You just finished your tale of adventure, romance, intrigue, and woe. But whoa! You’re not ready to publish just yet, not by a long shot.
One of the biggest complaints by readers (and competing traditional publishers) about the Indie/self-publishing community are the obvious mistakes and a general lack of anything resembling actual editing… and they have a point. Fortunately, a fresh pair of eyes will catch things you’ve been missing (or, in this case, several pairs of eyes, each with a different view and function).
This is part of the editorial process, which can easily be broken up into four distinct tasks:
- Developmental Editor – helps develop the author’s concept, the scope of the book, the intended audience, and the way elements of the book are arranged
- Copyeditor – examines the manuscript line by line, word by word
- Production Editor – responsible for the entire production process
- Proofreader – the last guardian of the publisher’s reputation for accuracy and care (and the protector of the author’s reputation for diligence)
Many Indie writers take on both the roles of developmental and production editor themselves (gotta cut costs somewhere, right?) but the addition of at least two more pairs of eyes (a copyeditor and separate proofreader) can make a good book better and much more professional.
Will you catch every mistake? Nope… even some of the most renowned authors have a mistake or two slip though, but that a far cry from having multiple issues on every page, every paragraph, or even in every sentence. Don’t be that writer.
See more details, see the full article that inspired this post at What Every Self-Publisher Ought to Know about Editing.
ThinkingSkull.com 