Some authors resist hiring a book editor for their manuscripts. “Too expensive,” they say. Or “Just don’t want to take the time to have it edited—want to get my book out there NOW!”
I advise authors to start saving up the money for a good editor as soon as you decide to write that book for publication. And don’t be in such a hurry that you short-change your chances of a publishing contract or that you bring out a book that isn’t ready.
What are some of the signs that you need a book editor? Here are a few:
• You’re not sure where or how to use apostrophes.
• You’re unclear about just where commas go.
• You get mixed up about using their, they’re, there.
• You struggle over what to capitalize and what not to.
• You find that your manuscript has inconsistencies throughout.
• You repeat words rather than try to use creative means to eliminate repeats.
• You write weak—passive sentences.
• Some of your sentences are kind of muddy.
• You don’t know that it is now one space between sentences.
• You’re confused as to where paragraph breaks should be.
• The story drags—doesn’t flow nicely.
• You’re having trouble organizing your nonfiction books.
• You’re too wordy.
• You have too many staccato sentences.
• You find many small problems such as omission of closed quotes.
• You’re not sure how to handle dialog.
• English is your second language.
• You don’t know when to capitalize Mom, Daddy, Grandpa, etc.
If you’re not sure whether an editor can make a difference in your manuscript, get an editorial evaluation. Many editors will take a look, tell you where the problems are in your manuscript and give you a sample edit and an estimate.