Writers call editing a story, “killing my baby.” It’s hard for the author to watch, but a necessary cleansing.

          I wrote a note to my editor on the cover page of a book I submitted that read, “thank you for always making my stories better, even though I kick, bite, and fight the entire time.”

          It’s difficult for an author to mangle a hard-earned story. It’s also important for an author to remember that an editor views a story differently from the author of the story.

          The responsibilities of an author and editor are simple to define, but difficult to remember. An author writes words, and an editor edits written words. One creative entity couldn’t exist without the other. Books only exist because an author wrote the words, and then an editor edited the written words.

          Use an edit sheet while writing your book. Having less errors in your story will help free the attention of an editor to find minute, almost microscopic, errors. An edit sheet is a list that helps keep everything consistent. If you use a unique word a lot, jot the word down on the edit sheet so you know you always spell the word consistently every time. If you’re using a lot of numbers or dates, jot down how you wrote the numbers and dates on your edit sheet so you remain constant throughout the story.     

Information about editing services         

I recommend to all authors to seek agent representation after writing a book. An agent will assure an established publishing house publishes the book.

          A publishing house provides an author with multiple levels of editing services. All authors that publish a commercial book MUST work closely with an established editor. If an author does not work with an established editor, the author will not produce an excellent commercial book. The author will produce a decent commercial book at best. An author does not have to work with an editor, but an author that does not work with an editor will not produce a book with any sort of commercial value.

          If an author does not work with an established publishing house with editing services, the author must become exceptional at all areas of editing including: developmental, copy, proofreading and substantive. Each editing service combines to check a book’s accuracy, content, consistency, readability, details, character development, voice, plotline, dialog, narration, spelling, punctuation, grammar, format, style, too much repetition, and poorly developed areas.  

Editing Service Details

Developmental Editing

Assists an author with the entire creation process from the beginning of the rough draft to the end of the story.

Copy Editing

Assists the author by diligently checking each word and each type of punctuation.

Proofreading Editing

The final editing service that checks every detail of the entire book.

Substantive Editing

Assists an author after the story is completely typed.

Advice about working with an editor

Work with an established publishing house or employ an editor that understands your writing goals. People write books for countless reasons. An author and editor must always communicate openly.

Main rule about editing

An unbiased third party must edit all stories. Family and friends do not count as an editor.