Dave's Site

After many months of re-writing, questioning your sanity and nearly giving up, you’ve finished the first draft of your manuscript. Congratulations. You’ve gone further than most writers. But you still have a long way to go. Despite what you think, your work is not nearly done. Now comes editing when a raw piece of writing hopefully will become great literature.

The first step in editing should be personal, The first editor should be you. Before you look at your work you need to prepare. Your writing has become an integral part of your life and is no doubt very personal to you. You need to step back so that you can take as objective a look as your work as possible. You have to make sure that your ego is out of the equation. A good friend of mine once said that I could be involved in something highly personal and still be able to view it as an objective third party. That has helped me a lot over the years, To edit your work you need to develop that attitude. The quicker that you can look at your work with reasonable objectivity the better off you will be. Sometimes reading your book in a different place or out loud can create a helpful environment for editing.

The next step is to give a copy to friends. You need a good friend who is intelligent and will be honest with you. Someone who is incapable of giving you honest criticism cannot help you.

Now comes technical editing. There are different types of editors. A copy editor seeks to polish the book so that its structure is clear while maintaining the author’s voice. They try to have sentences flow while making the contents accessible to the intended audience. The next step is the proofreader. A proofreader checks things like spelling mistakes, grammar problems, punctuation and so forth. Your PC should be able to accomplish most of this. A line editor goes through a manuscript line by line with a goal of making the book more coherent, They view the book as a casual reader would. Another goal is to make each sentence as effective as possible. A developmental editor guides the author in conceiving the topic, planning the overall structure and may coach the author along the way. Based on a 100,000 word book, I was given a price quote of $1,500 for a copy editor, $1,350 for a proof reader, $1,625 for a line editor and $3,750 for a developmental editor.

Most authors use fewer than all of these editors. There is another approach. An Alpha reader will look at the big picture of the book, what’s wrong with the draft, what’s weak and needs improvement and other major points, all from the writer’s perspective. Many writers use a Beta reader. A Beta reader functions like an Alpha reader but looks at the book as a casual reader would. Some writers use both. I’ve seen recommendations for using a Beta reader and a developmental editor to achieve a well-rounded perspective on one’s work and to address all needed areas for improvement. I was given quotes of only $300 for an Alpha or Beta reader for a work of 100,000 or fewer words.

When I sought to work with literary agents one told me about an editor that I should hire. I didn’t know what type of editor she was because I was just told that she was great. She was very impressive on the phone. She charged me 7 cents per page, which she said was a standard editing price. It totaled about $3,000 per book.

It was a total waste of money. I had her edit three books. For two she acted like a proofreader. She was great at weeding out “thats.” On the third book she made only minor substantive changes. When I decided to publish my first book I read that books by new authors should be under 100,000 words. She left it at 143,000 words. I made a decision that usually is a mistake. I decided to edit it myself, to be my own line editor. I had one advantage over most people. I had edited my own legal documents for decades. Legal writing is much different from creative writing but I knew that I could look at my own work objectively and make difficult decisions. After I used my PC for proofreading, I got to work. Every word had to help every sentence, and every sentence had to help the story. When I finished I felt that the story had not changed but the presentation was a lot crisper and easy to read. I sent it out to five book reviewers and each review was favorable. Mission accomplished.