Comments | stacia_kane: Edits are up to you

stacia_kane

Edits are up to you

Feb 03, 2011 16:14

I hadn’t actually planned to start my little series on editing today, but this topic came up last night in email with a good friend of mine, and it annoyed me, so here we go, and we’ll do more next week (including copyedits, which will be fun, I think, and of course I’m going to use pages from the original mss of UNHOLY MAGIC and CITY OF GHOSTS to ( Read more... )

writing, i am so so smart, sometimes writers drink, editing is fun, publishing, the business of publishing, editing

Comments 3

mmerriam February 3 2011, 23:49:25 UTC

I admit that I love working with my editor at Carina Press. We are on our second project together and seem to work smoothly. She makes suggestions. 98% of time, I agree with no issues. The other 2% I have to decide if it is something I need to dig in and hold my ground or can I simply let it go.

I just finished the editorial letter for the novel coming out this summer and am waiting on the line edits. I've learned something as a writer with each project we've worked together on. Sure, there are a couple of Carina Press/Harlequin house style issues, but I've learned which battles are worth fighting.

I've found I am more likely to STET in the CEM than in the developmental edits and line edits. With the CEM, it sometimes turns into an issue of voice, and I am more likely to hold my ground.

layrenelement February 4 2011, 01:25:02 UTC

Excellent post, Stacia.

I really enjoy your posts, I know I don't comment very often but I like reading them.

ex_naomi_ja February 4 2011, 14:55:36 UTC

This is reassuring to read, as my most recent of edits from a small press including some changes I felt would ruin the character's voice. The editor was pretty set on the changes being done, but I managed to get my own way for most of it. I did feel like I was being a prima donna, but this wasn't a case of "change this because it doesn't make sense" or "I don't understand what you mean here," which I would have been fine with. This was changing word choices, things that I felt made the character who he was.

I'm not going to go off on a rant about it, but this - “The only rule of grammar a writer needs to follow is to make himself understood. Everything else is style" - is definitely going to be my rule of thumb from now on.