Self-Publishing, Editing, Revising...
When I resumed the journey towards publication of Beyond the Ocean's Edge, one of the first things I did was sign up to have a professional editor go over the manuscript. This cost a pretty good chunk of money, the largest single expenditure relating to the publishing process. I think the cost is well worth it, however, and below, I will try to explain why.
It's all a matter of quality. Readers expect books to be perfect. They do not want to find even one typo or other error in an entire book. Self-published books have historically been disappointing in that they often contain more mistakes than traditionally published books. As the author and publisher, a writer can publish the first draft of whatever he or she has written. Who's to stop them or insist that it be edited and revised until it is finely polished and really ready to be sent out to the masses? No one, unless the self-publishing author takes it upon him or herself to do just that.
A writer going the traditional route to publication is basically forced to make corrections and edit the work as the process continues. At the very first step, that of finding an agent, one wouldn't dare send an un reworked first draft when asked to send a sample or even the entire manuscript. Hopefully by the time a writer has received requests for pages, he or she has ensured that it is in standard format and has been polished to a high degree. Too much deviation from standard format and or too many other errors will cause a potential agent to reject the work. Agent's just don't have the time or the inclination to take a chance on something that needs a lot of work to be brought up to industry standards.
Once one does have an agent, he or she is almost always going to be asked to make further revisions and changes to the work before the agent begins shopping it around to acquisition editors. When one of those fine folks comes on board, he or she will probably request further changes before taking it to the editorial board. Once the writer has a publishing contract, and as the book nears completion and release, other editors will be scouring it, trying to make it the best it can be. By the time it is on the market, several sets of eyes will have been over it, looking for the slightest flaw.
Even as I write, I find that I often go back and revise, edit, and change things. When I finished the story I knew it would need a bit of editing and polishing. I did that and also cut the length significantly. Then I worked with a small writers group to make further changes and corrections. I also read through and marked corrections at least twice. Then after making revisions required by not getting some permissions I sought, I read through it again. And yes I still found errors, some of which I know had been there from the very start. I'd bet that the editor who now has the book will find even more. The whole idea is to eliminate as many errors as possible so no one can use my book as an example of self-published work not being as well edited as a traditionally published book.
Some where I've heard that a professional editor can be expected to catch about 90% of the errors in a manuscript. So, if I create a first draft with say 4,000 errors in 400 pages and send it to such an editor, I can expect to get it back with 400 errors. A lot better but one per page is still too many. If I can eliminate 50% each time I go through it, I can reduce the error count to 2000, 1000, and finally 500. Then if I send it to an editor who finds 90%, the final product would be left with only 50 errors. That's still too many, but it does show why it's important for a work to have multiple editing passes. Each one helps bring the manuscript, and the published book closer to perfection.
Self-publishing authors have it within their power to eliminate this negative image of self-published work. Rather than being in a hurry to get the book published and "out there," an author can take the time to review, revise, and edit... multiple times, and then get outside professional editing help before producing the final result.
Dave
PS: Reading through this I found I had to do a bit of editing, changing a "know" to a "now."
It's all a matter of quality. Readers expect books to be perfect. They do not want to find even one typo or other error in an entire book. Self-published books have historically been disappointing in that they often contain more mistakes than traditionally published books. As the author and publisher, a writer can publish the first draft of whatever he or she has written. Who's to stop them or insist that it be edited and revised until it is finely polished and really ready to be sent out to the masses? No one, unless the self-publishing author takes it upon him or herself to do just that.
A writer going the traditional route to publication is basically forced to make corrections and edit the work as the process continues. At the very first step, that of finding an agent, one wouldn't dare send an un reworked first draft when asked to send a sample or even the entire manuscript. Hopefully by the time a writer has received requests for pages, he or she has ensured that it is in standard format and has been polished to a high degree. Too much deviation from standard format and or too many other errors will cause a potential agent to reject the work. Agent's just don't have the time or the inclination to take a chance on something that needs a lot of work to be brought up to industry standards.
Once one does have an agent, he or she is almost always going to be asked to make further revisions and changes to the work before the agent begins shopping it around to acquisition editors. When one of those fine folks comes on board, he or she will probably request further changes before taking it to the editorial board. Once the writer has a publishing contract, and as the book nears completion and release, other editors will be scouring it, trying to make it the best it can be. By the time it is on the market, several sets of eyes will have been over it, looking for the slightest flaw.
Even as I write, I find that I often go back and revise, edit, and change things. When I finished the story I knew it would need a bit of editing and polishing. I did that and also cut the length significantly. Then I worked with a small writers group to make further changes and corrections. I also read through and marked corrections at least twice. Then after making revisions required by not getting some permissions I sought, I read through it again. And yes I still found errors, some of which I know had been there from the very start. I'd bet that the editor who now has the book will find even more. The whole idea is to eliminate as many errors as possible so no one can use my book as an example of self-published work not being as well edited as a traditionally published book.
Some where I've heard that a professional editor can be expected to catch about 90% of the errors in a manuscript. So, if I create a first draft with say 4,000 errors in 400 pages and send it to such an editor, I can expect to get it back with 400 errors. A lot better but one per page is still too many. If I can eliminate 50% each time I go through it, I can reduce the error count to 2000, 1000, and finally 500. Then if I send it to an editor who finds 90%, the final product would be left with only 50 errors. That's still too many, but it does show why it's important for a work to have multiple editing passes. Each one helps bring the manuscript, and the published book closer to perfection.
Self-publishing authors have it within their power to eliminate this negative image of self-published work. Rather than being in a hurry to get the book published and "out there," an author can take the time to review, revise, and edit... multiple times, and then get outside professional editing help before producing the final result.
Dave
PS: Reading through this I found I had to do a bit of editing, changing a "know" to a "now."