Hi all!
This week I'm going to talk about editors for self publishers, and why they are vital to self publish your book. I got Blood and Water edited professionally, and I am so thankful I did. She was wonderful, and she helped me fix things that I didn't even notice when I was editing it myself. I am hoping to go back to her to edit the rest of the Elemental Dragons series.
First off, the big question: if I can edit myself, why do I need an editor?
There are several reasons you need an editor, and if you want your book to be the best it can be, you're going to need at least one person professionally looking over your work.
They will not hold back.
Your book is your baby, of course you're going to be soft on it. I know I was with Blood and Water, I was too nervous to cut things that, in hindsight, I didn't need. Editors will not think about your book in this way, and they will critique it fairly.
They can spot things you've missed.
After reading your book and editing it over and over there are things you will miss, but that's okay. An editor is more likely to pick up spelling and grammar mistakes because they have never read your book before. Their eyes are not used to the words like you are.
It's a fresh pair of eyes.
As above, they can spot mistakes and suggest corrections better than you can. They can look at your manuscript with a clean slate.
Family and friends aren't enough.
Their feedback will be biased, no matter how they try to convince you other wise. You need someone who will give you truly honest feedback.
It will make your book more professional.
When selling a book it needs to be the best it can be, no-one wants to read a book full of spelling and continuity errors when there are thousands out there that have been edited. Don't shoot yourself in the foot before you've even started.
They can sort plot holes.
I didn't realise that Blood and Water had any plot holes left until I got my editor. I had completely forgotten that a dragon was supposed to be patrolling hallways as stated in the first chapter! So I quickly fixed that.
They can make suggestions.
My editor didn't like the ending to Blood and Water, so I revamped it. It was a huge cliffhanger, but she suggested I change it to something a little more subtle, so I did.
They can point out character flaws.
One flaw that I had was the relationship between two siblings, Hazel and Rocky. She thought some parts were a bit out of character and suggested I remove chapters that are in his point of view. I did, and it made the story flow so much better!
They're not all bad, they'll tell you what they love about your work too.
It's not all criticism, they will let you know what parts they liked and how to improve the rest of the story to reflect the good parts.
Of course, editors are expensive. But, they are so worth it. To get feedback on how to improve your work is priceless. You do have to pick the right editor of course. I picked mine because I felt that she corrected my test pages the best and was also in my price range. I looked her up and saw that she had a lot of experience of editing in my genre, which was great. You don't really want a sci-fi editor for your historical mystery, do you?
That's it for this week! Next week I'm going to write about writing as a teenager. See you then!