Your knowledge, skills and experience are pure gold – and have the potential to become a book that is immensely valuable. However, to get the most from your prized raw material, you need an expert ‘goldsmith’ to help you can create something really stunning. In the book world that’s an editor.
What does your editor do for you?
Let’s start with the basics – they’ll tidy up your spelling, typos, grammar and punctuation, but that’s not their primary role.
Your editor sits in your reader’s seat and aims to suggest ways to make your precious ideas shine in a way that makes them irresistible.
There are all kinds of editor.
- Commissioning editors typically look for specific content and authors who can deliver to their brief.
- Copy editors shape and polish the existing text to be more reader-friendly and seamless.
- Development editors will work with you on raw material that hasn’t yet been shaped into book format and either guide you in developing that content or help you to develop it.
There are specialist editors who are experts in a specific niche or genre, but they will still fall into one or more of the above categories.
If you’re reading between the lines, you’ll have realised that being a great writer is not essential to an author – but having something worth saying is.
Everyone DOESN’T know that!
The interesting thing is that almost everyone does have something worth saying – although it’s often hidden under phrases like ‘but doesn’t everyone know that?’ Every expert has said something of the kind at some point in their career. I’ve done it myself – made the assumption that because I’ve ‘always’ known something, everyone else does too.
That’s where the gold is hiding! Because it’s those facts that people want. They want to know that there’s an easier, more efficient, more effective way to do something.
They want to get a different perspective on the subject – and that’s your perspective, because you’re unique and will have a different take on the subject to anyone else.
There’s good odds that people who buy your book will already have read other books on the same subject – but your approach isn’t the same as any other author.
It’s alchemy!
A good development editor will take your ideas, thoughts and expertise and transform it into shiny gold, with a beautiful and pleasing design, just waiting for the reader to claim it.
Better still they’ll do it in your voice, just written the way you’d like it to be!
Remember, without the base metal, alchemy doesn’t work. Raw gold with maybe a few uncut gems in the hands of a skilled jeweller can become something to be treasured.
