To Edit or Not to Edit, that is the question . . .

Hello friends,

In my last blog, I discussed some of my past humiliations and why I was now grateful for some of them. I’m sure many of you can relate to a few of my more embarrassing moments from childhood. The best part of making mistakes is that most of us learn from them and, hopefully, don’t repeat them. And this thought leads me to the topic of today’s blog. Is a professional editor really necessary?

In a word: ABSOLUTELY!

Let me tell you a little story about how I came to learn this lesson the hard way.

Once upon a time, in the not so distant past, there was this woman, (me of course), who had a dream of becoming a writer. I worked diligently on my storyline, researching my subject matter and building my characters into who I thought they should become. Then, finally, after months of writing, rewriting and revising the plot and story arc, my novel was finished and I typed the final two words: THE END. I celebrated with a glass of wine and called my BFF to tell her how I’d finally completed my first manuscript. Of course, being my best friend, she was as elated as I was.

My next step, or so I thought, was to send it to agents. Since this was my first foray into the world of publication, I had no idea how to even contact an agent, let alone how to draft a query letter. Thank goodness for Google! As I read every detail I could find on how to submit my work to publishers and agents, one of the main themes they all seemed to have in common was to make sure your finished manuscript was free of typographical errors and contained proper grammar and punctuation. They also “highly recommended” hiring a professional editor or copyreader.

Of course, my work was my own and I refused to allow some editor to tell me what and how to write. The book was my creation, my baby. (Can you say “arrogant?”)

After more research and dozens of drafts, I finally had the “perfect query.” Then, thanks to Google again, I started sending out query after query, only to receive rejection letter after rejection letter. (I’m sure anyone who has tried to contact a literary agent can relate.) But that was only from those who even bothered to respond at all. Let’s face it, agents get bombarded with queries on a daily basis and most don’t have the time to send personalized responses to each one of us. I for one am thankful to those who do take the time from their busy schedule to do just that.

Anyway, after a year of rejections, I was starting to grow quite despondent. Then, I discovered Amazon’s free, self-publication division and my dreams of becoming published were finally coming true. After following every detail on how to create both kindle and paperback books, I uploaded the manuscript, created my book cover (with the assistance of Cover Creator provided in the program) and voila, I was published!

I spread the word among all of my friends and coworkers, posted the fantastic news on social media and invited everyone to visit amazon and check it out. And many did just that.

However, once the reviews started coming in, it wasn’t what I’d hoped for. At first, I thought, well of course my book won’t appeal to everyone. There will be those who will find fault. But, when review after review pointed out, quite adamantly I might add, that it was a terrible book filled with typos and bad grammar, I was devastated. My devastation became mortification as each review grew harsher and some were just plain mean. I’d even had a few good cries about how horrible some of those reviews were as they pointed out how inept my work was. They’d started attacking me personally, not just my writing. Little did I know that even my coworkers were laughing at me behind my back as I bragged endlessly about how I was now a published author.

I was on the verge of giving up my lifelong dream and nearly vowed to never write another word. Until I noticed a recurring theme to each and every review. The plot and characters were engaging, and the storyline was terrific if they weren’t continuously pulled out of it by the abundance of typos and bad grammar.

Hmmm, perhaps I should rethink that hiring an editor thing. Even my best friend had tried to pound it into my thick, egotistical skull that I should hire a professional editing service.

After eating a boat-load of crow, I finally hired a professional editor to go over my manuscript. It took me a while to come to terms with what I had to do and, though he made many suggestions on how to improve my book, he didn’t tell me what and how to write it. After taking his advice—after all that’s what I was paying him for—and a great deal of judicious editing, I finally uploaded the revised work. Amazingly, the reviews that started coming in after that, had started getting a little better.

Thanks to my BFF, again, I took a Fiction Writing class at the local community college, where I learned the proper way to build my fictitious world and to let my characters “create themselves,” so to speak. I went on to take several on-line writing courses, attended writing workshops and continued to learn and hone my craft. It worked! I knew, though, that I would probably never live down most of the previous readers’ first impressions.

However, I used that less than stellar start in my writing career as my teacher rather than my undertaker. Using what I had learned from my previous mistakes, one of my later books, Black Harvest, became the recipient of the New Apple Book Award for the Mystery Category as well as receiving five stars from Reader’s Favorite.

During the decade since that mortifying first novel, I have penned and self-published six other novels, (each one professionally edited prior to publication), completed three more manuscripts that have not yet been published, and have even branched out to try my hand at screenwriting. I was also profiled in Woman’s Day magazine, featured in my hometown newspaper, appeared on an author panel at a book show, participated in several comic cons and hosted other author events.

The moral to this story: Like anything else you try in life, you have to learn which steps to take and how to make them. If you want it badly enough, you must learn to do it right.

My advice, as one who has experienced the degrading reviews due to my own misguided conceit, no matter how good you think you are, you really should hire an editor.

As a side note so there are no misunderstandings, I love Amazon’s publishing software. It’s amazing and extremely easy to use. I’ve used it for seven books so far and will more than likely continue to use it. I’m just making a point here that, in the beginning, I allowed my ego to overrule my commonsense and the continued suggestions of professionals who know what they’re talking about.

I hope that what I’ve shared with you today has helped shed some light on the question of to edit or not to edit.

 FYI, the title of my (previously disastrous, and subsequently greatly improved), debut novel is Secrets in Bethlehem. It is still available on Amazon along with all of my other self-published work.

Thanks and have a great day!

Kate

To see more about my available books click here