So Your Book Just Got Edited…
Enough people made vaguely interested noises in the editing process that I thought I’d talk about it a bit. It’s definitely the tedious, grim, discouraging bit of the process, but it occurs to me that you, O Prospective Author, may find it even more traumatic if nobody tells you what to expect!
First, two caveats. I’ve had…I think…twelve books ( Read more... )
For my first book it was an endless back and forth between me and my editor. We probably went through three or four rounds of revisions and edits before we got to a place where it was time to shove the book out of the nest and listen for the THUD. In that case, the story worked fine but the characters and dialogue needed to be sharpened.
My second book (pictured in my icon) was a lot more difficult. I got back the kinds of notes that make authors want to curl up under a coffee table and never come out. The story was messed up, there were too many characters, they were indistinguishable from one another, and the editor wasn't quite sure which one of them was the one we should all be rooting for. I had to undertake a major tear-down and rebuild operation, and yes, it was a nightmare. But by the time I finished up the rewrites I had something approaching a decent book, and after another round of edits off it went into the wild.
The edits on the third book, which releases in August, were disturbingly light by comparison. There weren't a lot of notes, and we just went through a single round of revisions. I'd been expecting something a lot more intense! I'm crossing my fingers on this, I hope it means I did a good job of editing the book myself before sending it to my publisher.
And that's what it's been like so far. I'm always an emotional wreck between the time when edits arrive and I finish them, so I'm wishing you the best of luck!
(edit: as an aside, my editor also does the "HA!" comments!)
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Have you read toddalcott's Journal? He dissects screenplays, but his observations are good for any story writing. His observations have helped me to better understand many stories. beginning with the question "Who is the protagonist and what do they want?".
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