Ask an Editor: The Editorial Skillset

I’ve seen some writers who think that because they write, they’ll make some easy side money offering editorial services freelance. (If you’re one of them, my post may or may not apply to you!) So I have heard new writers wonder what an editor even does that a critique partner doesn’t, or what’s so special about an editor if anybody can do it.

So today’s question isn’t really a question, but an explanation of the editorial skillset and how not every writer actually has it. The thing is, plenty of professional editors don’t write. And many professional writers can’t edit. They aren’t the same skillset. Just because you’re able to critique your friends doesn’t mean you can be a professional editor.

On the surface it seems very similar: there’s an expert understanding of craft elements and how to use them, right? Editors are fresh eyes, right? To that extent, yes. But that’s about where the similarities end. I’ll begin with a caveat, though, that all editors are different and editorial styles differ.

Here’s the thing. Critique partners are the people who work with a writer to develop a manuscript to the professional level. Editors expect your work to be professional already. We aren’t a litmus test of your manuscript’s quality. Our job is clean-up, clarity, and produce books that will sell for our publishers. Unless we’re freelance, in which case, we want to produce books that will sell in their intended market for the author. Either way, the market is an aspect that falls under an editor’s domain, not a critique partner’s. So editors need to be well read or strongly familiar with the genre they’re editing. It doesn’t help an author if an editor makes their book sparkle but the book is completely derivative of last month’s best seller. It’ll get lost in a sea of knock-offs. An editor is going to help a writer develop that unique hook and angle so they can build their own readership.

Yes, many editors, myself included, will take a chance on a book that’s not quite there yet, and hopefully teach the writer some craft as we work on the book so that future submissions will be publishable quality. But it’s technically not the point.

So where a critique partner may get into the nitty gritty of a scene, often an editor is looking at the big picture. (Granted, a good CP is too, but all CP’s are not created equal. And frankly, a good editor is also looking at the nitty gritty, even if our overall focus can be elsewhere, and also, not all editors are created equal!) We are looking for ways to push the book beyond good to great. And we often have the advantage of having reviewed hundreds of manuscripts in our genre so we can tell you what you may not realize is overdone, or we can do that stepback and see where a series would be positioned in the market and how maybe it would be better to start with what you thought was book two in your series. Writers don’t necessarily have the eye for this. Editing is not just about craft.

The other part of this is that with our big picture view and our history of manuscript review, we often have a better handle on the way craft elements work together that other writers (your CP’s) don’t. Most writers are great at one or another of the craft, but not all of it, and their critiques tend to focus on the elements they’re good at. Editors don’t need to be great at it, we aren’t writing. What we are doing is reading, analyzing, and assembling. It’s not a creative skillset at all. It’s a logistical one. And not every writer is a logistician. It’s why an editor can explain why something isn’t working where a CP might just say that something doesn’t feel write to them. We have mastered that stepback.

Editors are the people who realize that your use of that particular word is anachronistic in your historical, because we know the time period so well. Editors are the people who say that while we recognize that side character is a real scene-stealer, he doesn’t actually add to the plot and he needs to go. CP’s are notorious for rooting for elements they love that don’t necessarily make the book better. They are, frankly, often as close to the material as the author, making their help not as objective as it could be. Editors don’t have that problem. We’re often ruthless about this stuff.

 

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