The Fifth Screwup

A lot of writers think they don't need their own editor.  They think they're going to publish with a publishing company and it will take care of their editing for them.  It is true that a publishing company will probably get up in your business and ask you to make changes to your manuscript.  However, it's also true that a publishing company will not want to work with you if your work is unedited (they'll call it rough).  They want to work with hardened writers who are used to making compromises.

On the flip side, if you decide to go the indie route (self-publish without the financial backing of a publishing company), you're going to hit a roadblock.

Professional editing is expensive.

You're also very likely to despise your first editor with a potency that surprises you.  It's so expensive and time-consuming that you will want to bypass the whole process because writing a novel was supposed to make money, not cost you money.  Most editors that advertise on the internet have a rate of $5 for every 1,000 words.  This means that you will be very lucky to get your manuscript edited for less than $1,000.

I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking that my math sucks because it should only cost $300 to have a 60,000-word manuscript edited.  I promise you, my math is impeccable.  It took me a long time to acknowledge this, but this is the truth: a manuscript needs a minimum of three rounds of editing.  You will be lucky if you only need three rounds.

Each round of editing has a different purpose.  Allow me to explain.

Content Editing

Imagine you're in an art class and your art teacher is explaining how to draw a perspective drawing.  You draw the vantage point and every line you put on that page is working with that point in one way or another.  Some lines hold up others, but everything is acknowledging that vantage point.  Content editing is like someone taking your perspective drawing and erasing every line that doesn't play to the vantage point in some way.

Every word that doesn't help the plot, continue the themes, entertain the reader, speed up the action, foreshadow what is to come, or emphasize a point has to go.  This means that your manuscript is going to suffer a very substantial drop in its word count.  If you have written exactly 40,000 words, it's going to feel like the editor has cut off your arm.  You had written a novel, and now it's a novella, and you won't be able to turn it back into a novel.  In my experience, content editing is irreversible.  You can't add more to your story after without needing to go back and do another round of content editing after the adds.  Granted, you may improve your product, but doing two rounds of one layer of editing is going to be hurtful to your morale and your budget.

Copy Editing

This is when the editor puts each individual sentence under a microscope and asks if that sentence is effective.  This means that all ambiguity that existed in your drafts has to go.

This process is another place where beginners suffer because a lot of the changes suggested by the editor are correcting sentences which may not be technically wrong.  Sadly, that doesn't mean they aren't wrong.  Writing needs to be snappy, and if it isn't, then it needs to be fixed.

Also, it can get overwhelming how many changes the editor suggests, especially when there are over a dozen changes on a single page and there are two hundred pages.  They think that if they were a good writer, there would be fewer corrections.

Proofreading

I find that proofreading needs a different set of eyes.  You can use the same editor for content editing and copy editing, but you need a different editor for proofreading.  One may be tempted to think that you could have a friend do your proofreading because what you need more than anything is a fresh set of eyes and they would charge less than a real editor.

And you would be wrong.  Here's why:

1. Unpaid proofreaders take forever.  They have other things to do that are important and your book is not number one on their list of things to do.

2. They won't find all the errors.  No proofreader (even professional ones) find all the errors.  Many professionally published books have mistakes in them.  I saw one today!

3. They think that because the book is not yet published that there is still time to make substantial changes.  There is not.  You are at the end of the project.  You will not make everyone happy with your project.

4. Your relationship with your friend is more important than any book.

In conclusion, you need an editor.  Everything you have done may end up being a wash if you don't have one.  HOWEVER... online editorial services tend to prey on the insecurity of new authors and make them feel as though they are failing because they didn't do enough rounds of editing.  This can be a bit much when the average self-published ebook sells fewer than 250 copies (which generates a lot less income than the $1,000 I mentioned earlier).

You're going to need to try different things to find your balance when you edit your manuscripts.  I have hired editors.  I've done it myself.  I've taken help from teenagers who have acted as beta readers (they were my fans).  I've printed my book out and marked the crap out of it.  I've read it out loud and put on bloody stage plays in my bedroom.  I've begged for help from English teachers.  I've taken multiple grammar courses at a college.  I've privately redone my child's grammar lessons by myself.  I've used different word processors to try to fix the errors.  I've worked with editors at publishing companies.  And I've spent more money on editors than I've made with my books.

I still have people come up to me and inform me that there was actually a mistake on page 215 of my book...

No one can be perfect at this.

The only thing you need to remember is that there are going to be mistakes while learning to do this.  Handle your mistakes, either by fixing them or by forgiving yourself for them.  Then you can smile, even when there is a mistake on page 215... and 216.