Why You Should Hire a Copy Editor

You need a copy editor to help your manuscript look flawless. Remember that even professional writers make errors. After all, they write a lot of content and do it quickly, so there is a chance that they can overlook small grammatical rules and typos. If you run a personal resource, then you can use some tools like Grammarly to check the content.

But if you manage a corporate blog or intend to write a novel, typos and misspells can cost you potential clients. A copy editor can perform various things, such as proofreading, factual checks, consistency checks, and many more. This page discusses why you should hire a copy editor.

Understanding copy editing

Copy editing refers to the process of polishing content. A copy editor can fix errors with grammar, spelling, and consistency of language use. Take note that some minor mistakes can change the meaning of the entire content, leading your readers to judge your professionalism.

The role of a copy editor is to correct typos and mistakes. But they can also go beyond this. They can correct syntax, lists, or even suggest an alternative way to divide the content into paragraphs. It’s also a good idea for a copy editor to check whether or not the links in the content work correctly. The same thing applies with the numbers and dates.

A copy editor can do proofreading for you. This means that they can check spelling errors, punctuation, grammar errors, sentence structure or syntax, capitalization, and many more.

A copy editor can also do readability edits which means that they can break a long sentence into two or even three short ones. They can add bullets to ensure that the paragraphs are not longer than six to seven lines.

It’s crucial for any writer to do fact-checking, so a copy editor can do this on your behalf. A copy editor can use various tools to check facts. This includes using professional resources, books, websites, and many more.

A copy editor can also do consistency checks. They can check the tone of the voice, the font you use, and many more. Their job is to ensure that you use the words consistently throughout your writing.

By now you may be wondering what a content editor does. A content editor ensures that the tone and style of the copy correspond with the voice of the brand, the facts are correct, and the keywords are placed properly. Quite often, a copy editor can check the content after a content editor finished their work. Ideally, it needs to be the last editing before you decide to print or publish the copy.

Why you should get a copy editor

Errors can damage the readers’ respect of your resource, though even great writers can make them. A copy editor can improve the reputation of your manuscript or website by providing another pair of eyes to check the copy from a different perspective. They can see any space for improving your content.

There are some professional writers who can have enough time to check their content rigorously. But they work a lot, so it can be hard to focus on the content for many hours of non-stop writing.

There are also other writers who just don’t follow grammar rules, punctuation, or even style guides. This can affect the quality of their writing, though it may not make them bad writers. This is especially true if they are experts in their topics and share valuable insights. But hiring a copy editor can still work well with these writers so that they can have a high-quality copy. Then a writer can have enough time for planning and research.

Another good thing about a copy editor is that they can leave feedback. This doesn’t mean that they can over criticize your copy, though they miss crucial moments. It is the constructive and objective criticism that is valuable. Authors can also take advantage of this. Therefore, they don’t have to worry about small things, and when mistakes happen quite often, they can know the topics they need to study.

Hiring a reputable copy writer may not improve your traffic to grow, so you just need to continue creating, improving, and promoting your content. But there are some copy editors who are professionals and work with many books, articles, and papers, and you can even some who may have a journalistic background. These professionals can know how to make your copy engaging, trustworthy, and visually compelling. As a result, you can get more visitors if your copy is great.

In most cases a copy editor can be better than any current software. Tools like Grammarly can be good when it comes to checking typos, misspellings, and grammar errors, but these tools are not perfect.

For example, Grammarly usually doesn’t identify all the mistakes and suggests correcting texts with no problems at all. Therefore, you need a person to handle the copy after doing these checks. Likewise, Hemingway, Google Docs, and Microsoft Word have all the same issues. They are not perfect, so someone needs to check your copy.

You can decide to use these tools if you want to have a personal resource. But if you are writing a book that needs to stand out on the market, then you should make sure that a copy editor also checks the text for some errors.

In conclusion, as you can see, a copy editor can be a valuable asset to your book or content. They can proofread, fact-check, and perform many other duties. Keep in mind that your readers can judge you based on the quality of your content. If your book has many errors, there is a chance that they may not read the whole of it.

Aside from this, business owners need to make sure that the content on their websites is perfect. If a potential customer visits your site and finds several grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and many more, they can think that you are not a serious business owner. This can affect the reputation of your brand, and there is a chance that your potential customers can decide to visit other websites.