Your Editor is Your Friend (Really)

by Erin Brown

You’ve slaved for months, years—perhaps decades–to finish your manuscript. You’ve tackled all-nighters, tear-your-hair-out rewrites, grueling self-imposed deadlines. You’ve grappled with creative juices that either flowed until you were drunk with brilliant narrative or dried up to leave you parched, devoid of inspiration, sobbing onto your keyboard.

You get my drift. You’ve poured your heart and soul into this baby of yours. You’ve reached the point when you want to start submitting to agents or self-publish.

Of course I might be biased, but based on fifteen years in the business, your manuscript and chances at success will only improve if you have an editor review your manuscript so that it’s grammatically clean and the plot, characters, pacing, description, dialogue, and narrative are up to par.

Remember that you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression with an agent or your readers. The writers that dig…