Who edits what?
A book's editor could be -- but shouldn't be -- the author. Obviously it's important that you read, re-read, and re-read some more to polish your text to near perfection. However, it's a fundamental fact of writing that the creator of the words will never catch all of the errors. You will think you are reading words that are really in your mind and not on the screen or on the paper. You will fall in love with certain words or phrases that are really unlovable. Maybe some words, sentences, paragraphs, or whole chapters should be shifted, chopped, or even completely eliminated. These are choices best left to someone other than the creator.
There are several kinds of editing that can be done by one or more people.
�Copyediting (or "copy editing" or "copy-editing") is looking for and fixing all of the tiny errors that infect every written work. A skilled copyeditor has good vision to spot typographical errors, is an excellent speller and a perfect grammarian. She should have an excellent memory to notice inconsistencies, such as "3 a.m." on one page and "5PM" 100 pages later.
Copyeditors generally follow specific semi-official "styles" for writing, promulgated in such books as The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, The Associated Press Stylebook, and The Chicago Manual of Style. The books dictate such things as capitalization, abbreviation, and hyphenation. Sometimes they agree with each other. Sometimes they don't. As a self-publisher, you can set up your own style, and perhaps get help from your copyeditor who may have more sense than you do.
DON'T EVEN DREAM of relying on your spell-checker to do the work of a copyeditor.
Copyediting fees can be based on the size of the work, the time involved, or just a negotiated flat fee. If your book is technical and requires specialized knowledge or familiarity with the subject, expect to pay more.
A typical range is $200 to $1,000, or even more. This is not a job for a neighbor or a relative. If you need to save money, see if you can hire an editor from a local newspaper, or even a good college paper, rather than a full-time professional copyeditor. Check references, and read some examples of her or his work.
Copyeditors don't need to be familiar with your subject and may not even need to understand what you are writing about. They work on the micro -- not the macro -- level.
A word of warning: no copy editor is perfect. None will catch every error, and some may actually insert errors where there were none before. Read. Read. Read.
�Hard editing (also sometimes called developmental editing) is an effort to improve what you've written, not just correct little errors.
After working as a writer and editor for over 40 years, I don't bother paying someone to hard-edit my work. However, I do admit that, after seeing my finished books, I sometimes wished that I had someone looking over my shoulder to ask, "Are you sure you want to include that?" or "Is that what you really mean to say?" I initially hired Sheila to copyedit my book about self-publishing. She made so many important suggestions and improvements that I "promoted" her to EDITOR.
A copyeditor can work on just a sentence or a paragraph or a chapter, but a hard editor should get to know the entire book before actually editing.
While the hard editor probably won't contribute more than a few words, and is not a co-author, she or he may suggest major changes in structure, particularly rearranging sequences, changing viewpoints (from first-person to third, for example), emphasizing or playing down characters or events, killing or adding material, etc.
A hard editor may be paid by the word, page, hour or project. Typical fees are $25 to $50 per hour, $1,000 or more per book, or two cents per word.
You may save money if your hard editor is also your copyeditor, but be careful. The hard editing process may cause errors that copyediting should remove.
�Technical editing is major-league fact-checking, and is not necessary for all books. If your book deals with solar energy, Renaissance art or the Cold War, you'd better hire someone who is highly familiar with photovoltaic efficiency, Michelangelo, or the Warsaw Pact, and knows the reliable reference works in the field.
Technical editors don't work only on technical books. They might get involved in cookbooks or historical novels -- any book that could be tainted by incorrect information. You can pay a few bucks per page, or hundreds or even thousands of dollars per book.
�Proofreading is not the same as editing, but it's related. At one time, a proofreader would simultaneously view the author's original manuscript and a near-final proof provided by the printer. He or she would constantly look from the original to the copy and back to try to spot errors and mark them.
Today, there is little chance of a printer's introducing an error, especially with independent self-publishing where the author produces a PDF file that is the source of the printed page. Modern proofreading is usually just the final inspection before the printer starts turning out books to be sold.
The author should certainly proofread, but it's a good idea to have at least one additional set of eyes to look over your proofs. Do your best, but don't expect to catch every error. It's extremely unusual for a published book to be error-free.
If you strive for absolute perfection, your books will never reach the market. It took me a long time to accept this, and I'll pass along some hard-learned and valuable advice: Sometimes "good enough" really is good enough. At some point you have to let go. Each revision of your book should get a little closer to perfection.
Another tip: proofread in multiple formats: on screen in word-processing, on screen in PDF, in a printout from your PC, and in a bound book from your book printer. Different errors will show up in each format.
Good, inexpensive proofreading can usually be provided for $10 per hour by English majors or journalism majors from a local college -- but this is not a substitute for professional editing.
◊From Become a Real Self-Publisher: Don't be a Victim of a Vanity press, by Michael N. Marcus
