Quote:
Originally Posted by Sil_liS
You don't quite understand my point. Since you are there, ready to do this for them, the authors pay less attention than they normally would.
|
Every working writer
I know
does pay attention to such things. A
lot of attention. After all, they want to submit a manuscript an editor will
buy.
But you reach a point of "not seeing the forest for the trees". Every working writer I know also admits that a good editor can help them turn a good book into a great one, and considers having a good editor to be a key part of any success they might have achieved as writer.
A late friend who was an editor once said that a variant of the 80/20 rule rule applied, and might be called 80/10/10.
80% of the manuscripts that came in over the transom were automatic rejects, with the only question whether they got a form rejection slip or something that went into a little more detail about
why it got bounced.
10% of the manuscripts were an automatic buy, and publish as is.
10% of the manuscripts
almost made the grade, and needed work to get them to publishable state. That 10% occupied the largest part of his time as editor.
He was editing for short story markets, but something very similar happens for novels.
And in many cases, the editorial changes requested have a simple motive: make the book something the publisher can
sell. Every line is subtly different in what it thinks it publishes and who it thinks the readers are, and a manuscript may not
quite hit the mark that line is aiming for. Consider Harlequin's Luna imprint. They publish romantic fantasy. The fantasy is the dominant element, with romance as a sub-plot. If you submit a manuscript that is a crackling good fantasy but weak on the romance, Luna may buy it, but the revision letter from the editor will make suggestions to boost the romance content, because
romantic fantasy is what the line publishes and what its readers expect.
If you think the services of an editor can be dispensed with to give you the book cheaper, be careful what you wish for. You might get it, and I doubt you'll be happy with the result. What you see from a commercial publisher is the manuscript
after editing. You don't see it before, and might be unhappy if you did.
______
Dennis