Do you need an editor?

If you’ve ever written anything for public consumption–whether it’s an email or a novel–you’ve probably asked yourself questions like these: Do I need an editor? Should someone else look this over before I hit “send” or “publish”? Am I sure it’s as polished as it should be?

If you’ve asked yourself those questions, then the likely answer to each is “yes.”

We live in an of-the-moment world and the old adage is true: You get only one chance to make a first impression. Today, those impressions happen in the beat of a mouse click.

It’s very, very difficult to catch all your own mistakes, no matter how well you write. This is true for a couple reasons: First, your brain knows what you intended to write, so when you reread something you’ve written, your brain will likely translate it as you intended instead of what you actually typed. That’s a problem. Second, the more you reread something, the more familiar you become with it, and the harder it is to catch the little things. As an editor, it’s my job to catch the little things as well as the big things. (Sometimes the little things are even more annoying when you find them, aren’t they?)

Remember when that kid in your middle school English class (maybe it was you?) asked your teacher, “When are we ever going to need this?” and that teacher was unable to convince you that you would? That’s why you got all those comments about your bad grammar on your last blog post. Grammar doesn’t make a lot of sense to you. To me, it makes perfect sense. That’s why you need me.

You have great ideas, whether they’re ideas you’re sharing via a blog, a paper or presentation, a magazine article, or a full-length book. When the world gets its hands on your words, you want them to make the best impression they can. You want them to make sense. You want to sound intelligent and coherent when people read them.

That’s what I do for you.

I polish your words so that they make sense, so that your ideas flow well from one to the other, so that your characters stay true to who they are (and so that they don’t start off as six feet two and end up five feet four), and so that your plot makes it from start to finish without any gaping holes that will swallow your readers. I shine your documents so that you come across as the creative, intelligent person you are who has a lot to say–a person that people should listen to.

Do you write? Then yes, you need an editor. You need me.