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

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)

Need a cover designed or complete book layout? Try www.BudgetBookDesign.com . – Only $250 for original cover design. Complete text layout from $250.

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

Ron Pramschufer

Ron Pramschufer has been in or around the printing and publishing industry for over 35 years. His experience, including working in the pressroom, bindery, production office and estimating department helped give him a firm foundation to build on when he entered sales and management. He was partners in a small press publishing company in Annapolis, MD in the late seventies and co-invented and marketed two controversial political board games which sold over 100,000 copies in the early eighties. Moving from his home state of Maryland to New York City after his game experience, Ron sold printing services to, primarily, small to mid-sized book publishers for over a decade before founding RJ Communications with an old friend. Ron recognized the potential of the Internet very early as a powerful communications tool. In 1997 he started one of the first printer related websites, www.rjcom.com, which caters to the professional print buyer. This evolved into www.BooksJustBooks.com and more recently www.selfpublishing.com which target the print buying novice, primarily self-publishers. All three sites are still operating successfully and SelfPublishing.com was named as one of Writers Digest’s, 101 Best websites for writers for 2006. Educating the novice print buyer has been a top priority from day one. To help address this issue, Ron co-authored the popular title Publishing Basics- a Guide for the Small Press and Independent Self-Publisher, now in its Third Edition, as well as Publishing Basics for Children’s Books, in its Second Edition. He is the organizer of the monthly Publishing Basics Newsletter where he writes a sometimes controversial Ask Ron column which addresses various aspects of the publishing process. On the same note, he started the Publishing Basics Radio PodCast in 2005 and serves as the show’s host. A wide variety of topics are covered including a very popular series titled, The Truth Behind POD Publishing, where he conducts interviews with a select group of industry insiders. Since its inception, RJ Communications has helped thousands of customers print over 105 million books. Ron is married and has three children. His daughter, Stephanie, teaches second grade and recently self-published her first children’s book in the Oliver the Clownfish series. Matthew, his oldest son, owns a website design business and Erik, the youngest, is enjoying high school.

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