So in reading this wondrous blog post the other day I came upon a snippet from Steven Zacharius, Kensington’s CEO.
He says: As a result, [readers] might not even know if they’re buying a book that was professionally edited versus one that was self-published.
Back the wagon up, fella. In talking with a bunch of my fellow authors and myself included, more often than not, we have NOT been happy with the quality of these “professional” editors you speak of. This includes editors I’ve hired myself and editors I’ve worked with at publishing houses. Same for my friends.
And many if not all of us have hired “professional” editors for our self published works. What makes your editor more professional than mine? Heck, in many cases, the editors we hire currently work for or used to work for publishing houses!
All that to say, take your “professionally edited” and shove it with a grain of salt. Sometimes paying for someone to read a book doesn’t mean crap. I get better feedback from beta readers than I get from the average editor. I don’t know if they’re afraid to give their opinion or are just happy to sit back and take the money and not do real work.
True editors are geniuses and should be bribed with chocolates and wine. Unfortunately, such people are hard to come by these days.