The Value of a Voice

What is the value of a voice?

I think that traditionally we would say an “item” is only as valuable as what someone is willing to pay for it. Or that value is a direct reflection of supply vs demand, which changes this conversation and makes the original question harder to answer. 

I could tell you what people are traditionally willing to pay me for my work, a rough hourly rate. I won’t because I think that’s tacky, but I have a number in mind. You could make a reasonable argument that this is the value of my “voice” especially given my line of work. I’m mainly employed because the way I think is valued and those thoughts are, in fact, my voice or they become my voice at least. 

But if it’s strictly an issue of supply and demand, the math gets weird. There are no plans to mass-produce me, as far as I’m aware. I’m a 1-of-1 production run. But am I in demand? Well, that depends entirely on which circle you’re looking at. 

I’m sure this seems like an abstract and likely pointless line of thinking, but bear with me here. 

I’m in the home stretch of editing my book. This book is a memoir, so it’s not just a story. It’s my story written in my voice. And that brings me to the subject of copy editing. If you’re not familiar with what that is, copyediting is reviewing and revising written text to improve its clarity, consistency, and correctness. It bridges the gap between a raw draft and publication. 

So who would I trust to do this with a deeply personal piece of writing? How valuable is my voice to me?

No one. That’s the short answer.

I fought to find my voice for a very long time, and to me, it’s priceless. 

That is not my way of saying that my work is infallible or perfect. It’s nowhere close, in fact. It certainly needs work.  So how do I find the balance between reasonable edits that are needed for clarity, consistency, and correctness, while still saying what I need to say in my voice?

I could just duck the issue completely and take a sad moral stance and say “it’s my truth”. I could hire a professional copy editor and trust that they will honor my voice and not use AI to rewrite my work. AI is fine for checking grammar among many other things, but it lacks authenticity once it’s writing for you, or your work does at least. It’s a valuable tool, but authenticity matters.

So I’ve mainly relied on beta readers and multiple grammar editing tools. I like your feedback. It’s valuable, it’s real, and it directs me when I listen to it. That does not mean I make every change that people suggest, just as I do not change every sentence that some fairly expensive software tells me is grammatically incorrect. I take a consensus and then I make a decision and proceed. 

If you’re still reading and you’re still wondering, I’ve answered my original question.You may have come to the same conclusion.

Integrity. 

That’s the value of my voice.

Say something true, say it poorly if that’s how it comes out, but say it from your heart. 

If you find yourself growing more and more jaded over living in a SEO polished paradigm, welcome to the Digital Diatribe. 

That’s why we are angry too.