What if an editor ruins my book?

and other ways to get in your own way

Hi Friends,

I did what I said I would never do, which was go to Twitter and be like tell me what you want me to write about. I am weak! Forgive me. But friend ‘o the newsletter Maggie Hendricks suggested something good:

Maggie isn’t asking what I asked in the, as you know by now, sorta clickbaity subject line of this newsletter. She doesn’t say here that she’s worried a publisher is going to ruin her book. But she’s not NOT saying that, either. Let’s unpack this a bit.

The practical answer is that there is no done when it comes to books, especially novels. Your book will be published and you will be reading it at your very first author event and you will stumble over a sentence and think omg why did I say “had” three times in this sentence why didn’t anyone catch that???? And that will be fine because almost no one will notice and if they do it will be like when my mom would say well if they’re looking that closely then that’s their problem when I was worried my Keds were smudged or something. There is no done done. There’s only finished.

But what happens between book deal and off to the printer? Any number of things. Your editor will at the very least read it again and offer you an editorial letter, which is just what it sounds like—a letter or email that tells you what they thought about your book and the things they think you can work on. Then you will go into the draft and work on your book more. This is likely the editor’s second or third read of the book, so they have a pretty good perspective on it. Also, this is their job. After you address* these things, then your editor might do a line edit, which is where they might take out all those “hads.” It is not copyediting or proofreading and your editor might do that at the same time as you get your editorial letter. Every book is different.

(*By address these things I don’t mean change everything they say or else you owe the money back. All editors will agree that the notes they give an author are suggestions not a prescription, so if you disagree about something, you can talk to them about it. It is very, very, very unlikely that you will get an edit letter and say No thanks! to all their suggestions and then not change a thing. That would indicate to me that something is seriously wrong in the editorial relationship and we’d have a big talk about what was going on. But I honestly have never been in that situation in almost 15 years so there you go.)

It’s more likely that you’ll get the notes and have some ~feelings~~ about it and then go chew on them for a few days or a week and then come back to earth and realize your editor is probably right and even though you hate sitting with those feelings you’re going to get back in there and do the work. You may say something like I see what you’re saying about X, but what if we address it in Y way? and your editor will likely rejoice because you have good ideas to and there is not one singular way to edit a book.

You might go through that process twice, or more. Your book may change significantly in the editing process but it might only feel significant because you’ve been staring at your draft for several years. The goal of working with an editor is to improve your book because the editor has more experience editing than you, and also they have perspective, distance, and objectivity—three things in which all writers are grossly deficient. If you don’t think your book is improving (and you’re not just having a tantrum because you don’t want to do the work—trust me I’ve been there—) then talk to your agent about what’s going on.

I started to think about why Maggie may have asked this question, or any of the other writers who’ve asked me versions of this. Sometimes it’s a matter of omg how much more work am I going to have to do on this I’m sick of looking at it. And in which case I would tell them to suck it up, there’s always more work to do. It may be a matter of anxiety, of holding a book too tightly, thinking it’s too precious to break apart and scrutinize. But an editor is not going to approach your book, that they bought, and say hmmmm, you know what this book needs? A plot like Die Hard. Can you make it more like Die Hard? They are not going to crack it open for the fun of it, to watch you squirm, to make you do busy work. They want to improve your book so that readers will find it and buy it and read it and love it and tell their friends about. You can’t be too precious about your work. Words don’t break. I’m not saying Maggie had any of these thoughts, but I bet other writers have, or will, and I’m here to tell you that yes, your book may change a little or a lot between when you get a deal and when it lands in stores. I hope it does, because otherwise, why work with an editor? Trust the professionals you work with to improve your book. If you think something is going wrong, talk to your agent (or editor) SOONER RATHER THAN LATER. As much as writing is a solitary pursuit, publishing is a team effort.

XOXOXOX,

Kate