I’ve often said all books
should be edited. Why? Because a well edited book enhances the
reading experience and will bring people back for more. A book full
of typing errors, bad punctuation and repetitive phrases is likely to
put people off – unless it’s called …. No, I won’t go there.
I thoroughly enjoyed my
latest job. It was to edit Conversations In The Abyss by
Michael Brookes. I read the forerunner to this and enjoyed that, too,
although I did point out to Michael the copy I had read was in need
of editing. He assured me I had an old copy (he should know, he sent
it to me) and the things I had mentioned had been corrected. Then he
asked if I would edit the sequel which I found fascinating.
It is the story of the
coming apocalypse, good against evil, how to thwart the approaching
storm. The writing flows well, the characters are well defined and
the whole thing moves on at a breath taking pace. I would recommend
it to anyone. Take a look here …
So what do I do when I
edit a book? What am I looking for? The obvious thing is typos, the
bane of every author’s life. The trouble is when you write a book
you KNOW what is supposed to be on the screen and your brain will
convince you it is there even if it isn’t. So you need someone who
doesn’t know what is supposed to be there to read every single word
and make sure it is the right one, both in context and in spelling.
Even then the occasional word slips through. If the story is good it
is sometimes hard to keep reading slowly enough to look at every
single word and make sure it is correct.
Is correct spelling
important? I’m sure everyone has seen the experiment from Cambridge
University, where a whole paragraph is written with all the words
spelt incorrectly, just the first and last letters in the right
place. It is perfectly possible to read this paragraph and come out
with the right message, but it takes a lot more concentration than
reading a book. And all the right letters are there, just in the
wrong order. I’m not so sure it would be as easy to read if some of
the letters were missing, which is what often happens. The finger
misses a letter, or the spell check doesn’t tell you if it should
be ‘ent’ or ‘ant’.
Many people skim read
anyway, so why bother to make sure the spellings are correct? To my
mind, because it shows you care about your craft. In this day and age
there is no reason why typos should get through. Some word processors
even pick up on words that are used out of context, so if you type
‘too’ instead of ‘to’, then it will be flagged as an error.
So if you have a good
word processor you don’t need an editor, right?
Wrong. Apart from
checking that the text is accurately typed an editor will advise on
content and possibly style. I don’t like to interfere with the way
an author writes. THEY are writing the book not me. I try my hardest
not to paraphrase what has been written, but there are certain things
I will point out and change or at least suggest for change. Sometimes
a writer might use the same word three or more times in one
paragraph. I’m talking adjectives and adverbs here, not the sort of
words you DO have to use a lot. To me this spoils the flow of
narrative. Sometimes a repetition can be used to emphasise a point,
but in general I like to see as many different words used as
possible. The English language has so many, make the most of them.
An editor can also check
consistency of style. Are all the chapter headings in the same place,
or are some left justified and some centred, some bold or italic?
Sometimes when a book has been many months in the writing the author
forgets what formatting they used at the beginning – I know I do.
Facts – these I trust
to be correct. I hope the author has done their research and got
their facts correct. Sometimes I double check something, Google is
very helpful these days, but I expect facts to be right. I’m a
fiction editor, I don’t do research, I don’t do technical stuff.
I DO like to see things
in their proper place, the right terminology for the characters, the
era and setting. To me it is sloppy to have an American walking down
a pavement in New York, eating biscuits instead of cookies and making
calls on a mobile phone not a cell phone. Being English myself, I
can’t profess to know all the slang of the world but the obvious
things at least should be adhered to. If an author can’t do that
they should make characters from their own environment.
What do I get out of
editing for other people? I get to read books before they are
published and hopefully help the author make their book just that
little bit better. I have been very lucky in that most of the books I
have looked at have been a credit to their authors. So far I’ve
only had one that I felt needed to be completely re-worked and that
was one I wasn’t charging for, so I didn’t feel concerned about
that. If I did get a commission that was so bad I would tell the
author quickly and not make a charge.
Ok, I’m a mug, I will
never make a fortune editing but then again most Indie Authors won’t
make a fortune writing! If you have something you would like me to
look at contact me through my website here.
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