I love to read. It’s the best thing in the world. I travel wherever the writer takes me and have a wonderful, scary, or mysterious time. . . .

What’s the worst thing that can happen to you while you’re immersed in a book—besides your mom calling to tell you to eat better? It’s having to read a sentence more than once because it doesn’t quite make sense or flow well with the story. Whatever the cause, this can be fixed by a good copy editor.

People, especially those new to this business, don’t know what a copy editor is or why they would need such a person. I didn’t even know what a copy editor did until I was in college. Simply put, a copy editor makes sure the work is grammatically correct; punctuated properly; and, above all, makes sense. It’s not a slight to the author to say that the work needs an editor. Most writers are just too close to their own writing to recognize problems. You get caught up in something that you’ve written, and your brain turns the words into what you expect to see, filling in blanks and transposing letters. That’s the way the brain works. An editor is a fresh pair of eyes looking specifically for those mistakes that are easiest to make (e.g., using “to” instead of “too”).

“Well, isn’t the publisher responsible for hiring someone like that? I mean, it’s their book, too.” Not necessarily. Although some publishers do have editors working for them, many bigger houses won’t bother to take a book to that stage if it doesn’t look good already. They want to know that you care enough about your work to have someone polish it a bit. Sometimes, that’s all it needs. Other times, it’s a little more intensive.

Perhaps English is your second language. It’s easy to confuse colloquialisms and verb tenses. English is not an easy language to learn, even if it is your first. School curricula in the United States don’t include basic grammar and spelling the way they used to. I remember spending only two, maybe three, weeks learning how to diagram sentences (identify the parts of speech). My grandparents did that throughout their schooling.

With the invention of the Internet and e-mail, people are getting lax in their use of proper spelling and grammar, even in their use of shorthand instead of actual words, IYKWIM (if you know what I mean). As society progresses into a true computer age, people are forgetting how to write.

Don’t count on your spellcheckers and grammar checkers to catch mistakes. You need someone who speaks and writes the language. The computer is just guessing based on the rules. Hopefully, a good editor knows how to use a serial comma. A good editor understands why the use of “hopefully” in the previous sentence is wrong. (Word’s grammar check didn’t find it.)

So, don’t forget this vital step in the process. Give your book a chance to succeed.

Contact Information

Andrea Howe
Blue Falcon Editing
1010 100th Street SE #1113
Everett, WA 98208
(425) 290-1676
andrea@bluefalconediting.com