So, you’ve decided to take advantage of the democratization of literature. Congratulations! Maybe you’ve been turned down or ghosted by a traditional publishing house or three. Maybe your story is too unique for their tastes or too narrow to meet a publishing contest’s parameters. No matter the reason, you’re going to need an editor. Yes, I can say that without equivocation. An editor is here to provide you with so much more than you may initially realize:
You Hold the Power
One thing that can be nerve wracking about traditional publishing is the lack of control. Will your editor want to cut a plot line, your favorite character, or a scene you can’t live without? Will their timeline be realistic for you to make necessary changes? When you hire an editor yourself, you’re the boss! The editor likely will make suggestions you don’t agree with, but you get ultimate control over how many of those you choose to keep. And if you don’t think you’re working with an editor who sees eye-to-eye with you on what your story needs, you can choose a new one without repercussions. As the author and publisher, you choose what your time constraints, cost constraints, and story ownership constraints will be.
An Unbiased Point-of-View
One of the hardest things to find when self-publishing is someone who can critique your work without a reason to sugar coat it for you. Even a swapping beta reader from your writer’s group wants to keep feedback short and from a positive perspective to ensure they have readers for future pieces. A good editor will understand your boundaries and needs after an initial consultation to make sure you are being supported properly, but they have little reason to ignore problems or questions that come up during their reading. Book editors with integrity know it’s necessary to praise great writing and address complications to ensure you sell the most books and write the best piece possible.
Fill in Your Blind Spots
Have you ever read a page in a book where you have to read it two or three times before you’re certain what is happening? Yeah, sometimes that’s a result of being tired or distracted, but a good deal of the time it’s because an author left out small details that would clarify the scene. Even if you are an author with a robust beta readership and experience editing in the Chicago Manual of Style, it’s very hard to eliminate authorial blind spots. As the author, you have a very clear picture in your mind of exactly how the scene works and how each character is responding, but that can be harder than you imagine to write effectively particularly in complex scenes. But when an editor has to read a page twice, they mark the page immediately to revisit and consider what might need filling in.
Details, Details, Details
The biggest difference between a great beta reader and even a mediocre developmental edit is the granularity and number of lenses through which your reviewer will look at your piece. A beta reader will review your novel from the perspective of someone who wants to read your book, if they enjoy themselves, and if they would do it again. This does sometimes lead to big picture discussions about individual characters’ arcs and pieces of plotline, but an editor will consider your piece with concerns of consistency and development of your genre, plot, structure, point of view, characters, special considerations specific to your text such as magic systems, technology or epistolary elements, and more.
The Industry Perspective
Editors read. They are reading all the time. They’re reading pitches and submissions for their clients. They’re reading the best sellers of their genre to see what’s hot. They’re reading reviews that analyze a massive number of books that get published to stay ahead of trends and to improve their own analysis. They’re broadly reading huge numbers of books as a pastime. Boy, are they reading. Even the most dedicated authors can’t keep up by comparison because they have writing to do, and writing takes time. But all of this reading means that editors have an almost intuitive way of knowing what will work and what won’t sell. They also have insight into how a change to a character or plot point can take a book from hack to mad stacks, and they want to help.
It's All About the Connections
It may seem unnecessary to build up industry connections as a self-publishing author because you’re building an audience from the ground up, but wouldn’t it be nice to have access to printer discounts? Or maybe you want some help marketing your novel, snagging a professional cover artist or building an author’s website. You shouldn’t hire an editor primarily for their connections, but they’re definitely a great perk when you’re a debut novelist trying to get a project off the ground.
If you find an editor that fits well with your needs, they can provide a lot more than simply critiquing your work. A good editor serves as a cheerleader, a confidant, and a gut check, too. And a bad one can kill your authorial career before it gets off the ground.
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