So, you have done the hard work – you have toiled day and night (or painstaking months or years) to complete the first draft of your book. You have put your ideas on paper and brought your characters to life, but you have now hit a roadblock. Even the best manuscripts need revisions and editing because the best storytellers are not necessarily the best writers.
Whether you are a writer or a publishing house, everybody is in a hurry to complete the book and stack the bookstore shelves and the endless isles on online stores. However, before you do that, consider engaging a professional editor to work on your manuscript. Do not be satisfied with the inputs from just your parents, spouse, or friends, they will probably have a biased opinion.
A professional book editor will not only check spellings, grammar, and punctuation, but will also help you improve the manuscript by tying up loose ends.
A copy edit is more than proofreading. An editor performing a copy edit is essentially looking for typographical errors not detected by auto spell check functions of word editors. For example, a sentence like ‘Adam presented Eve a glittering sliver ring’ goes undetected with most spell checkers. It needs a trained copy editor to pick out such (sliver – silver) mistakes.
A hard edit is an elaborate process where an editor is required to read the manuscript several times. The first reading is only to evaluate the manuscript without editing it.
For fiction– the focus is on identifying the plot and looking for inconsistencies and major flaws, such as identifying character traits and evaluating their actions vis-à-vis their personalities.
For non-fiction – the focus is on ensuring that all the points have been covered in a logical and organized manner, and that the theories have been supported with adequate examples and case studies.
The second reading can result in suggestions to change or combine elements, eliminate scenes, or add text in some places to improve coherence.
The third reading is reserved for polishing the language, and re-writing for improving style, structure, and impact. Removing superfluous words, phrases and sentences is also done at this stage.
This is somewhat akin to “fact checking” and, depending on the manuscript, can end up being exactly the same thing. Some technical edits go far beyond simply reading a text with an expert eye and picking out flaws in logic or out-and-out mistakes. Technical editors must be experts in their field, along with having an eye for English grammar. Depending on the length, complexity, time and budgetary constraints, the manuscript can undergo more edits, preferably after an interval of a week to ten days, so that it can be approached with a ‘fresh set of eyes’.
Look for someone who can improve your manuscript without losing the original voice and style.
Get to know your editor; you need to be comfortable working with them.
Ensure that your editor possesses all the tools for the trade – excellent language skills, knowledge about subject, grammar, knowledge of style guides, technical guidelines, and a lot of patience.
Ask for samples and testimonials so that you are assured that your editor can get things done for you.
Do not trade enthusiasm for experience – your editor must be as passionate about your book as you are. However, do not hire someone you know is ‘good at English’. You need someone whose day job is Editing!
Ascertain how much, and on what basis, will the editor charge. Some editors charge by the hour, while others charge by the page or even per word. Either way, you must get value for your money.
We put our best writers on the job by matching their skill sets with your requirements. Either there is perfect match, or there is no match at all! No half measures.
We offer our prospects up to five pages of free sample editing so that they can get comfortable with our writing style and the value we can add vis-à-vis the cost.
Write to us and share a brief about your project. We will propose a partnership only if we believe that we can add value to your manuscript.
Visit us www.lexiconn.in or drop us a line at content@lexiconn.in.
LexiConn also offers a free 30-minute content consultation session to help you with your content strategy.
Business Tip: If you are a publisher or an editing house, we can help you overcome editing bottlenecks and increase throughput. Outsource manuscript editing!
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