A week or so ago I asked here if £3900 was a bit stiff for editorial services. It seems everyone thought it was. in her defense she is one of the services used my publishers to knock work into shape before they go to print, but there you are. Anyway I was chatting with an author friend this week and he said in passing that his mother always reads his work to him so he can edit as she tells him where it needs it. I know obvious when you know. My mistake was always being the reader until this week when I managed to pull my wife away from her caseload for a while to read the M.S. out and edit as she read, she;s good! I do the typing and she does the clever bit, we have spent a few hours and are nearly at the end of chapter one, the sentence structure and punctuation is so different now and readable by other people, the important bit is that other people can read it of course. Yes it's obvious once you know but I didn't think about it because I am too close to the book, so anyone else who like me hasn't thought of doing it that way, then get someone who is brilliant at English and save a load of cash. I felt I had to post this just in case I'm not the only dim writer who comes on here.
Regards Paul G
So pleased you didn't splash all that cash... reading aloud is probably the best tool in editing. It's amazing how we hear what we miss on the page. Even though I hate the sound of my own voice, I read aloud to myself and the cats, and then to my wife, if all of us are struggling to get the gist of what I meant to say...
I'm pleased to hear you have found a solution. The easy option would have been to hand your manuscript to someone else to do the re-writes and thoroughly edit what else needed doing. At least now you will recognize it as your work.
Success is dependent on effort - Sophocles.