Exploring what I need to complete the next book for publishing.
Following suggestions from my beta readers, I’ve been working on doing another edit to Savagespace I – Alliances and Consequences. I added some color and details that were lacking, as well as removed some repetition. Further, I cleaned up a few other errors, tightened some dialogue, and reassembled certain paragraphs.
The time has come to send the book to an editor. Once again, the challenge of getting the right editor for me and my work presents itself.
Getting the right editor is a question that will be answered differently by every author. Part of this is based on if an editor is familiar with your genre, the level of edit that you request and that they have to offer, their experience, and a general sense of understanding that’s nearly impossible to quantify in words. It amounts to do they get you and do you get them?
Some authors have an easier time establishing this relationship than others. Sometimes things happen that cause you to need to change editors. While this will differ for every author, there are things about the process of choosing the right editor for everyone that I’m certain are universal.
First, though, allow me to share a brief history of editors.
My experiences with editors
Back in 2000 or 2001, a friend with experience both as an editor and published author offered to edit the first book of my fantasy series The Source Chronicles.
Among the many, many useful things I learned from her, the renaming of the books and the series was part of that. Seeker was originally titled Seeker of The Source, and the overall series had no title. My first editor was a wealth of information that altered how I write, how I consider my approach to the work of writing and editing, titling, and so much more. She also cost me a hell of a lot more than any other editor I’ve since worked with. She was worth it.
My second editor was with me for multiple books. I don’t recall how we connected, but he seemed to get me and did a great job with the books I threw his way. Unfortunately, life happened, and the last book I hired him to edit was delivered unacceptably late, and with a long period of him being incommunicado. Had he expressed what was going on that was delaying him, even in the abstract, that would have been fine. No communication is unacceptable to me and how I work.
The third editor I hired I found via Fiverr. As a site for finding contractors, Fiverr is hit or miss. You must account for people who are in other countries and not necessarily native English speakers. You can get a super cheap editor, but you’ll get what you pay for.
My third editor did an amazing job, and I really liked the work she did, how timely she was, and her pricing. Unfortunately, her life changed, and she ceased to be available to continue working as an editor for me.
Finding the right editor
Utilizing Fiverr again, I hired a new editor for the fifth and final Void Incursion novel, Check and Mate. She was affordable and delivered on time. However, going over her edits, she missed a bunch of stuff that she should have caught. This, I’m seeking a new editor for Savagespace and beyond.What do I need from this edit? It comes down to three things.
Proofreading. The editor needs to give it a read-through to look for mistakes, repetition, and the general flow of the story as I’ve put it out there.
Line editing. The editor needs to find and fix typos, broken sentences, and note repetition. This is the thing I most desire from a good editor. I can find and catch a lot of my own mistakes, but a second set of eyes, specifically looking for and fixing these things, is necessary.
Developmental editing. This is a tad more complicated to explain. The best way I can do so is this: The editor looks for consistency, comments on tone and approach, and points out holes, hard-to-understand matters, and the like. This is a lot more subjective because it can involve recommendations for series rewriting, chopping unnecessary bits, and even shifts in tone. It requires a great deal of faith in the editor to see and understand your vision and not try to alter that to better fit something else.
Alliances and Consequences is 107,000+ words. Most editors charge a rate per word. Editing something this long (as opposed to my Forgotten Fodder books, which were just over 50,000 words each) could cost quite a bit.
Are there other options other than paying for an editor? Yes, but I find them suspect on multiple levels.
Other options besides finding the right editor
Beyond spellcheck, which is built into MS Word (which is how I write my books) there is Grammarly. Grammarly is one of several AI options available to do more than just clean up spelling errors. Grammarly finds contextual errors and offers a degree of line editing, too.
This, however, is imperfect on lots of levels. With fiction, and the made-up names of people, places, and things in sci-fi, Grammarly is easily overwhelmed. What’s more, even when I use it for nonfiction like this essay, it often makes suggestions I don’t agree with. There are stylistic choices I make for the tone of my writing that Grammarly rejects.
Generative AI options are available to help with editing more robustly. Though I’ve used AI for business writing assistance for my jobs (fully sanctioned and encouraged by my employers), I won’t use it for fiction. Not for writing my books at least. I might consider it for helping with promotional stuff, but that’s not materialized thus far.
While there are AI editing options, there are several reasons I won’t use them. First, no matter how robust the AI is, it lacks contextual understanding in the way a person does. Artificial intelligence is algorithms for a logical exploration of words, text, and the like. They lack feeling and will miss that in your work as such.
This is also a job I believe should be done by a person. AI isn’t going to be my audience, flesh and blood people are. Editors are readers as well, so they’ll find things they like and dislike about your story that AI can’t even fathom.
It’s possible, even probable, that AI will get more skilled and capable, but I feel this is still something a human should be employed for and paid to do.
It’s all about quality
I’ve read plenty of indie-author works that, frankly, needed better editing. At the very least, lessons in perspective and shifting it without warning, better removal of typos, and some other bits and pieces along the way.
I’m aware, also, that as good as my editors have been, they missed stuff, and so did I. Still, you can tell when someone half-assed it or didn’t bother versus missed a few things.
What it comes down to is quality. Choosing the right editor for you is partially about finding the right value for your work and understanding of your process. More than that, though, it comes down to producing the best-finished work that you can. My books should be edited so that the reader isn’t distracted by typos and other mistakes an editor can and will find.
I have time because the next books aren’t coming out until the fall of 2024. Still, the editing process requires me to go back over what the editor returns and put it all together. The goal is to not just produce a story and a book, but one of quality that is just as good – hell, even better – than a traditionally published novel.
What goes into choosing the right editor for me might not be the same as what goes into it for you. Yet the choice has similarities for all. If you’re new to the writing business, please consider how you can use what I’ve shared here.
Thanks for reading. As I share my creative journey with you, I conclude with this: How are you inspired to be your own creator – whatever form that takes?
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