Editorial Services

 

It’s said that a doctor who treats himself has a fool for a patient. The same can be said about lawyers, hairstylists and writers who self-edit.

In truth, all writers self-edit—or they should—as they polish their work to the best of their ability. Frankly, I’m one of those writers who can’t move on to the next sentence until I’m satisfied with the one I’ve just written. I edit as I go, even as I give myself permission to, in subsequent drafts, edit further. Yet as the former editor for a literary e-zine, I was amazed by the number of submissions we received that looked as if the writer merely threw the words onto the screen thinking they’d arrange themselves into semblance of a good piece of fiction or non-fiction.

I once read on a writers’ forum that all that is required for publication is a good story; that publishers have editors on staff whose job it is to fix errant grammar, punctuation and poor sentence structure. In today’s struggling book industry, publishers are looking for ways to cut costs, and one way is by cutting staff, including editors. Story alone carries little weight if, after the first paragraph, the acquisitions editor determines that a writer lacks the basic tools of good writing. They’re concerned with the big picture—narrative, dialogue, story, characterization, otherwise known as content. They expect that the writer knows how to construct a sound sentence and tell a good story.

We’re all protective of our work—we’ve spent many hours sweating, bleeding over our story, bonding with our characters. We want them to be accepted by the reading public, and we want them to do well, like our children. I’m no different than anyone else when it comes to critiques of my work: I’m embarrassed when someone points out a word omission or a “their” that should’ve been “they’re.” Even the most diligent writer can miss these types of errors once; and once missed, they are likely to be missed during subsequent rewrites. I struggle most when someone tells me one of my characters doesn’t ring true, that their believability falls just short. I get defensive, sometimes belligerent. But after I kick and scream for a while, I give serious consideration to that constructive criticism and get cracking to fix what is flawed.

As a fiction writer, I want to submit the cleanest copy I can to differentiate myself from the competition. What writer wouldn’t want to do that? If you’re looking for a second set of eyes to go over your work, whether simple line editing or content editing, drop me a line, tell me about your project. I’ll ask for a short excerpt of the piece and, after I look it over, return to you a revised version in edit mode, along with a quote based on your total word count.

No editor can guarantee you publication, but I can increase your chances for an accept.