Got Some Writer Envy—Get Some Editing to Improve Your Own Writing!

When I first heard that a certain Malaysian author had great sales with her first book, I felt a twinge of jealously—it's human nature.  I was like, wow, how did she do it?  Someone mentioned that she's good at online marketing, and I thought, OK, I need to do more of that.  She also goes after the media instead of waiting for the media come to her.  Ok, I should do more of this too. Then she did something that really caught my attention.  She contacted me to help edit her next book.  That's what successful writers do; they seek out those in the position to help them.

That's exactly what I did when I first began to write, I hired an editor to point out all of my mistakes in the short stories that I was writing, not knowing that I was even making any mistakes!  To be honest, I was looking for validation.  Brilliant—don't change a word!  I learned an awful lot and realized I had an awful lot to learn about writing.  Gradually I transformed these early stories, draft after draft, into a collection, Lovers and Strangers (Heinemann Asia 1993)   
Twelve years later, I did it again for Lovers and Strangers Revisited when I first revisited my short stories.  I approached an editor that I knew and hired her to edit my stories that's already been published several times.  Although there were no grammar mistakes or glaring errors, she did point out several areas in each story that needed to be tightened.  She questioned details, word choice, trite expressions, and any ineffective writing that needed to be reworked.  She pointed me in the right direction, and the rest was up to me.
Basically, I hired a fresh pair of eyes to catch mistakes before I send it to the publisher.  Of course, the publisher will assign you an editor, but mostly they'll catch mistakes that somehow got through (usually from last minutes corrections that created new mistakes), but some errors (and a lot of bad, lazy writing) still end up in print!  Did it pay off?  Lovers and Strangers Revisited did win an award and it is now getting translated into French.
Yes, editing does cost money, but consider it as a writer's business expense and as an investment, as I did.  You're investing in not only yourself as a writer, you're investing in your own education, so long as you take the time to learn from your editing mistakes and the editor's comments.  This way you'll be more aware and less likely to make similar mistakes in the future.  You'll also learn how to make your writing more effective.
Like other editors, I offer a basic line-editing service, catching any and all grammar mistakes and other related errors (for years I taught advance grammar to English teachers at USM, and also line-edited my writing students' work).  Unlike academics, I offer an advance editing service that takes you into the mind of a published author and creative writing instructor, adding insights into your writing, whereby your word choices, your turn of phrases, and your writing style does matter if you really want to be successful as a writer, but so does your organization, your transitions, your point-of-view, and your underlying logic, especially in fiction and creative non-fiction (memoirs).  Is it plausible, believable, or is your story full of holes?
After I edited two sample chapters, this already successful author replied, "You're so super efficient! I love the way you gave me details about why certain phrases didn't work. Very thorough work in such short time.  A Perfect teacher!  Thanks a lot Robert!  Really appreciate the care and time you had given to my work :)" Notice the smiley icon that she added.  That made me smile, too.  This is exactly why this writer is so successful; she not only knows how to write and market her work, she's not afraid to ask for a fresh pair of editing eyes and even shows appreciation! 
And this is after I caught her making some silly and couple of glaring non-grammatical mistakes that we all tend to make when writing in a hurry. She wasn't angry or embarrassed. Maybe a little, but if the mistakes are there it's far better that I (or another editor) catch them than thousands of your readers!  More importantly, she's willing to learn how to write better so her future books will continue to be best sellers.  That's rather admirable, don't you think?  Cool, too!
And yes, I'm still a little envious of her sales, but having gotten to know her and working with her, I feel she thoroughly deserves it.  She's also going places with her writing, and I find that very exciting and am glad to be a part of it.  This is someone who is seriously trying to break out of the Malaysian market from inside Malaysia.  Some of her books have already been translated into other languages.
Being jealous or envious of other writers won't get you very far in your writing life, unless you use that as your motivator to write better (and more often).  Bottom line:  if you want to be as successful as other writers, do what successful writers do.  A good place to start is to get some serious help with your editing to lift your writing (and your education as a writer) to a higher standard, so you'll become that best-selling, award-winning writer that will be the envy of everyone else, myself included.  Good luck.             -Robert Raymer, Borneo Expat Writer[image error]