Why writers need editors
Pamela Hewitt
Writers and editors have a wonderfully symbiotic relationship. The connection can be both intimate and rewarding. ‘Almost like a marriage,’ a client once remarked. I don’t know if I’d go that far, but an editor working intensively on a text does become finely attuned to the rhythms and nuances of a particular writer’s style. You learn to live a little in the writer’s head. If not quite nuptial, the relationship is certainly delicate.
There are opinions. There are egos.
Despite the close links in their roles and their mutual interest in language, communication and style, there’s room for better understanding between writers and editors. It’s even more desirable now, because writers need editing more than ever.
Why should this be so? Not surprisingly, the devil is in the dollar. Once upon a time, (yes, I know this reads like a fairy story), publishing houses employed in-house editors to work with writers. Promising authors were signed up in the expectation that their work would need editing. Structural editing on a major work might take months. These days, publishers are cutting costs and the brunt of it is felt in the editing rather than the marketing department. Editing is more likely to be outsourced. Writers might never meet or even talk to their freelance editor. More seriously, publishers are much less likely to take a risk. A manuscript is unlikely to be accepted in the first place unless it is considered virtually ready to be published.
This leaves authors with a problem, and several ways to solve it. Unless you are truly gifted, very lucky and a born editor as well as writer, your unsolicited manuscript is not likely to emerge triumphant from the publisher’s slushpile. One way of making your work stand out is to make sure it’s free from the presentational and structural errors that will almost automatically consign it to oblivion.
How?
Hire an editor
Many writers work with editors before submitting their manuscript to a publisher. They feel they need a trained, ‘objective eye’, especially when they have spent years on the text and can’t approach it as a fresh, critical reader.
The literary editor’s job is not to impose a style on the writer, but to help bring out the writer’s unique voice. It’s to guide and suggest, but not dictate. Editors also provide technical assistance with grammar and spelling, but this is a minor part of the process.
The literary editor concentrates on narrative technique—this could include matters such as voice, characterisation, point of view, interior monologue, repetition, dialogue, style and structure. Editors bring their own life experience and research skills to the task and might also assist the writer with expert information, for example knowledge of foreign languages or a particular period in history.
An editor might also give advice on ethical and copyright issues. Perhaps as important as any of these things is a friendly, yet critical eye. Writing is a solitary trade. To be actively, critically, intelligently and professionally read is enormously useful to writers, especially new writers.
Editing could be the right option for a writer intending to self-publish, who wants the finished product to be as professional and well presented as possible. It might be the choice for a writer from a non-English-speaking background who wants to be read without first language interference. Writers who believe in their work and who want to give it that extra boost in the publication stakes often decide that editing is worth the extra money and effort.
Payment for editing can be difficult for writers to rustle up. Professional editors are unlikely to accept an offer of half the royalties on an unpublished book in lieu of payment. (I have declined just such an offer!)
The do-it-yourself approach
Over the years, I’ve noticed that many people who come to my literary editing workshops and lectures are there not because they want to become a literary editor, but because they want to learn how to edit their own work.
Not one to miss an opportunity to fill a need for editing education and training, I’ve developed a series of online courses that teach precisely these skills. The courses cover the basics of literary editing, as well as specialist modules. They cover fiction and non-fiction. There’s one on manuscript assessment and one on creative fiction. Others cover interviewing techniques for fiction and non-fiction writers and editors, genre, editing for writers and scholars and that old chestnut, grammar and punctuation for editors and writers.
These courses are designed for writers and editors alike and will be presented as workshops at the NSW Writers’ Centre (see www.nswwriterscentre.org.au for times and dates). Participants will receive a free copy of the online course as part of their enrolment.
If you can't make the workshops, you can enrol in the online courses. I will be publishing the new online series, Editing for writers from February to July 2007. The first cab off the rank is Showing, not telling Literary editing, an overview of the techniques of literary editing.
© Pamela Hewitt 2007
www.emendediting.com
Writers and editors have a wonderfully symbiotic relationship. The connection can be both intimate and rewarding. ‘Almost like a marriage,’ a client once remarked. I don’t know if I’d go that far, but an editor working intensively on a text does become finely attuned to the rhythms and nuances of a particular writer’s style. You learn to live a little in the writer’s head. If not quite nuptial, the relationship is certainly delicate.
There are opinions. There are egos.
Despite the close links in their roles and their mutual interest in language, communication and style, there’s room for better understanding between writers and editors. It’s even more desirable now, because writers need editing more than ever.
Why should this be so? Not surprisingly, the devil is in the dollar. Once upon a time, (yes, I know this reads like a fairy story), publishing houses employed in-house editors to work with writers. Promising authors were signed up in the expectation that their work would need editing. Structural editing on a major work might take months. These days, publishers are cutting costs and the brunt of it is felt in the editing rather than the marketing department. Editing is more likely to be outsourced. Writers might never meet or even talk to their freelance editor. More seriously, publishers are much less likely to take a risk. A manuscript is unlikely to be accepted in the first place unless it is considered virtually ready to be published.
This leaves authors with a problem, and several ways to solve it. Unless you are truly gifted, very lucky and a born editor as well as writer, your unsolicited manuscript is not likely to emerge triumphant from the publisher’s slushpile. One way of making your work stand out is to make sure it’s free from the presentational and structural errors that will almost automatically consign it to oblivion.
How?
Hire an editor
Many writers work with editors before submitting their manuscript to a publisher. They feel they need a trained, ‘objective eye’, especially when they have spent years on the text and can’t approach it as a fresh, critical reader.
The literary editor’s job is not to impose a style on the writer, but to help bring out the writer’s unique voice. It’s to guide and suggest, but not dictate. Editors also provide technical assistance with grammar and spelling, but this is a minor part of the process.
The literary editor concentrates on narrative technique—this could include matters such as voice, characterisation, point of view, interior monologue, repetition, dialogue, style and structure. Editors bring their own life experience and research skills to the task and might also assist the writer with expert information, for example knowledge of foreign languages or a particular period in history.
An editor might also give advice on ethical and copyright issues. Perhaps as important as any of these things is a friendly, yet critical eye. Writing is a solitary trade. To be actively, critically, intelligently and professionally read is enormously useful to writers, especially new writers.
Editing could be the right option for a writer intending to self-publish, who wants the finished product to be as professional and well presented as possible. It might be the choice for a writer from a non-English-speaking background who wants to be read without first language interference. Writers who believe in their work and who want to give it that extra boost in the publication stakes often decide that editing is worth the extra money and effort.
Payment for editing can be difficult for writers to rustle up. Professional editors are unlikely to accept an offer of half the royalties on an unpublished book in lieu of payment. (I have declined just such an offer!)
The do-it-yourself approach
Over the years, I’ve noticed that many people who come to my literary editing workshops and lectures are there not because they want to become a literary editor, but because they want to learn how to edit their own work.
Not one to miss an opportunity to fill a need for editing education and training, I’ve developed a series of online courses that teach precisely these skills. The courses cover the basics of literary editing, as well as specialist modules. They cover fiction and non-fiction. There’s one on manuscript assessment and one on creative fiction. Others cover interviewing techniques for fiction and non-fiction writers and editors, genre, editing for writers and scholars and that old chestnut, grammar and punctuation for editors and writers.
These courses are designed for writers and editors alike and will be presented as workshops at the NSW Writers’ Centre (see www.nswwriterscentre.org.au for times and dates). Participants will receive a free copy of the online course as part of their enrolment.
If you can't make the workshops, you can enrol in the online courses. I will be publishing the new online series, Editing for writers from February to July 2007. The first cab off the rank is Showing, not telling Literary editing, an overview of the techniques of literary editing.
© Pamela Hewitt 2007
www.emendediting.com
posted by Emend Editing at 1:24 pm
