Do You Need an Editor?
Writing a book is easy. Writing a good book is much more difficult. And no matter how good a story you tell, in order for it to be made into a good book, it needs to be edited, and not self-edited. I have seen a few people who were able to edit their own books but not many. Even professional editors hire other editors for their books—in much the same way as lawyers hire other lawyers to represent them if they’re facing criminal charges.
I know what you’re thinking—”I can do it.” But chances are you can’t. No matter how good of an editor you think you are, something will slip by, and you won’t catch it even with a meticulous re-read. There are a lot of mistakes that may slip into a manuscript: typos, misspelled words, misused or misplaced punctuation, improper use of dialogue tags, and so many more.
Several years ago, I did a blog on what a copy editor does for you. You can see it here. I’ve also included a screenshot that lists what an editor covers. I think you should be able to see the importance of editing.
And please don’t kid yourself by saying this doesn’t happen. It does happen, and it will happen to you—unless you hire an editor (a good one). I’ve heard some writers say they save money by using Grammarly or ProWritingAid, but those apps don’t come close to doing what an editor can. They can help a person improve their writing, but they can’t be relied on to produce a professionally edited document. There are plenty of mistakes they don’t catch, and they also suggest fixing a lot of things that aren’t mistakes. I did a blog on them here. The importance of editing is obvious, so you shouldn’t have to ask “do you need an editor?”
There is not much worse than publishing a poor-quality book. Many readers will not only put a book like that down, they go out of their way to tell others not to read anything by that author. Publishing a book with mistakes is far worse than publishing a book with a bad story.
My advice is simple. Write the best book you can, get some beta readers who will give you honest feedback, then (after you make changes) get it edited by a pro. It won’t guarantee you a best-selling story, but it will be a story you can be proud of.
I recommend a final professional proofread, but if you had a professional editor, a final proofread by you and someone else should be good enough. Be especially careful, though, of typos that may appear where you changed the edited material.
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Giacomo Giammatteo is the author of gritty crime dramas about murder, mystery, and family. And he also writes nonfiction books, including Simply Put: The Plain English Grammar Guide and the No Mistakes Careers series as well as other books on grammar, fantasy, publishing, writing, and children’s fiction and nonfiction.
When Giacomo isn’t writing, he’s helping his wife take care of the animals on their sanctuary. At last count, they had forty animals—seven dogs, one horse, six cats, and twenty-five pigs.
Oh, and one crazy—and very large—wild boar, who used to take walks with Giacomo every day.
He lives in Texas, where he and his wife have an animal sanctuary with forty loving “friends.”
Mike Landis
Giacomo Giammatteo
Mona Curington
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