Word-of-mouth is one of the best methods for driving sales. If you can make money writing a crappy book (and we all know that is entirely possible), imagine how much more money you could make if you published a great book that everybody told their friends about.
One way to end up with a great book is to spend time editing it. Or, rather, spend money getting a professional editor to edit it after you’ve made it as good as you possibly can yourself. Deciding which services to outsource during your self-publishing journey is one of the most important (and earliest) decisions you will have to make. Editing should be at the top of your list.
Have you ever set your manuscript aside for a week only to pick it up and discover major plot holes after reading it the second time around?
Have you ever printed out your manuscript and suddenly found spelling or punctuation errors you’d swear weren’t there the thousands of times you’d read through it online?
Time away from your own work plus a set of fresh eyes can really make a difference.
The three general categories of editing are as follows:
Developmental Editing
This category of editing is big picture stuff. Developmental editors can assist you with the development of the plot. A developmental editor might point out areas where the pacing of your story has gotten muddled. They might suggest adding a supporting character, removing one entirely, or giving one a personality transplant. They can help you tweak a subplot or rework large chunks of the manuscript that don’t sparkle or just aren’t working. Hiring a great developmental editor is a little bit like getting a private lesson in plotting and characterization. And sometimes, that’s exactly what you need to take your writing to the next level.
Line Editing
Line editing is when an editor reads a manuscript and makes suggestions about how to rewrite lines of text to make them better. This isn’t just a matter of grammar and spelling; editors add, subtract or alter lines of text to add clarity, to inject backstory, to provide better blocking or description, to make the prose punchier, etc.
This is the stage at which you have to be very careful that you are going to get the level of revision you expect when you hire the editor. It requires a detailed discussion about what both the writer and the editor agree the extent of the line edit will be. You might suggest doing “test” pages to see if you like what the editor is offering and to see if you are a good fit, because writers, particularly those who have very strong “voices” they feel can’t be duplicated, sometimes don’t respond well to extensive line edits and would rather have a copyedit instead of a line edit. On the other hand, of course, some writers consider it simply part of the process of getting the manuscript ready for publication.
Copyediting/Proofreading
Copyediting or proofreading is when the editor reviews the manuscript for problems in grammar, spelling, punctuation and basic mistakes like continuity errors and fact-checking. If you intend to make a go at turning your self-published works into a business, you need to have a copyeditor at the very least. Spelling errors, in particular, are often cited by readers as a key reason for low-star reviews.
Is it Worth It?
Rates for editing vary, of course, but the Editorial Freelancers Association posts a range of prices on their website. In the end, whether or not you choose to hire an editor or participate in a critique group to get similar advice, letting others read and comment on your work will only make it better.