I, myself, have dealt with four editors. Both over here in the UK, and in the USA. I am the first one to admit that where editing is concerned, I’m basically crap. I know a little, and I can help out with a few things, but other than that, yeah… I’m useless. When my debut novel was first published, I thought it had gone through a good edit… oh how wrong I was. I was young and clueless. Only when the reviews started coming in, did I realise something was terribly wrong. To cut a long story short, I left this publishing house and joined another in the US. My book went through another edit, and I thought that THIS time, it would be much better. I signed several novels over to them and edits were performed on each.
Once again, reviews came in… guess what? The main issue people had with the books was the editing. I was devastated. One reviewer even put in their review “Has this book ever seen an editor?” I thought, wow, actually it’s seen two. What is going on? The second editor changed a lot and took out a lot of the punctuation. Then, another said, “Unedited novels should not be put up for sale.” That was the entirety of the second persons review. I cannot express just how upset I was.
I cannot remember exactly how it came about, but I was speaking to a friend and found out she had studied English Lit. She also told me she had always wanted to become an editor, but was rather scared of putting herself out there. She took a look at my books and was brutally honest with me. They were not in a good way at all. It seemed all the bad comments in the reviews were completely justified. Said friend then proceeded to go through ALL my books. I left my second publisher, and went down the Indie route. I can honestly say, since this woman has gone through my books, I have NEVER received a negative comment about the editing. True story. You’re more than welcome to check this out for yourselves.
There are no words to express how grateful I am to her. My books read better now than they ever have. I have also learned a lot from her. She’s open, honest, but friendly. She is supportive, reliable, and what she doesn’t know about editing… simply is not worth knowing.
She has since opening her own editing business and has worked with several authors. Her name is Jodi and she owns TJS Literary Editing. You can find a link to her Facebook page below this post, or in the left menu bar.
I just wanted to share my own experience with people.
1) So that others who are currently going through the same or similar, know they are not alone.
2) So that these authors know there are some genuinely amazing editors out there.
One thing I do believe is that these editors who go above and beyond should be credited. I credit Jodi and her company in every book. I believe she deserves it, and it may help others to find a good editor, and all around person, to work with. I will NEVER work with another editor for as long as I’m producing novels.
Please don’t let bad experiences get you down too much. It’s a bump in the road. But I assure you, there are good ones out there, and you will find one. Keep your chin up, keep writing your stories, and don’t let these experiences put you off.
Have a great week everyone!!
