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Our Next Roost
Hens Lay Eggs
Pobody’s Nerfect
I read a book over the weekend. That’s not significant.
The book was a fluffy romance—basically brain candy. No mental exertion required. The writing was engaging but not stellar, and the editing satisfactory until my eyes stumbled to a halt over “She lied down.”
ACK! Argh! Noooo!
The incorrect use of “lie” is a pet peeve. “Lie” is a verb with two meanings:
- To recline.
- To tell a falsehood.
Only in one of those uses is the simple past tense “lied” acceptable. The author’s use was not it.
I had no confusion regarding what the author meant. She meant “lay down,” “lay” being the correct simple past tense of “lie” meaning “to recline.”
Perhaps the author relied solely upon herself and maybe a beta reader to edit her manuscript. Perhaps she stopped editing after using editing software. Perhaps she hired an incompetent editor. Perhaps the manuscript received by the editor was simply a hot mess, and that glitch fell through the cracks. Perhaps she didn’t hire a proofreader who (also) should have caught the error. Pehaps …
When editing one’s own writing, the author see what should be there. The editor brings a keen, objective perspective, but is not infallible. Hiring the wrong editor for the task, such using a developmental editor for copy editing, equates to using the wrong tool for the job. When cooking, you don’t use a butter knife or a spoon to julienne vegetables.
Even books produced by publishing companies with deep pockets and multiple levels of editing have occasional errors. Most independent authors don’t have those resources yet are still held to the same standards of professionalism readers have come to expect from the major publishers—as they should be. A simple reality: errors are more likely to be found in an indie author’s books.
However, a zero tolerance attitude toward errors isn’t realistic because perfection is impossible.
Although I, as a reader, would have expected an egregious errors like the one described above to have been corrected before the book was published, the book as a whole contained only a smattering of copy errors, certainly not enough to justify lambasting it with a scathing review or giving it a low rating.
Regardless of whether a book was published by a major publishing company or a struggling indie author, some errors are to be expected and tolerated.
It’s said that if your copy editor corrects 95% of the errors in the manuscript, he or she did a perfectly acceptable job. It gives one pause and makes one think: How terrible was that manuscript when it landed on the editor’s desk? Speaking from experience as an editor, when slogging through a manuscript riddled with every linguistic mistake known to mankind (and repeated!), it’s all too easy to miss things. Speaking from experience as an author whose manuscript comes back practically dripping in proverbial red ink, a ruthless, eagle-eyed editor is a godsend!
The pursuit of perfection, however, results in frustration, exasperation, and nasty feelings of discontent. The author can always tweak a word here, a punctuation mark there. The author can waste innumerable hours making infinitesimal improvements, the very definition of the law of diminishing returns.
A successful author knows when the manuscript is good enough for public consumption. Not perfect. Perfection cannot be attained. However, a savvy author strives for excellence, not perfection. Excellence allows for the imperfection of human endeavor.
Neither authors nor editors are divine.
If you intend to self-publish your book, it behooves you to find an editor who’s a good match for the project. Preliminary determination of suitability means the author must provide information about the project:
- Fiction or nonfiction: Editors specialize. Some only work on fiction, some only on nonfiction.
- Topic or genre: Editors specialize. Some only accept certain genres or avoid certain topics.
- Word count: The document’s length enables the editor to roughly estimate how long the project will take.
- Level of editing needed: This refers to using the right tool for the job. If your story needs a developmental editor, then hiring a copy editor to correct grammatical errors is premature.
- Deadline for completion: Many editors are booked months in advance. If your deadline is tight, the editor may not be able to fit the project into his or her schedule.
- Budget. Editors command different rates based on their expertise, qualifications, availability, and the kind of editing they do. A professional editor won’t accept a project with too low a budget.
Simply put, a professional editor who determines he/she is not a good match for the project won’t waste his/her time or the author’s by submitting a proposal. If you’re an author, you won’t know how many editors decline to respond to your request for proposals, but it reduces the clutter of bids from the hordes of scammers, low-bid vendors, and competent editors you will receive. Regardless, no professional will guarantee 100% error-free editing; however, a professional won’t introduce errors into your manuscript either like editing software does.
Remember, to err is human.