The Red Pen of Death / Editing Time

Copy editing.

When the Publishers Copy Editor reviews your masterpiece, that you have spent weeks, months or even years pouring your soul into; only to have the heartless monsters send it back looking like Freddy Kruger’s toilet paper. A bloody red mess.

Not really. But I can understand how some would feel that way.

I received my manuscript back on Friday afternoon from the copy editor. Man was I embarrassed. I had gone over the manuscript for days on end, using a software editor to help catch things I had missed. I had read it multiple times to make sure it was as tight as possible. And then I opened the Editors review.

It was a bit of a shock at first. The mind jumping to thoughts of, “Oh my God, Did I submit the old version?” But as a started reading through the edits, I quickly realized what a God send these edits were. Things I couldn’t believe I missed. Forgetting to add an “a” to a sentence, or the word “of”.

The mind works in a funny way. When you’re reading through your manuscript, you know what it’s supposed to say, so you don’t always catch things that are missing because your brain compensates for what you think is there.

I remember working in Iraq and having quality auditors who would come to each area and check how we did our work. They would find things that we were not doing in accordance with the contract or catch things we had missed in the day-to-day procedures.

I remember some of the old timers who had been doing their job for decades saying things like “Who the *blank* do they think they are coming in here telling me how to do m y job. But that wasn’t what they were doing at all. They were there to verify the job was being done in accordance with the standards laid out by the government. If we didn’t follow those guidelines, we failed.

As a first-time author, I made some of the same mistakes every first timer does. I tried using more words than necessary to explain something that fewer words could do a better job describing. The editing process is crucial to polishing your story to be the best it can be. The Editor is not there to change your story; they are there to help you tell it in the best way possible. Have you ever heard the saying “You never get a second chance to make a first impression?” The Editor is there to help make sure you make a great first impression on your readers.

I very quickly realized how grateful I was to have an editor that was as detailed as I thought I had been. Don’t take this process personally. Use it and accept it for what it is. A process to make your story shine and be the best it can be.