Friday, April 08, 2022

Karen S. Wiesner: Do I Need a Professional Editor?

 

Writer's Craft Article by Karen S. Wiesner

Do I Need a Professional Editor?

From CPR for Dead or Lifeless Fiction {A Writer's Guide to Deep and Multifaceted Development and Progression of Characters, Plot, and Relationships}


Once upon a time, it was standard practice for every book to go through content editing, line editing, copyediting, and then one or more rounds of proofreading. Every book needs those steps, even those written by professional, highly skilled authors. It might surprise you to know that once upon a time even "vanity publishers" (i.e., those that charge you possibly exorbitant fees to publish your work) had rigorous editing requirements. But, while there are still traditional publishers around who enforce an in-depth editing process for all authors under contract, self- and indie publishers have little or no guidelines, let alone quality requirements placed on them. Far too many authors are cutting corners and self-publishing books that are as far from quality as it gets.

A qualified editor can see quality writing even if he or she doesn't personally enjoy the story. That's not up for debate. Good writing is good writing and free from as many errors as possible. I've read countless books in my line of work as a freelance editor, writing instructor, and contest judge that were wonderfully written. I didn't particularly enjoy them or engage and connect with them, but I could see they were well written (and well edited). So I stand by the fact that good writing is good writing and a true professional can be trusted to judge quality or lack therefore.

A professional editor will point out structural flaws, weak characterization, and bad writing--will absolutely content-, line- and copy-edit as well as proofread a book from start to finish (conceivably multiple times) before it's published. A professional editor won't ask you to revise something because of a difference of opinion, personal bias, or anything that can be considered "up for debate". Professional editors consider their work an art or even a science--and it is for those who have this very rare skill. I could open up yet another can of worms here concerning what makes a professional editor "professional" but that's not the point here. However, keep in mind that there as many unprofessional, unskilled "professional" editors out there who need solid professional credentials as there are unprofessional, unskilled authors who need a professional editor. Do your homework. Find someone who has the credentials (beyond being an author one distributor or a review publication calls a bestseller) for charging authors to edit.

A professional author trusts her editor or she walks away but, either way, an author can't afford to have an overinflated sense of worth or confidence about his work, let alone see every word as golden and therefore set in stone, not to be altered by a lesser mortal. If you realize you simply don't have the skill to do the revisions required to make a book quality, own up to it. Don't slap it up for sale and take money from poor, unsuspecting readers who almost never have an endless amount of money to spend on entertainment. The number of buyers of books is shrinking. Authors and publishers, respect yourself and respect the reader by making it a requirement that you'll only offer the highest quality stories to those readers still out there willing to pay for a good read.

That doesn't change the fact that far too many flawed, poorly written and edited books are being self-published by amateurs who are cutting corners and being lazy about their craft, taking money they haven't earned from readers whose only available course isn't to return the book but to write troll reviews at a distributor's website or never buy another book from that author (not exactly damaging unless riot mobs are amassing at an author's borders). Maybe it's true that these books are being sold in an author's own community and most readers aren't even aware they exist (and let's hope it stays that way). But shouldn't we start thinking about whether bad, sloppy, poorly written books should even be published? They're absolutely flooding the market so everything--good and bad--can only drown in the deluge. If we don't consider it now, when should we? When it's too late? Or is it already?

I would never want to be the one to judge whether a book is worthy to be published, but I've wondered countless times if the publishing industry wouldn't be a stronger place and readers wouldn't benefit immensely if authors and publishers and even distributors actually took the time to evaluate whether a book is quality apart from sales figures. I've also wondered if publishers shouldn't be more discerning. Is the fact that the publisher/editor likes the story reason enough to publish it? If a publisher doesn't have the skills to professionally evaluate and edit the material, or if the editor they hire is subpar (there are so many writer-wanna-be-editors without hard skills working at indie and small press publishing houses these days, it makes me want to cry), the publisher isn't doing the author or readers a favor at all--regardless of what either party believes about the quality of the story in this regard.

I know of an author who came into the indie market presumably because traditional publishers turned him down often and, through a series of what I consider unfortunate events, he went through several small ebook publishers--none of whom required him to do any serious editing of his work. Such a disservice was done to him! This author learned erroneously through these events that he was a good writer when, in fact, the opposite was true. If he'd been forced to do good editing and revisions from the very start, he might have gone on to become a good writer through practice and experience with the correct process for producing a quality book. Ultimately, when he got to the point of being required by a new publisher to do extreme editing of his severely flawed books, self-publishing became the easy out for him. I honestly don't know who to be more disgusted with: All the publishers who weren't discerning enough to turn this author away in the first place or require serious editing from him as a condition of publication, or the author who seemed to prefer not having to do the hard work of being a professional author and didn't mind offering readers low-quality books.

No one has any excuse for publishing bad, poorly written stories. Authors, publishers and distributors, listen up: The true test of a whether a story is quality is not because of any of the following:

1) Friends, family, colleagues, and maybe even a few strangers liked or even loved it (maybe enough to post a 5 star review in a public place).

2) It's published (self-, indie, or any other kind of publisher) or, for that matter, because someone agreed to publish it for the author.

3) The book has sold a lot of copies, whether legitimately or because you or your publisher used a discounted ebook marketing service or simply gave it away free or at a massive discount from a distributor's website.

4) It's a bestseller on any list. Mind you, it is possible to make a bestselling list by "ad stacking"--in other words, you have ads on as many of the discounted ebook marketing services as possible at the same time, which will probably cost more than you make in profit during this time, but your goal is gaining "credibility", not making money. Do an internet search to find out how this is done if you're interested (or, if you're like me, just want to be shocked that people actually do this--why and doesn't it make them feel dirty? because I would feel guilty using this kind of "publicity" to make myself sound more worthy than I actually might be). Bestseller lists are based on how many books are sold or are expected to sell. Is bestselling status retracted from a book that doesn't sell the way it was supposed to? Doubtful, but I can practically guarantee that the status will never be neglected in promotion by that author or publisher. They're absolutely no indication of actual quality of product, merely quantity.

The only true test of a quality book is whether readers found it worth the price they paid for it (or if they would have paid more) and enjoyed it, possibly enough to buy and read other books written by that author. This isn't something that can be adequately tested "in a laboratory" or statistically. Most writers may never know if they passed the quality test unless a reader sends them a note to tell them, puts up a review at a publisher's, distributor's, or the author's own website; or fans prove they love your work in some other definable, quantifiable way.

Karen S. Wiesner is the author of CPR for Dead or Lifeless Fiction {A Writer's Guide to Deep and Multifaceted Development and Progression of Characters, Plot, and Relationships}

Volume 6 of the 3D Fiction Fundamentals Collection

http://www.writers-exchange.com/3d-fiction-fundamentals-series/

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/writing-reference-titles.html

Happy writing!

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 140 titles and 16 series. Visit her here:

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

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