Photo use courtesy of photographer Suat Eman
Lately, I’ve been hearing about writers, both published and unpublished, getting their work professionally edited before submitting to a publisher or agent. I decided to seek out editorial services for this project since I keep getting rejected, and it’s a bit of a different book than the category romances that I write.
I kept hearing about this editorial service on blogs that I read regularly. Since I recognized some of the staff members as former editors at large, commercial CBA houses and some were former agents of large, highly respected literary agencies, I felt comfortable using their services.
I used the manuscript evaluation service and this included a short write-up from the editor who was assigned to me, as well as a forty or fifty minute phone call. I was surprisingly pleased with the outcome of the notes and the phone call. My evaluation was only based upon first three chapters and synopsis, but the editor was able to point out things in my writing that I didn’t see myself. I have pages of notes from our conversation and I hope to sell this manuscript someday. I’m not one to give up easily.
Have you ever used a professional editor before submitting your manuscript? If so, who did you use? Were you pleased with your experience?