Choosing an editor

Here’s a post at Writer Unboxed: Choosing an Editor

I’m uncomfortable with suggesting that aspiring authors pay a professional editor because, judging from people who link to their newly published books on Quora and ask how to improve sales, a lot of early efforts are really terrible. Paying a professional editor to critique a really terrible book would be a waste of the author’s money and actually pretty much a waste of the editor’s time as well.

I’m kind of reluctant to point at specific books, but I don’t want to say “really terrible” and leave that judgment just sitting there either. I want to make it clear what I mean by that.

So … look. Here is the description copied from a book’s product page at Amazon. This is a self-published book, as I think will be clear. This illustrates what I’m thinking of because this is a real book (300 pages) published by a actual aspiring (if young) author. It’s not 30 pages long or AI generated or anything. It’s an actual book. Here’s the description:

Ash gray smoke fills the air with loud explosions of bombs everywhere, and lets just say it’s not what Aleksander DePru has imagined his sixteen year old life to be like. Aside from the world in a war, Alek has still been haunted by the way his father has died and left him to lead the army for America.
With everything at stake, Alek and his best friend and co-commander Cyra Angelique, are sent on a doomed mission by the Emperor to form an alliance for America and capture a girl back.
As they fly to another planet, questions and fate loom in their heads. But things get more interesting when the Russians enter the picture, and a dangerous game of acting lies in their futures.
But worse, a plot from the past will threaten everything and so Alek must do everything in his power to guarantee his family will be safe and so will be his life.
When secrets unravel, Alek and Cyra have to create a new plan. A plan that considers the past, will create a good future, and will question their loyalty, duty, and responsibility to the throne.
Will this mission succeed? Or will it end like how it’s destined to end; in failure? With choices every step of the way, taking one false step will lead Alek and his team to a place of no return.

What would a professional editor do with a book written by this author? Serve as a writing teacher to teach basic punctuation? Is that what an editor, generally speaking, wants to do? Guide the author through every sentence, teaching the author how to keep track of pronouns? Ask how it is possible that a sixteen-year-old is leading an army and encourage the author to rethink the plot?

Would you, or anyone, suggest that this young author should spend thousands of dollars to have a professional editor go over this book with her?

I wouldn’t. I would strongly, strongly suggest (and in fact did suggest) that this author take the time to learn basic grammar and punctuation on her own, perhaps by working with an English teacher at her school, for free, to correct every single sentence in this book, with the teacher scaffolding until the author is able to correct the rest of the sentences on her own. Then I would suggest that the author set this book aside and write something else. I suspect the above book is unsalvageable. I strongly suspect that an editor willing to take this author’s money would be acting very nearly like a scammer, or at best as very an expensive writing tutor.

There are lots and lots of authors like the above. I really am curious: what would you say to this person if she wanted to hire you to edit this book? Either as a developmental editor or a line editor or both? Wouldn’t you turn them down? Or at least suggest that what they need is an English tutor before they even think of hiring an editor?

I think it makes MUCH more sense to suggest to aspiring authors that they get with a critique partner or something like that and see how that goes, and that they hire an editor ONLY if they decide, for real, that their book is pretty good — publishable as it stands, in fact. Beta readers and editors are helpful at THAT point, not before.

So, back to the linked post. What does this person at Writer Unboxed say?

In Kathryn Craft’s WU post for May 9 (“To Diagnose or to Characterize?”), David Corbett makes the following comment:

“Having been in reading/writing groups early in my career, and having counseled students who’ve received curious feedback from other group members, I’ve come to realize that you have to be able to discern valid criticism from that which is something other than valid.” 

These words registered with me. In part because of problems I met up with in a writers’ group, I have become a strong advocate for writers submitting their work to professional editors. It costs money, but in my view it’s money well spent. This assumes the writer takes pains to learn all she can before choosing an editor. But an editor and writer form a two-member writers’ group, so knowing how to “discern valid criticism” is no less important.

And you see that this does say the author had better have “taken pains to learn all she can,” which basically suggests the same thing I just said, that if the author isn’t ready to work with an editor, they really shouldn’t.

But this post does make a good point, because I honestly don’t think a writer’s group is the same thing as a critique partner at all, far less the same thing as an English tutor. I, as a dyed-in-the-wool hermit, do not join groups, basically, ever. (Well, hardly ever.) I’ve never been a member of a writer’s group, I’ve never even contemplated joining a writer’s group, but I have heard about writer’s groups, and I bet you have too.

The 4 Hidden Dangers of Writing Groups

Writer Groups – More Harm Than Good?

Ten signs your writing group is bad for you

And so forth and so on. The author of the linked post seems to have come down on the side of “writer’s groups are bad for writers,” and I think this is highly justifiable, although actually I do know of at least one writer’s group that appears to be beneficial and supportive. But authors certainly need to be somewhat cautious with writer’s groups and also probably ready to step away. And very definitely ready to ignore criticism that does not suit their work.

The rest of the linked post is about choosing an editor once you’ve decided to work with an editor, and yes, that seems important. It’s an eight-point post.

#1 — Check the editor’s own writing. Points #3 and #4 are basically the same as #1.

#2 — Ask for a sample edit. That sounds crucial to me.

#5 — Be sure you’re clear on the differences between copy editing, line editing, and developmental editing. This goes with #6, which is basically understand what you’re paying for.

#7 — Ask previous clients for their opinion. That seems like it might be a lot of trouble, but I guess it’s not a bad idea.

#8 — Remember that you are the final arbiter.  This means, basically, does the editor seem sympatico?

This all sounds reasonable to me. I would also suggest:

#9 — Find an editor who is a genuine fan of your genre, preferably of your subgenre

and

#10 — Find an editor who prefers the “tone” you prefer; eg, on a spectrum of grimdark to positive, where do they land? Same place as your book, more or less? Because it’s had to believe an editor can do their best work if they loath your book.

This is reminding me of beta reading a book for another author earlier this year and saying to myself (and eventually to her) that the book featured stunningly beautiful description which I just loved, but that I feared I might not be the best reader if the protagonist is impulsive, none too bright, unable to articulate her principles because she doesn’t really have any, and also by the way I absolutely can’t stand betrayal as an important plot element.

What I wanted this author to do was rewrite the book entirely. I did not, of course, say that. What I said was, “Would it be possible to justify this thing here a little better?” and “If this protagonist thinks she follows this guiding principle, should she perhaps feel worse about it after she doesn’t?” and so on. But I also thought: how could we better make sure that a beta reader is well suited to a book?

I don’t know that it’s possible, because it’s not practical to list all the things you hate in a book vs all the things you admire. But how about this: list ten keywords that make you likely to pick up a book and read the first page, and ten keywords that make you unlikely to do so. Five, at least.

For me: the chances I’ll look at the first page go way up if the description contains the words: friendship, trust, integrity, loyalty, lyrical.

The chances I’ll look at the first page go down a fair bit if the description contains the words: impulsive, angst, doomed, obsessive.

The changes I’ll look at the first page go way, way down if the description contains the words: betrayal, treacherous, tortured romance, ruined, humiliated.

There you go. Now you know you shouldn’t ask me to beta read if your book can be accurately summarized this way: “Beautifully told with lyrical prose, a lovely but impulsive and dimwitted protagonist falls into an obsessive love affair, but her heart is ripped out when she discovers her lover is utterly treacherous and in fact is actually and irredeemably evil. Can she save any vestige of the love she thought she had? No, but maybe she can settle for an actual decent person once she she has no choice because despite everything she can do to save him, her evil lover is finally, after doing quite a bit of harm, killed.”

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