After I had finished work on creating my story, I felt it was time to look for an editor, I understood the importance of bringing my manuscript to its final stage so I could start working with the illustrator.
Before I hired an editor I had participated in various writing groups. That was a very important step in the process because the writing groups weren’t particularly aimed at helping children’s book writers. The groups were small gatherings of people who write on different subjects, so I could share my story and get different views and suggestions. Besides that, I shared my story with a few close friends-just to see and hear their responses to my creation.
These processes I had undertaken along the way helped me to polish my story and bring it to its refined best. This was the time during which I began to search for an editor. In the beginning I worked one-on-one several times with the editor, and in addition to that I submitted pieces of my manuscript to a few online editing services companies to assess their editing and proofreading methodologies relative to my work.
I think it was a smart thing for me to submit my work to a few online editors and, beyond that, also to work closely with two individuals involved in person. This allowed me to get different views and suggestions as to what would work better for my story’s text-even if it involved only the change of one word.
Make sure you get a free online editing sample of pieces from your manuscript text. This way you’ll know whether or not there’s an actual person who’s reading and working on your manuscript. You can determine very quickly whether or not this approach is right for you, and equally you’ll be able to assess whether or not there is likely to be a comfortable fit in working with this person or with this company.
Please note that some of the individuals and companies in the online editing services business are highly likely to be using proprietary software programs to perform the editing and proofreading tasks. And further, these individuals and companies will offer a free sample to you as a “come-on,” but only up to a certain maximum number of words.
I always submitted just a few sentences as a free sample to get some indication as to how the person doing the editing/proofreading tasks approached their work. It was important to me that my work be handled personally rather than by a software program.
