I still remember this incident. One of my writer-friends finished writing his first novel (a murder mystery) and was all excited about it. He told he had done everything he had to do from a writer’s perspective, including proofreading and editing. He intended to self-publish his work and before submitting his final draft, he happened to share the manuscript with me to have a look. I read the book in a day and returned it to him. I met him and did not utter a word. I just sneaked in a note in his manuscript indicating a major loop-hole in the plot and a couple of other major mistakes. He was stunned and came back to me asking if I could edit his entire manuscript and fix more issues, if any. The reason why I’m narrating this incident is because, as writers, we are all proud of our work and we are confident of our writing. But what happens actually is we usually end up overlooking some of serious errors in our books. This is human nature and we certainly have no control over it.
Why am I Saying this?
The point here, according to me, is every writer needs to have his or her manuscript checked by a professional editor to eliminate any errors in it and pave way for a close-to-perfect book. No matter how great you are at writing, you need a fresh pair of eyes to actually run through your content. It is not always necessary that your content would have mistakes. It is just an effort we take from our side to ensure our work is devoid of errors. If you’re still wondering if you need a professional editor, check out the following points and decide it for yourself.
Why You Need a Professional Editor:
They Have a Purpose
Understand that professional editors are there for the purpose of improving the quality of our work. They see things in our manuscripts that our eyes would usually overlook (no blaming us, we have this pressure of publishing a great book). Regardless of whether you write a fiction or a non-fiction, you need to have your work edited by a professional editor. While non-fiction may contain some factual errors or facts that could be misleading, fiction may have a plot with a major loop-hole or loosely developed characters. Your editor would work on your manuscript and suggest the best possible fix to it.
They’ve seen a lot
This may be the first book you’re writing on a subject, but editors out there have been there for years. They receive manuscripts like almost every week and they are more exposed to content and facts than writers. So, it doesn’t take much time for them to spot an error in a manuscript. So, you need a professional editor.
They Help Save your Time
Getting your manuscript edited by a professional will save your time and you from frustration. When you’ve submitted your work to an editor, you’ll have ample time with you that you can dedicate to plan and carry out any book marketing and promotion strategies. Further, you need not worry about your manuscript as it is being taken good care of.
You Realize where You Go Wrong
When you receive your manuscripts back from your editor, you’ll realize the mistakes you’ve done and start working on the areas you’re error-count was more. You get to understand your writing better and work towards writing a better manuscript next time. Trust me, your peer wouldn’t dedicate so much time to improve your writing.
You need them Even If You prefer Traditional Publishing
There are many who feel they don’t need a professional editor because they’ve opted traditional publishing. That’s silly because for a publisher or a literary agent to even consider you to be worthy of publishing, you need to have a final draft that is devoid of errors. Professional editors would help you out with fixing your errors and send out an effective manuscript that is error-free.
Understand that you need a professional editor to take care of things if you prefer traditional publishing and seriously need one if you’re self-publishing. In the end, it is your book. You have to go that extra mile to ensure your book’s great. What you do tells who you are.