5 Stupid Excuses Authors Use to Forgo Book Editing
Authors work hard — there’s no doubt about that. They get up early and stay up late. They drink copious amounts of caffeine to break out just a few more words. They dream about their characters and create marvelous worlds for their readers. Some dedicate their lives to writing their books.
So why do so many authors work so hard, only to sabotage their books by neglecting to hire a professional editor?
Here are five common excuses authors use when it comes to book editing:
- “Professional editors are expensive.”
- “An editor will butcher my unique voice.”
- “How will I know if my book is properly edited?”
- “I used an editor once, and my book had errors. I won’t do that again.”
- “I edited my book myself, so I don’t need an editor.”
These notions are all false. When you decide to present your words to the world as a self-published author, then your book must be professionally edited. Without a polished manuscript, poor Amazon reviews will saturate your page, readers will run away, and your reputation will be in need of some serious PR.
Let’s counter these misconceptions of hiring a professional editor, shall we?
1. “Professional editors are expensive.”
Have you ever attended a wedding in which the bride and groom opted to have their unskilled family member photograph their wedding, only to receive shoddy photos? Perhaps you’ve actually experienced this firsthand. Hiring a professional photographer can take your wedding from meh to jaw-dropping.
And an editor can take your so-so book and turn it into a masterpiece. When you hire a professional photographer, you invest in their skills. The same is true with editors. You’re paying a professional to help make your book the best that it can be.
If you can’t afford a professional editor, I always give the same advice: wait and save up. Talk to the potential editor about a payment plan. Consider crowdfunding. Just do anything but settle for mediocrity. Your readers deserve the best.
Finally, and the most important point I should’ve made from the beginning: you are not to be shamed because you can’t afford editing. It’s ok! Times are tough; everyone gets that. The problem is when an author publishes his book without having it edited. Wait. Save up. Don’t publish it until you can present your best to your readers.
2. “An editor will butcher my unique voice.”
A professionally trained editor knows how important it is to maintain the author’s unique voice. When revising content, the editor will make suggestions and talk you through how to clarify or enhance your words. For example, if I notice entire paragraphs in need of rewriting, I will make suggestions in the comments section and help the author rewrite it in his own voice—not my own.
A great editor cares about you as much as she cares about your book. That’s why it’s important to use Track Changes and have a one-on-one relationship with your editor. You can talk to the editor and tell her, “I understand why this content needs to be revised. Let me rewrite it in my voice, and you can edit it.”
If an editor tries to completely change the tone of your book, you have the right to ask her to stop or to terminate the contract.
3. “How will I know if my book is properly edited?”
Check the editor’s references or read the testimonials on his website. Ask for a sample edit with Track Changes. When I do sample edits, I always write comments and back up what I said. They don’t have to take my word for it when I lowercase the word army; I can prove it to them in The Chicago Manual of Style.
Look at the editor’s own work. If you can spot errors on his website or on social media, try broadening your search.
Also, talk to other authors. It’s a small world; you’d be surprised who knows your editor. For example, there are a couple of editors whose books I’ve had to edit (because they messed them up); but I don’t have to tell a soul who they are. The authors take care of that and keep other authors safe from using them. Go, team!
4. “I used an editor once, and my book has errors. I won’t do that again.”
For an editor to claim that he can edit a manuscript to perfection means that there are no errors, that he is perfect, which is unfeasible. And for an author to assume his book should be error-free is ridiculous. We are not perfect human beings, so to create a perfect (error-free) manuscript is impossible. Pick up any bestseller in your local bookstore, and I promise you’ll find errors.
Now, if your book is overflowing with errors on every page, then I’d ask the following questions:
—Did I hire a professional the first time, or was this a cheap editor?
—Did I check the editor’s references and ensure he was providing quality before I hired him?
—Did I do my due diligence and check him out online and with other authors who used him?
—Did he prove to me (perhaps in The Chicago Manual of Style) why he made the changes he did, or did I just take his word for it?
—Did he do a sample edit for me or show me his previous work?
5. “I edited the book myself, so I don’t need an editor.”
Every time I hear this, I die a little inside. We cannot be objective to our own writing. You could edit the same page over and over and still miss errors. Your brain will tell you a word is there that isn’t. Even editors need editors.
I don’t care if you were an English teacher. I don’t care if you read through a grammar book. I certainly don’t care if you used Grammarly. They do not take the place of a professional book editor—and they never will.
Oh, and your readers can totally tell when you edited it, by the way.
When authors use these excuses, they welcome sabotage to their own work. If you hired an editor, what would those Amazon reviews look like? Would fans be emailing you, begging for another book?
Or would they shake their heads in dismay, writing off self-published books altogether?
If you, as an author, spent all that time creating something that means so much to you, wouldn’t you want to give it the finishing touch it deserves?
An expert editor, seasoned writer, and author-centric marketer, Shayla Raquel works one-on-one with authors and business owners every day. A lifelong lover of books, she has edited over 300 books and launched several Amazon bestsellers for her clients. Her blog posts have been featured on popular websites including The Book Designer and Positive Writer. She is the author of the Pre-Publishing Checklist and her novel-in-progress, The Suicide Tree. She lives in Oklahoma with her two dogs, Chanel and Wednesday.
[Note: A version of this blog post first appeared on The Book Designer.]
