To be totally honest with you, before I got started as an editor I believed many of these too! The more I work in this space, though, the more I realize HOW great an editor can be, not only for the work itself, but for your peace of mind. This is the case ESPECIALLY for academics, most of whom need to publish to advance in their careers.
So without further ado:
🌴 An editor is a waste of money, since you can do it yourself
You could, but do you really want to spend another 10+ hours rereading your paper? Is that really a good use of your time? Not even counting all your other professional obligations, you deserve family time and time to REST as well.
🌴 An editor won’t understand my field & make language/formatting mistakes
Not if you hire someone who specializes in your field! There are specialized editors for EVERY subject who will understand the nuances of your argument no problem. I recently worked on a paper in Comparative Literature that was beautifully poetic. The language was part of the fabric of the paper, and since I’ve spent time in Comp Lit spaces I was able to adjust my editing to enhance instead of bury the author’s use of language. It’s a Comp Lit paper about poetry – the language is everything, and since that’s an area of expertise for me I was able to edit to that.
🌴 No one else is hiring editors privately – this is embarrassing
Many, many academics hire editors to help them get their work out of the door and to the journal/publisher/etc! I promise you – ask around!
🌴 My writing is already clean – why do I need an editor?
I admit this… was me. But ok, let’s be real. Have you EVER had an article go through publication process without changes that need to be made? If you have… hats off to you. If not… you’re human, congratulations 😂 another set of eyes WILL speed up your submission-to-publication timeline.
Have you ever used an editor? What was your experience?