Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael J Hunt
. . . In the two novel writers' support groups that I organise, members sometimes bring in examples of errors made by highly successful writers (and, by default, their editors). We've come to the conclusion that the more successful the author, the less likelihood there is of his/her receiving a careful edit. Has anyone else noticed this? . . .
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There are many poor editors out there -- after all, many who think that because they spotted an error in a book they recently read they must have a good editor's eye and can be one -- but it is very hard to tell who to blame for a poorly edited book. It could be the editor, it could as easily be the author or the publisher.
Over my 26 years of providing professional editing services, I have encountered several authors who have rejected every correction I have made or suggested, telling me that if they wanted a coauthor they would have selected one and that my job was simply to properly code the manuscript for page makeup.
I have also often had authors simply ignore any questions I raised; they simply deleted them without answering them.
And I have had authors tell me that they do not care what the dictionary (or other standard resource) says; it is their book and they'll damn well do as they please.
Fortunately, in my field, those types of authors are few and far between, but I do learn whose books to avoid
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Of course, there are authors like Stephen King and James Patterson who do not hire professional editors, preferring to do it all themselves.
And there are the publishers whose only driving force is the cost and who will hire a "professional" editor because they are contractually bound to do so, but hire the least expensive person who claims to be an editor, not caring how good or bad the editor is ior the edit will be.
The most dangerous combination, however, is the poorly skilled editor who combines with a similarly poorly skilled author (and imagine that being paired with a publisher who also doesn't care). They tend to feed each other. There is no easy solution because readers don't find out how badly they have been duped until they have already spent their money.