BEFORE & AFTER STORIES... WELL, PARAGRAPHS, ANYWAY
A lot of editors want to make sure that you are impressed by how much they know about grammar, syntax, diction, spelling, punctuation, and so forth — whether you're interested in all that or not. If you want me to tell you what "subjunctive" means and prove that I can spell "onomatopeoia," well, you can call me about the former and I just did the latter. And when we work together and you're paying me for my expertise, you can ask me anything at all, whether it's about the English language, Roald Amundsen's trek to the South Pole, or the latest findings concerning the effect of photons on the global pan-evaporation rate.
I really am an expert in communicating with the language, I really do read 25 or 30 hours a week (see "My Reading List" on the Rates/Resources page), and I am interested in most everything. Right now, my interest is in telling you what editors really do — or should do, at any rate.
An editor helps a writer get his point across the right way, the effective way, to the target audience. Sure, he corrects some bits and picks out some nits, but his is a macro rather than micro view; he is concerned with the clarity, the efficacy, and the impact of the piece as a whole.
The micro view, on the other hand, is proofing; I use the term "proofing" rather than "proofreading" to convey the fact that one must proof more than just what is read, that is, more than just the copywriting. Design elements, folios and page numbers, photos and captions and credits, line art, and everything else in or on a document must be checked in a thorough "last look."
If you are not satisfied with whatever it is that you have written — a brochure, a sell-sheet, a short story, a business plan, a book, a marketing research report, whatever — then I, as an editor, will work with you, the writer, to make it work how it should work for the job you intended it to do. I won't rewrite it, unless you ask me to, and that is something that is not always necessary, even if you're an amateur.
Assuming you know what you want to say, and have some expertise in the subject, I can work with what you have written and make it work as it should. It will sound like you, not me — I am the editor, not the writer, and my voice should not be heard at all. Only yours. All my work as an editor should be transparent to the reader. I can help you develop and strengthen your voice, your style, your presence — but it will be yours, not mine.
I have been doing this a long, long time. I love what I do. I love the language. I love watching people learn that they, too, can write, with the help of a good editor. If you have something that you've written that is just not quite right, call me; I won't bill you anything to chat about it for a few minutes. If you just need a gentle nudge in the right direction and a little advice about, say, adverbs, I won't charge you anything; if, rather than a gentle nudge, you need a hard shove and a lecture, well, that will cost you.
Call me at 786-551-0207. Ask me something, tell me something, let me brainstorm with you for a few minutes. If you do need my [paid] help, I believe we will both know it soon enough, so we'll handle a few details about that and then get right to work. That's how I do things. Cool?
