[RANTINGS] Why You Should Edit

I've been reading a book that contains terrible things: typos. Every time I come across one, it pulls me out of the story and makes my face squish up in a most unpleasant way. In light of this, I thought I'd post a few suggestions for prospective published authors before they choose to self-publish their latest masterpiece. (If you wish to refer me back to it when I finally finish a manuscript of my own, I will probably need the reminder.)

As a writer, you commit to reading and rereading your manuscript over and over so many times that you may think that it is ready for publication regardless of all the rejection letters piling up on your desk. You may be right. You may have just offered up your hard work at the wrong time or to the wrong publisher. You may be wrong. Glaring errors may be keeping others from taking the risk. Either way put in a few more bits of work before you upload that file to your online publisher.

1) Run that spell checker one more time. Carefully look at each word that it highlights, even if you are certain you typed the unique name of your character correctly every time. (Of course, if you add that name to your dictionary, only the misspelled ones will show up.) A couple of the typos that jumped out at me would have been caught by even the most rudimentary spellcheck program, so don't disregard the beautiful tool that comes free with every text editor I have ever used.

2)  Pick a trusted friend to be your first reader. Fresh eyes pick up on little things that your mind overlooks like small grammatical errors or areas where one scene does not follow the next as well as you thought. Another benefit? A trusted friend will be gentle, but, hopefully, truthful.

3)  Find a good writer's group or critique partner. Another writer can give you input your friend might be afraid to offer. Also, a good critique partner won't be afraid to tell you the harsh truth. They may needle you forever about that worthless, boring chapter you never should have slipped into your early draft, but that will remind you be more selective with what techniques you use to move your novel forward from now on. (2 and 3 can be interchangeable but letting someone else peruse your manuscript can be very helpful.)

4) Look to a professional for help. Shelling out a few dollars for a professional editor could mean the difference between a book only read by your closest friends and a book that gets recommended to people who have never heard your name before. Professional editors tend to have a knack for suggesting better words, finding those sections that need tightened up, and offering other advice you don't know you need until you get it (like "start over" or "the last 6 chapters aren't as good as the first 20, maybe you should rewrite them, or you lost me in the middle, fix it.)