The most eye-opening part of being a professional editor has been the fascinating look it offers into other writers’ creative process. There’s a lot of talent out there that oldpub would never give the time of day. These authors are finding audiences thanks to newpub.
At the same time, you come to see that the skeptics did have one valid point about self-publishing. Zero barrier to entry does mean that KDP is flooded with work that’s not ready for prime time. That’s not a slight against new authors. Neophytes in any craft can be forgiven for not knowing everything, and for not knowing what they don’t know. Mastery takes practice.
Happily for readers and newpub as a whole, more and more authors are catching on to the necessity of editing for success.
Authors–especially new authors–are too close to their work to evaluate it objectively. Since you know the whole story, it’s hard to see if it comes through clearly on the page. The author’s brain will even gloss over typos and plug in missing words.
A team of impartial beta readers is highly useful for getting objective feedback–if you can find impartial readers outside your friends and family. If we liken writing a book to driving a race car, beta readers are like fellow drivers who can test drive your car and tell you whether it felt right or not. An editor is like the expert mechanic who can diagnose exactly what’s wrong and knows how to fix it.
Last night I sat down with author David V. Stewart to talk editing, book cover design, and Barnes & Noble’s disastrous blackface classics blunder. Listen to the whole show here:
UPDATE: Random Penguin and B&N have cancelled their ill-advised blackwashing of classical literature due to outrage from the woke crowd. This is one rare case where I can credit SJWs for doing the world a service.
