Why I Fired My Editor

I couldn't believe what happened!

How the editing of my second book went sideways.

I respect the value editors provide. Editing makes a book a book in my opinion. I’ve just had a lousy experience with my books. NOTE: my first 2 books were manually edited the traditional way and the books turned out great. It is the tug-of-war and between author and publisher and editor that turned me off writing non-fiction business books.

Editing Makes a Book a Book and…

Even though I had a lousy experience with the editors who were working on my book, the books still turned out great and made the books much more readable and gave the books a better structure than I could have myself. But at what cost?

It's 2006.

I had just spent two and a half, three months creating a manuscript for a book I was contracted to write a business planning book titled "Tips and Traps for Writing an Effective Business Plan."

I got the edited manuscript back from the publisher, and the manuscript I had spent months working on. It was unrecognizable.

I was in shock.

I struggled to discern what the editors did to my manuscript.

Fortunately, the document was written in Word, I was able to dig into the features of Word and see that two different people edited the book. One person edited the front half of the book, a second person edited the back half of the book.

The edits were contextually inaccurate, and it's obvious that the editors had no business experience because their edits of the manuscript were completely out of context.

I printed off every chapter of the edited book. I laid it out on my living room floor. I began to reorganize it into a logical sequence. In fact, in some cases I had to completely start over because I couldn't make sense of the edits they had made. And I only had two weeks to come up with a final manuscript.

I was livid. They had completely destroyed the structure of the book I had created. The only thing that was recognizable was the first chapter. At least I was able to get started from that point.

At that time I vowed I would never write another book because the experience was so unpleasant.

Five Different Types of Editors

If you're going to self-publish, you need to know about the different types of editing.

Turns out there are five different types of editors. Let’s look at the role of the different types of book editors:

1. Developmental editors: big-picture, structure and impact

2. Copy editors: Grammar, punctuation, syntax, clarity, conciseness, style consistency

3. Line editors: Improving sentence structure, word choice, flow, clarity, rhythm, voice, style

4. Proofreaders: Meticulous attention to detail, spotting even the smallest errors

5. Fact Checkers:  Research, verification, accuracy, attention to detail

Don't get me wrong, I'm very aware that editing is a valuable part of the writing process. Editing a full-length manuscript of 100,000 words is not for the faint of heart. It's also important for the author not to do the editing themselves because they are too close to the work itself.

As I've told this story over the years, many people have taken me to task. They criticized me for not improving my typing skills on YouTube. At the time I was a busy business coach, father and husband. Writing the book became a necessary obsession. I spent every waking moment writing, as rough as it was. I managed to finish it, but it came with a great deal of pressure, stress, late nights, and a disrupted lifestyle.

Disclosure: I was a terrible typist, definitely not a touch typist. I tried dictation software, but it was a complete disaster and waste of time.

The QWERTY keyboard isn't obsolete, but my writing experience with my second book changed me. I was no longer willing to be part of the publishing industrial complex.

In 2024 I was going to university in an attempt to sharpen my marketing abilities.

That's when I stumbled upon Wispr Flow. Other than writing some articles and blog posts here and there, I never wrote another book until 2024-2025. What changed? I stumbled upon a very elegant Mac app called Wispr Flow.

Flow became an absolutely invaluable tool that I could use on my MacBook with a split screen. I would have my course material or textbook on the left side with my notes on the right side. All I had to do was hold down the Fn key and dictate what I wanted to say. The words seemed to write themselves, well almost.

Today I can't imagine writing anything, including a book, without using Wispr Flow. It's such a powerful tool. It's so easy to use, and it keeps getting better every single month.

Every author should definitely have Wispr Flow in their quiver, it's a very stable, mature application which will save you hours at the keyboard.

Flow is more than transcription

Flow is my able assistant helping me along my writing journey including:

1. Idea capture

2. Writing

3. Outlining

4. First drafts

5. Editing

Best of all I maintain control over the entire process.

Wispr Flow Discount Code

To read more about my journey, make sure to visit the “Flow and Tell” page to learn more. Plus, I have a special discount code: GREGWRITERS. This gives you 33% off on the Flow Pro plan.