5 Tips For Working With A
Book Editor
I’m a writer as well as an editor, so I belong to writer forums where members post self-publishing advice, commiserate over writing a book, share fiction writing tips, and lament their concerns with “the process” when it comes to working with editors and publishers.
A growing number of these concerns are in working with book editing services. I see too many writers comment how scared they are to hand over their dream book to a tyrannical word nerd.
We should not be terrifying!
Let me assure you that no book editor is out here lying in wait with her red pen, ready to slash your life’s work to ribbons if you use the same adjective twice in one paragraph. She’ll just gently suggest an alternative adjective that might work better.
Editors get into this line of work because books — the written word — are our passion. Nothing makes us happier than teaming up with writers to publish a book that will thrill readers. We are just that: your team member. Our job is to work with you on polishing your hard-earned words into the best they can be, and we won’t do that job by insulting your writing or changing your book’s “voice.”
But if you really want an easy team up with your editor from the start, here are some tips that will have her singing your praises to all her friends.
Disclaimer: These are fairly tongue-in-cheek suggestions. (My editor made me put this in here.) (Editor’s Note: My editor is me.)
1. Send Your Third Draft
Your manuscript should not be hot off the presses when you start looking for your editor. Ideally, a writer should work through two to three draft rounds of the book with their own edits before ever engaging an outside reader.
This means your editor won’t be spending her time and your money deleting repeat sentences or querying entire ideas that you left in brackets and forgot to flesh out.
Because it’s difficult to know how to fix [Insert City Name Here] if there are multiple options.
And if you plan to use beta readers for overall feedback, your edited version will help them stay focused on your story and not on the actual words. Just remember to give your manuscript another round of self-edits if you rewrite portions after receiving that feedback.
Because, again, [Sally said this character sounds dull. Fix that.] is not something your editor will be able to fix for you.
I recommended the book Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King to help you get started.
2. Make a Worldbuilding List [Tell Us About Your Unique Names]
If you’ve built your own world with fantasy cities, spacefaring species of aliens, unique character names, or intentional and uncommon punctuation choices, your editor is going to need a heads-up on how you want to spell any of those. Providing a list of the words you created will help your editor correct any inconsistencies from page one.
They need to know your Mentats from your Bene Gesserits.
For example: You wrote your character’s name as Jon on most pages and sprinkled in John on others. An editor who doesn’t get two rounds of edits with clarified query responses in between might correct them all to Jon, because you used it most of the time and she didn’t get a list saying how you preferred the character to be named.
Multiply this problem by dozens of fictional characters and places you’ve created, and your editor is going to tear her hair out from confusion.
At this stage, she might stop what she’s doing to send you a series of queries (questions) asking your preference. This can cause a lot of extra time in the back-and-forth communication that would have been handled in writing up a document with your characters, places, and proper noun spellings.
And this extra time could mean a higher project cost if your editor has estimated her fee at a per-hour rate. So, sending this list with the original manuscript will save you money in the long run.
Before moving on, I want to throw in the suggestion that you also take the time to list any major characteristics of the people, places, and systems you want her to be aware of. An editor will be keeping a watchful eye on Jon’s hair staying brown if that’s how you described it in the first half of your book. When you decided halfway in that John should be a blond, that’s something we can look for throughout the entire manuscript.
3. Let Your Preferences be Known [Please, I Repeat, Tell Us What You Want: Mechanics Edition]
Just like with the list of preferred fantasy spellings above, providing information on how you want your editor to present style choices will save everyone a ton of time and money.
Before I even receive the manuscript, I send my clients a questionnaire asking for their ideal level of editing. Do you want a light touch where your editor should only correct the glaring issues the readers would see but leave your voice as intact as possible? Or do you want this book polished within an inch of its life?
Do you prefer most words and punctuation to be styled in American English, but you also like certain words spelled in British English? We want to know about those.
How do you feel about italic font for emphasized dialogue or internal thoughts? Do you have particularly strong opinions about the series (Oxford) comma?
The time to tell your editor about these needs is before she starts your sample edit, because it lets her estimate the amount of time she should budget to work with your book.
4. Keep Calm — Editors Are Flexible
“Only godless savages eschew the series comma.” Benjamin Dreyer, Dreyer’s English
I do have strong opinions on the series (Oxford) comma. I really, really want to use them. But I’m also completely flexible about how you want your edits.
Because, at the end of the day, your book is your book.
Let me repeat that last part: Your book is your book.
Your editor will have recommendations of what to edit based on what she knows readers and publishers might expect. But they’re only suggestions, and all final edits are going to be your choice.
With a double-round edit from The Book Foundry, you have the opportunity to accept or reject my changes if you feel strongly enough about keeping the original writing. Many writers seem to be most scared of this stage, as if an editor is going to rain down grammatical hellfire when challenged.
At the most, I may recommend one last time that you reconsider how a grammatical error or confusing phrase could affect your reader’s attention — I might even cite some website or grammar guidebook entry to back up my opinion — but it’s going to be your ultimate call. Editors are only here to advise.
5. Don’t Tweak Your Manuscript
Picture this: You’ve sent over your manuscript two weeks ago and told your copyeditor to do her thing. She still has another week to go, and you’ve been receiving updates about how it’s going, but now you’re getting antsy.
You’ve been passing the time rereading your book, wondering how this action scene might be polished when you get the final edits back.
But wait, would it be better if Victor ran out from that side closet with his sword drawn rather than from inside the hallway? That would mean he’d be in the room the entire time and would have overheard the conversation between Beatrice and Penelope. Oh, and that would mean stronger feelings of his betrayal that could carry him into his ultimate fight with Dominic over Penelope’s honor, and —
STOP.
The time for rewriting portions of your book is well before handing it over to your editor.
She’ll be combing the book line-by-line, looking for each and every error that may make your reader stop and wonder what you really meant.
Every time you introduce new writing into the manuscript, you introduce potential new errors. Your editor will have to go over these new pages, and that’s going to cost her extra time on your manuscript and cost you an increased project budget.
But if you absolutely must rewrite any portion of the book, or introduce something entirely new, let your editor know right away. If that portion is close to the end, it won’t be as big of a concern as if you rewrote the first three chapters.
But she’ll have to put aside the work until you’re ready to send over the new pages, and you’ll have to hope her schedule allows her to pick it back up immediately. Many editors have their projects planned out weeks or months ahead of time.
If you have a concern that your book has not gone through the developmental critique and rewrites that may be needed before publishing, that’s a step you should take before engaging a copy editor.
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So, there you go! Working with an editor should not make you fearful that we’re going to rip apart your book.
We’re in this together, and any editor worth her salt will want to make you feel comfortable with the process. We all have a different process — these suggestions are only based on my own work preferences — but try to remember that every single editor is in this career because we absolutely love books.
We only want to help you craft the book of your dreams.
Do you have other concerns not addressed in these tips? Let me know in the comments.
And if you’re ready for your 1,000-word sample edit and project estimate from The Book Foundry, click here!