DYI Editing

Many aspects of writing are DYI - do it yourself. And others aren’t.

Three big ones that come to mind are editing, proofreading, and cover design.

Let’s start today with editing. As always, more about my own experience and less about giving you advice.

As I mentioned previously, I’d never used a professional editor before First. Mainly because I couldn’t afford it, but also because I wrote my first three books for friends and family and to self-publish. Could they have used an editor? Of course. And if I decide to re-publish them I will look into doing just that.

With First I want to have a bigger audience. My sister, who writes about being a military spouse and the support system therein, connected me with a friend of hers who is an editor. I put the manuscript in as good of shape as possible and sent it over. Within a couple of weeks I received a summary document, comments within the doc, and an hour-long phone conversation to talk through everything.

The editing process gave me confirmation on things that had been uncertain for me and direction on what I needed to add and modify. To be clear, these were things I could have figured out myself, maybe, but I was too close to the story and too personally invested. It was my creation and when you consider you’ve created you consciously and unconsciously protect it when sometimes you need another perspective.

The lesson I learned is that an outside perspective is essential. And it wasn’t as expensive as I thought. Granted, it wasn’t cheap but to me it was money well spent. Would I have figured it all out own my own? No. And that’s a firm no, not a “maybe I would have someday.” And to be even clearer, my spouse and family aren’t good editors, either. For me, another set of experienced eyes was necessary in order to improve my book and I’m glad I did it.