Do I really need a professional editor to edit my manuscript?

You have finished your manuscript. Your ten best friends plus your mother have told you your book is GREAT. You have made up your mind that there is a market for your book beyond your ten best friends. You have decided to self publish your book and hopefully become the next Tom Clancy. Your Tenth Grade English teacher has read over your manuscript caught a few typos and given you further encouragement to publish. Do you really need an editor?

1. Yes: If you are really serious about publishing, the above example skips a very important step. That step is utilizing the services of a professional editor. As nice as your friends and English teacher might be, chances are they are not editors. Grading a term paper and editing a book are apples and oranges. Virtually ALL successful books have been professionally edited and proofread long before they reach the general market. Editing costs vary by the amount of editing that needs to be done. Keep in mind that all editing is based on an hourly rate. Hourly rates may vary from editor to editor but the number of hours to perform a particular type of editing should be comparable from editor to editor.

2. No: If you are on a limited budget and really intend to turn this publishing venture into a hobby and not a second job, you might be OK. Between the spell checker in MS Word and your English teacher, your work will more than likely be readable. It may even be saleable. You have a good attitude and realize that the worst that’s going to happen is you’ll have presents to give out until you run out.

3. Maybe: You might want to try a combination of the above. Start off with a few hundred using the spellchecker/English teacher editing combo. Aggressively market these books as “Unedited Galleys” or “Reader Proofs”. Get your reviews, sell to your friends, set up your website, set up distribution and if the groundswell of demand starts, know that you are going to need to spend the money for a professional editor before your main print run.

Anyone who knows me or is a regular reader of my “Ask Ron” column is aware that I am a pretty straight shooter and there is very little “grey area” in my opinion on most subjects. Unfortunately this is one of those rare areas where grey dominates. The extremes are easy. You should never edit your own manuscript. If you made the initial mistake it can be easily overlooked no matter how many times you go back and review. The minimum you need is for someone else to read your work. On the other extreme, very few of you need to go to the other end of the spectrum and spend $3000-$5000+ on substantial substantive line editing. It would be nice, and couldn’t hurt, but most of the people I deal with just do not have that much money in their budgets. Pretty much everything else in between falls into that “grey” area.

The best way to get an editorial grip on your manuscript is to get an honest analysis which will include an estimate of just what an editor believes is necessary to get your manuscript into top shape. BooksJustBooks.com is introducing such a service at a very affordable $149 which can be fully applied against any additional editorial service you purchase from BooksJustBooks.

Our editorial analysis will provide you with a general evaluation of the following and a specific recommendation of the level of service we think you need (if any):

• The appropriateness of the content for the intended readership
• Grammar
• Punctuation
• Syntax
• Style and content of notes, bibliographies, references, and citations
• Permissions
• Art and figures

There are four basic levels of service that the editor will recommend. These services run from a penny per word ($750 for a 75,000 word 256 page book) to 3.3 cents per word. Whether you chose to follow the advice of the editor is immaterial. The idea is to go into your self-publishing venture with your eyes wide open and not get in over your head. If you know your manuscript needs some work but you are only planning to print a couple hundred copies you may wish to ignore the advice of the editor. If your plan is to print 3000 or more books on your first printing, you want to seriously consider what the analysis recommends. Remember, once the ink is on the paper, you can’t take it off. To find out more about RJ Communications’ editorial services (click here)

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If you have a question pertaining to the publishing production process, please feel free to contact me at ron@rjcom.com.

Last 5 posts by Ron Pramschufer

• What do you think about Amazon’s announcement that small publishers need to print with their printer in order to be listed on Amazon? - April 17th, 2008
• What are the steps are involved in Self-Publishing a book? - March 24th, 2008
• Do you know any good book printers? - February 11th, 2008
• What do you think of Facebook as a marketing tool for self-published books? - December 5th, 2007
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