Archives
Categories:
- Business announcements
- Ask the Editors
- Best First Line Contest
- Books/Reading
- Contests
- Editing
- New Releases/Excerpts
- FAQs
- Life
- Miscellaneous
- Round Robin
- TV/Movies
- Writing
Recent Comments
- N.J. Walters (The Dark Days of Winter by N.J. Walters)
- Mary G (The Dark Days of Winter by N.J. Walters)
- Meg Benjamin (The Masochistic Heroine)
- Erin Nicholas (The Masochistic Heroine)
- PG Forte (The Masochistic Heroine)
- Kelly Jamieson (The Masochistic Heroine)
- N.J. Walters (The Dark Days of Winter by N.J. Walters)
- Mary G (The Dark Days of Winter by N.J. Walters)
- Sharon (Veiled Desire: Now Available!)
- Alisha Rai (Veiled Desire: Now Available!)
Trust in me
By now, I’m pretty sure you’ve all seen the kerfuffle happening on many of the romance review blogs. I’m not going to spread the linky love, because if you haven’t heard about it, my advice is to just stay out of it.
The thing is, in the original post that started everything, before the finger pointing and name calling, there was an underlying message that really bothered me. That message? There was a vast lack of trust, both by authors and readers, in the editors.
Trust has to be the foundation of an author/editor relationship. After pouring heart and soul onto the page, an author trusts these words to her editor. Trusts that the editor knows what she’s doing, that she’s keeping the best interests of the story in mind, that she’s doing her very best both for the author and the publisher… and trusts that the editor will respect this relationship. And if that trust isn’t there, I think the relationship will always suffer. And that will hurt everyone involved – the author, the editor, the publisher, and the reader.
We all have insecurities. Authors have them about their writing. Editors have them about their edits. I’ve read one editor blog about how intimidating it is to send edits back to an author. Another about how one nasty email made her doubt her decision to help and mentor writers by offering constructive criticism with her rejection letters. I have moments when I send that email where I’ve suggested cutting entire chapters or changing an entire plotline or even giving a character a completely new motivation that I worry my efforts will be misinterpreted. That where I’m trying to pull out of the writer the best writing she can give, it will be taken as putting in red ink for the sake of putting in red ink.
Now, that isn’t to say that the trust is going to be there from day one. Like any good relationship, it’s built over time. And, tastes differ. What works for one, may not work for another. That’s what makes us all interesting.
For me, my ultimate goal is for the author to look at the finished product and say “wow, I’m so happy how this turned out.” To get an email with those words is the absolute best part of my job. I cherish each and every one of those. And I hope that my authors know that my edits are made solely with that goal in mind.
But if at any time an author I’m working with has concerns, or needs something I’m not giving her, I want her to speak up. To let me know that there’s a specific area she’d like me to focus on, or there’s a change I’ve suggested that she’s just not comfortable with. When I know about a problem, it can be fixed.
And at the end of the day, we’ll have a finished product we’re both proud of.
On some level, I think there is this cliche thing for writers that editors are the enemy…they’ll reject you…reject you…reject you. On another level are the egos of the people involved, and egos can be a huge stumbling block to getting any project off the ground—whether they are over-inflated or under-developed. And the manuscript suffers.
There are probably people out there who really don’t enjoy their job, or really just don’t care what they write or edit, as long as the money keeps coming in. And the manuscript suffers.
Trust is a rare and precious thing these days, not easily developed or easily maintained. In a world where our first inclination is to over-react and protect ourselves at all cost, refusal to change and compromise takes its toll.
Trust means vulnerability. Trust means not knowing everything…for either party involved. Trust means having faith in the project and letting go.
Difficult but not impossible. :) Gia
But if at any time an author I’m working with has concerns, or needs something I’m not giving her, I want her to speak up. To let me know that there’s a specific area she’d like me to focus on, or there’s a change I’ve suggested that she’s just not comfortable with. When I know about a problem, it can be fixed.
What Laurie said.
As an editor, I have two fears. The first is that I’ll fail on picking up things that need to be picked up, and that the readers and reviewers will say, “Hm, that author needs to get a new editor.”
The second is that, in my zeal to fix errors and awkward sentences and screwy motivations, I’ll go too far and sanitise the book of the author’s individual voice.
And I honestly don’t know which of these fears is the worse.
So, um—yes, what Laurie said. :-)
This post is the reason I’m lucky to have Laurie as an editor.
I feel trust is of the utmost importance between an editor and author. An author’s name is on the final product that’s put out to the public so it had better be something they’re proud of. And you can’t make it so if you have an editor you don;t have that bond of trust with. I feel a good editor can make or break a book. A good editor will bring out the best in an author. Bring out his/her best “voice”. A good editor should feel as much pride in the final product as the author hopefulyl does. And as for egos, such a thing should never get int he way on either side. Both editor and author should be working together as a team to make that book the best it possibly can be.
Again, I’m lucky. I have all of that with my editor. I recently blogged about a book being a team effort, regardless that only the author publically carries the responsibility of the published product. I’m blessed to have an editor who feels the same way. Laurie, you’re a dream to work with – but, you do still owe me a chapter.
As a technical writer and editor in my day job, I can always find something tweakable in a body of writing. Especially my own. My day job has cursed me with a merciless internal editor that is tough to turn off. I mean, come on – looking for errors in a soup can label? Giggling over unintentionally funny wording in an Avon catalog? (“Wooden Candy Basket.” Think about it. Mmm. Crunchy, and so good for you with all that fiber.)
I need meds.
But as a fiction writer, I acknowledge I am too close to the work and I need my editor’s fresh eyes and perspective. I want my editor find the plot holes, the continuity errors, the inconsistent characters (and, yes, the typos and grammar booboos) and expose them to the glaring light of day.
I don’t want to hear “It’s fine the way it is! It’s wonderful! You’re great!” because I know no writer is perfect. I want to be challenged to write better, to dig for the real diamond of a story buried under the stuff I’m glossing it over with. (Ugh, a dangling preposition. Jess is going to smack my hand!)
But, Carolan, you like it when I smack your hand. ggg
Great post, Laurie. :)
~J
What everyone above me said! I’m a writer, but an editor as well, in addition to being one of those sickos who WANTS my books to be edited. Yeah, I go through at least three crit partners before I ever sub something (and they’re damned good), but having a totally distanced eye on my work reassures me that I wasn’t smoking dope when I wrote it. (Ah, an insecure lot we are g)
If my editor tells me something isn’t working, then I have to take that leap of trust…I’d much rather have an editor point it out than a reader.
As an editor, I never want to take away someone’s voice, but sometimes the “forest for the trees” effect is inescapable (both in my own work and the stuff I edit) and needs to be addressed, otherwise, it’d be first-draft straight into pub, right?
I’m just thrilled that I’ve been blessed with fabulous editors, both here and at my other house (huge sigh of relief).
Terri/Keira
Interesting post Laurie – and not least because you were my editor for Nightswimming and I really ‘felt’ that growth of trust that you are referring to.
When we first started, I must admit, it took a while until I could accept your suggestions without a bit of inner- harumphing! But as I came to see that your suggestions really DID make the book better – I grew more and more confident that you knew what you were on about.
Your tactful but persistent manner worked perfectly for me!!
Laurie isn’t my editor, but it sounds as if her head is in the right place. Fortunately I am blessed with another of Samhain’s wonderful editors, Linda Ingmanson. I appreciate her input and suggestions for change, and I know they make my work stronger and better reads.
I haven’t had a critique partner in years (sorry Linda), but I do consider her the best one I’ve ever had. She saw a scene where the emotions just weren’t right, but I hadn’t seen it because I was too close to the story. That wasn’t all that was wrong with my story, believe me.
Linda took off my blinders and helped me get it right. A friend of mine (multi-published by Silhouette back in the 90s) once told me to leave my ego at the door. The editor and the author want their best work out there, and no one wins if one or the other falls down on the job.
So all you editors, keep on keepin’ on.
[[But, Carolan, you like it when I smack your hand.]]
Shhh! We don’t want that getting around. ;)
See, Rebecca, that’s exactly what I’m talking about… You’re not the only one to start out with inner-harumphing. It’s only natural that you would, these words are your babies.
That’s why trust is so important… and why it’s so important for the editor not to abuse that trust. I’ve heard all sorts of horror stories in my travels of editors who have abused the trust, and it’s what makes it so hard both for editors to earn the trust, and for authors to give the trust…
But open communication, and compromise and basic rules of courtesy and common sense on both parties, I think, are what’s going to turn a “that evil woman, she doesn’t know what she’s on about” into a “wow, I had no idea… this rocks.” :D
I haven’t gotten any edits yet but from emails I can tell Laurie is a gem.
I know Patrizia and I value her insight and has helped us definitly see things with fresh eyes and new perspectives. Plus, her enthusiasm is contagious:)
I think a certain amount of openess, honesty and vulnerability is needed by both author and editor to truly have a symbiotic relationship.
I have to tell you I recently thanked. . .yes, THANKED, an editor for a rejection! In rejecting a manuscript I’d submitted, she gave me such detailed and wonderful feedback, that I know I can do some work and make the story so much better. I have never received that kind of feedback before – not from contests, nor from crit partners – so I was absolutely thrilled to receive it. Did I like the rejection – NO, but I know when I re-sub this story it will be so much better and I have my editor to thank for that!
Great post, Laurie. As a reader and unpublished author I didn’t realize how important an editor was to a book. I only thought of them as the all powerful “gate keepers.”
I was super nervous after receiving word that I had a different editor than the one who bought my book. I was worried she’d just zoom through my book to get me off her desk, but Anne Scott (my editor) really took the time to get my manuscript where it needed to be for publishing. We had a fairly hurried schedule, but I always could tell from her comments that she had read it closely and put lots of thought into how to improve it.
This whole process has made me realize how important good editors are to a good end product. I just hope they get paid enough because I know Anne earned it with me! :)
I don’t have any outside critique partners or group, so I shudder to think what my book would have been like without Anne’s (and my line editor’s) input.