You know the saying "a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client"? A similar thing can be said here: a writer who edits himself has a fool for an author. (Or something...needs...editing!)
Anyway – there are many kinds of editors: from the acquisition editor, who signs you... the executive editor, who manages the project; the content editor, who makes the book work; the copy editor, who makes the grammar work; and the proofreader, who catches the mistakes no one else noticed. I would like to focus on the content and copy editors – the people who are perhaps most intimately involved in the manuscript itself – and offer some perspective on what good editors can do.
To Tell the Truth is an 18-week mini-series exploring the practical side of non-fiction writing and publishing. The series outline is located here, and previous episodes may be found here. To Tell the Truth is published Monday evenings and is crossed posted at MélangePress.
For more writing and book diaries, visit Write On! on Thursdays, Bookflurries and What Are You Reading on Wednesdays, and Books by Kossacks.
Before We Begin
There are bad editors in the world. Bad editors don’t respect authors, or don’t have an eye for detail. If you feel like your editor is either picking apart every single sentence without cause, or accepting entire chapters without comment, replace your editor. You want someone who respects you and your work but doesn’t ignore problems either.
Your Editor Is in Your Corner
Whether your editor initially loves your manuscript or was simply handed your manuscript to work on randomly, your editor will be your best advocate to other members of the publishing team. She wants your book to succeed, to read well, to be useful, to be important, to have impact.
Think of your editor like a word therapist – a good editor will challenge you at times. But she isn’t challenging you to be a pain; she wants to bring out the best in your writing. She knows you’re good enough, you’re smart enough, and gosh darn it, readers will like you. Let her help your manuscript be the best it can be.
Your Editor Has Fresh Eyes
No matter how many times you have rewritten and reread and rewritten your book, you have probably missed something or failed to explain something properly, or skipped a step or two. Your editor will notice these misses. First, he’s not the subject matter expert, so he will view the book as a reader would. Second, he’s trained to think through steps, notice terms without definition, and think in terms of the book’s continuity.
Don’t be dismayed if your editor asks for explanation, or asks if the reader will understand a term. Don’t be dismayed if he says you made a jump in logic. Don’t be dismayed if he suggests omitting something that feels to him like a non-sequitur. It’s not because he’s dense, it’s because he noticed a gap and wants to make sure your audience won’t.
Your Editor Will Read Every Word
Every single word in your manuscript matters. Extraneous words matter, so do missing ones. And so, your editor will read every single word of your manuscript – ask you to delete the ones that don’t need to be there, add the ones that are missing.
Now I know that as an author, you are proud of every word you used. You worked hard to make sure you chose your words wisely, that they reflect both the subject and your persona. So when your editor suggests word changes, it may feel like she’s killing your kittens. Relax. She’s not committing grammatical murder – she is just trying to help make the manuscript read as easily as you want it to.
Your Editor Will Challenge Your Assumptions
You have worked hard on your manuscript to be clear about your perspective, to maintain the appropriate level of objectivity (which, as I’ve pointed out in the genre discussions, may vary wildly), and to support your work with solid evidence and outside sources.
And still, your editor may challenge your assumptions. Are you telling the whole story? Is this perspective supportable? What do those who disagree think? Your editor’s going to ask for sources when you make claims, and ask for explanations when it’s a new idea. Again, he’s not being this way to be difficult; his role as devil’s advocate will make your book stronger and less prone to critical dismemberment post-publication.
Your Editor May Have Some Good Ideas
Sometimes, you will get stuck in a particular perspective or method, and no matter how badly it comes out, you can’t see another way to explain/explore/describe. Your editor, with her fresh eyes, may see the way clear. Sometimes it’s turning a description into a series of steps. Sometimes it’s offering some table or graph ideas. Sometimes it’s "let’s put this in the appendix and get it out of our way." Sometimes it could be a reorganization of the information. In the upcoming book on business etiquette, Oh Behave!, the original outline meant one chapter was about as long as the rest of the book combined. My idea was to break it up and turn the one chapter into four and add a section label. Now the chapters are all of reasonable length and the book in general has a better flow.
Also - your editor may also know just enough about your topic to offer some concrete ideas for an additional chapter or section. She might have you write more than you anticipated, but again, she’s in your corner, wanting your book to be as strong as useful as it can be.
Your Editor Is Not an Excuse
Just because you have editors, do not think you can write with no regard to grammar, spelling, and punctuation. By all that you hold holy, get your its/it’s right, you’re their/they’re/there right, your contractions and homonyms and possessives right, as much as possible. Please use punctuation (unless you’re e. e. cummings, and if you are, you’re not writing non-fiction anyway). It’s okay if your commas aren’t all right, but please oh please use periods.
In other words, please do your best with both the organization and the actual writing.
By the way, there is a wonderful interview with Mary Norris, a copyeditor at The New Yorker, by Andy Ross; Ross concludes his interview with a note that typifies the author/copyeditor experience:
After completing this interview, I sent the text to Mary. She sent it back, hurling me into copy edit hell. I spent 3 hours correcting her edits that included caps to lower case, lower case to caps, spaces between periods and colons, assorted italics and the list goes on. This exercise was a powerful lesson, in itself, in the work of a copy editor. I’m exhausted from the experience.
Read the whole interview here.
Your Editor Likes Acknowledgement
Maybe it’s because I have been forgotten in the process – but most editors I know like to be noticed for his/her contributions. A note in your acknowledgements is grand – so are roses... wine... chocolates... Hawaiian vacations... cars... er, what I mean is that no one publishes a book alone, and a bit of an acknowledgement of the editors who made your book as good as you want it to be is a good thing. They’ll be more likely to sign on to work on your next book if you treat them well both during and after the process.
Next week, we’ll review some legal issues around publishing – copyrights, fair use, etc. Meanwhile, good writing and see you next week!
Cheers!