It’s thrilling to have your manuscript in hand, evidence of all your hard work and sweat and tears. That’s why it can be particularly tempting to skip the professional editing process and let a friend or two take over the edits. After all, who knows you better than your beloved book-loving friends? While it is certainly an appealing choice, there are quite a few reasons why this is far from the best approach to handling your book edits.

The time required to do a proper edit is above and beyond what a typical friend can spare.

Editing is not simply reading a book and giving a few pointers. It is a long, slow, critical approach that is the complete opposite of reading for pleasure. Most people (even if they are voracious readers) go through their whole lives without reading in the way that’s necessary to be a great editor.

And this is where the problem of having a friend edit your book comes in. The time it takes to properly edit a book is significant. This means your friend—who surely has a job, a family, and other responsibilities—is unlikely to have the time to give your book the thorough edit it needs. The result? Either your friend or your book is going to suffer, neither of which is ideal.

They tell you what’s wrong but are at a loss as to how to fix it.

Part of the professional editing process involves not only identifying parts of the book that need tweaking and why, but also the suggestions of how. Unfortunately, most casual readers stumble when it comes to that last part. They will likely be unable to come up with specific methods for how to remedy a particular situation. That leaves you with parts of your book that don’t work on some level or another but with no professional ideas on how to fix them. Talk about frustrating!

They tend to be overenthusiastic in their “editing” and wind up rewriting for you.

It can sometimes seem so much easier to simply rewrite a sentence or paragraph rather than comment on it and give suggestions for how to improve it. A good editor will never touch your writing in the name of it being easier.

Enthusiastic friends, however, will likely not show that same restraint. Instead, most people—especially those who just want to help—will give in to that urge to do it themselves, resulting in writing that’s not authentically yours. This problem often arises from well-meaning friends who also consider themselves writers. In this case, it’s better to abstain completely from this awkward battle of the words.

They automatically see you, their friend, as the main protagonist and then edit based off that assumption.

The best books often draw at least part of their characterizations from real life. But one of the first lessons you likely learned in high school English class is that the narrator does not always directly represent the author. This mantra can be easily forgotten, though, if your friend attempts to edit your book.

They will most likely (even at a subconscious level) draw parallels between you and your main character. Based on that assumption, the editing process can quickly become muddled. Perhaps your friend wants to soften some of the less desirable qualities of your protagonist, for example, or alter events that put them in a less than flattering light. They are your friend, after all, so it’s only natural to want to make you look good. But as for helping your book? Not so much.

They tend to give vague edits that cause much more work for you . . . and rarely fix the root problem.

Sometimes edits are done on a massive scale, with editors chopping up and rearranging chapters to make the narrative flow more compelling. Sometimes editors demand new chapters in order to fill in gaps or give more dimension to certain characters. These are the types of edits that friends rarely grasp because it often takes a professional eye to spot them. Instead, friends’ edits are more likely to consist of small tweaks (“Be more descriptive here!” or “This dialogue doesn’t flow very well!”) that, while helpful, don’t address the root issues within the structure of the story. And it’s the root issues that will ultimately make or break a book.

They are too gentle in their edits because they care about you and don’t want to hurt your feelings.

We all hope that our friends will be honest with us about everything in our lives—including when and where our book needs work. But alas, that is simply not the case for many people. No one wants to tell their friend that their book needs a complete overhaul or has major issues that need addressing. Instead, friends who act as editors are more likely to underedit or give minor suggestions in fear of hurting your feelings. While this is a sweet quality to have in a friend, it does not help your book become the best it can be or teach you how to become a more skilled author. And those things are ultimately what a professional editor helps you do.

Friends are great for so many things, but editing your book is simply not one of them. Instead, it is more beneficial for your book—not to mention your growth as an author—to spend your hard-earned money on the services of a professional editor.

Andrea Moran lives outside of Nashville with her husband and two kids. She’s a professional copywriter and editor who loves all things books. Find her on LinkedIn.