There's a nice post over at "The World in a Satin Bag" on the important things editors do. The emphasis is on fiction publishing, but most of it applies to non-fiction as well:
Editors make you into a better writer. Emphasis on better. They don't make you into the greatest writer ever, but they certainly teach you a few things. Ask anyone published by a major publisher or even a small press. Ask them if their editor taught them anything. They did, didn't they? I thought so.
This won't make any impact on the "Blogs Rule, Olde Media Drool" crowd, but it's always nice to see somebody else who feels the same way I do.
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To see why editors matter you only have to compare the third Harry Potter book to the second. Editor's smarten, and polish, and make you think more about what you're actually writing.
(and in the case of informal editors, they sometimes remind you that you don't have any corners in a circular room...I've made that mistake before...)
I read several blogs by people from the editing business. Not so much editors of books, more like newspaper sub/copy-editors, but still. If I have to pick one to recommend, it would be John McIntyre of http://johnemcintyre.blogspot.com/
There's a difference between blogging and books: people don't expect blogs to be well edited, but they do expect that of books. They don't want books that suck. That's reality. Editors make good books into better books to make sure all the suck is gotten rid of.
Thanks for the link! And I agree that my post applies very well to non-fiction too.