Photo by Lauren Mancke on Unsplash In today's digital era, copyediting is crucial for authors looking to stand out and make a lasting impact. Every word has the power to captivate, persuade, and connect with an audience, making effective writing and editing essential for establishing your career as an author. But how can you ensure your words resonate with readers? How can you craft compelling stories void of ambiguity, errors, or inconsistencies? In this article, we will explore the benefits of copyediting, showing you how this partnership is critical to enhancing and elevating your writing. We’ll also address the role of a copyeditor, the cost of copyediting, and how you can utilize self-editing to further enhance your copyedit. Are you ready to take your manuscript to the next level? Let’s get started. The Importance of Copyediting Effective Communication Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, clear communication is critical to engaging readers, building your author brand, and establishing expertise and professionalism in your industry. A reader won’t stick with a book they can’t understand. A knowledgeable copyeditor will evaluate grammar, punctuation, and syntax throughout your story to enhance the clarity and readability of your book. They will also help ensure the message in your work is communicated effectively, fostering audience engagement and building fans for future books. As an author, you know exactly what you want to communicate to your readers. Whether it’s a message of good triumphing over evil, seven steps to a more effective prayer life, or hope in the darkest of circumstances, you want to ensure your message is communicated accurately and clearly. Each time we attempt to communicate, we risk misunderstandings or miscommunications because while we know what our message was meant to convey, the recipient is receiving that message through different experiences, challenges, insights, life events, etc.—all of which shape their perception of what they are reading. That’s where an experienced copyeditor can provide immense value to your book. They can bridge the gap. They understand the message you want to convey, yet they possess the emotional distance to experience your book like a reader. They can take a fuzzy or confusing sentence and clarify and refine it. They can offer suggestions in punctuation and word choices that bring cohesiveness and consistency to your manuscript Enhanced Marketability Additionally, well-edited manuscripts, improve marketability. Agents and publishers are more likely to pick up a book that has been thoroughly evaluated for egregious errors in grammar, punctuation, and formatting. And they are more likely to take you seriously as a professional author. They understand that professionals will invest in professional services and your commitment to creating an excellent manuscript will shine through. Save Time and Money Investing in copyediting can also help you avoid costly errors. Once a book is self-published with errors, it is a time-consuming and challenging process to remove it completely (and sometimes it’s simply not possible) from the market. This can also cause issues when seeking to re-publish the new, professionally edited version. Save yourself the time, expense, and damage to your reputation by partnering with a good copyeditor before publishing. Reader Reviews Professional editing can also help you achieve higher ratings on platforms such as Amazon and Goodreads. Well-edited manuscripts make your book stand out among the expansive number of books released each day. And the value of a positive review cannot be overstated. Relationships With Readers Finally, using a quality copyeditor helps you establish a solid relationship with readers through well-edited stories that position your author brand favorably in a competitive market. The Role of a Copyeditor When copyeditors receive a manuscript, we look for:
Each of these errors alone can turn readers off, result in negative reviews, or worse yet, make them put the book down. Readers want to be immersed in the story whether it’s the fictive dreamworld of a beautiful fantasy or the much-needed advice of a valuable self-help book. Copyeditors can help you achieve this goal. Copyeditors are your partners in the editing process. They will share their knowledge of style guides, publisher expectations, and best practices. They will create a style sheet for you and provide it along with their editing recommendations. For fiction, this helps ensure consistency in the story’s timeline, characters, and locations and can be shared with your proofreader if you choose to use one. For nonfiction, this can help verify that the number of scriptures used from each Bible version meets permission guidelines. And for all books, a style sheet will allow future edits to remain consistent with your author preferences in word use, punctuation, and sentence structure. Copyeditors will also use this time to ensure that bibliographies, endnotes, or footnotes are styled accurately to your chosen style guide. Just as in all aspects of editing, the final decisions lie with you. If a suggested edit doesn’t resonate with you, you can choose to delete it. A quality copyeditor will share their knowledge and expertise without taking over your story. Common Editing Mistakes to Avoid One of the most common editing mistakes new authors make is to skip professional editing. I understand that finances are not limitless and not every author can afford to hire a professional editor at every level of editing. However, you know your strengths and the areas where you typically struggle. If you have difficulty with plot holes or flat characters, don’t skip a developmental editor. But if you struggle with spelling and grammar, you can’t afford to skip copyediting. There are tools and resources you can use to help minimize the costs (we’ll talk more about those in the next section), but if your goal is to be known as a professional author, you will need to invest in professional editing. Another common mistake is to assume that all editors are created equal. Just like your cousin who taught sixth grade for twelve years can’t offer the same feedback as a professional editor, an academic editor won’t be as effective with your young adult story as a fiction copyeditor. Some copyeditors specialize in fiction, others in nonfiction, and still others in business or academic editing. Find the copyeditor that can help you meet reader expectations through specialized knowledge of your book’s genre conventions. Furthermore, relationships matter. Finding the right editor for your needs and your story matters. It will be the difference between a stressful editing journey and one that leaves you motivated, encouraged, and excited for the next stage along your publishing path. Self-Editing and Copyediting I am a big fan of self-editing. It’s a great way to steward your financial resources and reduce editing expenses. Tools such as Grammarly, PerfectIt, and Microsoft Word Editor are only a few of the resources available to aid a writer in the self-editing process. They all have their benefits (catching common typos and misspelled words, establishing consistency within a style guide, and identifying missing punctuation). They also have their drawbacks, namely that they are not human. These tools are wonderful resources for self-editing, but they don’t replace the need for a copyeditor. They won’t recognize a homophone. They can introduce as many errors in punctuation and grammar as they reveal. And they can’t identify voice or context. Remember, a piece of work can be grammatically correct while still being contextually inaccurate. Another helpful resource for self-editing is time. Take time to step away from your story before reviewing it. You will often find errors you overlooked the first time around when you’ve had some time away. Tools such as Word’s Immersive Reader can also be used to read your manuscript back to you. It’s amazing the number of errors you may find this way. Once you have completed a thorough self-edit, you may also consider using beta readers. If you find great beta readers, they can point out errors they find as well. After you have finished self-editing, this is where a competent copyeditor will be an asset to you. Let us be your second pair of eyes, clarifying your story at a sentence level, refining your text for conciseness and clarity, and enhancing the details of your prose. How Much Does a Copyeditor Cost? The cost of copyediting services varies based on the content being edited, the extent of editing required, and the level of experience your editor possesses. Trusted and widely utilized rate charts such as the one from the Editorial Freelancers Association can be helpful in estimating the costs associated with copyediting. Authors can expect to pay between $.02-$.03 per word for fiction and $.03-$.04 per word for nonfiction. Regardless of your budget or needs, a quality copyeditor will work with you to establish an effective payment schedule. Conclusion: Building a Beautiful Partnership Through Copyediting Partnering with a quality copyeditor that you trust and respect will boost your confidence, enhance your work, and provide you with insights you may not have otherwise had. Many authors choose to use the same copyeditor with each new book because the relationship continues to be strengthened through each project. The copyeditor learns your voice and preferences with word choices and punctuation. They begin to anticipate your vision and goals and help you achieve them. Copyediting is more than just a step in the editing process. It’s the potential for a long-term partnership that elevates your craft, encourages you on your journey, and helps you become the writer you always knew you could be. Categories
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About MeNycole Sinks is the owner and editor for Positive Proofing. With a background in business and education, she has a passion for helping authors share their stories with the world. ArchivesCategories |