Welcome to the very first installment of a new column at this site, Ask the Editor!
Ask the Editor is a column for your questions about the editing process and editors themselves. It’s a place to bring your conundrums and dilemmas and mixed feelings, no matter how big or small. Want to be considered? Learn more and submit your question.
This month’s Ask the Editor is sponsored by 805 Writers Conference. The 805 Writers Conference delivers the information you need to succeed in publishing—all of the tools, skills, and resources—available virtually and in person—November 5 & 6. Conference sessions, specialty workshops, and a book expo featuring 50+ authors. Join us at the beach!
Question
I write dark fantasy stories for adults that explore survival after sexual trauma and war. My work focuses on the aftermath of sexual violence and the way my protagonists stubbornly live well after the unthinkable. There are no on-page depictions of SA in my work. Naturally, edits are a must and I am very receptive to feedback (I’m in journalism, so tough deletions and red pens are familiar friends of mine).
As a debut writer who was previously represented by a literary agent, I made structural, style, and developmental edits to my manuscript on the guidance of my agent. I wanted to ask how an agent’s edits differ from those of a publishing house’s editor?
Since I work as a newspaper editor, I often have strong opinions about what accessible writing looks like. Should I stand my ground with regard to edits (professionally, of course) or is it best for unpublished authors to trust the expertise of their agents and editors? Especially when it comes to issues such as sexual violence, racism, or war, I am very firm that my work shouldn’t be edited purely for the sake of “good taste” or “finding the book a home” in the commercial market. How can a debut writer navigate this challenge?
—Writer Who Writes Entire War Scenes But Is Afraid to Even Politely Disagree
Dear Polite War-Scene Writer:
These are three great, intertwining questions, and the answers to all of them depend on a fourth: Do you want to traditionally publish?
For authors who self-publish, there are no gatekeepers and no intermediaries between their vision and the audience’s eyeballs. There’s also no one to save us from ourselves when we’re so wedded to our vision that we can’t see the red flags waving.
But questioning agent-editor-author relationships sounds like you do want to traditionally publish. Part of that process is finding an agent you trust and believe in, who trusts and believes in you, who will then negotiate a publishing deal that will support your vision while getting your book to as many eyeballs as possible.
A “good” agent—one who is the right partner to help you make your best book and sell it—may or may not be an editorial agent (that is, an agent who will also edit your work). The best publisher to support and distribute your book may ask for hundreds of revisions, or none. In both cases, sometimes the first round of revision requests come from the agent or editor’s assistant, to fix larger challenges before the agent or editor wades in for a last pass. What’s important is that you, the author, believe this partnership will help you. Perhaps you’ve admired books from this press or agency. Perhaps they said something profound in an interview. Or you loved their ideas on the pre-signing phone call. But whatever it was, you’re on board the We Can Do This Together Express, destination Bookshelves.
You should, of course, fundamentally agree with your partners’ advice, even if you want to quibble on the details. If your agent or publisher’s idea of “good taste” doesn’t line up with yours, they aren’t the right partners. Yes, there will be suggested edits where you say, “I really think it needs to be this way.” Very often, the problem the agent or publisher has identified isn’t actually at that exact place in the text. Sometimes the real issue is that a scene or a moment hasn’t been set up well, and the fix is adding or changing information in the pages before.
Writing about trauma survivors in itself brings trauma to the reader, who will feel personal trauma more or less depending on their own history. As the author, your writing must implicitly both warn and reassure the reader from page one: This is going to be well-written and worth reading. I’m going to show you some violence, but it won’t be gratuitous, and you can trust me that those scenes will be emotionally powerful rather than titillating.
Which brings us to “finding the book a home [in the commercial market].” If you don’t want to make your artistic product appeal to readers and be purchased by them, traditional publishing may not be for you. A major part of an agent’s job is to sell our books. It is the only way they are paid for their services. Taking an agent’s creative advice and making our manuscript something they are thrilled to share with publishers, confident that someone will recognize our greatness with cash, is the way we recompense them.
Right now, it sounds like your compelling belief—despite the red-pen love—is that your work is already finished and as good as you can make it. Or perhaps you haven’t yet had the editorial advice that rings the tiny bell in your heart of, “Yeah, I kinda knew that wasn’t working…” But the best partners to bring your book into the world aren’t coming to squash your dreams—they’re rolling up their sleeves to help your vision be as beautiful to the reader as it is to the writer.
May your red pen flow smoothly!
This month’s Ask the Editor is sponsored by 805 Writers Conference. The 805 Writers Conference delivers the information you need to succeed in publishing—all of the tools, skills, and resources—available virtually and in person—November 5 & 6. Conference sessions, specialty workshops, and a book expo featuring 50+ authors. Join us at the beach!
Allison K Williams has edited and coached writers to publication with many of the best-known outlets in media. As a memoirist, essayist, and travel journalist, Allison has written craft, culture and comedy for National Public Radio, CBC-Canada, the New York Times, and many more. She leads the Rebirth Your Book writing retreats series and, as Social Media Editor for Brevity, she inspires thousands of writers with weekly blogs on craft and the writing life. Allison holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Western Michigan University and spent 20 years as a circus aerialist and acrobat before writing and editing full-time. Her latest book is Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro From Blank Page to Book (Woodhall Press, 2021). Learn more at her website.
The way I see it, both writers and editors should acknowledge the difference between objective and subjective editing. Objective editing is something that most editors would agree with. Subjective editing is a matter of personal taste and opinion and differs from person to person.
Case in point. Years ago I submitted a piece to a local publication. The editor at the time suggested numerous changes that I thought fundamentally changed the point of the piece. I did not pursue it. A few months later, that editor quit and was replaced. The new editor found my piece in a folder and published as it was. Didn’t change a word.
It’s absolutely vital to work with an editor whose feedback supports your vision. And yes, editors have different tastes, too!
A thoughtful article, and excellent advice. If I may add a comment: I am friendly with a journalist, who has Beta read some of my novels. Some of her comments were at odds with advice received from practiced fiction writers, which let me to discover that a journalist had to abide by specific rules which do not always apply to fiction. If the subject of this article has not been previously exposed to the tenets of fiction-writing, a content editor could be of use in making her transition to fiction.
Great idea! Yes – there are such different conventions between journalism and fiction, between memoir and fiction, and even within different genres.
Nice work Allison, enjoyed this. I’m a published author who loves receiving feedback from editors. For me, the key when I’m assessing editorial feedback is to question whether the feedback enhances the vision I have, or hinders it. A good editor will almost always make your work better. I’ve generally been privileged to work with great editors so whenever I’m in doubt I veer on the editor’s side. Happy writing…
My experiences with my best editors have challenged me to let go of good stuff in order to pursue great stuff–and half the battle is discovering mutual trust that we are both working towards the best possible book!