Isn editing the publishers job?”
Publishers certainly edit. In fact, we edit a great deal, but this doesn’t relieve authors of the obligation to prepare their manuscripts. Authors face heavy competition, and expecting publishers to look through bad spelling, grammar, syntax, and developmental style to see a “diamond in the rough” is asking a lot of us. Your manuscript is competing with 20 million more for about 200,000 trade published titles each year, which makes preparation very important. Take the time to have your manuscript edited. This doesn’t mean you need to hire a professional editor. In fact, you’d be surprised how many of these problems can be fixed by running your word processor’s spell checking and grammar checking features (don’t depend on the program’s while-you-type features!). But, one of the best solutions is for you to find 4–10 readers to review your book. Ask them to mark any editorial problems in the manuscript. At the same time, have them identify sections of the manuscript that thrilled them, a
