To edit or Not to edit?
I stumbled across a blog where the owner discussed an epublisher that had contracted two of her books.
This publisher, according to this person, both of whom shall remain nameless, has a policy of not editing contracted books — at all. I don’t know about you, but I want my work edited.
I especially want it edited by someone who knows what they’re doing, and knows how to bring out the best in me and my writing. But even a bad editor is better than no editing at all.
According to the blog owner, readers don’t see errors, they just skip over them. Ahem, I’m a reader, and I find every tiny error that appears in a book. Okay, I’m an editor; my job is to look for errors. But when I’m in reader mode, I find errors without trying.
As an editor, I know firsthand that writers will always miss problems with their work, be it a typo, physical characteristics, continuity issues, or something else. As a writer, I do this with my own work. (Everyone thinks that because you’re an editor your work will be perfect. Not possible!)
I guess the bottom line - for me anyway - is that editors are a necessary evil, for want of a better term. Personally I’m going to steer clear of that particular publisher since they obviously don’t put much value on the content of their books.
I’d love to hear your views. Would you prefer to have your book edited, or do you think the raw form, the way you submitted, is good enough?
And my final thought - I wonder if this is a genuine belief that readers don’t see the errors, or whether it’s a cost-saving exercise.
Cheryl
Tags: book editing, Cheryl Wright, epublishing, Writer2Writer, writing
July 10th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
I’m a good editor and a careful writer but I’d rather have my work edited by someone who hasn’t seen it 5000 times. I always cringe when I see something I’ve written with even the smallest error that wouldn’t have made it past a fresh pair of eyes.
As a reader, I have always immediately seen errors in books and periodicals and they are irritating especially when they have supposedly been edited. Someone didn’t do their job. It’s all about the cost and the lack of attention to detail, and probably a bit about the fact that most people, even editors, think someone else will catch the errors before it makes it to print. Nothing like passing the buck.