Everybody needs an editor—even editors. We all miss things. Five different people can go over a manuscript and not detect an error which, irritatingly, several readers will and proceed to make snotty (but justifiable) remarks about on Amazon and Goodreads.But of course the more people look at a manuscript the fewer the mistakes will be—providing the problems are actually corrected. This last statement may sound odd, but quite often detected errors still make it through the publishing process, either because of the program being used or because the author won’t or can’t fix them. The latter is why editors in publishing houses like to work with an amenable and hardworking writer.
All the above is why a writer should workshop her piece as much as possible before submitting her manuscript (which amounts to free editing from other writers—yay!) and at least consider paying for a freelance editor before you either send it off to an agent or a publishing house or self-publish. Either way, of course, there’s a cost.
I have a Master of Arts in Literature and a Diploma of Education from Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, plus I did RMIT’s Diploma of Professional Writing and Editing, and completed Editing 1 and 2 with High Distinctions. In addition, I’ve spent about twenty-five years as a teacher in secondary schools and TAFE teaching English type subjects, which has made me a bit of a grammar Nazi. Though I still make mistakes.
Since leaving RMIT, I’ve edited:
