Do you need an editor?

My dear editor, Chris Roerden, returned my manuscript for The Man on the Istanbul Train last weekend and the next couple of weeks will find me bent over my keyboard, making changes. None very big, mind you. No whole chapters to delete or anything like that. Mostly polishing it up. In fact, Chris thanked me for sending her such a clean manuscript.

For that, I thank my mother who was an English teacher and who brooked no sub-standard grammar around our house. I always made A's in English. Does that sound arrogant? Well, I did. Just sayin.'

The two questions most often asked by new and aspiring writers are: Do I need an agent? and Do I need an editor? We'll leave question 1 for another time, but I'd like to answer question 2.

Yes.

On the right, you will see a photo of one page plucked (I swear) at random from the stack of courier, size 12 literary gemstones. See what I mean? Look what it takes to polish up my grade A work! Very few of her handwritten notes are corrections of my grammar or punctuation. Like I said, I got that. And as for the bad grammar in that last sentence, I meant to do that.


Chris suggests inverting some of my sentences to give them more punch. Other comments are things like: "You've already said that on page 133," "I don't get a clear picture of this," and "Why didn't the police check the pockets in his trench coat?"

It's devilishly hard to see problems like this when you're so close to the material. You can't see the forest for the trees. Scratch that. Cliche.