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The Five Benefits of Editing

3/10/2022

When I finished the first draft of Sābanto, I knew that making the manuscript ready for publishing was not something I could do alone. I knew I needed help, and lots of it.

First it needed an English edit. I didn’t think any professional editor would look at a manuscript that didn’t make grammatical sense. While I was waiting for my friend to read and correct the manuscript, I wondered what the next logical step would be. I knew I needed beta readers, but after that I had no clue what else was required.

I began to look for an editor. I didn’t think my story needed a developmental edit. It had a beginning, a middle, and a surprise ending, and I felt it was more or less complete, but in order to ensure I had a quality story, I needed an honest, independent opinion. This was where my editor came in and evaluated the manuscript.

When the evaluation came back, I admit, my heart sank. It felt like I’d gotten a school exam back, one I was positive I’d aced, and instead found it all marked in red with everything I’d gotten wrong.

Looking back at the edits and all the hard work that I put into improving the story, I do not regret getting an editor. I can’t imagine doing all this work without a professional walking me through the process.

Below are what I have found to be the five main benefits of editing with a professional.

Everything can be fixed.
An editor will tell you not only what needs fixing, but also how it can be fixed. Yes, their constructive criticism may be difficult to hear, and you might want to cry a bit. That’s normal. Once you’re able to take it in, however, re-reading the feedback will make you think about how you can improve your work. Criticism should never be a dead end. There are options to explore, new avenues to take, and the story can still be the story you envisioned with just a few tweaks to make it more intriguing and digestible for your readers. It’s all good!
It leads to brainstorming sessions.
There may be times during the editing process when you feel alone, as though nobody in your life understands what you’re dealing with. This is a good time to use your editor and the power of brainstorming. Don’t hesitate to reach out to your editor and ask questions, or get their opinions on the changes you want to make. They are there to help you through the journey of editing and publishing.
It improves your confidence
Confidence is something that many authors lack, and working with an editor might still leave you unsure about your work. The manuscript, however, will always be improved through professional editing. If your editor tells you they like something, trust their instincts.
You’ll avoid embarrassment
Every writer occasionally makes embarrassing errors. With an editor, these mistakes can be prevented before the general public sees them. An editor will also take time to do some fact-checking for you. They’ll want your book to be as accurate as possible and they will point out potential issues to save you the shame of not getting things right.
Your work will look polished and professional.
Professionalism is key. This is something that cannot be stressed enough. No matter how good your story is, if you don’t take the time to edit it properly and don’t have a professional editor to guide you, the chances of your book being successful are slim. It’s unlikely you’re a publishing prodigy. Your characters might not be as developed as they could be, your story may contain clichés that could have been avoided, and you may have unnoticed spelling errors detracting from your work. Furthermore, poorly edited work can give independent authors a bad name.

Yes, editing is expensive and it does take time, but the results are worth the money and effort. I’ve read countless books and stories that weren’t professionally edited, and it showed. These books stick out, and not in a good way.

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Cover design: Should you be a sheep or go your own way?

3/3/2022

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With my manuscript nearly complete, this past fall I started to look around for cover designers. There are many out there and it can be really hard to decide who to hire. Here are some guidelines based on my experience.

How to prepare

Before you reach out to talk to any designers, prepare the following:

A detailed synopsis of the manuscript. Most designers won't have time to read your book, and that’s where the synopsis comes in. Some designers offer to read the manuscript, however, that is quite expensive given the time required to read a 100K word book (around 10 hours).
Do your own research. You can expect your designer to have an understanding of your book’s genre and will be able to offer suggestions, however, it is unwise to go in blindly. My decisions mostly came down to what I didn’t want on my cover, because after hours spent gaping at the ‘dystopian fiction’ section on Amazon I had more than enough of men in the middle of ruins, crests or emblems, eyes, and blood drippings.
Look at the work of the designers you consider. This will be another time-consuming task, but crucial. The design that you get from an artist will most likely follow a pattern of previous work. If the designer’s website shows layers of stock images incorporated in the final product, that is what you will get. If you see a number of computer rendered characters, that is what you will get. This all comes down to preference, and there is no right or wrong design as long as it’s the one you want.
Set up meetings with a few designers and discuss the book and design options. Choose the designer whose work you like the most and who you have the best conversation with. You will be working with that person for more than 2 months.

I wanted a minimalist, simple design for my book. There were two things that made me choose the designer I did for Sābanto. Ana is a Canadian entrepreneur from Vancouver with an illustrator available on site. When reviewing her previous work I was confident that the minimalist design I was looking for would be attainable. We discussed ideas and everything was set into motion.

Feedback

I’ve joined a lot of author communities during my journey through publishing, and once I started receiving the first drafts of the design, I decided to share it for some feedback. Here’s what I got:

“The genre is unclear. You need to do research.”

This one came from multiple people and took me aback a bit. I looked again at my Amazon search list. Yes, there are many dystopian covers in black and red, but there are a large number of dystopian covers that use other colors, even white and pale blue. Some of the more successful books have cover designs that offer no indication of genre.
“People will pass this cover by when searching for a book.”

I can’t claim to know much about the psychology of the buyer, but I know I’ve passed on many books during my searches simply because the cover looked just like the cover of the previous book I’d read, making me assume that the story would be similar and of similar quality.
“I can’t tell what this book is about.”

Hmm, let me think … It’s about the bloody river!

OK, I could have included two cities separated by the river to make it clearer, but I couldn't decide on a design. The minimalism would have been gone, and symbolism was what I wanted to focus on.
“Why is the author name in lowercase?”

Why not? Lowercase works for me, because I want my readers to pay more attention to the story than to me.

I decided not to be a sheep when it came to cover design, and it could turn out to be a mistake on my part. I’m prepared to take the blame, but they always say that a writer needs to find their own voice and be unique, so as to stand out from the crowd. Why not treat cover design the same way?

Whenever I go back to the feedback I received, it reminds me of an image I saw not too long ago. A bookstore was re-arranging books to increase sales, and they’d put all the books with covers featuring shirtless men on display. They called these “Where is my shirt?” books. It makes me wonder how the readers of these books know which ones they’ve already read, because they all look so similar.

In a sea of dystopian fiction books with red and black covers, I hope my light-covered book will stand out. As the meme says: “In a world full of princesses, dare to be Batman!”

In conclusion, a quick note to readers: don’t judge a book by its cover. Or, maybe do, and grab the one that stands out.

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The Five Benefits of Editing

Cover design: Should you be a sheep or go your own way?

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