The credited editor is ?

jannawrites said:

I've been thinking things over and seeing a lot of things that lead me to a conclusion... Can you answer me this?

Is the editor credited in the beginning of a book (in, say, a dedication) merely the professional person chosen to edit and proofread the book by the author? I had always assumed that editor was provided/assigned by the publishing house, but now I'm thinking differently. It is just whomever the author has personally hand-picked to edit their work before it ever gets to the publishing phase?

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There are certainly a tiny few exceptions out there, but I don't know of a single pro writer who ever hired anyone to edit or proofread his work before it got to the publishing phase.

When you see a dedication to an editor in a published novel, it is almost certainly the editor at the publishing house that bought the novel. It has been in every case I've ever seen.

Hiring an editor or proofreader is something touted on the internet, usually done by wannabe writers, and seldom works for anyone.

The editor listed is generally less of an "editor" in the sense you mean -- fixing grammar and watching for continuity errors, which will be done by a copy editor -- and more of a general-purpose liaison between the author and the publishing house, responsible for purchasing the rights to the book, convincing the higher-ups that it's worth purchasing, meeting with marketing about how it's going to be marketed, babying it through the production steps, etc., and only incidentally doing some editing, generally of the big-picture variety, e.g., "the plot sags here" or "this character's motivation isn't clear."

JD

jannawrites said:

I almost resent that. I'm both a writer and editor. I tout my services on the internet, and things are moving along quite swimmingly.

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I'm all for nonfiction writers hiring editors. But I have yet to see a case where fiction writers got anything at all from a hired editor. Hired fiction editors only help those who do not need the help. They're almost always a joke.

As an editor who works for publishers, the last thing on earth I want to see is a novel from a writer who had to hire an editor. It means I've found a writer who isn't going to be worth a damn when he has to go through the rewriting, revising, and editing stage on his own.

A writer should be a writer, and being a writer means being able to do your own editing, your own rewriting, and your own revising. I understand the logic of hiring an editor, if a writer who needs one is not a writer, and no matter what the hired editor does to a novel, if it started as a bad novel, it's still going to be a bad novel. And if it started as a good novel, the hired editor isn't needed.

The easiest thing to find on the internet is any number of people making money off writers. Scams, hired editors, you name it.

If you're a writer, then write. If you're any good at it, you won't need to hire an editor, and you sure won't need to be a hired "editor."