Today we have with us a guest post from a dear friend of mine.  She is a talented editor and author. I wanted to showcase her talent.

Guest Post

Editing . . . Do I Really Need It?

As writers and authors, we all know editing is important. A couple of people will say that it’s really not needed, but come on now, you know that’s not true. If you want your books to shine, getting it polished and properly edited is a must.

There are some of us who don’t need extensive editing in order to get our work to the best standard it can be, while others need a couple passes before our book is ready to be unleashed to the world outside. There’s nothing more exciting than letting your baby go, and watching it take flight.

There are quite a few different options in which to edit a book. Basic editing allows you to take care of those pesky grammatical, typographical, and punctuation errors. Capitalization, spelling, vague wording, and missing words are also fixed during this phase of editing. Editors also look for repetition and awkward sentence structures.

If a more extensive edit is needed, an editor will look for all of the above, as well as fix inconsistencies, look for clarity in writing, and pay close attention to tone, tenses, and generalization. This will allow the editor to make changes based on what he or she feels is a must while still maintaining the author’s tone/voice throughout the edit itself.

There is also the option of a more developmental edit. Here, the editor will make revisions as he/she sees fit. If something needs to be rewritten, the editor will do so, and make note of the change for you. The editor will also take a look at development of your character, story, plot, setting, and facts. The story’s pacing/flow is also scrutinized in order to make sure that action moves along, and doesn’t stall in certain places. Dialogue/proper word usage is also examined, and fixed accordingly.

We mustn’t forget about proofreading. This is definitely a must in order to ensure that nothing was left to chance with the edit itself. This is the final step before sending your book out for publishing.

There are times that with certain changes made, the story itself will change. Keep in mind that the changes an editor makes are just that – changes. An author doesn’t have to keep every change an editor suggests. If you feel that something suggested doesn’t mesh with the message you tried to convey, that’s fine. You don’t have to accept it. You can keep what you’ve written as is, and move on to the next portion of the edit itself.

Most of us assume that keeping most of the changes made by editor in your work is crucial. It’s not. View the changes made as a guideline, of sorts. Sometimes, an editor’s suggestions will allow you to take a look at what you’ve written, and view it in a different light. It’ll open up a slew of possibilities that you didn’t see before. Often-times, this will lead you to fix what you thought was wrong in the first place, and make it better than before.

Editing is needed in order to make your work better than it was before. Be it basic or extensive, it’ll definitely benefit you in the long run. Don’t disregard the option just because you might think you don’t need it. Take a leap of faith, and let a second set of eyes peruse your work before letting it loose in front of your intended audience. Sometimes, that extra step is all that’s needed in order to give your book that little polish and oomph so that it’ll shine in your reader’s eyes.

Bio:

S. H. Books Editing Services was established in March 2013.

Our goal is to provide you with quality editing, book formatting, and proofreading services.

Authors know that it’s imperative to have a clear, concise manuscript when it comes to submitting their work to a publishing company. Those pesky errors/typos are sometimes hard to miss. A fresh pair of eyes in catching what you didn’t see before allows you to mold your manuscript just the way you want it to be.

That’s what we’re here for. We’ll avidly work with you to get your manuscript to where it should be, polishing your book to the best of our ability as we go along.

Links:

Website:http://www.shbooks.org/editingservices
Blog:http://www.shbooks.org/esblog
Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/shbookseditingservices
Twitter:https://twitter.com/SHBooksEditing
Google +:https://plus.google.com/b/100015188036335706104/100015188036335706104
Email:contact@shbooks.org