Or: how to avoid republishing your book
The best manuscript assessors, developmental editors, copy editors, and proofreaders lift our manuscripts to higher levels. The not so great ones waste our time and money.
Like everyone else, I came up with a random list after asking other writers for recommendations and scrounging around the internet.
By happenstance, I landed a good developmental editor quite quickly. He didn’t do copy edits, but no worries. That was going to be just as easy, right? He submitted a brilliant developmental edit of my manuscript, from which I took about 75% of his advice.
Then I sent out some chapters for sample copy edits and got interesting responses.
Some editors held to rigid grammar rules, which is necessary for non-fiction but deadly for fiction. Others were willing to take the job although my genre wasn’t their favourite. In other words, they wouldn’t like my writing before even starting. One newbie editor expected favours in return (promo), and a veteran one had an onerous application process.
Finally, I got a thorough sample, had good engagement with the editor, and paid her deposit. I also agreed to her month-long editing period, believing the lengthy time was evidence of how much work she invested.
She sent the edited manuscript back at the end of the month, and I paid her balance before checking her work.
Then I discovered her work showed none of the thoroughness in her sample. She does editing one day a week, she told me. And thus, my very light proofread instead of a copy edit.
I needed a new copyedit. By someone else.
I communicated this and asked for her policy if a client wasn’t satisfied (a good question for before signing a contract, right?) She said she typically refunded 30%. Hmm. I accepted the small credit, and swallowed my loss of hundreds of $$, as well as the wasted month.
I learned my lesson.
Except I didn’t. I went through the same thing two more times. I’m deeply naive but enough pain will cure me.
I found a brilliant copy editor and, again, incorporated about 75% of his advice. Pretty good, I thought.
Then I rewrote substantial portions of the novel after the proofread.
I published my book and bought one hundred author copies. Yup, one hundred. I must be a gambler at heart. Then readers found tons of problems, avoidable problems if I’d fully listened to my editor.
I pulled the book off the market and shoved my author copies into permanent storage.
So, go ahead and draw strength from your nice friends and family. Then find the meanest, most constructive editors you can, and do (almost) everything they tell you. I cried after my first mean edit, but I got over it, and so will you. In fact, I relish hard-hitting feedback now. We can take way more than we think
(I still have a problem with rewriting after that final proofreading, however.)
Brilliant editors are gold. Treat them well and listen to them.
UPDATE: After losing so much time and money, I did eventually use A.I. editing programs.
Don’t shoot me!
A.I. has improved my grammar and cleaned up my sentences, but not much else. A.I. can’t replicate the complex, exquisitely evolved human processes that generate and intuit our stories. In other words, A.I. doesn’t need stories for survival and meaning.
If they ever do, run for the hills.