Wednesday, January 25, 2017
I often field questions about editing. Many aspiring authors think they can self-edit their work, and they can. But that’s not enough. They need a second set of eyes—and sometimes a third—on their work before it gets published. Today, Piers Golden offers five reasons why you should hire a professional editor before you complete your book manuscript.
Have you just finished writing a book? After spending countless hours successfully piecing together your work, the next big step you’ll want to take is
to get your book published. However, sending your book off to a publisher without having a second look over the material may end up causing problems for you in the end.
While you may consider editing your book on your own, it’s best to avoid that task. Self-editing can become a waste of precious time and cause you to overlook major grammatical errors. But there are more reasons to hand this editing of your work to someone else.
While you may consider editing your book on your own, it’s best to avoid that task.Click To Tweet
Why You Should Hire a Professional Book Editor
Here are the top five reasons to hire a professional book editor.
1. Objectivity
Having an objective person, like a book editor, look over your book is a powerful way to produce outstanding work. An unbiased person won’t hold back. A stranger reading through your writing will be able to pinpoint areas that need more detail or are grammatically incorrect.
Have you used the word “and” too many times? Are there any other
words to cut from your writing? Is one of your chapters lacking substance? An editor will know the answer to these questions.
You can be sure that a professional book editor’s critique will be based on editing expertise. An editor can make constructive remarks on your structure, style, syntax, and ability to communicate.
2. Save Time
Spending hours, days, and in some cases even months, revising your work can be time consuming. After all of the time spent completing the manuscript, this process can further postpone publication of the book. At a certain point, revisions can become a serious waste of an author’s time.
As you begin to edit your work, you might get hung up on certain themes, research, or structural issues. A professional editor can help you avoid this dilemma. A fresh point of view allows the book editor to pick up on problems you may have disregarded or overlooked—as well as the ones you’ve identified and with which you’ve struggled.
Producing a perfect final draft will make a huge difference in the success of your book.Click To Tweet
3. Perfect Your Writing
Although you may be an amazing writer, even the finest authors understand the importance of improving their craft. An experienced book editor can advise you on different word usages to better improve the way you communicate. They also might offer structural advice.
Always hire a professional book editor to look over your work, especially if it includes a bibliography or professional thesis. Depending on the vertical about which you write, choose an editor experienced in that field.
4. Help Progress Your Project
Collaborating with a professional book editor can help you with more than just your writing. A skilled and experienced editor has many connections, such as to publishers or public relations firms. These professionals can help with bringing your book to market and creating book-
marketing strategies.
An editor that has worked with many clients beforehand understands the process of getting a book published. He can guide you beyond simply editing the book so it meets industry standards.
What separates a good editor from a great one is their dedication to your project. A great editor will not only develop your writing but also enable your book to reach more readers.
Collaborating with a professional editor can help you with more than just your writing. Click To Tweet
5. Avoid Publishing Less Than Perfect Work
Your reputation as an author is dependent on your work. Style issues, grammatical errors, and communication problems all detract from your work getting the recognition it deserves.
It can be difficult after publication of your book to go back and fix issues or spruce it up. In fact, sometimes you have to wait until the publisher schedules a new print run—and, depending on sales, you could wait a year or more to fix your bloopers.
If your audience sees less-than-stellar writing, your current book and any future books you write will suffer the consequences. Avoid these possible challenges by hiring a professional book editor. Doing so will save you from the frustration of seeing your prized work go unnoticed or get negatively critiqued.
As you can see, there are many reasons for hiring a professional editor for your manuscript. Producing a perfect final draft will make a huge difference in the success of your book.
A professional editor can help you avoid the frustration, loss of time, and potential errors created by looking over your own work. Plus, you’ll be left with a polished manuscript ready to be handed to a publisher.
About the AuthorPiers Golden is a freelance blogger. He has been writing professionally since 2013.
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5 Reasons to Hire a Professional Book Editor appeared first on
Write Nonfiction NOW!.
Nina Amir, the bestselling author of How to Blog a Book and The Author Training Manual, is a speaker, a blogger, and an author, book, blog-to-book, and high-performance coach. Known as the Inspiration to Creation Coach, she helps creative people combine their passion and purpose so they move from idea to inspired action and positively and meaningfully impact the world as writers, bloggers, authorpreneurs, and blogpreneurs. Some of Nina’s clients have sold 300,000+ copies of their books, landed deals with major publishing houses and created thriving businesses around their books. She is the founder of National Nonfiction Writing Month, National Book Blogging Month, and the Nonfiction Writers’ University. As a hybrid author she has published 19 books and had as many as four books on the Amazon Top 100 list at the same time. Her most recent book is called Creative Visualization for Writers, and tomorrow her 19th book will be released, The Write Nonfiction NOW! Guide to Creativity and Flow. Find all her books at booksbyninaamir.com or find out more about her at ninaamir.com.