What DOES an editor do?
Hey,
I just want to spend a few minutes reflecting upon what I do when I am wearing my editing hat because there seems to be some general confusion around the role of an editor:
* First of all a good editor will always be HONEST. My job is to whip your manuscript into shape, not mollycoddle you, or wrap you in cotton wool. If the plot is riddled with holes, then it is my job to offer constructive ideas as to how you can improve it. I want your book to FLY OFF THOSE SHELVES. So, if I think there are issues that go beyond the editing process, then I will stop the clock and throw the ball back into your court, and invite you to ping it back to me when the changes have been made.
* I will gladly spend hours, days even, trawling your manuscript line by line, not just correcting grammatical errors, but also picking up and ironing out issues with viewpoint, and tense.
* I will also provide you with a detailed assessment of your manuscript, including thoughts on plot, characters, and dialogue, and if I think you need to make improvements, I will tell you – knowing that you can take it, because, hey, we are all adults, right?
* Sometimes, I have been known to re-work and re-write sentences, paragraphs, chapters even. All as part of my standard fee.
As part of the standard edit, I WILL NOT re-write your whole book for you. Nor should you expect me to! Ghost-writing is a completely separate and incredibly time-consuming task, and while I am happy to do some re-working (as previously mentioned) I do have my limits…If you require ghost-writing, I will gladly discuss that as a fresh project…
