you can

While no editor is going to expect perfection, it’s unreasonable to give them a messy first draft and ask them to fix it for you.

I would recommend doing several rounds of editing yourself before you go to an editor. This means that you can get the most for your money. If there are huge glaring holes, the editor might not be able to deal with some of the other smaller, but equally important problems, until you get the big ones fixed.

This can take a lot of time and more money than necessary. So just take the effort in the first place and make sure your manuscript is as good as you can make it.

 

Make sure the editor is right for your story

Before you pay them several hundred dollars to edit your 160k fantasy masterpiece, you want to make sure it’s going to pay off in the end.

 

Read their reviews from previous clients
Most editors will have testimonials up on their website, written by other authors who have worked with them. They can give good insights to the strengths of the editor and you can assess if they sounds like someone who could best help with your own manuscript.

 

Request a sample edit
Most editors will be happy to give you a sample edit on the first chapter or first ten pages of your story. They want to make sure that they can work with you, just as much as you want to make sure that you can work with them.

Some editors don’t advertise that they do this, but it’s worthwhile to ask anyway, because there’s a high chance that they’ll say yes.

 

Email them any questions
If you have a question and can’t find the answer on their website, ask it! Being an editor isn’t synonymous for being a scary, overly-stiff-and-professional human. (In fact, none of the editors I know are scary or stiff, so there you go. 😛 )

 

Check out other editors too
It’s best to have a few options to compare with, so that you can come out with the best editor for you and your book.

 

Say no sometimes
Don’t go with the first editor you ask just because you don’t want to say no. Any decent editor will understand if you think they won’t be the best option for you. They might be disappointed, but they’re not going to hold it against you for the rest of your days or anything.

(And if they do, they have bigger problems to deal with than just losing a potential client.)

 

Read up on the editor’s specific details

Make sure you’ve read all their details before you apply. That means reading the descriptions of each edit, knowing what edit you want, what format to send your book in, what genres the author accepts, etc.

While you don’t have to stress too much about all the details, it’s still important to be considerate of the editor and to know what you’re walking into.

 

Make sure your manuscript is ready for the edit you’ve asked for

If you’re asking for a copyedit and give the editor something with plot holes and underdeveloped theme and characters, you’re not going to get as much out of this edit as you could.

A good editor might suggest that you apply for a high level edit (e.g. a content edit) and follow that up with a copyedit after some more drafts.

Or they may simply do their best and copyedit the heck out of your story. You’d end up with nearly flawless prose, but a story with no strong core.

 

If you’re not sure which edit will be best suited for your manuscript, get a sample edit! Ask the editor for their opinion so you can get the best thing for your story.

 

Remember your editor is on your side

Assuming from here on out that you’ve got a good editor contracted, you need to remember that they do know what they’re doing!

They’ll sometimes suggest changes that you might not like. They’ll say things about your story which might be hard to take at first. Don’t just throw all that out the window.

Ultimately, they’re for your story’s good.

A good editor will try to see your heart behind the story. They’ll try to see your story and your passion for it. It’s part of the job description.

It’s also part of the job description to help you see the flaws. An editor will hopefully show you the flaws in a loving way, but they will, nonetheless, show you the flaws.

Don’t hire an editor if you’re not going to listen to them. It just makes their job a pain.

Don’t listen to everything they say

I know this sounds counterintuitive to what I just said, but I promise it’s not!

Every time I edit for a new client for the first time, I start with a quick comment that goes something like this:

When I give an example for a different wording or sentence structure, I try to keep my phrasing choices as close to your writing style as possible, but it’s not always going to fit. They’re just examples for you to look at and maybe use if you want, maybe take ideas off of, or maybe ignore altogether, it’s ultimately up to you.

Don’t take it as rock truth that everything I say must be changed. It’s your book, and while I try to see and become a part with your vision for the story, I’m never going to know it as intimately as you do.

That pretty much says it all. While you should seriously consider everything the editor says, that doesn’t mean you have to unquestioningly change it every time. It takes discernment to choose which to follow through on and which you think are better as they are.

(This will change if you’re in a contract with a publishing house and their editor is telling you to change something. Then, there’s only some times when you can push back on something they’ve asked for, and then only with good reasons, but I don’t have a lot of experience in that area so I can’t address it properly.)

Getting a professional edit can be so eye-opening. Not only will your manuscript will be better, but you’ll also have learned more about writing and editing which you can apply to all other stories you write in the future.

Have you ever gotten a professional edit? What do you think are some of your greatest writing flaws?

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