What Are You Trying to Say? – Let Your Editor Help You Say It

The question I pose in the title of this article is at the heart of every word, sentence, paragraph, chapter and piece of punctuation dotting your manuscript: what are you trying to say?

And once your editor knows what it is you want to say, they can help you say it. That is, if you have an editor. Unfortunately, with the advent of hybrid and self-publishing, too many authors believe it is enough to publish, whether or not their work successfully says what they originally intended to say. (For purposes of this article, hybrid publishers are those who charge the author a fee to publish the author’s work. The fee might cover part or all of the publication process depending on the business model the company uses).

Great writers tend to disagree with that approach. Faulkner, Hemingway, Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison, and Walter Isaacson are but a few who have enjoyed the benefits of editorial input. If you cannot afford to hire a professional editor, then join a writers’ group. If the first group does not provide good editing suggestions, drop it and find one that does.

The point is to engage someone, paid or unpaid, who is committed to the task, objective, an active reader, in full command of the English language, and is not afraid of hurting your feelings. Editors have many roles–developmental, substantive, copy editing, line editing, and proofreading, to name a few. “What are you trying to say?” opens the door to still other questions and suggestions. Why did you use a semicolon there? How does that hyphen affect the meaning? Does your work really begin with Chapter One or should it begin with what is now Chapter Three? Love that line—where should we use it first? Are those words in the last sentence really the most effective? Are you sure you used spell check?

Engaging and paying a professional editor is like planning a journey to somewhere new. Start with an interview I heard on NPR with three professional editors about what editors do and why: Ask a Book Editor. To read the transcript or listen to the audio track of June 4, 2025, go to: https://the1a.org/segments/ask-a-book-editor/.

Follow up with a post by editor Chantel Hamilton, The Comprehensive Guide to Finding, Hiring and Working with an Editor at https://janefriedman.com/comprehensive-guide-to-finding-working-with-editors/. This is an excellent and detailed summary of the editing process.

But don’t stop there. A good editor is one of your most important tools in your writing life. The more educated you are about editing, the better you will be able to assess your editorial needs and who may best satisfy them. Most writing platforms and associations include articles about editing as well as editor ads or listings. Some require membership to enjoy the benefits. Without endorsing any of the following resources, I encourage you to explore your editorial options.

• Check out editing associations like the Editorial Freelancers Association, the Society for Editing, the Professional Editors Network (a.k.a., “PEN”), and the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (a.k.a. “NAIWE”).
• Author associations also have information about editing and editors—three are the Authors Guild, the Non-Fiction Authors Association, and Mystery Writers of America.
• Editors run ads in the classified sections of writing publications like Writers Digest or Poets and Writers.
• Online platforms like Reedsy, Thumbtack, Fiver, and Upwork provide helpful information about editing and access to editors.

Once you know who you want to engage, I would be happy to review the contract the editor offers or, if he or she does not have one, draw up an agreement for you to offer the editor. And when it comes to either revising or drafting that editing contract, do not be surprised when I ask you what you want to say. Like your editor, I am there to help you say it.