Do you really need an editor?

You’ve finished your book. Congratulations! That’s an incredible accomplishment. Now it’s time to hit publish, right? Not yet!

I know, I know. You’ve worked hard on this manuscript and you feel that it’s ready. Or you’re just tired of looking at it. Or you just can’t wait another moment to send it into the world. But put on the brakes and think about what you’re doing.

Have you written a one-off book that you just want other people to read, without a care whether you make any money or any plan to write another book again? If so, going straight from draft to publication might be okay.

But many writers want to make a career of their writing, to earn money and maybe to quit their day job and focus on writing full time. If you lean more toward being this type of writer, revising and editing is part of the process you need to go through. And although you can do a fair amount of self-editing, after you’ve read something multiple times, it’s harder to see the places that need editing. Having another set of eyes on your manuscript will give it that extra bit of polish and make it the best book it can be.

Maybe you’re thinking that you’re a self-publisher and that means doing everything yourself. But that’s really not what self-publishing means. It means that you yourself are taking on the role of publisher. And what do publishers do? They hire a team: editing and marketing and graphic design. You’re not just the author, you’re also the publisher. You are responsible for making sure all of those roles are filled.

Maybe you can wear the graphic design hat for a while and design your own cover, but think about what that means: you have to spend time learning how to work with a graphic design program and learn what makes an effective graphic design and study other covers in your genre and find images you can use (either by doing photography or finding stock photos) and decide on which font to use and . . . doesn’t just reading that list make you feel tired? Instead, use that time to write more while a professional creates a gorgeous book cover for you.

The same goes for editing because that extra set of eyes can make all the difference in the readability of your book. And an extra set of trained, professional eyes is even better. An editor provides an impartial perspective for your manuscript.

Yes, getting your book professionally edited can be an expense. But if you are serious about your career, do everything you can to put forward the best possible product. Remember that paying for editing is a business expense, and as a self-publisher, you are running a business.

If an editor has done their job well, readers won’t notice the editor’s work. Readers see the finished version of the book and not all the drafts and revisions that led up to that point. And editing is more than just checking for grammar, spelling, and punctuation (although that is included at the copyediting stage).

• Editors can help check for consistency, in your plot, your setting, your timeline, your characters, and every other part of your book.

• Editors can help make sure the writing is clear and meets its intended purpose. (You want an editor who specializes in the type of writing you’re doing so the editor will be knowledgeable about expectations for your genre.)

• Editors can bring to attention anything that could be a stumbling block for the reader. Better to fix those things before publication than after once you get reviews that point out those stumbling blocks!

• Editors can help eliminate unneeded wordiness, identify weak word usage, remove unnecessary -ly adverbs, and remove overuse of “that.”

• Editors can help identify a lack of sentence variety, meaning sentences that are too close in structure or length (unless that serves a purpose for creating suspense—and an expert editor will know the difference).

• Editors can help eliminate overuse of dialogue tags.

And that’s only a partial list of what an editor can do for your manuscript.

You might be nervous to hand your book over to an editor and get back a manuscript full of corrections and comments. But a first-rate editor will want to work with you to create the best version of your text as possible, and those corrections and comments are working toward that goal. Be open to receiving constructive criticism, and view these corrections as helping you move toward that goal of strengthening your book and putting out the best possible version you can.

Not sure how to go about finding an editor? I have some suggestions for you!