What An Editor Does

One of the biggest problems many unpublished writers have is that they have no idea what an editor's job is, and instead think an editor is a sort of fairy godmother who will wave a magic wand and turn limp prose in best-selling gold.

They have a vague notion that once a publisher accepts them, their precious manuscript will go to an editor who will work her magic, and make it perfect.

Wrong!

To be fair, in the past, there have been a few authors with big names and iron-clad contracts who had editors who did just that. Raymond Carver's short stories would not have been nearly so minimalist without his editor's help. But those days are gone. Now, editors have specific jobs and it isn't to rewrite your story.

There are two distinct forms of editing, structural and copy editing.

A Structural Editor is the one you are going to hate. Her job is to take your fat book, and find the thin book inside that is trying to get out. She will read your entire book, and tell you what you need to do to make it better. Trust me, this will hurt.

When you get your MS back from a structural editor, it will have red tracker comments all over it, saying things like "The story begins on page fifteen, cut everything before," and "Point of view shifts all over this chapter. Find and eliminate," and "Scientific/historical inaccuracies. Research and fix," and "This bit is boring," and "Not nearly enough emotional development here. Add another thousand words of emotion."

Then you have to go and do all that stuff. She's not going to do it for you.

You'll probably have a time limit in which to do it, because she has other books she is working on and limited time. When you get your edited MS back to her, she'll point out any new or remaining problems, and expect you to fix them.

Finally, your book will go to a Copy Editor, who will find misspelled words, grammar errors, poor punctuation, clunky phrasing, and small continuity mistakes. Depending on how she works, she may just fix them herself. If there are a lot of clumsy word choices or phrases or continuity errors, she'll point them out, suggest ways to deal with them, and let you fix them yourself.

She will also introduce the publisher's house style, and tell you what it is, so you know next time.

If you are planning to self-publish, or are being published by a small publishing house, you need an editor even more than someone who has an established history as an author.

Many aspiring writers know that they have a few typos and are not always sure where the apostrophe goes. They admit that a quick check by a copy editor might be useful. It's harder to admit that a structural edit is necessary.

It's next to impossible to see the plot holes in your own story. All your characters are your children, and you can't believe that some of them are dragging your story down. You labored for months over your prologue, so there is no way you are going to cut it out. But all those things have to be found and fixed. It hurts, and it's hard work, but it's essential if you are going to produce the best possible book.

Author: Eileen Gormley