What Does A Good Book Editor Do?

When it comes to getting your voice established in the field of writing books, you will be tasked with learning great patience, and understanding how to make many editorial revisions to your work to enhance its quality. To get your book started, a nice chapter outline helps your book-building journey. Some writers can do many books a year, while others take a long time to get their first book out on the market. The key difference in getting your books out there is having a book editor that can not only help you organize and arrange your content but also providing contributions that help flesh out your book. In this article, we look at what a book editor does, what makes a good book editor, why to hire one, and how to move forward with publishing your book.

Book Editor Duties

When choosing your book editor there are a range of questions you can ask them to help you. First, you will need to determine what you are looking for regarding your help requests, particularly depending on what stage you are at in your book. A book editor can help you begin your book from the get-go as well as add finishing touches. Get a feel for your book editor by learning about their past experiences, including what types of books they have edited, what they can assist with, and whether they can meet your demands. Get them to take a look at your project and develop a quote so that you can see if they fit with your budget and the scope of your project. One of the best ways to assign duties to your book editor is by assessing your strengths and weaknesses and determine what areas you can use help on to get your book completed. Focus on doing what your do best, and task out the other areas of the book writing to the editor. You will find that a good book editor will be able to help you get your book completed much more quickly if you do this because it allows you to work on your strong points rather than get bogged down on the areas that your struggle with.

RELATED READ: Editing vs Proofreading

Qualities of a Good Book Editor

The qualities of a good book editor include having a personable and fresh communication style that fits with your timelines and schedule. This is one of the key points that you will have to consider as it is a key to your success. Make sure that you get a book editor that has qualities of editing that fit with the language and style of your written content by having them go through some of your writing and edit it as a sample. See how they perform and if their additions and amendments are what you are looking for. You can always work with your editor to refine the process to ensure that the tasks you assign them can be changed at any time to fit with your writing performance. There are many different stages that you can begin your editorial sourcing process including:

• Pre-planning your book
• Chapter outlines
• Storyline development
• Character development
• Copy editing
• Content writing
• Content editing
• Publishing recommendations
• Style editing
• Formatting

One of the most challenging aspects of publishing a book can be the formatting of the document itself, as this can be time–consuming and difficult for some writers. A  good book editor can help you with the formatting so that you can spend more time on the writing of the book.

Hiring a Book Editor

Again, determine the style of your book, whether it is academic, fiction, non-fiction, research-based, or some other genre, and choose an editor that fits with your genre. Look at the hiring process and determine if the budget and deliverables are consistent with the goals of your book. Many writers will get lost in this process because it can be confusing and cumbersome, but if you choose a professional service for your hiring, then it can be much more frictionless. Some of the editing tasks you can assign to your editor are:

• Content editing and content writing
• Copy editing
• Line editing
• Style editing
• Manuscript editing
• Organizational structure edits
• Other editing

There is really no limit to the duties you can assign to your editor when it comes to writing your book. Once you have an established relationship, then the communication between you and your editor can be more seamless and your writing career can be kickstarted, giving you more time to spend on writing and publishing. Analyze the costs of the editorial process in conjunction with your expected rate of return on your book sales by assessing the market for your written works, and work with your editor to create a strong feedback process

RELATED READ: How to Self-Edit Faster and More Efficiently

Publishing Your Book

Getting your book published should be your top priority, and this should be considered based on the content you have and the content you want to publish should be professionally edited so that it meets the demands of readers around the world. The greater the audience, the better your sales will be, and this can be manifested with the help of a good editor. In today’s digital age, getting an editor can be done through an online service that enables a faster turnaround than conventional paper-based methods. Using a digital style of editing can ensure that the book you are writing is given the attention and work that you require to get it published.

Building Your Relationship With Your Book Editor

Many writers stick with their chosen editor once they have reached success. This fortifies the relationship between the author and the editor because it builds trust and improves the accuracy and efficiency of creating and publishing works. Some writers have multiple works on the go, and multiple editors, so it is important to make sure that your projects are organized with details so that you can accurately manage your writing goals. Having more than one editor requires you to differentiate between the tasks and the project, and your publishing goals. Once you have had some experience in this area, it will get easier and easier for you because you will have the experience and understanding of working with a good book editor, which you can then refine and eventually go with your best prospects that fit with your writing and communication style. An editorial relationship can last a few weeks, or over the course of your career, and you will find that the assistance of a good book editor can change and revolutionize your writing process because it opens up a whole new world of possibilities for exploring the content you can produce and publish.

In this article, we covered many aspects of the writer-editor relationship and how you can move forward to hiring a good book editor, as well as getting tasks assigned so you can move forward with writing and publishing your book.