Editing

Your question: Lynn Emerick asks – Is editing – reshaping a book – the job of an agent or an editor at a publishing company?

Answer from Sue: Reshaping a manuscript is ultimately the author’s job, but, in the case of a manuscript being readied for publication, both agents and editors are highly involved.

I have worked with two agents (not including agents in Europe and Asia). One gave me very specific changes that needed to be made. The other was more idea/plot/characterization oriented. That experience (plus what I have read and heard from other authors) leads me to believe that an agent’s approach to editing is dictated by his or her personality and whether or not they enjoy – or at least can tolerate – the process of editing. I also suspect that the best agents are also very good editors.  Whatever editorial changes an agent recommends, it is still the author’s duty to make the changes and do most of the problem-solving involved in making those changes.

Good agents are about the busiest people out there (and if your agent is NOT busy, you need to find someone else to market your work). Most agents are handling multiple projects, as well as sifting through large quantities of queries, reading manuscripts for their clients and for each of us who dream of becoming a client, and are doing all this while running a business (taxes, forms, contracts, filing, all that fun stuff.) If an agent comes across a manuscript that has promise but needs major editing to be marketable, that agent is probably too busy to take it on, although the agent may make suggestions and ask for a re-submission.

An editor who works for a publishing house knows that the manuscript in his or her hands is already considered to be highly marketable. Otherwise the editor’s company would not have purchased it in the first place. The editor wants to improve that marketability even further.

In the case of fiction, the editor will make suggestions, often very detailed suggestions, about plot, characterization, back story, and even check into your background research. In the case of nonfiction, your editor will check your sources and facts and, of course, your presentation.

Whatever changes an editor decides are necessary will be made by the author, not the editor.  It’s like making a movie (well, sort of).  The editor directs; the author acts.  

If the author’s corrections are acceptable to the editor, the editor will pass the manuscript to a line editor, who will edit concerning word choices, small inconsistences and so forth. Then the manuscript will be vetted by a copy editor, who checks for grammar, spelling errors and typos.  After these two edits, the manuscript goes back to the author who okays or nixes the suggested changes. 

Anyone who edits a manuscript, including your pre-submission readers, is doing the author a huge favor. It’s a lot of work to read a manuscript and even more work to make editing comments or suggestions.

Check out these great Blog posts about editing:
Rachelle Gardner’s CBA-Ramblings.blogspot.com “10 Things to Expect from an Agent” (on the sidebar on the right of the Blog); also check out “Editing,” particularly the first Post by Terry Brennan.

Bookends, LLC  Blog, “Stages of Editing.”   I’m sorry, but I can’t get a direct link to Bookends (a literary agency), but you can access them from the Rachelle Gardner site.   Just check out her “A Few of My Agent Friends” sidebar. 

I look forward to hearing your suggestions and questions on this Post. What are your experiences with editors? Anybody out there ever hire a freelance editor?

Blessings, Sue