I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read a book and asked the author, “Who did you hire for your editor?” only to find out that they hired one or more editors who didn’t do a quality editing job on their business book.

Today, I share the common mistakes I fix after another editor has already worked on my client's book, because it happens far more often than not. I look at a manuscript, and it doesn't appear anyone edited the work or only grammar was corrected. My goal is to help you avoid hiring an editor who won't do a good job, since an unprofessionally edited book does the opposite of what you want and can damage your reputation with reviews calling out mistakes that make your book hard to read.

One of the biggest issues I see is poor communication, where editors don't provide a timeline or updates and simply drop the edited book in the client's lap. My process is transparent from start to finish. Another common problem is weak line editing, where editors leave in fuzzy words like "sort of," "kind of," and "maybe" that weaken your content and make you sound less confident and professional. I also frequently clean up basic spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors that a previous so-called editor missed entirely.

Most editing problems come from hiring the wrong person, often someone without a proven track record, or a person who edits as a side gig rather than full-time. When hiring an editor, make sure they work in your specific genre, edit full-time or are a semi-retired professional, communicate with you promptly within 48 hours, and can provide sample work.

Always ask the key vetting questions, request a free 500-word sample using the same passage for every editor so you can compare, and consider a paid chapter-one sample before committing to your whole book. Avoid editors who claim they do all four types of editing well, since real professionals specialize. The right editor takes your thoughts and ideas and elevates them to a professional level so your reader has an amazing experience.

Keep writing, keep dreaming, and keep creating. Your book is waiting to be born!

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E75 Transcript

Avoiding Common Editing Pitfalls

Hey friends and future authors, this is Linda Liquid, Ghost Trader and Book Editor here at Ray for You Self-Publishing. Today's episode is about all the mistakes I have fixed after another editor has already edited my client's book. And this is a really important episode, my friends, because I cannot tell you how many people. I mean, I could go back and count all my clients I've done, but like it has happened way more often than not, where I am looking at a book and I ask the per the author, hey,

Who did you use for your editor? And they may have used one editor, they may have used two editors, and it literally does not look like anyone has edited their book or has only done grammar correction. And so I want to make this episode so you don't make the mistake of hiring an editor that's not going to do a good job on your book. But before we jump into today's episode, my friends, I want to remind you of my author support community because I want to make sure that all my authors out there who are listening to this.

And all of your author friends know that there is a support community that is a no-fluff, no BS support community. We can come in, join the free community. If you decide you want to level up to premium or VIP, you can. But every day I'm in there dropping tips and advice on how to successfully self-publish your book with confidence. So if that's something you want to do, go to school.com, S K-O-O-L, look.

For self-publishing for leaders, join my free school community. You'll see my picture on there, or you can click simply click the link in YouTube or in the show notes in the audio show notes below. All right. So let's jump into what I do when I have to fix someone else's editing because they didn't do a good job. So one of the comments I typically get is I typically get the

Comment of, hey, you have dug into my book way more than any other editor has. And I really love that compliment. Like I really take that to heart because when I work with a client, I want to make sure that their book is the very best it can be. Their book looks professional. Their book looks like it came from a big five publisher and their book sounds professional, right? It reads professional.

It's beautiful. Like if I'm doing the interior layout, everything looks and feels like it should be on brand and it looks and feels like it's going to enhance their reputation, not do the opposite. Because my friends, I have seen books that are not professionally edited and that will do the opposite to your reputation. I've actually edited clients' books like their second or third book, and their first book was not edited by me. And I literally have been on their clients' Amazon reviews of their first book and have read reviews.

That sound something like, I don't think this person ever hired an editor, or there's so many grammatical mistakes in this book, it was hard to read. Now, you definitely don't want your reader to have that experience, my friend. You want your reader to read the book, be like, my gosh, this book was incredible. I learned XYZ. It was clearly a professional book by someone who's a professional. And then boom, the light turns on. This person's a professional. And then their next step is to book a discovery call or give you a call.

Or email you whatever your CTA is you're putting in your book. And I always recommend to put an easy CTA that is free or easy for them to download or join, such as a community or a digital checklist or anything like that, right? Because people are looking for easy ways to connect with you. And you don't want to make your CTA in your book a paid way to connect with you. Now you can, it doesn't mean you can't, but it's much easier to get someone in at a free level than at a paid level.

And I know everybody has a different opinion on that. And depending on what service you provide, you may want to do a, you know, a small, easy investment under $100 to join your ecosystem. That's totally up to you. But you definitely want to put a CTA in your book. And I see a lot of editors don't recommend that. I see a lot of editors don't even literally communicate very much with their client. Like one there was an editor I recently recommended to a person in the community.

And I will not recommend this editor again because she did not tell my client a timeline, didn't give her any communication on what was going on. She was in the dark and she literally just dropped the book edited in her lap. Now, my client, my community member did say her quality of edits were good, but she has no idea what was going on because she didn't communicate with them. When I edit someone's book, my friend, I make sure we first I give you a book focus template that tells me what you what your book's about.

Who you're writing your book for, why you're writing your book, what the purpose of your book is. Is it a business calling card? Is it a legacy? You're leaving your family. What is it? Right. That gives me the information to help with a better focus editing project for your book to get a better quality book. So that, and then after you fill that out, we do our one hour onboarding session where I we talk about your book focus template and I ask you questions. That gives me even more information to help edit your book better in your voice and style. Then after that, I write, I edit.

Chapter one, whether that's just the developmental edit or a line edit, whatever part we're on. Then we get I get together with the client again, we talk about the edits, see if there's anything else you need to adjust moving forward, edit the rest of the book, we meet again at the end to clear up any other edits, and then my client can get their manuscript. Like I can just leave it on Google Docs, I give it to them in a word file, a PDF, whatever it is they're looking for. So when you do the editing process, you want to make sure.

Go back and to my episode of twenty-two questions to ask your book editor and also go back and check out, I believe it's episode thirty-five where I talk about the four types of editing, because there's different types of editing. And I actually recently posted that in my school community. So my my authors know what are the four types of editing you need for your book and how to go about getting those, right? What are the questions you want to ask every editor? So another thing I see a lot when I re-edit books is the editor doesn't

Do a good job line editing. Now, line editing is when the editor goes through your book line by line and strengthens the words in your book. So when I look at a book that's edited, I should never see what I call fuzzy words. Something, maybe, stuff, sort of, kind of. When I think about this, maybe you should think about blah, blah, blah. Right. All of those words are not strong words, my friend. All of those words weaken your content, weaken your book, and weaken your reputation with your reader. That is not what we want, right?

If you're gonna put the time, effort, and money into writing a book and publishing it to enhance your reputation, you wanna make sure you make the right time investment, the right money investment, and the right editor investment. Because if you don't, that piece could really potentially ruin your reputation. Because when people read your book, it's not going to sound good. It's not gonna sound professional. And that is not what we want for your book, right? We want it to sound professional. We want it to look like it came from the big five, even if it didn't, we want it to

look like an amazing business book that's going to really catapult you into better speaking gigs, higher paying speaking gigs, more to be more visible online. And every study that has come out shows that having your own book really increases your brand visibility and your personal brand visibility. So you want to make sure if you're increasing your visibility, you're doing it in a positive manner and that your editor is doing a great job. So another mistake I have cleaned up a lot in just editing is just literally

incorrect grammar words. I mean, and I am not a copy and line editor, but like when my spell check points out words that are not spelled correctly and this person has hired another editor to do that, that's a huge red flag, right? Like I clean up words all the time, just spelling errors, punctuation errors. I've cleaned up sentences that were not written correctly and were already edited by a quote unquote editor. A lot of these editors, my friends, are editors that people have found on fiber upwork.

And they don't have a proven track record where they don't have samples. Now, one of the things I get a lot in my school community is questions about editing, like what kind of editing should I hire? What kind of editor should I hire? What type of editing do I need? So if you have any questions about editing, definitely come and join my school community, self-publishing for leaders, and put your questions in the writing, editing, and feedback category. I'd be happy to answer them. You'll get support from the community, you'll get feedback from other members.

Who have hired editors and can tell you what a good editor does. So when you are editing and you're hiring an editor, you want to look for somebody who does editing full time. The only exception to that is if someone has edited full time and they're partly retired, so they only edit part-time, that's fine. But you do not want to hire an editor who literally does editing as a side gig to make some extra money. Cause I can guarantee you, my friends, everyone.

Of the editing issues I have talked to somebody about, almost everyone, 90% have been from an editor or a ghostwriter who does it on the side. It's not their main job. One person was a university professor and they did editing as a side gig. Another person was a mental health professional and they did ghost writing as a side gig. I'm sorry, no mental health professional should be writing books. Okay. That's not those two, there's not even a close tie there. I

Highly recommend if you're gonna hire somebody as an editor, ask the 22 questions, get a lot of information and feedback. If they're not answering your questions in a timely manner or they're not giving you any access to them while they're editing your book, that's a big red flag. Do not hire them. that's another thing I see a lot with editors is that they don't put the time and effort into communicating with their clients. I do that 100%. I make sure my clients know what they're getting for their edit, what stage we're at, what how they can get a hold of me.

And I give my clients my cell phone number. Now, am I going to answer my cell phone at three in the morning? No. But I tell my clients, if you have an idea at three in the morning, text me. I have my phone on silent. I am not gonna wake up. I will get it when I wake up at eight o'clock PST and will answer them at the first chance I get. And it's always within 24 hours. But I do tell my clients, if you have a document or something important to send me, do not text it to make sure they email it to me. So I'm very transparent. I have very clear boundaries on what I will and will not do for clients.

But I always make sure that I am supporting my clients to the best of my ability. And my clients feel like they're getting a very good value when they make an investment with me with editing. So you want to make sure that whatever editor you hire, my friends, one works in your genre. So I do not edit fiction. I don't edit I I'm writing a fiction romance book for fun, but I don't do the editing for it because that is not my specialty. My specialty is business books, memoirs, lifestyle, nonfiction. So any of those books I will ghostwrite.

Developmental online edit. Another red flag you want to stay away from is I see editors who are like, I do all types of editing. That's not someone you want to go to. You cannot be, you could be an expert in all four types of editing, but you're not going to be good at all four of them. You want to get somebody who's really good at what they do. I do ghostwriting dev online editing for nonfiction books only. Book, you have a romantic, you have a horror thriller, you have a crime book, whatever it is, get somebody who knows that genre. That is the best editor you can choose.

for your book because they know the genre. They know what people are looking for. And another thing is I see people don't ask enough questions of their editor. You need to ask a lot of questions, my friends, because that's another mistake. People hire the right editor, don't excuse me, they hire the wrong editor when they're not asking enough questions. Or they're asking questions and they don't get them all answered and they thought, the person's just busy. That is not professional. They should answer your questions within 48 hours. If they can't, they're either too booked

Or they're not doing a good job with communication. Either way, you don't want to go with a person who's way overbooked and can't manage their time, or, you know, doesn't do a good job in communicating. That's not okay. It's not professional. I would never hire anybody for my book that does that. I hire professional editors for my books before I put them into into publication. And so you need to make sure you have a good editor that edits your genre and edits it.

Correctly, that you can get sample books, like say, hey, do you have a sample work of something that you've already edited so you can read it to see what it sounds like? You know, you they can do a sample edit of 500 words for free. Say, hey, can you please do a sample edit of 500 words? Give every editor the same sample. That way you can compare editors and how they work. If they don't give you a sample edit for free, ask them if you can do a paid 500-word sample edit. But most editors should give you some kind of sample edit for free. That's 500 words as industry standard.

It's not doesn't take a lot of time and you'll get a good idea of how they edit. So that's another thing is people forget to do that. And then they don't get the editor they want because they don't know what the editing looks like. It also you can get a f a free 500 word and say, hey, I really like your editing. Can we do chapter one as a sample edit? I a paid sample edit, right? So you pay them to edit chapter one. If you like their work and they're communicative, then pay them for the rest of the book. If not, then you've only made a small investment.

You can find another editor to edit that chapter one. So you can break it down in little chunks, right? You don't have to give them, it's not an all or nothing. You don't have to give them your whole entire book if you're not comfortable with them yet. Make sure you are very comfortable with your editor in all aspects, right? Because that's going to be the defining point between being happy with your editing job and not being happy with your editing job. And most of the time when I talk to people, they are not happy.

with their editors, right? Or they don't know any better. And I read their book and I say, did you even get an editor for this? Not like in that rate, but like I ask them who is their editor and they tell me. And then I find out they've had two editors work on it and it doesn't, it's not quality work. And so then I tell them, hey, based on what how I edit, this is like these are the things I'm seeing that can be fixed in your book. And these are the things I would recommend to change if you hire me or another editor. And then a lot of times they'll hire me, I re-edit their book

I do an amazing job and they're like, my gosh, I had no idea my book wasn't good until you edited my book, Lynn. And so that's what I bring to the table for my clients is that good value edit where their book was good in the beginning, but it's now really great. Like that's what you want your editor to do. You want your editor to take your thoughts and ideas and elevate them to a professionally sounding level. So when someone reads your book, their experience is awesome.

All right, my friends, this is a shorter episode today. And I would love for your feedback on anything you would like to hear in my podcast, self-publishing for thought leaders. Again, remember to join my school group because if you have roadblocks of self-publishing and you're ready to get the support you need to self-publish without spending thousands of dollars on a self-publishing course, then what are you waiting for? Come join us inside self-publishing.

For leaders today in our school community. So you can add author to your bio before the end of the year. You're gonna find daily tips and advice on self publishing, book marketing, and you get free guest expert workshops every month. Join today and level up to a paid level if you're feeling like you would love the extra support for your book because you want to make your book the best it can be. Go to school.com s K O O L and search up self publishing.

Publishing for leaders, or check out the link in the show notes or the YouTube underneath this YouTube video below. All right, my friends, remember, ask the questions. Go back into my podcast and check out the 22 questions asked for when you're hiring an editor. Only hire an editor that edits full-time or that is a retired editor that's doing it part-time. Make sure these people are communicating with you.

on the web. Till next week, this is Lynn Eliquity, reminding you to keep writing, keep dreaming, and keep creating. Your book is waiting to be born.