What does a book editor do?

Why authors need editors

Happy Weekend, writers!

I get a lot of questions from writers about editing. What exactly does a book editor do? Do you really need an editor? If you’re asking that question, read on!

You’ve written a book (or you’re in the process of writing one). You want to get it published. 

The good news: you can do that!

The harder truth: you’ll take quite a few steps before you get to publication. Starting with editing.

My business, A Powerful Story, provides assisted self-publishing (and other writing and editing services as well). I pull together a team that includes editors and designers. I shepherd your book through the production process and guide you in setting up everything you need to be the publisher of your own book.

The popularity and growth of self-publishing means that many authors are also publishers. They can “do it themselves” and put their book out there. Whether it sells or not depends on many factors.

DIY publishing is easy…

You could, today, create a free account on Kindle Direct Publishing (kdp.com), a branch of amazon. You could upload your rough draft, or a book about what you had for lunch every day for the past two years--whatever manuscript you want (as long as it passes Amazon’s screening for plagiarism and decency), create a cover using their template, and have a “published” ebook tomorrow. 

Getting readers and sales is harder.

This path is possible, but I don’t recommend it unless you really want to waste your time. Because a book created in this slipshod manner won’t sell. Your DIY cover could end up in an article like this one, poking fun at the worst self-pubbed covers ever.

Even if you manage a decent cover, your book’s interior will betray your lack of experience. The formatting will be wonky. It will likely even anger readers who even “look inside” and read a few pages because they’ll see you don’t care about quality. Scathing reviews will likely ensue. Or, no one will even bother to read your book.

Once you complete your manuscript, you’re ready to begin the publishing adventure. If you want to self-publish, and reach an audience, your next step is getting your book edited. 

Why do you want to publish a book in the first place? 

You want people to read and enjoy your book. Because you want to tell your powerful story, share your wisdom, mentor others via the written word, entertain readers with your wit and insight. Bottom line, you want to sell books. 

Since self-publishing requires that you pay all of the production costs of your book, you hope to recoup some of those costs by selling books. But an unedited book won’t sell well. Editing is an essential step in book production. 

At A Powerful Story, we provide what’s called assisted self-publishing and it’s a great way to get a book out into the world. I call myself a publishing adventure guide, because the journey from manuscript to published book can be difficult to navigate. It helps to have a guide who knows the path.

The editing process surprise

When I tell clients the first step (after writing) will be editing, some are surprised. They don’t think they need editing. Imagine their surprise when I tell them that at major publishing houses, even the books of best-selling authors go through not just one edit, but several rounds of edits.

To read the rest of this article, and learn what book editors do, pop on over to my website.