I have the first three chapters of my book completed and am gearing up to send query letters to agents.
Should I have the chapters professionally edited before then?
I have a feeling the answer is “yes” but I wanted to confer with you all.
If the answer is yes, where would you recommend I find a suitable editor (non-fiction, self-help genre)?
Thanks!
Ted
I think it would depend on the level of your confidence in the quality of your writing and self-editing abilities.
In the UK it wouldn’t be customary for a writer to have their work professionally edited (at the writer’s expense, presumably) before submission. This is (still) a service which writers here generally expect their eventual publishers to provide (having first honed their document to the very best they can make it themselves). I’m sure there are exceptions, for example for some academic books, but that’s the general rule.
In the US, I assume – from the ads I’ve seen for freelance editors – that the expectation is slightly different. However, I’d have thought it’s still far better, for financial reasons if no others, to edit the work yourself if you can.
I’ve seen more manuscript problems caused by third-party freelance editors than solved by them.
For nonfiction, print it out, let it sit as long as you can bear, and then go back and read it with fresh eyes–aloud. This way you’ll end up with your words, saying what you want to say, and it will cost you only your time and a few hundred sheets of paper.
Hugh, I had a friend, who is a magazine editor, proof my first chapter. She identified probably two sentences out of five pages’ worth that needed clarification. So I suppose that if a professional editor ranks as a 10, I might rank a six (or seven?) as far as grammar, syntax, and structure goes.
And perhaps that is good enough to not assume I need professional editing before querying an agent.
Thanks.
Thanks, Ahab. I actually use my Mac’s text-to-speech function to do that very thing and caught many errors that way.
Edited? Yes
Read and commented on by as many friends as will agree? Absolutely
Professionally? No. Save your money
Buy a friend a copy of “How Not To Write A Novel”. Get them to read it thoroughly.
1 month later, after you have thoroughly exhausted all your own personal tweaking give them your manuscript to comment on. Much better than paying for an impersonal response.
I’d finish the whole book before you send it in, and then edit the manuscript as a whole entitiy. Some agents may say they only want to read the first three chapters in the first instance, but they are going to want to see the whole thing if they like what they read…
… unless people have a different experience.
Nonfiction can be submitted only partially written, but fiction should always, always, always be complete before seeking an agent, editor, or publisher.
If you send 3 chapters and they like it, ask for the entire novel and you say it isn’t written yet… or take 6 months to a year to reply—unless it’s the best writing they’ve ever seen—you’ll probably never get another chance with that agency/publisher.
Yes, and the OP was talking about non-fiction – although in the UK at least, in my experience a debutant(e) non-fiction writer will probably still be told to go away and only come back with a full version.
But at least the enthusiasm with which that advice is given may do wonders for morale. Or not!
“Buy a friend a copy of “How Not To Write A Novel”. Get them to read it thoroughly.”
… am I the only person to find this advice self-centered and aggressive?
best
J T
Not self-centred and aggressive in my view, J T, not in this case.
How Not to Write a Novel is actually quite a good guide to writing - fiction obviously, but non-fiction also. I’d put it in my Top Ten of “How To” writing books, alongside McKee and King and co. It merely has an intentionally distinctive title and a jokey way of imparting its messages, all of which are sound IMO, a good item for the writer’s Christmas stocking in fact. If I was using “beta readers” in the way suggested, I wouldn’t have a problem with them reading this book before launching in.
Sorry if you read it that way, JT. I guess if someone hadn’t read the book in question the title could sound a bit… ‘off’.
I suggested the book because - instead of telling you what to DO - it focuses what NOT TO DO; on the mistakes authors can make. As such, it makes it easier for friends to spot them.
I only bought the book last night but I have to agree! It made me laugh in a couple of places… 