Monday Musings: How Important Is Having Editor?

This week Over Coffee will be about different aspects of our writing careers, whether it's procuring a good editor, investing in writing conferences, or building a online presence.

Most authors come into contact with editors. There are all sorts of editors from acquiring editors to copy editors. They have all have an important role in an author’s career and the quality of their writing. They work with non-fiction and fiction authors and these professionals edited everything from articles to books.

Although I know several editors and their roles in publishing a good book, there was much I didn’t know. So I researched. With so many opting for self-publishing, or working with small indie presses, the need for a good editing is vital for your finished product—your novel.

In a publishing house, the acquiring editor is the liaison between authors, staff, and readers. They act as project managers. Their job is to make sure your work the best it can be. They take into consideration the overall picture of your story.  They contemplate your genre, writing style, and the demands of the market. All this involves a lot of ripping, tearing, and rebuilding of the manuscript. It’s not an easy process for authors or editors.

Once you sign your contract, the editor will read the whole manuscript. These editors read for story structure and may come back with a list of changes of necessary for your manuscript. This may be commenting on your setting, characters, conflict, pacing, plot, and word choices. You, the author, then revise your story according to these comments. It may take several revisions before both you and the editor come to agreement. Once all that is worked out the manuscript moves to another editor.

The copy editor is the one we usually think of when we think editor. Copy editors get the manuscript and read or *proof* it for grammar and punctuation, word usage, spelling and typos. They also check for consistent formatting of chapter headings, and more. This process may take more than one pass to get everything correct. Then it’s sent back to the author to do a final edit. Meanwhile THE editor finalizes all the pieces farmed out to various staff members (the design editors, the copywriters who might write the back cover blurb, the publicity department) approves it and now it’s off for publication.

There are a lot of extra steps in this simplified telling. I just hit the high points. One thing I have learned, not all editors are created equal. I found this out by letting a good friend who was a newspaper editor read one of my first stories. She’s very good at what she does for newspaper editing but it’s a different form of editing. Suffice to say, if ever I decide to self publish, I will be utilizing a fiction editor who has a good copyeditor around, or she can wear both hats well and I’ll be asking for references.

No wonder so many authors gush over their editor in their acknowledgements. A good Fiction Editor is worth having. They make the difference between an okay story and a great story.

• As an author, what have been your experiences with editors? 
• Would you put out a book without one? 

The Winds Of Change: Self-Publishing

Isn’t amazing how things change, isn’t it?


In 2008, the new technology, Print On Demand, was becoming more readily available to not only small independent publishers but also individuals. There were those authors who had gone the self-publishing route, and may I add, with the prevailing attitude from their peers of lips curled. I knew many who had decided to publish their books as e-books. Attitudes were better but there were still those who sniffed and declared these authors weren’t “real” authors—as borne out by some writing associations and review sites.


On the sidelines, a close eye was kept on these bold and daring authors and small independent publishers and their failures and successes.


In 2009, e-books were on the rise and by early 2010 print books were fighting for equal footing in sales, as traditional publishers scrambled to make the new technology work for them.


Around this time some of the traditional publishers were starting to put out trade paperbacks of some of their authors and not just mass paperbacks. Business wise this makes perfect sense with digital printing, especially with exorbitant cost of returns. Trade paperbacks became more acceptable (which is funny when you consider trade paperbacks are the norm in other countries). While e-books had grown to a thriving business, and were beginning to level the playing field, trade paperbacks published with traditional publishers still had national exposure that self-published and some smaller independents didn’t.


What the traditional publishers had to their advantage—and still do—is distribution on a national level, in-house editors, cover artist, and active PR departments. Oh, and let’s not forget carrying the cost of the all-important, ISBN numbers and distribution through companies such as Ingrams (not cheap).

The latter part of 2010, we started to see the winds of change. Traditionally published authors opting to go the self-publishing route for many reasons; not the least is the ability to publish stories they know will be read even if their publishers initially shot down these books as too risky or not marketable. Another reason was allowing the authors greater profits on the e-books, longer shelf life, and basically, greater control over their work.


Having said that, these established authors have something debut authors don’t have, a name and a healthy readerbase. That’s not to say a debut author can’t build that, but for a debut author to think they can achieve the same results initially is comparing apples to oranges. Everyone has to start out on the ground level and build their business. Building a readerbase is no different.

Another thing to keep in mind is quality editing still has to be done, ditto on good cover art, because regardless if the book is electronic or paperback, we’re drawn to well designed covers. This means hiring an good people, epecially a good fiction editor as a new author, to assist so quality work is put out. Authors have to count the cost both in time and in outlay of money when considering self-publishing.


As authors, is POD technology (e-books and trade paperbacks) the way of the future? Of course. I said it back in the latter part of 2008 and it’s even more apparent now. How we get there is still being defined and refined. And it’s exciting to see. I admire those daring serious authors and independent publishers who were ahead of the pack. I have nothing but respect for those who are now forging ahead and breaking new ground.

• What about you? Have considered it?
• Or have you done it already? Be interesting to hear your opinions. 
• What do you see as the pros and cons with regard to your work?

Copy-Editing Hell

Today my guest is Pat Bertram, debuting author of A Spark of Heavenly Fire. Some of you may know her better as the author of the popular Book Marketing Floozy, and Bertram's Blog . Today she talks about a subject that all Print On Demand authors have to deal with in putting out a high quality and professional book.

I’m afraid that I’m going to be stuck in copy-editing hell for the rest of my life.

When I received my latest proof copy of A Spark of Heavenly Fire and found additional mistakes in the final proof copy, I screamed. Well, it was more of a bleat.

I’ve now decided that perfection at this point really is impossible.

I had the idea that single-handedly I needed to eradicate the POD publishers’ reputation for releasing less than stellar books, but there is a limit to what one (untrained) person can do. I am learning how to copyedit, though, and I do know one thing: however much copy-editors get paid, it is not enough.

The thing with mistakes is that they proliferate when you are not looking. You correct one, and in the process, create another. When I finished my novel, the manuscript was almost perfect — I’d read the thing out loud, so I would be sure to look at every single word, every single punctuation mark. Then . . . I did one final polish, took out all the extra justs and onlys, the particularlys and practicallys, the barelys and hardlys, the began tos, and the wases. The problem is, other words got deleted along the way (don’t ask me how, because I don’t know) and I didn’t catch them. Yikes.

And then there are the choices to be made. Is it ill-prepared or ill prepared? I originally had ill-prepared, but MS word said that was wrong, so I deleted the hyphen. And now I want it back for the simple reason that the hyphen is how it is commonly used. And what about brand new? My dictionary says it’s brand-new, but common usage has it as brand new. So which do I use? I think I’ll leave out the hyphen; that way there will be one less change to make.

Some of the changes that need to be made entail rewriting a sentence. In the proof copy, smelled is on two lines: smell-ed. Smelled can’t be hyphenated, so now I have to decide how to rewrite the sentence so smelled can fit on one line. I had “He fell silent for a moment, savoring the feel of her tee shirt- and jeans-clad body next to his. She smelled clean and fresh, like cucumber, or melon, or pear.” So how do I change the sentence, so that smelled can fit on one line? “savoring the feel of her thinly clad body”? savoring the feel of her tee shirt-clad body”? Neither of those do it for me. But now, writing this, I see what I can change. I can take out “for a moment”. (Yes, I know that the period belongs inside the quotation marks, but this is proofing, and perhaps whoever is making the changes to the print copy will think the period needs to be taken out.) See what I mean?

Copy-editors are not paid enough.

Well, now it’s put up and shut up time. Make the important changes, and try not to sweat the small stuff. I can guarantee, though, that whoever came up with that particular phrase is not a copy-editor. With copy-editing, it’s all about the small stuff.

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Pat Bertram is a native of Colorado and is the author of A Spark of Heavenly More Deaths and Than One Fire. Bertram's books are now available for pre-order from Second Wind Publishing LLC.