Warning: Rambles ahead.
Earlier this year Michelle Sagara told me in the war room that she thought it was better to have good betareaders and hire a copy editor. I was a bit skeptical, since we are at different places in our careers.
I have been thinking about it during the year, though. I have revised a lot this year, based on my notes and feed back from betareaders and editors. I have become a much better writer as other have read my things and pointed out all the places I have goofed up.
I’ll admit that I have looked at the feedback I have received and at the editorial letter and wondered if the editor was worth the money.
Oh, don’t get me wrong: I am glad I hired Storywonk. I got great feedback on the plot, and the plot is much more solid, but he opted to not give me any pointers on characters. Though he did mention something about character motivations. Once I was done, I sent the draft to Chrysoula to see if it made sense. Turns out it didn’t. Oops. The feedback Chrysoula gave me was almost only focused on characters. In that way they complemented each other.
I just have a feeling that my betareaders would have pointed out the same things. Since they are very thorough.
The main reason I am hesitant to depend solely on betareaders ( even though I love them), is that I don’t want to wear them out. Though all of my beta readers have been very encouraging.
Another factor is that betareaders read things in their spare time while an editor are more focused on my book. Though I am not certain how true that is, since editors have lives too. On the other hand, Book View Café uses somekind of betareader system for their books, so I should be able to do the same.
Maybe.