On Editing: The Importance of Publishing a Well-Edited Book

[C.M.J.]

On Editing: The Importance of Publishing a Well-Edited Book

I recently befriended a fellow Goodreads author who is not a native English speaker, and I thought the story of Breathe, her book, would be an excellent way to start discussing the importance of editing. My alter ego does medical editing, which involves amending articles written by physicians for medical journals.

It also means that if there are errors in a book I read, I’ll expose them in my review and will rate the work lower than I would have if it had been well edited (and I’m not talking about the rare typo, which does happen even in the most rigorously edited texts). So what, right? Wrong. Because of the errors I pointed out in one of my reviews, which I posted on Amazon and Goodreads, a reviewing blog refused to evaluate the book and told the author that he wasn’t taking publishing seriously enough. I know this because the author thanked me for being honest and told me what had happened, and through e-mail exchanges I was able to help him further. And he agreed that the reviewing bloggers were right to reject his book for consideration.

In the past six weeks, I’ve given four Goodreads authors reviews by private message rather than publicly because I refuse to eviscerate my fellow indies. I had mixed feelings about it. Obviously, there were problems with their books. Was I cheating their potential readers by not posting my reviews? I was pleasantly surprised to find that three of the authors responded to my critique, and quite favorably. All of them are revising their manuscripts as a result, two of them are having them professionally edited, and one unpublished her book from Amazon and will republish after it’s been edited. I would have given her book a 1-star rating because of the terrible quality; one reviewer on Amazon gave her 2 stars because the book was so poorly edited. Don’t discount the consequences of publishing a book that’s not ready; people do notice poor writing and editing, and they’ll remember your name—but not for the right reasons.

So were the private reviews worth the risk of some unsuspecting soul’s purchasing an inferior copy before the revised editions are published? Yes. Part of the reason we’re here is to help one another, and I feel that I’m succeeding. (And yes, “soul’s” is correct! It’s a gerundive.)

Three of the people who responded told me that their books had been edited “professionally.” The ability to read does not an editor make. To fight such incompetence, I’m going to create an editing test, offer it to editors who advertise on Goodreads, and start a list of those who pass it so that I can recommend excellent editors on both my website and Goodreads (two of the three authors who responded asked me to recommend someone). If you’re interested in participating, send me a message.

Back to Breathe. I haven’t read it, but because of the steps Ani San took to correct her novel, because she recognizes how critical editing is, I plan to.

What follows is the tale in the author’s own words:

Okay, so I wrote a story. A whole story with over 70 thousand words. A story that’s been on my mind for several years. I was so excited about finishing it, and publishing it, that I forgot the most important thing: Make sure it is readable. And I’m not talking about the storyline. My issue is language.

To all those out there who have read Breathe in its first edition: I am so sorry.
Really, I am. I know; you don’t put a book out there without having it properly edited. I promise to never do that again.

I’m going to tell you a secret: My native language is not English. Now, if you have read Breathe in its first edition, then you would have responded something like ‘Ha, that’s not a secret, everyone can tell’. Others might ask why I would write in a language that isn’t my own. Well, I’ll tell you: I started Breathe a long time ago, but could never write more than a few chapters before giving up. I couldn’t get the dialog to work. My main problem was that I was writing about a girl living in London, and when she spoke, she spoke English. So I would think the dialog in English first, and then try to translate it to my own language when writing. That didn’t work out so well, so I put the story aside. It wasn’t until I started writing the whole story in English that I got to finish it. And yes, I did write it all in English, it is not written in some other language and then translated. Maybe it should have been. Maybe some professional translator could have done a better job. And maybe I would’ve given up on the story and not published it at all. But I didn’t. I wrote it like I thought it, and thought it all made sense. I checked it, made someone else check it, and then I checked it again. And I published. Too soon, I know; lesson learned. In my defence I must tell you that all the books I read (and I read a lot!) are in English, so I thought this was a no-brainer. You live and learn.

Breathe has been re-published in a second edition, this time with the help from a professional (English-speaking) editor

—Ani San
Goodreads blog, June 11, 2013
Used with permission.

I hope this posting was informative and useful. And I hope any author reading it will take it to heart.

http://cmjwallace.com/

[Renuka]

C.M.J. wrote: "On Editing: The Importance of Publishing a Well-Edited Book

I couldn't agree more about having a well-edited piece of work. It's also helpful to find an editor who enjoys the same genre and style, as we all have our own personal style and preferences.

[[deleted user]]

Amazing article! It was very enlightening and also interesting as case study.

I just published my first fiction work this week, and hasn't it been for a group of great beta readers/editors, I might have suffered the same problem as this author, as my primary language is not English.

It made me realize how much I had to improve the reader's experience before putting it for sale.

:)

[C.M.J.]

Thanks, Renuka and Isis.

I agree that your editor should be familiar with your preferred genre. Expertise in a subject increases the possibility of catching errors that otherwise might not be caught.

Best of luck with your book, Isis!