Why is it Important to Use a Copy Editor?

Copy editing is an important part of publishing

Newsletter.No.3: February 2025

Stay in touch, read behind the scenes, and learn about the writer’s progress through the art of communication.

In this newsletter, I am delighted to introduce copy editor Stuart Budgen. He has worked with me on Fatal Contracts, The Rod of Blackthorn, and The Honourable Sicilian, still in development. He has kindly offered some thoughts on the copy editing process.

Copy editor & author - Stuart Budgen

Important Copy Editor Advice

Starting at the bottom and working our way up, we should talk about the benefits a new author can enjoy through engaging an editor’s help. These can be summarised as follows:

• Learning how to hone their craft with helpful comments and rewrites.

• Effectively using an editor in a role akin to a private tutor or book coach on a one-to-one basis.

• Making the manuscript the best it can possibly be through a process of refinement.

• Offering useful lessons that can be applied in the author’s following books.

First-time authors require help to grow and develop as storytellers, and this is achieved by giving them pointed and appropriate advice, tweaks, and plenty of encouragement, so that their maximum creative potential can gently find flight, helping them to discover their own realms of interest as the relationship deepens. The process can be very gratifying as we watch a person grow and evolve into an accomplished and advanced storyteller with time.

When considering an accomplished author, the relationship with an editor varies greatly from person to person. Some skilled authors like to have someone who they can “dump” their manuscript on once they’ve finished pouring out their blood and tears, because they find it more convenient to let them ply their craft at refining it. At the same time, they can then get to work hashing out the other 1001 ideas they have swimming around in the depths of their creative madness.

Other authors like to use an editor to perform a deep tidy, so that they get to enjoy adding the cherries to the cake in a final pass before having it proofread. Some authors prefer to work with an editor as a co-writer, combining different but mutually beneficial skills and qualities.

The question as posed—why is it important to use a copy editor— has many different possible answers, with the sky being the limit when it comes to ways in which an editor can be beneficial, particularly to an advanced author. By the time an author arrives at that state of accomplishment in their writing process, they will already know in which ways an editor can best enhanced their abilities, as they create a fusion together that keeps the author at the crest of their artistic potential.

Stuart Budgen Proofreader and editor logo

Stuart Budgen is a top-listed editor on Reedsy and has been running a successful editing business for the past 9 years as a digital nomad while traveling the world, he has been commended for his work by R.C.Blyth, and has hundreds of successful titles to his name.

Find out more about him here: https://web.facebook.com/Professionalproofreadingservices

If anyone wishes to enquire about his services, Stuart can be approached via any of the channels found on the above link.