Too many people are talking the plunge without an editor. That is great if you know “it all” but I get the feeling most do not. I have downloaded many books In the past month and deleted some, Ok more than some.

I may read about half way through a chapter and the grammar, the story wandering, turns me off. I am not vain, I do not expect the best possible writing, but I do expect a book to lead me in and keep me there, not wander off away from the main reason that I opened the book in the first place.

I read one book, and I wonder where the editor was, or if there was ever one. I found so many mistakes, such as on one page, there is an army of forty-eight people following, ready to strike, and FIVE pages later, before the battle there are now eighty-four. Easy to make a simple mistake, we all do it. But, when the battle now begins with the original forty-eight It pulled me out because I had to stop and wonder, Is this a Writer’s mistake who simply did not go back and review what he said, or it is someone (writer) thinking they cannot make a mistake and keeps on writing?

I went over and over Circles and still found silly mistakes. Lucky for me, Lane Diamond, my editor, has a sharp eye and skilled mind and catches what, my own reviews did not. I read my entire book FIVE times and still did not see what he did, what he found.

Never assume as a writer, you can see your own mistakes. I have a writing group that catches a lot, but not all of it. We are human. Editors look with a fresh eye, a mind that sees mistakes because he is not attached to the story as the writer is. Attachment to our characters, our perfectly written scenes full of adjectives describing excessively too much, and our thinking it cannot possibly get better are a writer’s flaws—of perhaps vanity—can be our undoing and we may never get another chance after one poorly written book. It is the first book that will give up a reputation good or bad. “THINK EDITOR.” DO not think you are infallible or you may find out too late.
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