Writing, re-writing, editing, re-editing and a final edit!

I once read a quote by the late Sir Terry Pratchett, "The first draft is just you telling yourself the story," he said. I have always 're-written' everything I have written for as long as I can remember and I completely agree with Sir Terry. As I read my work during the process of a re-write, it always feels to me as if I am observing my work from above, as the mistakes jump off the page at me. It is both frustrating and embarrassing to an extent, to see such silly mistakes but also very satisfying to have the chance to correct them as yet another finished draft of my novel '23 days', to be presented to my editor and my team of reviewers. My editor has already edited it once and returned each chapter to me and he will now complete a final edit ready for publishing. He is a first time editor and has thus far done a sterling job very efficiently and in a very timely manner which is most impressive given he has a demanding day job too. That, in effect, means there will have been 5   re writes. 

My dilemma now is, do I need to send it for a professional edit which is a very costly business in the region of £10 per 1,000 words and so a 100,000 word book is going to be very expensive. What will I get for that money, can they improve on what I am already very happy with? My motivation is to absolutely get the best possible piece of work out there to my readers. It cannot and will not be an "oh, that will do," piece of work. It can only be perfect. 
This is the first time people will read, hear and see me and this is a really big deal for me. You never get a second chance to make a first impression and I will never get another chance to 're-tell you all' this story once it has gone for publishing. I need to research some more I think and within all of that the answer I need will come to me.


Word of the day: Edit:  to correct, check, copy-edit, improve, revise, amend, polish, modify, adapt, rewrite, reword, rework, rescript, redraft, rephrase, assemble, prepare for publication, shorten, condense, cut, abridge, approve, censor, redact, informal clean up, iron out. 

In the process of editing my novel '23 days' I will ask myself a question relating to all the descriptions contained above, in order to ensure that I (via my editor and/or professional editor) have met all the criteria that ensures that I have gone beyond, not only telling myself the story but that I deliver to you, my readers, the best piece of literature that I can. The devil is in the detail, so they say. Thank god for voice activated software.