How many edits does a good book need? Good question. And the answer is: More than you can possibly ask for or imagine. One of my avid readers (my fan club) is a retired English professor. I have asked him to edit my stories on occasion prior to publication, but the almost crippling feature on Word, the Track Changes, becomes a major stumbling block, blurring and sometimes erasing earlier edits just when you think you’ve reached the final edit. So, I’ve taken to doing a final edit after the track changes from all the publisher-assigned editors is complete, to make sure more problems and typos haven’t been created.

Still, the errors persist. This same retired English professor wrote to me recently about my most recent book, writing, “there are fewer mistakes and typos than in previous books, but still far too many.” When asking my readers about errors, most admitted to finding only one or two. Perhaps it takes a critical eye to catch them all. And, even then, there are still more that are missed.

Does it require another editor? Should I pay for one? Or will that merely complicate matters even more? I remember one of my earlier stories going through at least six editors. After painstakingly working through each new corrected version, I was amused to see the final published story. It was pretty much what I had submitted in the first place. The intensive circle of editing had only brought us full circle, back to the beginning again – back to the original manuscript.

To edit is the bane of a writer’s existence. It’s a necessary evil and a real pain to do, but it has to be done over and over again. No one wants to read a book full of grammatical errors, incomplete sentences and passages that make no sense to the reader. We, the author/the writer, know what we meant to say, but sometimes it doesn’t come across as clearly as we would like. It is essential to have others look at your manuscript (not family members) and it wouldn’t hurt to start now. (If you post it online, it will be considered “published” and you won’t be able to sell it, so do it privately.)

If you’re considering paying up front for an editor, check around. Ask other writers who they’d recommend. And, remember, there are different kinds of editors. The inexpensive ones will merely check punctuation, spelling, and all the things a good proofreader will do. A good editor will be a book coach, too, and he/she will be brave enough to help you restructure your entire story if necessary.

Be prepared to pay, if you choose to follow this route. Editing can range from $1.00 per page to several dollars per page, depending on the editor’s experience and what he/she considers necessary in the editing process. A good, experienced editor may charge $2,000 and up to read and completely edit a 75,000-word book. Remember: you get what you pay for. Be leery of cheap editors. Ask them how many books they have edited that actually sold to a traditional publisher.

Before providing you with a quote, most editors will request several pages for a brief assessment, which is only fair since they don’t know you or your writing skills and how much work they’ll have to put into it.

Don’t be discouraged when the edited manuscript is returned and you find all of your sentences changed. Consider it a gift to be cherished. A good editor can get a poorly written story published IF it has a good plot AND you allow them full freedom AND you market it properly. When they’re finished with it, it will be a work of art.

That’s the main editing part. Now, you might want to also consider a proofreader. This will cost another $300-$400. You cannot proofread your own book, nor can your friends, nor the editor you previously hired. The editor’s eyes are as tired of seeing that book as yours are and you need a trained proofreader.

Some publishers will provide all these editing procedures; many won’t. If you want to make your book as perfect as possible, you have to be prepared to spend some money and work along with editors and proofreaders. Like I said, editing is the bane of a writer’s existence. By the time your book is printed and sitting on store shelves, you should be sick of it. I know I am. After reading it so many times, I don’t want to read it again. At least, not for a long while.

And, even following all these steps, there will still be errors. When reading books published by big publishing houses, I’m intrigued to note as many errors as mine have. Even the bestsellers are plagued with errors and typos.

So, what does a writer do? Only as much as humanly possible.

-  Edit as much as you can.

- Take the advice and corrections of others and make the necessary pre-publication corrections.

- Re-check edited corrections after all track changes have been accepted to make sure the proper spacing is maintained and you’re consistent in your use of spelling (i.e. don’t mix English-English spelling with U.S. English spelling).

-  Do a final spell-check of the now so-called ‘clean’ copy.

And that’s about all you can do. Unless you want to go over it again and make more changes, which may well result in more errors to be missed before publication. At some point, the author and the publisher have to agree: enough is enough and, quoting Doris Day, whatever will be, will be. You have to face up to the fact that even authors are human and even authors (and publishers) will make mistakes. As long as they’re not glaring errors, learn to live with it.