GET AN EDITOR!!! I can't underline or stress that enough. Some people are able to get by without one. In an interesting post, however, "Seven Deadly Myths and Three Inspired Truths About Book Editing" the author discusses the different types of editors and editor services out there. He points out, too, that many big-name authors get these services during the publishing process, so not necessarily in pre-production like we selfers. I'm always skeptical when anyone claims to have done something entirely on their own. Someone may use Beta Readers, but that is, in some ways, a type of editor. Plus, if they're published by a big house, that company has plenty of people working behind-the-scenes before that book hits the shelves. So...yeah...
It's expensive to work with an editor, but, honestly, this is like any other self-directed career: it takes investment of time and $. Except for the extraordinarily lucky, most of us have to save up the money. It took me a while to save what I needed to work on my novel with my editor, Susan Malone of Malone Editorial Services. When I first worked with her on some short-stories, a sort of test-run for the novel that's in progress, and now published as Three By Moonlight: A collection of werewolf tales, I had to use a big chunk of my tax-return.
I'm not saying she's inordinately expensive, because in comparison to most of the other editors I found, she's not just reasonable, but also generous with her time and mentorship. What I'm really saying is that I'm poor. I've been a struggling singer/retail worker/young person for a while. When I finally had the opportunity to work with her, I jumped at the chance. I didn't buy the new phone I wanted, or the iPad, or take the trip I had hoped for. Susan's been amazing. But she isn't just a copy-editor. She's a developmental editor, and that, especially for my first novel, has been SOOOOO important. She's also helped me in improving my writing immensely. It's been worth every penny I've invested.
The publishing industry is changing, and that change seems to be happening faster and faster as more digital media becomes widely available, and as more people have the ability to create user-generated content. Let's consider, for a moment, that all our writing is user-generated content. Another form of this is video on Youtube. There is an enormous difference between a teenager taking a video on their cellphone, maybe badly lit in their messy bedroom, and the kind of high-production videos put out by major pop-music artists like Lady Gaga, or the best sitcoms. The video quality isn't remotely comparable. The same for other cinematic elements, such as lighting and sound. Whatever the content is, scripted or improvised, is almost never of the same quality as the best produced professional material.
Let's, then, think about the plethora of books now available via Kindle, or other digital formats. I self-published Three By Moonlight, and looking back on the experience, I wonder why so many authors publish via Kindle and not with a hard-copy as well. Well, one reason may be the sometimes difficult process of getting things formatted correctly for CreateSpace. It took me many long hours trying to get the sizes right, to get fonts to turn out correctly, to get spacing and bleed room, and all the other things authors published by a professional company never have to think about. Kindle's formatting is a bit easier, so it takes less time and effort to throw material onto the market via digital publishing.
When I was looking through advice blogs, I ran across one talking specifically about book covers. It had advice and rules to follow. The book cover is the first thing people see, and, honestly, how can we not consider the effort put into a book's cover art as exemplary of the quality of the writing we may find inside. If someone spends so little time on the cover, what's the likelihood that they truly put the time and care into the crafting and editing of the story itself? I have a hard time accepting negligence in crafting cover-art when there is so much royalty-free stock art available online.
In terms of user-generated content, the writing that has grammatical mistakes, sloppy dialogue, spelling errors, editing or formatting issues, or any of the other often blaringly obvious mistakes that a reader immediately picks up on, is the teenager in his or her bedroom with a handy-cam, ranting endlessly about minute trivia of their life that falls somewhere between First-World Problems and inane drivel. If that is the kind of content you're comfortable putting out, go for it. For those interested in being taken seriously by people who take this industry seriously, it is then our responsibility to show we are both serious about what we're doing, and professional enough to fit in among other professionals. That we're not just talented, but that we respect our writing, the craft and our own creative gifts, as well as respect the time of those around us who we might ask to read our work.
Find an editor who will help you improve your writing, challenge you to hammer out details in your story, and not just to slash and burn and start over. Find someone who can take your writing not just to the next level, but to the top level, and make the investment. No one will take you seriously if you don't take yourself seriously. If you don't put out your absolute best, you're not really in the game.
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