Making Sense Of Editing In Today's Market All writers need good editors. Even successfully published authors need "outside eyes" to help perfect their work (and many more understand this than do unpublished folks). Once upon a time, a writer would work with her book editor at a publishing house to make the book the best it could be, and to further the author's career as a writer. Well, Dorothy, that was before the tornado blew through town.
The business has changed. Radically. With POD and e-books, now you can whip something off of your computer and see it "published" quicker than a wave of Oz's wizard's hand. Gone are the days of waiting and waiting and striving to secure an agent, a publisher. And that has been to the huge detriment of books in general, as editing has often gone out the window. And it shows.
Even if you still strive for the brass ring-traditional publishing-the way things are done has changed. Once, editors at publishing houses spent most of their days editing books. Now, that is rare. Today's editors focus on acquisitions; on selling the books they want to publish to editorial committees and the sales force; and on positioning those books in the list while keeping an eye on production (jacket copy, etc.). In essence, these editors' jobs too have changed radically over the last 20 years. And so has your relationship to them.
Publishers are no longer willing to spend the time with a "project" bookone that shows promise but needs a major or often even a minor overhaul. Manuscripts these days must pretty much be camera-ready when reaching an editor's desk.