Get yourself a good editor

[Simon W]

It's a Dog's Life has been reviewed. I'm delighted with the review. I was sure I didn't edit it that badly, but perhaps being so close to it means you miss stuff that's obvious. Have a read of the review here

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10712.phtml

The editing knocked down the style mark to 1. Despite the 4 for substance, this translates to only 2 stars at RPGNow where the game is sold.

Thankfully, I'm going to get a second edition out soon, so I'll mark this down to experience.

Advice? Don't skimp on any aspect of your game even if you think you can write pretty well and even if you have had a couple of friends look it over for you.

Simon W

[daMoose_Neo]

English Professors generally make decent editors in a pinch...just make sure to give them a heads up early enough and get them the work when they're not swamped with midterms or finals.

[Matt Machell]

As a contribution, remember that there's a big difference between an editor and a proof-reader. One fixes how the various elements of the manuscript fit together and interrelate so that the document flows well. One fixes your hideous grammatical errors.

Be aware of which you are paying for. Sometimes you get lucky and get somebody who does both, not always.

-Matt

[clehrich]

As a contribution, remember that there's a big difference between an editor and a proof-reader. One fixes how the various elements of the manuscript fit together and interrelate so that the document flows well. One fixes your hideous grammatical errors.

Be aware of which you are paying for. Sometimes you get lucky and get somebody who does both, not always.

Quite right, though a lot of editors do not make this distinction.

Revision: rewriting the thing with a new eye -- re-vision
Editing: fixing style, flow, consistency, polish, sentence and paragraph structure
Proofreading: fixing mechanical errors (grammar, spelling, citations, etc.)[/list:u]A really good professional editor starts by making suggestions for revision, then makes comments on editing the next draft, then proofreads the final copy.  This is in the academic world, where you are expected to do your own editing with some guidance (maybe).

A professional editor you are likely to hire is likely to do mostly proofreading.  If you want stylistic and structuring comments and suggestions, that will take more time and money.  If you want the editor to do this for you, it will cost you a hell of a lot -- if it doesn't, you're not getting what you asked for, or you didn't need much to begin with.

I would recommend taking your MS to the point that the editing is good but the proofreading needs polish.  Then send it to a professional editor for that purpose alone.  This is mechanical work, time-consuming but not requiring a lot of intelligence.  It will therefore not cost you a fortune.

Most of what happens on the Forge, especially in the Indie Design forum, is a halfway point between revision suggestions and editing suggestions.  You should, from that sort of criticism, be able to get to the proofreading stage.

But the original point still holds: if you have any doubts, send the thing to someone with a good eye and ask whether a lot of proofreading or editing is needed.  Consider posting to Indie Design with exactly this question in the header line -- there are a number of us out there who can give that kind of skim pretty fast.  Do that before you go hunt down an editor.  If you need such work, though, be prepared to pay for it, and demand a professional product.