Quote:
Originally Posted by C.I.Bond
I thought the original question was why people don’t hire professional editors? Unless the topic has changed it seems like “crying poverty” is a very reasonable answer to this question... unless we got off track someplace?
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On this I disagree with Neil; cost is definitely a factor and is a reasonable response to why authors do not hire professional editors. But . . . it really begs the question.
If you are going to give your book away (free), then I think not hiring a professinal editor is reasonable. Reader expectations are so low that few will take the time to complain about how poor the book is. OTOH, if you are going to charge for the book, no matter how little, reader expectations are different and what little reputation you have as an author is being put at risk.
Of course, if you have no hopes of being a commercially successful author someday, then it is OK to look like a fool from the start.
In the end, the question really is this: Why should readers respect your writing when you don't respect it? As a reader, I expect an author to have invested in the writing more than just the time to do the writing. I think this is a reasonable expectation (see my article,
Question of the Day: Investing in eBooks by Authors & Readers).
eBooks magnify the problems in a manuscript, making them significantly more visible and noticeable (see my article,
In the Face: eBook Errors) because so much less appears on the screen of the typical reading device. Also problematic are expectations that are unrealistic or not expressed at the start (see
Great Expectations: A Recipe for Disappointment).
The difference between a hack writer and a great writer is that the great writer cares greatly about the reader's experience whereas the hack writer simply writes and publishes and lets readers fend for themselves. The more an author does to slide closer along the spectrum toward the great writer, the more likely the author is to succeed beyond simply self-publishing and being able to say I published my novel.