Do you even need an editor?

With the rise of e-books and the accessibility of self-publishing, it can be really hard to understand what editing services are and many new authors can find it overwhelming.

I have seen a lot of new authors asking: Do I even need an editor?
That is a broad question!
There are many different types of editors and depending on where you are in the world, they may even be called different things.

In my opinion, before you even begin to answer the question, you need someone who is not a friend or family member to read your book and give you an honest readers opinion. After all, it is readers who will buy your book when its on the shelves.

I strongly encourage multiple Beta readers.
BUT I also strongly encourage you to understand that readers are a source of community feedback.
Most Beta readers don’t have experience in the publishing industry, and only some will have studied literature and/or the craft of writing at an academic level. It’s absolutely true that readers are a key ingredient to your success, but their knowledge and skills will differ from those of industry professionals.
When you get feedback from them, carefully consider what they have to say and revise with an open mind.

While you are revising after feedback, the answer to whether you need an editor or not should become apparent.
I will say that I don’t think every writer will always need an editor. If you have already been through the editorial process multiple times before, if your editor was a good fit for you, you may find you’ve learnt enough that you can already guess what they might say. But, if you are fresh to publishing and are serious about your career as an author and aiming for accredited success, your answer is probably going to be yes.

Here is where I become truly biased.
I would absolutely, genuinely recommend every first-time author to get a Manuscript Assessment at this point.

Here is what I think an MS assessment should do:
- provide you feedback on all key elements of craft from a person who reads widely, has experience in the publishing industry and has education in creative writing.
- outline what is working well and any problems that may be present.
- Ask you questions and provide well-backed up suggestions rather than tell you what to do and provide material that could be useful to you as you re-edit your MS.
- Be as unbiased as possible and be clear about anything that is their personal opinion.

A MS assessment should give you an over-view of things you may want to consider as you continue to re-write and re-edit your MS.
In the long run, an MS assessment can save you time and money as its give you the guidance to focus your self editing with a broader perspective.
Before you go to pay for an editor, you really want to ensure that you have polished your MS as much as you can.

When choosing a good MS Assessor, I highly recommend finding out what they enjoy reading. If their profile talks about how much they love horror writing and you’ve written a lovely sweet feel good YA romance - no matter how well recommended or experience that assessor is, the chances are, they aren’t going to get excited about your fluffy-lovely MS. And if you’re really excited about your MS, it might be difficult for you to work with someone who isn’t going to get invested. Ask yourself what will work best for you and what your expectations are. Don’t be afraid to communicate that. But do be prepared regardless, even if they love fluffy-love, an assessor’s job is to point out the flaws!

SO! This brings us to professional editors.
Again, I am biased, I am going to tell you what any editor will tell you: Your book will be better if you take the time to invest in finding the right editor for your book. But there are different kinds of editors, and each of them has distinct skill sets, though sometimes these lines can be blurred. I like to think of them in just two categories - craft/style and technical/mechanical.

Craft:

Developmental Editors:
These are the heavy hitters. And the most time consuming and intensive of all the editor clans.
They will deep dive into your story and get wrapped up in all the intricate details. They care about the craft elements that relate to the world and all its inhabitants that you are bringing to life.
They are looking for how believable every aspect of your creation is.
How have you developed what you have created?

A developmental editor shouldn’t be bogged down by your spelling and gramma, they should be looking at the full picture of your story-telling and revealing any holes in your tale!

Line editors:
This is where the flow happens.
They are focused on the style and construction of your lines.
They understand language and the craft of constructing a good sentence that is engaging with your reader and serving your intentions to the highest degree possible.
I like to think of them as the costume designers - making sure all the language complements the book like an outfit complements a person.


Technical/Mechanical

Copy Editors:
These are the hyper focused ones, fixating on the mechanical details of words.
They will check for consistency in your styles and technical elements like spelling and gramma that a line editor may have missed.
They know all the black and white science of words and how they should be structured on a page so that your book flows beautifully.
If Lines are the costumers, Copy editors are the seamstresses - kind of ;)


Proof-readers:
These are the final editors. They nit-pick at every technical detail, checking all spelling and grammar that may be missed as well as any formatting errors or layout inconsistences. They have meticulous skills that make sure your MS is polished and absolutely ready to be given a cover and become a shelf worthy book!



So heres one of the reasons why I think it’s really important to make the distinction between Craft and Mechanical —

I don’t advise having your Craft editor also be your Technical editor.
Let me explain.

The reason you do want an editor can be summed up to this: after all your hard work, all your writing, re-writing and editing over and over again, your MS is about as familiar to you as your hand. You are too close to your work to be able to see it from fresh eyes. You are going to miss details.

A good craft editor will become almost as invested in your work as you are, they will read your MS multiple times and the more they work with you on your MS, the more they become immersed in the world and therefore are more likely to miss mechanical details. The MS becomes as familiar to them as their own hand, they think less about what it looks like and more about its function. Often, they stop being able to see the little cut on the left inner pinky finger. But when fresh eyes look at it for the first time, that small insignificant mark is going to stand out like a sore thumb!

It’s really easy to want to save time and money by doing everything with one person and in one place. There are many editors out there who will try to convince you they can do it all. And maybe some of them can, but all the best books I’ve read have had multiple editors in their arsenal of help. At the end of the day, this is just my opinion.

And if you think I’m biased, because I’m and editor who only offers craft edits (truthfully, I am marginal with my mechanical skills!), well perhaps I am, but I don’t believe in trying to convince you to work with me.
You either like my perspective, or you like someone else’s more.