Ask an Editor: What’s your job, anyway?

In this month’s Ask an Editor feature, I’m going to answer something that’s not really a question I get asked a lot, but should! Because a lot of people don’t actually know. So!

What’s your job, anyway?

There are many different types of editors. Kate goes over them in her book, Novel Marketing, but I’m going to do a bit of a run-down here because it’s good information.

So there are line editors who only bother with–you guessed it–your sentences. These are editors who focus on your grammar and your line-by-line correctness. They make sure your hero’s eyes haven’t changed colour from one scene to the next and that the word in this sentence is being used appropriately, including sometimes checking if a word was even in use in the year your book is set, when writing historical.

I do that too because I’m exceedingly thorough and I don’t want to make more work for our amazing line editors at Samhain. I’m a content editor, which means I do big picture edits (as well as line edits.) So I’m going to tell you to rewrite half your scenes because they don’t support your theme. Or that in order to be salable, the romantic leads should at least appear to like each other. Or that you’re being culturally insensitive in all of your scenes with the Native American character and they need to be rewritten. Basically, I’m the person everyone loves to hate. (But then in the end, love, because nobody wants to let a book out into the wild with those kinds of errors, right?)

Here’s how it works for me at Samhain. Keep in mind I’m an acquisitions editor, which means I select the books I edit to be published out of the slushpile myself. So I read your your manuscript and offer a contract. Some time passes and then I send you forms to fill out about marketing the book, what you’d like to see on the cover, where you live, basics like that. Then I edit the book.

My first passes tend to be brutal. When I first started editing, I would frequently have to apologize to my authors for being a little too blunt. I’ve learned to softshoe it a bit (I hope). (Maybe ask Kate; she’s had me edit her.) I will mark up awkward sentences, weak motivations, plot holes, poor characterization, inconsistencies, basically, ANYTHING you can imagine wrong with your book, I am on the lookout for.

But don’t worry! I try to offer as many solutions as possible whenever I point out a problem. So I send an edit letter talking through the major issues along with the marked up manuscript. The author and I rinse and repeat this process until I’m satisfied with the book and then I pass it along to someone who specializes in line edits.

There are also developmental editors who will work with you from the premise to the drafting to come up with a workable idea and execute it. Sometimes my authors ask me for input on things while they’re drafting, but it’s not my main job.

At my publisher, I’m also responsible for being my authors’ first point of contact on any problem and either taking care of it or pointing them to the person who can; I facilitate dialogue between the author and the art and marketing departments for cover art and marketing, and, of course, I talk up my amazing authors and their books on social media because I love them. I cultivate a list of authors based on my own interests and how we work together. I’ve had some authors change to other editors because we weren’t the best fit, and I’ve taken on some authors from my colleagues because I’ve worked with them better. As an acquisitions/content editor, I intend to be with my authors for the long haul, even though I acquire on a book-by-book basis.

So on any given day, I will edit 60-80 pages, read half a manuscript from the slushpile, fill out forms for marketing, and send an author her cover art. (You’d be amazed at how much time gets sucked up by forms and email!)

Or play with my cat.

I mean, it’s kind of a toss-up, really.

So I hope that answers the question of what I do, because I think it’s good to know where I’m coming from when I answer your questions. Do you have anything you’re dying to ask an editor?

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