I looked at the editor’s comments, wondering if I’d just seen wrongly. Sure, all of it made sense.
But she didn’t tell me how to improve the manuscript.
She told me the problems, but she didn’t tell me how to improve on those comments.
You might be here today because you’re looking for an editor, and you’ve gone to the common marketplaces like Reedsy, Fiverr, and honestly, you’re not too happy with what you’ve found.
You’ve seen editors charging $3000 for developmental editing, or copyediting, and you’re not too sure what you’re looking for.
Finding the right editor is like finding the right therapist
You’re going to hate your editor. I’ve worked with 4 different editors for 4 books, and I’ve hated every single one of them.
After all, why wouldn’t you hate them?
Editors are there to ask you to murder your darlings. They will ask you to kill sentences you’ve fallen in love with. The ideas that you think are pure genius.
They will ask you to stab them, take them out, and leave them in the bin.
That’s why you will have to find one that’s not just smart, but extremely compassionate.
Reassuring you
I remember the first publisher I worked with at Candid Creation, who helped me through my first book. He wasn’t an editor, but he sat me with the editor one afternoon after I told him that I wanted to take the book back into the writing phase. We had completed the manuscript, and we were ready to push it out to print.
He had instructed me to reach out to experts in the field to get their endorsements. One man I respected deeply told me that he couldn’t do it because of some structural problems in my book.
It shook me, and made me think that the book was just not good enough to publish.
But that afternoon, together with the editor, he sat me down and told me that there would always be comments like that. We couldn’t control what people thought, but we could control what we did with our own book. We couldn’t change that people thought some books were trash, but we could focus on the people who actually liked our books.
That, is a great editor.
One who’s able to reassure you, and remind you of the good that exists in your manuscript.
Know what you need
But what happens to the stuff in your manuscript, that’s not so good? That’s where you will need to understand what your manuscript needs.
Don’t worry. This is not an annual report where every word is going to be scrutinised by the investment community.
But you still need to make sure that what you write makes sense.
There are two types of editing.
Story editing
Firstly, developmental editing focuses on the story you’re building. Does it make sense? Are there gaping holes in the plot? Think of your book as a house, and developmental editing like building the scaffolding of your house.
When I wrote my first book to print with Kok Hwa of Candid Creation, he helped me to clarify what it was that I wanted to write.
Making you professional
He made me professional.
He brought me to a gear that I never knew I had. Prior to working with Kok Hwa, I always believed in the power of the personal story. I would always write based on my personal narrative, rather than depending on the expertise of others.
Kok Hwa quietly showed me that as a 27 year old who had had only one job, it would be hard to show enough credibility based off that.
He pushed me to consider interviewing other titans who had great careers, so that I could learn from them.
He then introduced me to the Employment Life Cycle Framework to help me to better structure my book.
But most importantly, he gave us a routine.
He scheduled monthly calls to ensure that we were on track to reach our goals as authors. On these calls, we would need to talk about how our book writing was going, what were the snags, and the successes we had faced.
Together with the 5 other authors on our course, we finally made it to the top of Mount Book Everest, publishing our books.
It was phenomenal.
But there’s also another role to the developmental editing that people often miss.
Helping your book find the customers
That’s the sales aspect.
This is sometimes the publisher’s job. But editors can sometimes double hat as the sales’ editor, particularly in helping you to see if there’s a true market for your book. After reading countless books, they can sometimes see the good (or bad) fit of the book, within the current market.
They can then advise you on how to better fit the book.
Grammar and spell checks
Copyediting is the grammar and spelling, checks. This is where you’re making the final pass.
Think of it as a handyman coming to the new home that you’ve built, and then determining the small details to tune up.
Like your tap needing tightening. Or the light needing less glare.
Copyediting focuses on the details, so that your book has the polish that makes it look professional, and not like a student’s thesis.
An editor is your guide
Whenever I look back at the past 4 books I’ve written, I always remember that it wasn’t a solo journey. It needed publishers, designers, layout artists, but most importantly, the editor.
The editor is not the hero that saves your book.
He’s the guide that brings you along to greater heights with your book.
Finding a good one is not easy.
That’s why you need to be wise with that decision.
- Interview them
- Show them a piece of your writing and ask them for their comments
- Trial them by telling them you’d pay $200 for sharing their comments.
- Assess what they say and if it works for you.
Whatever you do, be slow in making your decision on your editor.
Because the last thing you’d like to do is to fire your editor, in the middle of your book.