Question about editing before querying

Spellcheck and a second read should be all you need. It's probably not necessary to pay and have it edited. They won't pass if you miss a comma, and some agencies do line edits.

That said, it should be as close to perfect as possible. A couple of misplaced commas is fine, but the pages shouldn't be littered with random semi-colons and exclamation marks. In addition, spellcheck will usually pick up most mistakes, but sometimes, especially if you have autocorrect or, like me, you just type really badly, you can have 'correctly' spelled words that aren't the word it should have been, for instance I could be trying to type knot and type not, the words are both correct, but not what I was trying to write. So in this case a thorough read through should catch those mistakes.

Keep in mind this ugly truth: readers at agencies are looking for reasons to reject you. They will look for anything that lets them toss your submission aside and move on to the next one, so don’t make it easy for them.

You're probably having betas look it over for style/characterization/plot/etc. anyway, right? So why not find a beta who's also good at grammar, who could take a look at that?

I'm sure you don't need to be absolutely perfect, but I think you should be shooting a little higher than 'won't be horrific'.

Kate_Sherwood said:

You're probably having betas look it over for style/characterization/plot/etc. anyway, right? So why not find a beta who's also good at grammar, who could take a look at that?

I'm sure you don't need to be absolutely perfect, but I think you should be shooting a little higher than 'won't be horrific'.

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This is what I thought when I read the question. I wouldn't pay to have someone edit it for you, but you can mention to betas that if they notice any grammatical or spelling errors or other typos, to point them out to you.

Agents aren't going to mind if you have a few typos, but it may be a red flag if they see lots and lots of errors, because they aren't meant to be your copyeditor.

Agree with the others - the odd spelling mistake or misplaced comma won't stand in your way if the rest of the manuscript is tight, but there's no harm in going through it a couple of times anyway. I actually found it easier to spot mistakes by changing the size and font of the script before editing - when you have read the same thing a thousand times I think it's easy to become blind to some of the errors. Changing the layout is like looking at it with a fresh pair of eyes.

Pamvhv said:

Hey guys, I have a quick but important question. How important is it for the punctuation and grammar to be stellar before querying. Kami Garcia spent 8 weeks writing her book and 9 months editing it for LBC.

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I'll bet that those nine months of editing involved a lot more than just checking the punctuation and the grammar. If they didn't, then Garcia must have triple checked every clause in the book.

It's very important to get your book as close as it can be to perfect in every way before you submit it. Which means improving the dialogue, the characterisation, the plot and subplots, the flow of your writing, your pacing, your transitions--as well as the grammar and the punctuation. So while I agree that you shouldn't have to pay to have your book edited for you, I disagree with Ryan about this:

Ryan_Sullivan said:

Spellcheck and a second read should be all you need. It's probably not necessary to pay and have it edited. They won't pass if you miss a comma, and some agencies do line edits.

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There's so much more to revising your book than running it through a quick spellcheck and reading it through. It's a lot of work, and you really mustn't skimp on it.

It's almost never a good idea to pay to have your book edited, and that's coming from someone who does fiction evaluations and (on rare occasions) edits. The vast majority of first novels don't sell, and even those that do rarely bring in enough money to justify the expense of a employing a professional editor. Financial reasons aside, editing is part of the writing process, maybe the most important part, and writers need to learn to edit their own work.

Evaluations are a different story. They're not as expensive as editing, and they can definitely help a writer who's almost there. Still, all the evaluation and editing in the world won't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse. I'd suggest testing the market, after doing your own edit, with subs to 10, 12 agents. If you get no requests for a full ms., take a good look at your query letter. If you're getting close but not breaking through---encouraging responses but no offers---- then it would make sense to consider investing in professional feedback.

Grammar, punctuation, and spelling are all important, but getting all of it right shouldn't take more than three or four days, tops. It's not rocket science.

I belive paying is always the wrong move. You'll still have to go through it line by line to make sure whoever you paid got it right, and if you don't know how to get it right yourself, you won't know whether whoever you paid got it right.

Old Hack said:

I'll bet that those nine months of editing involved a lot more than just checking the punctuation and the grammar. If they didn't, then Garcia must have triple checked every clause in the book.

It's very important to get your book as close as it can be to perfect in every way before you submit it. Which means improving the dialogue, the characterisation, the plot and subplots, the flow of your writing, your pacing, your transitions--as well as the grammar and the punctuation. So while I agree that you shouldn't have to pay to have your book edited for you, I disagree with Ryan about this:



There's so much more to revising your book than running it through a quick spellcheck and reading it through. It's a lot of work, and you really mustn't skimp on it.

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Revision, of course, but the original poster is worried about grammar and spelling after being away from the country for a while. Revision and editing are very different things.

Pamvhv said:

Hey guys, I have a quick but important question. How important is it for the punctuation and grammar to be stellar before querying. Kami Garcia spent 8 weeks writing her book and 9 months editing it for LBC.

Let me say I was an English major so it won't be horrific, but I have been living in Europe and not speaking or using English for a long while. Should I pay to have my manuscript edited before query?

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I'm assuming that you have not had a book published or been represented by an agent. Please correct me if I am wrong.

As others have said, you never, ever want to hand in a manuscript which you know can be made better with more work, time -- whatever. This is true for everyone, but particularly for the unpublished either seeking an agent or a publisher. You want to give them the best you have. You don't want to give them something with a built-in reason for rejection.

Yo say that Karen Garcia spent an incredibly quick 8 weeks to write her book and 9 months to edit it. My guess is she spent 8 weeks writing a very loose first draft of her book and 9 months on revision and editing. Whichever, I don't find anything wrong with what Karen did. It's not the process I use, but her process works for her, and that's what counts. She did her due diligence-for her sake.

I realize that you don't want to get involved with the line-editing (e.g., grammar, punctuation, spelling), but IMO, for all the reasons already stated, you should-make that I believe that you must-so you don't give a agent or publisher that, built-in reason to reject you, or think your work is sloppy. I don't think you should pay for line-editing, it's something you will have to deal with as long as you write. And really, being an English major this should be easy for you to do. Just do some brush-up.

Ryan_Sullivan said:

Revision, of course, but the original poster is worried about grammar and spelling after being away from the country for a while. Revision and editing are very different things.

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Ryan, I'm well aware of the difference between revision and editing: I've written twenty or so books which have been published in all sorts of territories, a good few of which have featured on the best-seller lists; and I've edited for HarperCollins, HarperSanFrancisco, Chronicle Books, Ebury Editions, and a whole load of other publishers too.

The OP asked,

How important is it for the punctuation and grammar to be stellar before querying. Kami Garcia spent 8 weeks writing her book and 9 months editing it for LBC.

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Now, the length of time involved in editing that book makes it clear that the editing in question involves more than just a bit of spell-checking and a quick read-through: what we're talking about here is a full-on line edit or structural edit with a copy-edit thrown in on the side, not the bit of proof-reading and minor tweaking which you seem to be suggesting.

Scope, I think you nailed it. I wish more writers thought that way, and I know that the slush-piles I used to deal with would have been a lot more interesting if that had been the case.

Old Hack said:

Ryan, I'm well aware of the difference between revision and editing: I've written twenty or so books which have been published in all sorts of territories, a good few of which have featured on the best-seller lists; and I've edited for HarperCollins, HarperSanFrancisco, Chronicle Books, Ebury Editions, and a whole load of other publishers too.

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Wasn't implying you didn't, just that she had asked specifically for "grammar and punctuation."