A couple of editors from the BelieversPress team chipped in some editorial pet peeves to go along with Thursday’s post:

One of my pet peeves is:

When an author doesn’t trust the process and doesn’t trust that editors are there for their benefit, working with them to bring about a polished, marketable product.

When authors rely more on the feedback they get from friends and relatives than on who they’re hiring to give a professional opinion.

I wish more writers took up my suggestion to read passages or entire drafts aloud. The ear — not just mine but anybody’s — is dependable to catch repetitions, awkwardness, nonparallel series, etc., even homonyms, and to conjure the right word when it’s not quite there.