Who can find an editor of worth? For her/his price is far above rubies.
You write your story, you send it out into the world, someone says they love it and want to buy it. If you’re foolish, you think you’re done. If you’ve got a clue, you realise that even when an editor says “It’s an awesome story”, this doesn’t mean there will be no edits. An editor’s eye on a story can be invaluable – an objective eye can find typos, story flaws, logic breaks and other inconsistencies. A good editor is an excellent part of a writer’s business team. A bad editor (i.e. often someone who’s a frustrated writer themselves) can be a nightmare to deal with.
Girlie Jones, who is one of the editors I have consistently enjoyed working with, has blogged about things from her side of the desk. This is a sensible brain-dump and extremely useful to give newbies a clue about the business and to maybe remind old hands that nothing’s ever perfect on the first pass.
And that led me to thinking about how many writers concentrate on making the sale. But that this is not the final stage in the writing and publishing process. A story is very rarely ready for layout on submission. I’ve had the chance to work with some outstanding names and none of them have ever not needed at least a minor copy edit of their work. A few names spring to mind where I’ve edited their work to add one comma in the whole piece but that is so very rare.
The rest lives here and is an illuminating read http://twelfthplanet.livejournal.com/11985.html