The Alchemy of Editing

The  longer title for this post is: Why You Must Love the People You Work With. Editing is, in many ways, more creative than people realize. Proofreading, of course, is a relatively straightforward job, requiring the editor have a knowledge of grammar rules, current trends (yes, even grammar has them), and house style guides. That being said, even certain grammar rules require a subjective look, e.g., “Does this sentence need a comma, or does it make sense without it?” (I’m not lying; CMOS 6.20 is “In a series whose elements are all joined by conjunctions, no commas are needed unless the elements are long and pauses helpful.”)

But more than that, as an editor, you need to know if your editing style is going to work with the author’s style. I run into this a lot in the work I do with historical and UK fiction, and Henry and I both encounter it on ghost writing projects. Personally, I tend to consistently follow rules, such as ellipsis to indicate stuttering speech or trailing off and em dashes to show interruption (within quotation marks) or an interruption in the dialogue to explain movement (em dashes in the middle of dialogue but outside the quotation marks).

Recently, I worked on a reprint of one of Cecelia Holland’s most popular novels, Great Maria, about the life of an ambitious woman of the eleventh century (loosely based on the Norman Conquest of Sicily). Wonderful work but I did have a conundrum with the ellipsis, as the estimable Ms. Holland used them to interrupt character dialogue. Here’s the thing: This is not inaccurate; it’s just different than what I normally do.

This does not in any way mean that I’m tolerant of people using semicolons where they should be using commas. Not everyone can be e.e. cummings, but you can have a style of punctuation and grammar that is both accurate and flavorful for your book, and the thing is: it’s more important than you think.

A good editor will see the patterns in your work and edit with them, at all levels of editing. You don’t want to work with an editor, agent, or publisher just because they claim they know what’s going on. Get references, take a long look at the titles they’ve worked on, and ask lots of questions. Treat them like your doctor because your writing’s well being depends on these people. Your work is in this person’s hands (no matter which level you are at), and he or she will develop it and shape it in certain ways; therefore, it should be obvious that you need someone with the same view of your work, similar tastes, and a respect for the process.

As an editor, I prefer to do a sample edit and have a meeting with the potential client to make sure that we are on the same page, that we see the same type of work going into their manuscript to develop it, and that we’ll get along well together as we work. It’s imperative that you have similar approaches and that the editor knows your genre. Don’t hire someone who does nothing but nonfiction simply because you can afford them to work on your fiction project. Search and find someone you like, because your editor (whether your edit be before representation, during representation, or after a publishing contract) will be molding your brand in many ways, both blatant and subtle.

And here’s a tip that I truly mean and that I had to go through over and over again with every writer we worked with at Baker’s Mark: you need an editor. Being a writer who knows grammar, punctuation, etc., is not the same as being an editor. You need someone who is less close to your work than your family, your friends, and…well, you, to be honest. You can’t overcome your writer brain enough to tap into the editor side when it’s your own work, and that’s okay. Find someone you like, find someone you can trust, and find someone who has worked with similar work and respects your tone. Then, go forth and publish.