{"id":35173,"date":"2025-11-11T05:00:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T10:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=35173"},"modified":"2025-11-10T21:12:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T02:12:53","slug":"whats-the-deal-with-book-editing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/11\/whats-the-deal-with-book-editing\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s the Deal with Book Editing?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tuesday morning, I have a telecom with a book editor. My marketer provided me with the name and I\u2019m going into this with absolutely no expectations and only slightly more understanding of the services.<br \/>\nAs is now my habit I went to Grok and asked it. \u201cWhat are the various types of editing that a fiction author might contract for his book.\u201d<br \/>\nAnd the LLM responded in part:<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;Below is a breakdown of the main types of professional editing that fiction authors typically contract for, listed in the usual order they occur during the publishing process. Each level assumes the previous one(s) have been completed.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Types-of-Editing.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-35174\" src=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Types-of-Editing.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"652\" height=\"614\" srcset=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Types-of-Editing.jpg 652w, https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Types-of-Editing-300x283.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 652px) 100vw, 652px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Now, this is a lot of stuff. And if you add it all up for even a short 65,000-word novel (like mine), it\u2019s at least, several thousand dollars.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a lotta dough.<br \/>\nSo, my intent is to listen and take notes and see just how much in the way of editing I want and\/or can afford. I intend to be open about my lack of a trust fund and my unwavering faith in my literary muse. So that should eliminate the developmental editing and line editing functions from the discussion. And honestly, even if I had endless cash to spend, I think I want the words and ideas to be my own and in the voices that I\u2019ve invented.<br \/>\nAs far as copyediting and proofreading, I guess I\u2019ll decide whether the benefits justify the costs. After all, I can spell pretty well and for the most part spellcheck does tell me what bothers it. And I did do a pass through the manuscript myself already so I think it would have to be a reasonable fee to win me over.<br \/>\nBut regardless of all my reservations I find it stimulating to go through these processes in publishing a book. After all, I\u2019ve been reading professionally published books all my life and I\u2019ve never seriously considered what value was added by the editor. I mean, if the author had terrible spelling and didn\u2019t pay attention to normal grammar and orthography maybe that would have bothered me as a reader. But I\u2019m guessing that the golden age sf writers were all pretty reasonably literate and capable of providing a clean manuscript.<br \/>\nBut now I\u2019ll speak to someone who does this for a living and maybe I\u2019ll get a perspective I didn\u2019t consider. Well, we\u2019ll see. Maybe I\u2019ll decide to buy some editing.<br \/>\nAnd I\u2019m still waiting for the cover artist to get back to me to discuss that piece of the puzzle. Well, one thing at a time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tuesday morning, I have a telecom with a book editor. My marketer provided me with the name and I\u2019m going into this with absolutely no<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1289,1263,4],"tags":[1290,265,5067,4484],"class_list":["post-35173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction-by-me","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","category-sff","tag-my-fiction","tag-science-fiction","tag-self-publishing","tag-the-american-archipelago-book-1-the-sniper"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What\u2019s the Deal with Book Editing? - Orion&#039;s Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/11\/whats-the-deal-with-book-editing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What\u2019s the Deal with Book Editing? - Orion&#039;s Cold Fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tuesday morning, I have a telecom with a book editor. 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