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Anyone who writes with the expectation of having people read their work (can you think of a writer who doesn’t?) needs an editor. When you try to edit something you’ve written yourself, you tend to see what you meant to write, not necessarily what is on the page. It’s always easier to catch other people’s mistakes than it is to see our own.
At a seminar on self-publishing, two authors were overheard discussing their manuscripts and bewailing the costs of self-publishing. “I don’t think I should have to pay someone to edit my book,” one said to the other. “I’m hoping that the story will be so good that readers will overlook any grammar mistakes.”
That is one of the reasons self-publishing has earned a bad name among some writers as well as readers. Self-publishing has made it possible for many writers whose work would otherwise go unpublished to get their work out there.
Unfortunately, just because you can publish a book doesn’t always mean you should. Nothing turns a reader off faster than finding grammar, spelling or factual errors in a book, especially one they’ve paid money for! I once found an error regarding the St. Louis Gateway Arch in a book by a respected celebrity author: As a native St. Louisan, I know the Arch was erected in the mid-1960s; the author had the characters in the book visit the Arch on a trip to St. Louis in the late 1940s! As far as I was concerned, the author lost credibility that day.
That’s true to a certain extent; however, if your original manuscript is rife with errors, it’s unlikely to get either a publisher’s or agent’s attention in the first place. Agents and publishers receive thousands of manuscripts each year. If they receive two with equally compelling stories and one contains many grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes while the other is error-free, which one do you think they’ll accept?
Editors have to eat and make their mortgage payments, too! You wouldn’t ask your doctor to wait until you start feeling better before you pay him or her, would you?
If you want your work to be taken seriously (even if it’s meant to be funny!), consider the cost of editing as an investment in your writing success.
The staff at WordAbilities LLC consists of professional fiction and nonfiction writers who will ensure that your manuscript is submission-ready. Check out our very reasonable services and rates.
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