Bannick said:
Okay i know that this isn't the place to ask this, but i have gotten good advice here. So, when it comes to getting my book edited, so it doesn't sound like crap when i send it to an agent, how do i go about doing that? I'm not a wizard at grammer. If you can't already tell. I don't have anyone around me good enough to go over my work and i don't have the time to take writting classes, so are there editors out there that will fix my work to be worth a damn in the real world, and if so what's the average they should charge?
I thought I would get advice first before going fishing.
Thanx
Bannick, the hard truth is that if you want to be a writer, you're going to have to learn how to write. Period. That means investing your time in learning your craft. If you aren't willing to make time to do that, you don't have the dedication you need to be a writer.
If you have just one book you want to have published for some reason, you may decide to have an editor-for-hire go over it and help with it. This has many pitfalls.
First, it's hard to find reputable, honest, talented editors for hire, because there are so many scammers and inept wanna-bes.
Second, if you manage to find good editors, you can expect to pay an arm and a leg for their services.
Third, without the basics of good writing, you may not be able to judge or to put into place corrections your editor offers.
And fourth, without good writing skills, you won't be able to work with the editor at any publishing house that picks up your book to make corrections or alterations
that editor suggests.
So hiring an editor may seem like the easy way to fix your problem, but odds are it will only open up a different can of worms. My advice would be to spend the time and effort to learn to write well instead of spending money on an editor. The Index at the top of this page references several threads on this topic, by the way. You may want to go through them for a fuller discussion of pros and cons.