Fact-Checking in the Editorial Process Fact-checking is verifying that the information included in a ms is accurate: World War I took place in the early twentieth century, production of Hummers stopped in 2010. An author (even a novelist) who gets facts wrong irritates and alienates readers, so one of our roles as dev editor is… Read more How and what to fact check in developmental editing
People with a growth-oriented mindset are happier and more successful than people with a fixed mindset (see Carol S. Dweck’s Mindset, among others). Growth versus Fixed Mindset People with a growth mindset are those who think they can learn and grow through hard work, persistence, and thoughtful feedback. A fixed mindset assumes that people are… Read more Growing as an Editor
What Does the Client Want? Because editorial functions can go by different names, the first rule of freelance editing (whether developmental or otherwise) is to figure out what your client wants. If your client says, “This manuscript needs a good editor,” you need to verify what that means. You may think it means a thorough… Read more Setting client expectations
After the events of the last few weeks, I’ve been seeing a lot of editors on Twitter saying things like, “We can never again tell our authors their plot events are implausible!” And I smile along with everyone else. But of course it’s not true. “It really happened” has never been a measure of whether… Read more Plot Twist!
The Importance of Separate Developmental Editing and Copyediting Rounds As I mentioned in my previous blog post, indie authors often want editors to combine DE and CE in one round of editing. I mentioned that one problem with doing this is the likelihood of overwhelming the author. Another problem is the complexity. There’s no point… Read more How (and why) to keep developmental editing and copyediting separate
Several times in the past few weeks, colleagues have asked what to do when a manuscript isn’t in shape for a developmental edit. Maybe there are obvious issues that the author should correct before hiring an editor—a lighthearted romance that weighs in at 200,000 words, an unfinished draft, a first draft. Working with the Unready… Read more What to do when a manuscript isn’t ready for development
I’m often asked the meaning of abbreviations used when we’re talking about editing books. These are some of the more common: Abbreviations Used in Editing AE = acquisitions editor (usually your contact person when working for publishers) CE = copy editor/copyediting DE = developmental editor/developmental editing, sometimes referred to as “dev” ms = manuscript mss… Read more Common abbreviations used in editing
In my post on editing satirical fiction, I mentioned the message being the driving force in such stories. A recent question from a student made me want to explore the question of editing novels with messages a bit further. The Problem with Message Novels The student pointed out that some authors start novels with a… Read more Editing Novels with Messages
One of the first things that acquisitions editors and literary agents learn in their jobs is to use the query letter to evaluate a manuscript. AEs and lit agents are looking for cues that a project is or isn’t right for them. In my career, I’ve worked as both an AE and a lit agent.… Read more Using a Query Letter to Identify Developmental Problems in a Manuscript
In my post “Unpacking Your Assumptions about Fiction,” I mentioned how some of our assumptions about fiction don’t always hold, and I gave an example of the anti-hero of a comic novel. Which made me remember a conversation I recently had with a colleague about editing satire. The Message Matters Most Said colleague pointed out… Read more Genre: Some Thoughts on Satire
