Authors Electric

I’m watching a discussion in one of the many writers’ groups on facebook at the moment. The statement being debated is along the lines of if you don’t have your book professionally edited, it will be rubbish . But nobody has yet defined professional and rubbish , or even edited, and until the goalposts are set firmly on the pitch, it’s all rather meaningless in my opinion. In this particular discussion, professional appears to mean "paying somebody", or indeed "paying anybody". I’ve noticed in my alternative online life (aka facebook…) that there are a lot of people who set themselves up as publishers and editors. Just recently I saw an advert for a "new" publisher – the website says As a principal [sic], and to help new authors … Now what self-respecting author is going to sign up with a publisher who doesn’t understand homophones? Answer: the ones who still think that any "publisher" is better than no publisher. Editors too. They e...