My Book Editors

I had written for magazines for years before I sat down to begin that novel I'd always dreamed of writing. But I'm finding that working with book editors is much different than working with magazine editors. Of course the experiences will vary between different writers and editors, but here are some of mine.

I have worked with four different editors in my almost two years of beginning to publish. The first one came with a publishing house, and she was one of the best. The second one was with the same publishing house, but she and I have had to learn to compromise. She insists on using lots of ellipses ( ... ) and not just when dialogue  or thoughts are left hanging. She doesn't like commas, and prefers the N-dash (the long one) when possible. I think commas are less intrusive and the others break the smooth flow of the story. She uses just the apostrophe after a singular noun ending in s. I always use  's for a singular possessive, except for the ancient ones, like Jesus. The list of things we see differently goes on and on.

When I began to also look at self-publishing a few of my manuscripts, I knew I wanted an editor. It's too hard for me to catch my own mistakes. For the first one, I hired a freelance editor I had met at a writers' retreat, one I felt I trusted. However, she didn't turn out to be a good fit for me. The book was set in colonial times, but the editor thought the store would have bagged the purchases. She made fun of the word "lawn" used as a thin fabric for a nightgown, and said it sounded as if it should be mowed. And she tried to make my book fit into a romance novel formula, but I don't want to write to a formula. A slew of mistakes also slipped through what we published, and I had to go back and correct them later. The bottom line is that she and I just were not a good fit professionally, although I love her as a friend personally.

The last editor I've used for the indies is good and a good fit for me However, we're trying to work together so that fewer mistakes slip though. Editors and writers both vary greatly, and the key to success is in finding those who work well together. The writers who have found that special editor are blessed indeed.

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