A good editor is a writer’s closest ally
An editor’s job is to make your writing shine. Our goal is to help you produce the best possible text—one that communicates your message clearly in your voice. We take a reader’s perspective and work with you to develop or refine your writing.
Editors work on all types of content, including manuscripts, reports, presentations, speeches, brochures, proposals, ads, resumes, profiles, and many others. During one phase of your project, an editor may help with the overall structure and cohesiveness of your document and during another phase, work to improve consistency, clarity, and conciseness.
7 reasons you should hire an editor:
- Invest in your success. An editor’s only goal is to make your writing more compelling to more readers.
- Enhance your credibility. A publication with errors and inconsistencies distracts readers and detracts from your credibility. A carefully edited publication gives readers confidence in you and your content.
- Benefit from fresh eyes. You can spend weeks, months, or years writing your manuscript, and eventually your brain sees only what it expects to see on the page. An editor’s fresh eyes often spot problems you may have overlooked.
- Get objective audience feedback. As a writer, you may be too close to your work to be objective, and friends may soften their feedback to spare your feelings. An editor reads your manuscript carefully and provides detailed, supportive, and unbiased feedback to help you improve the final product. Editors serve as an objective test audience.
- Obtain technical expertise. Editors are trained to spot problems like inconsistencies, leaps of logic, and factual errors. Copy editors have expertise in grammar, spelling, hyphenation, punctuation, and applying guidelines laid out in style manuals and style sheets.
- Improve your writing. Editors illustrate refinements that you can use to make your prose more clear and effective.
- Save time. Revising can become frustrating and exhausting. Editors’ expertise saves you time by handling details that slow you down.
The Author-editor relationship
Authors and editors should clarify their working relationship before the project starts. Some authors prefer to work closely with an editor at every stage, communicating frequently and discussing revisions. Other authors prefer an editor to simply work on the project and return the finished product by a specified date. Or the interaction may fall somewhere in between. The most effective relationship is the one that you and your editor agree will work best for you as a team.
Most importantly, find an editor you feel comfortable working with—someone who understands you, your message, and your voice.
Begin your search for the right editor for your job on the find an editor page.