Author Tip No. Four

Have your book professionally edited.

The drafting of the manuscript (even its final version) is really only a fraction of the writing and publishing process, but do not fret--you can obtain editing services at a reasonable fee. The care and effort you have put into writing your book is worth this crucial step in the publishing process.

There are a number of different levels of editing that you may choose from to hone your raw materials into a well executed, effective body of work.

Typically there are four types of editors providing your work four different editing services:

• An acquistion editor is somewhat like a public relations representative for a publishing company, finding authors to sign with his/her publishing company. This editor may also work with you to develop the themes of your book.
• The content or developmental editor looks at your manuscript as a whole and comments on the overall consistency of expression, the overarching ideas put forth and the momentum of your work.
• The production editor is like the foreman of the process, taking care of needs such as preparing your manuscript for the type-setting stage and finding a printer.
• The copyeditor or line editor gets very intimate with the nitty gritties of your text, line by line. It is at this stage of writing and editing that will hearken you back to your own literature classes: diction, style, tone, punctuation, parallel structures, voice--do these sound familiar? No need to worry if they are but a glimmer in your mind. Copy editors specialize in such precision, while keeping the big picture of your work in sight.

If you do not have the funding to enlist all four types of editors to work on your book, consider hiring a content editor and a copyeditor. Your book is not ready to be published without them. If you can only afford one type of editor, it is imperative to have your book edited by a copyeditor. As the author of the work, whatever the genre, it is impossible for you to catch all of the technical/grammatical errors and content holes that may pose as pitfalls to your readers. You want your characters and ideas to express themselves instead of being overshadowed by potentially confusing (and preventable) errors. And also noteworthy is the fact that having your book edited by more than one type of editor will propel your book not only into higher levels of quality, but also into higher retail brackets. Some book retailers won't sell your book unless your has undergone a certain amount of editing. Check out our editing services by clicking on the link above!

Also, feel free to browse the bios of some of the editors employed by Mill City Press at http://www.affordable-book-editing.com/book_editors.asp.