Don't Hire a Writer to Edit
You’ve finished your manuscript and are ready to have someone edit it, but don’t know who. Here’s a very simple piece of advice – DO NOT hire a writer to be your editor (and that includes me). There are a few simple reasons for this.
1. Writers, especially seasoned ones, have spent a lot of time honing their craft. They’ve discovered their voice and write in that voice and hate it when anyone else writes in a voice other than the one they’ve developed over the years. They struggle with material that’s even a little bit different than theirs, which means…
2. Writers will try to bend the story to their liking because they feel their way of telling a story is better than anyone else’s. They will advise you to change your voice so it sounds like theirs and when you disagree they’ll say something like, “well, who’s the accomplished writer here?” Unlike a true editor, a writer will take a story and try to make it sound like a junior version of themselves. I am totally guilt of this.
3. Writers like to look at a story from a holistic perspective so they frequently have a hard time with simple line edits. Writers usually think in terms of tempo, plot, structure, voice, and even marketability. These are elements that affect the book on the big scale, so they tend to miss things that happen on a small scale like tension, consistency, and even spelling and grammar.
4. Editors know how to look at a story from a purely editorial standpoint and make it stronger. They catch the things another writer would not and stay true to the author’s voice.
5. Editors are usually more up to speed on the technical aspects of writing and therefore catch violations of the most basic principles that many writers skip over.
The bottom line is this…If you have a friend of a friend who volunteers to edit your book because they’ve published successfully, pump the brakes. That would be like hiring Picasso to critique your kid’s latest watercolor disaster. Writers are not the best editors. Hire a writer to write and an editor to edit. The two professions are completely different.
1. Writers, especially seasoned ones, have spent a lot of time honing their craft. They’ve discovered their voice and write in that voice and hate it when anyone else writes in a voice other than the one they’ve developed over the years. They struggle with material that’s even a little bit different than theirs, which means…
2. Writers will try to bend the story to their liking because they feel their way of telling a story is better than anyone else’s. They will advise you to change your voice so it sounds like theirs and when you disagree they’ll say something like, “well, who’s the accomplished writer here?” Unlike a true editor, a writer will take a story and try to make it sound like a junior version of themselves. I am totally guilt of this.
3. Writers like to look at a story from a holistic perspective so they frequently have a hard time with simple line edits. Writers usually think in terms of tempo, plot, structure, voice, and even marketability. These are elements that affect the book on the big scale, so they tend to miss things that happen on a small scale like tension, consistency, and even spelling and grammar.
4. Editors know how to look at a story from a purely editorial standpoint and make it stronger. They catch the things another writer would not and stay true to the author’s voice.
5. Editors are usually more up to speed on the technical aspects of writing and therefore catch violations of the most basic principles that many writers skip over.
The bottom line is this…If you have a friend of a friend who volunteers to edit your book because they’ve published successfully, pump the brakes. That would be like hiring Picasso to critique your kid’s latest watercolor disaster. Writers are not the best editors. Hire a writer to write and an editor to edit. The two professions are completely different.
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