What do editors do?

What should you expect when hiring an editor? Are we here to ruthlessly gut your book or to kill your darlings? Here's my take.

It can be scary to reach out to an editor and ask them to work on your book. Some authors ask explicitly if I’m going to delete chapters, remove characters, or change the prose.

The short answer: no. Your prose, characters, and story are your own. Editors – whether they be developmental editors, copyeditors, or proofreaders – are here to help you make your work the best it can be.

In my opinion all editors should work to make the author excited about reading, editing, and selling their book. If I can tidy up a passage or highlight a simple fix for an author that improves the story in their eyes, I’ve done my job.

But if I chop and change and leave you feeling sad, disengaged, or discouraged, I’ve failed as an editor. The prose may be tidier, or a plot hole might have been fixed, but not in a way that makes you, the author, happy.

There is no perfect word, no perfect sentence, and no perfect paragraph, chapter, or story. Writing is subjective and, while there are rules that dictate how we write things, very few are set in stone. It may be that wordiness is part of the author’s style or that information is repeated a lot for a reason that may not be evident over the course of a chapter.

As such, all edits (bar technical mistakes) are subjective. As the author of these words, you have the final say over what changes make it into the book (unless, of course, you’re working with a publishing house that dictates specific styles).

I encourage authors I work with to ask me questions about my edits. Some things may be language rules you didn’t know about (after all, that’s what you hire a proofreader for), but others may be stylistic choices that, in the author’s mind, enhances the story. You are always welcome to reject changes, to ignore suggestions and to request more information, sources, or any further explanation you like from me.

Editors aren’t co-authors. Our suggestions are just that – suggestions.