Top editors commit totally to your manuscript. There is no spare-time attention with them! They ask you for your timeline and do everything in their power to meet it. In addition, they have all written and/or edited books. It’s work they’re good at. So… you can confidently expect them to edit fast and with insight. […]

Have you wondered why even writers of the highest caliber need a top memoir editor?

Is memoir editing really important?

Following are reasons even the Hemingways, the Kerouacs, and the Woolfs need editors. As you (and they) write day after day, over the months and years it takes to complete a manuscript, some of the pitfalls we all become prey to include any three of the following:

• becoming attached to your prose. Often, we are enamored of particular scenes and go from tolerating their extraneous quality to feeling comfortable with the fact that they do not contribute to your memoir. Aren’t they so well-written and such good memories! In our self-editing, we become indulgent and leave the “little darlings” in. Many writing workshops justly talk about “killing your little darlings”—that is, editing them out. When you work with The Memoir Network, rest assured your editor will kindly put your “little darlings” to their deserved rest! You deserve no less from a top memoir editor.

• being blind to your faults. After all, most of us do not see our faults, and if we do, they do not seem so serious. The fact is they get in the way of the reader’s access to your story. Your editor will point these out and suggest alternative approaches all the while growing ever more attuned to your misuse of words, phrases, and concepts. This is the easy part of editing for a professional, but it can also be, if not corrected, a reason readers put a story down and do not recommend it to their friends. Your editor will do these corrections as a matter of form.
• wanting to write about something without writing about it. This leaves blocks in your story to which you are no longer sensitive. You are telling the whole story in your mind—but the whole of your story is not down on paper. Your editor will pick up on this and guide you to write everything into your memoir. After all, the written story is the only access your reader has to your story. If it’s not written into the story, it’s not in the story!

Should you ask your sister-in-law who teaches English at the high school and is “real good” with words to do an edit in her spare time?

Top memoir editors commit totally to your manuscript. There is no spare-time attention with them! We ask you for your timeline and we do everything in our power to meet it. In addition, we have all written and/or edited books. It’s work we’re good at. So… you can confidently expect us to edit fast and with insight. Can the same be said for a relative who will “get to your memoir when I can?”

Just as a New York publisher will always hire professional editors to help bring a manuscript to its full potential, you too need to structure—and to schedule—the editing function into your writing project.

I want to express my deep appreciation for your thorough and comprehensive editorial comments and for your insight on needed corrections for my manuscript.

—Shelbert Smith, Editing Client

Next time you wonder if you need a top memoir editor, just remember to say “yes!”