Q&A: What does an editor do?

May 31st, 2012 → 8:00 am @ Carol

Today marks the end of our short series on common questions from authors, brought to us by ZLS Publishing. We have gleaned some valuable information as to how authors can better market and publish their work. Let’s see what ZLS has to say about editors:

“I’m new to this writing and publishing thing. I keep hearing that I need an editor. Please, what does an editor actually do and can I get away with editing my own book? I mean, do I REALLY need an editor?

First, let us say welcome to the wonderful world of publishing. It is an exciting, yet challenging journey. To your answer, you do need an editor. It use to be said that, if you intend on submitting your book to a book publisher, you must get your book published. Now, regardless of the publishing route you take, even if that’s putting your book on Amazon for sale, you need an editor. Not having an editor impacts your sales in a very negative way. People will review your book and blatantly point out how bad the editing was and request, no demand, that you get an editor.

Now, as for what an editor does: There are different types of editors. There is a developmental editor, who in our opinion is the most important editor of them all. A developmental editor reads through your manuscript and makes sure that everything flows the way it should, everything makes sense, and what you are trying to convey is easily understood. The next editor is the copyeditor. The copyeditor corrects punctuation, grammar, makes sure the correct writing style is being used, and improves sentence structure. The final editor is the proofreader who double checks what has previously been done.”