Self publishing authors have this in common: they need an editor.

If there were one piece of advice I’d give to a self publisher it’s this: get yourself an editor. Beg, plead, entice, bribe – do whatever you have to do, but get someone to edit the manuscript you’ve spent so much time on. No one wants to read a piece, even if it’s a free piece, if it’s so badly written that the reader loses interest almost immediately. No continuity, rotten sentence structure, cliches galore, glaring grammar mistakes; these are just a few of the sins.

I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve started to read after being cajoled by the author – usually via Twitter – and how many times I had to stop dead after a few paragraphs. I’m not the grammar police, but for goodness sake, if you’re calling yourself a writer, then you have to show your potential readers that you know how to write.

If you read bestsellers by authors like Pat Conroy, John Sanders, etc., you’ll notice they all thank their editors. That’s for a reason and the reason is this: every writer needs one. There are way too few folks out there like E.L. James who, as a self-published author, made the big time even though the writing left lots to desire.

Do yourself a favor and skip the self-publishing route until you have someone who knows how to edit give the once over to your manuscript.

Gabby Weiss