Some Good Tips From A Book Writing Coach For Finding A Good Editor

By Helene Norris


As almost any good book writing coach can inform you, after writing your book the next difficult thing finish is finding a reputable editor for it. This is not as simple as sending off your manuscript to various publishers and crossing your fingers thinking one will publish it. The same idea is true for most online services. You could self publish it, but without a good experienced editor you are probably unlikely to get a positive attention.

In short an editor makes a manuscript the very best it can possibly be. This goes beyond spelling and grammar checking. They can also fact check any citation referenced. They go over the layout making sure the chapters and headers are correct. Most importantly, they offer ideas. Having read many books they are full of ideas that can make your manuscript the next number one best seller.

Begin by deciding what type of book editing services you really need. Most manuscripts will need developmental type editing. Copy editing is going through the manuscript and trying to improve on it. The hard editing is going through it with a fine eye looking for any misspelled words or other out of place mistakes that will make it seem awkward in print form.

Check out their credentials. This is your work of art you are going to be handing to someone, never be afraid to ask as many questions as you need to be comfortable. Make sure they have a sound knowledge of what they are doing and understand the genre you are trying to break into. This knowledge and experience can be the difference between success and failing.

Many editors often brag about successes they have. There really is no shame in doing this. Go over their websites to see if they list their successful publications and history. Remember that it is more likely upwards of 80 percent of their titles are self-published. Always find out how many titles they list were sold to traditional publishing houses. Doing this now may save you time and money down the road.

A Good editor will always ask for positive testimonials from anyone they have worked for. Just like anybody else you hire take the time and effort to read through these and to possibly contact some to get any more information about them. Look at various web sites to see if they have information for them and what they really thought of the books that are not self published.

Look into if they have written any successful books themselves. This can go a long way to showing how well they can see problems and have much knowledge they possess to fix them. You may be amazed how many have a side business writing on the side under a pseudonym.

This is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. Finding a good book writing coach and editor will affect your career in a huge way. Be patient and take the time to do it correctly and in 10 years you too can share your success story with other beginning writers.




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