Ask the Editor: Your First Reviewers
This is the last post of Ask an Editor week with Kimberly Blythe, head editor at Omnific Publishing. Your response to her thoughtful answers has been wonderful---sooooooo we'll do it again! A couple of the questions I received were more appropriately suited to an acquisitions editor, so guess what I did...yep, I lined up an acquisitions editor to answer them. At the May Insecure Writers Support Group, I'll solicit even more questions. Sorry for the delay, but March & April sort of filled up.
And while I'm in apology mode, sorry I'm behind in repaying many of your visits. I've had some shite go down this week that's kept me away from the social networks. But I'll be around, and I look forward to it.
If you missed Kim's earlier answers, you can find them here:
Today we have from Kim one last piece of advice: Your editors are your first reviewers. It may seem like we delight in crushing your dreams, or undoing your hard work. I'm often reminded of a quote from the movie Anne of Avonlea, when Anne is discussing the sale of her work for commercial use by the Rollings Reliable Baking Powder Company. "How do you think a mother would feel if she found her child tattooed all over with a baking powder advertisement? I love my story, and I wrote it out of the best that was in me."
A good editor is your first and most constructive reviewer. Yes, we can be blunt and often aggressively push for changes that you never anticipated. Yes, we will often be demanding that you "kill your darlings" or that a beloved minor character be deleted or disagreeing with your decision to forego contractions in dialogue. But please be assured that if we don't tell you to fix these things during the editing process, a reviewer is sure to tell you that they should have been changed. And they aren't going to be paid to it diplomatically.
Unfortunately, belittling an author has become a sort of sport on social media these days. I can't tell you how many times I've given in to an author's plea to leave something unchanged only to see that very same thing pointed out as a flaw in review after review. Those reviews are often full of comments like, "where was the editor???" which makes me groan. I was there, trying to put these changes into place, but was ignored.
Being edited takes a thick skin and a lot of trust. It can be especially difficult if you've had pre-readers who are amazing cheerleaders for you, but have been decidedly quiet about changes you should be making. They've served an excellent role in keeping you writing and getting you to the point that you're willing to submit your work. But once you submit for publication, it's time to listen to your editors and take most of their advice. Because once your book goes to print, your reviews are permanent.
And while I'm in apology mode, sorry I'm behind in repaying many of your visits. I've had some shite go down this week that's kept me away from the social networks. But I'll be around, and I look forward to it.
If you missed Kim's earlier answers, you can find them here:
Today we have from Kim one last piece of advice: Your editors are your first reviewers. It may seem like we delight in crushing your dreams, or undoing your hard work. I'm often reminded of a quote from the movie Anne of Avonlea, when Anne is discussing the sale of her work for commercial use by the Rollings Reliable Baking Powder Company. "How do you think a mother would feel if she found her child tattooed all over with a baking powder advertisement? I love my story, and I wrote it out of the best that was in me."
A good editor is your first and most constructive reviewer. Yes, we can be blunt and often aggressively push for changes that you never anticipated. Yes, we will often be demanding that you "kill your darlings" or that a beloved minor character be deleted or disagreeing with your decision to forego contractions in dialogue. But please be assured that if we don't tell you to fix these things during the editing process, a reviewer is sure to tell you that they should have been changed. And they aren't going to be paid to it diplomatically.
Unfortunately, belittling an author has become a sort of sport on social media these days. I can't tell you how many times I've given in to an author's plea to leave something unchanged only to see that very same thing pointed out as a flaw in review after review. Those reviews are often full of comments like, "where was the editor???" which makes me groan. I was there, trying to put these changes into place, but was ignored.
Being edited takes a thick skin and a lot of trust. It can be especially difficult if you've had pre-readers who are amazing cheerleaders for you, but have been decidedly quiet about changes you should be making. They've served an excellent role in keeping you writing and getting you to the point that you're willing to submit your work. But once you submit for publication, it's time to listen to your editors and take most of their advice. Because once your book goes to print, your reviews are permanent.
Comments
Thank you again, Kimberly and Nicki, for such an awesome series!
Nicki, I LOVE that you're doing this again. THANK YOU! And I really hope everything is OK. I'll be thinking of you this week.
Maybe.
cheers, geophf
Happy weekend!
re: your query as to why your blog entries generate blog (counter?-)entries. My answer?
I suppose I should bow to men greater than myself to express it properly: "My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives." Hedley Lamarr in Blazing Saddles.
After all, writing (loquaciously, at that) is the occupational hazard of those who practice the writerly-craft. That's just an FYI for ya, just in case you didn't know.
Or, I could be succinct, like Taggart and leave you the one-word response of "Ditto!"
But if I did that, I think you just might keel over: 'geophf? left me a one-world response? Must be Ragnarok today. Goodbye, cruel world!' Nicki keels over, grasping her heart, dramatically, of course.
And we can't have that, now, can we?
cheerios!
I'm feeling worried about what went down this week, though ...
I would rather hear the hard stuff before my work is finalized so I can fix it. Occasionally it's something I feel strongly about and I feel it's important to speak up in those cases. But that also an editor isn't the enemy. They are there to make a book better. Period. So it's important to take the advice and consider it very carefully before making that final decision. Never just dismiss an editor's advice out of hand.
I find that I might have a negative reaction to an editing change at first, but eventually I get on board (for the most part).