101 TIWIK #68: Copy Edit–Grammar, and So Much More

**There are at least three copy errors in this post. Can you find them all?**

You’ve drafted your book. You’ve rewritten your book (possibly more than once). You’ve revised your book from every angle. You’ve pored over each sentence in a rigorous line edit, making sure the mood, voice, word choice and sentence structure perfectly match what you are trying to convey.

Now you’re probably asking, Can I hit publish yet?

Not quite.

Once the line edit is done, it’s time for an equally vigorous copy edit. Line editing, while not changing the material as a revision might, tends to be about effectiveness; i.e., how effectively the paragraphs, sentences and words are conveying the ideas, feelings and impressions you want to leave the reader with.

Copy editing, on the other hand, is a little more about correctness. How correct, accurate, and consistent are the grammar, punctuation, syntax, factual details, etc? In order to cover everything a good copy edit should look for, I’ve broken it down into these three categories. In the next few posts, I’ll discuss some strategies for finding and correcting errors within these categories.

Correctness

As you may have guessed, correctness deals with such elements as grammar, punctuation and spelling. Basically, are you using the English language in the manner intended? Or, if you are breaking the rules, are you doing so consciously and effectively?

Accuracy 

While correctness implies adherence to the rules, accuracy covers adherence to the facts. Are you saying exactly what you mean to say? Is the information you’re basing your premises on accurate and logical? A copy edit looking at accuracy should ask questions like, “if this character makes 20K a year, why does he drive a brand new Mercedes?”

Consistency

Again, the distinction here is slight. While accuracy demands that you adhere to the facts in general–be they real world facts, or your made-up world’s system of facts–consistency is more about being consistent with the facts within your own manuscript. When you capitalize one term, do you capitalize it everywhere? Does your character drive a Mercedes in one scene and then a BMW in the next scene, with no explanation of the change? These are the things to look for in a Consistency copy edit.

Won’t a Copy Editor do all this for me?

Ok, this a pretty big “Do as I say, not as I do” moment here. If you have the money, I highly recommend you hire a copy editor. Make sure that they will edit an exerpt for free or cheap, so you know what you are getting. Do this especially if you know yourself to be weak in grammar or notorious for having inconsistencies in a draft. That being said, even if you hire a copy editor, you should still have a clear idea of what they are doing and how. It’s entirely possible that a copy editor will hand you back your excerpt with tons of red ink, but that there will still be errors. As the publisher of your work, you need to know that those errors are still there. Because ultimately, you are the one who loses when readers are turned off by minor errors. Think of a copy editor as a second set of eyes on the work, not the only set of eyes on the work.

When can I not hire a copy editor? 

That all being said, I personally don’t hire a copy editor. Why not? I know that my weakness lies in revision, not copy editing, so I’d rather put my resources toward a good developmental editor. And I’m really lucky that my current developmental editor also has a good eye for copy edits. Of course, that doesn’t help with the text I’ve changed after her eyes have been on it. At that point, I’m insanely lucky to have several really wonderful Beta readers, who tend to catch anything I don’t. With that support, I feel confident that I can copy edit my own manuscripts. They don’t always turn out 100% error free, but they are clean, and have no more errors than you’d tend to find in a traditionally published book. Not everyone can do that, but if you can, I say save your money. You’ll know if you can’t. The first honest person who reads your book will tell you.

Did you find the errors? If so post in the comments below! I’ll reveal the answers in the next post: 101 TIWIK #69: Copy Edit Continued: Correctness as well as lay down some strategies for looking for and correcting patterns of bad grammar in your work!