Donika Mishineva
Mar 7, 20223 min
Updated: 2 days ago
Have you just finished writing a book? After spending countless hours successfully piecing together your work, the next big step you’ll want to take is to get your book published. Now you are probably wondering what the next step is. Book cover? Professional editor? Proofreading?
Today, a special guest on our book club is Kathleen Loxton - a professional editor, PR specialist in marketing and book advertising, and last but not least a fashion journalist. Kathleen is a woman of many talents, and I sincerely admire the productivity and enthusiasm with which she works to help authors in their writing careers.Join us as Kathleen shares her insights and discusses the key reasons to hire a professional book editor.
K: That is a great question! The first, and perhaps most important, reason is that by the time an author has completed a manuscript, they would have spent many hours creating this work, pouring their heart and soul into making it the best it possibly can be – that is just the first part of the journey of a book, though. If you want it to truly be a polished novel that reflects the efforts invested, you need a team to help you get the rest of the way, and you don’t want to be disappointed when you reach the last hurdle. That’s where professional editing, proofreading, and promotional work comes in –
it takes a publishing family to make a manuscript a success,
you can’t do it alone.
Secondly, as a writer you can get too close to your work, so sometimes it takes other sets of eyes to raise the work to a higher level and different opinions to see the work in a new light with all its potential.
Thirdly, a professional publishing team can assist with fact-checking, publishing trends, best publishing practices, and are privy to the latest editorial industry discussions and rules.
Fourthly, when it comes to getting your book under the nose of readers in this extremely competitive marketplace, there’s simply nothing that beats the knowledge of a professional publishing team that know exactly how to do just that.
Finally, writing a novel can be a lonely process, and when you have a team in your corner that loves books as much as you do, they act as an all-round support system which, when you’re creating something, is key.
In a field filled with countless options, the question arises: how to choose a professional book editor?
K: Cost is something that can vary widely as is the length of time it takes to get published. The scope of the work as well as your overall goals for the piece contributes a lot to this – for example, if you just want the work printed for posterity versus a work you want to get on a bestsellers list. With genre too, each has its own considerations and particular areas that need attention.
Other key elements in publication are also factors to consider, for example: does the work need illustrations? Are there special considerations for typesetting? What’s needed for the cover and blurb? None of this can be overlooked, whatever the end goal is.
My advice would be
to invest in promotional elements if you’d like the book to sell;
the journey doesn’t end when you’re holding your book for the first time, you want to shout it from the rooftops.
For all our readers, I leave the coordinates of Kathleen under the post if you need a great book editor or any additional questions related to book publishing.
Connect Kathleen Loxton on LinkedIn