While working on Reality Check, I’ve been fortunate enough to have met a number of people who offered to read and provide feedback on it over the last few years. I could try and list them, but I’d probably forget some – such has been the collective effort – but every contribution helped it evolve. What I really needed, though, was a top-quality book editor.
There have been questions and comments from every beta reader, but they’ve been of a similar vein. That’s incredibly helpful, as it tells me I’m on the right path and I can address some of the gaps and problems. The number decreased with each draft, and it left me feeling quite confident.
While submitting to agents hadn’t been the success I’d hoped for, that’s not surprising. Maybe it’s the genre, or the niche within the genre? Maybe my cover letter hadn’t gripped them, or perhaps it just wasn’t good enough to be published?
Except, I didn’t believe that last one. I couldn’t.
Why did I hire a book editor?
So, while making moves towards self-publishing, I wanted to make sure Reality Check was good as it could be. For that, I needed something else; a fresh pair of eyes trained to spot the things I still didn’t see. There are different services to choose from, and I spent some time speaking to different people and professionals to find the right path for me.
And then I found the right book editor.
It turned out, after all those conversations, the right one for me was someone I knew! Rachel has been a friend for years now, and it turned out that some of her clients had provided her with the kind of experience I wanted and needed.
After discussing my situation and needs, we agreed on a plan. The cost met my budget, and I was really excited as we agreed, signed and started everything.
The hardest part of it all was waiting for the feedback, or so I thought.
Dealing with a new kind of feedback
I’m used to friends reading my work, to strangers reading my work, and to classmates reading my work.
I wanted honest, critical feedback. I’ll fight my corner but, ultimately, if something doesn’t become clear when I intended it to for a reader without the knowledge I have, that’s got to be addressed. Some of it is genre or style, and different readers pick up on different things, so having a wide net to cast is really useful.
A book editor’s comments are something else.
There is literally no reason to be shy or protect my feelings. I’ve paid for a service, so I expect professional results. I got those, but it still hit me more than I expected. That’s another lesson to learn.
There weren’t any negative comments, though. Everything was constructive and questioning. A lot of it was designed to make me ask the questions and find the answers myself, and that takes time. I had some consultation time included but rather than rush in, I thought on the points raised, looking over my manuscript and making notes that I could later formulate into questions.
Again, I’ve paid for this, and I had to be professional, too – that helped me get the most out of the whole experience. Everything I learned will help me in the future is how I looked at it. I took my medicine and promised I’d do better in the future.
The results from my book editor
First of all, the editing was over two parts; a manuscript assessment and a copy/line edit after. It made me rethink more than a few things about the story and proved to be a bit of a wakeup call. That’s a good way to beat the complacency that can set in. While the beta readers had responded positively, there’s always a niggling doubt that they’re trying to protect your feelings somewhat, even the ones who are casual friends or passing acquaintances.
Some of the comments I received, once I processed them, were right on the mark. The next draft took big steps to address them – some needed subtle changes and others bigger, more sweeping edits throughout various parts of the manuscript.
Ultimately, the decision of what to change fell to me. This isn’t a traditional publishing deal where I had to make certain changes (if that’s how it works), and I needed to keep in mind that the book editor (Rachel) had studied this story in relation to itself, while I have two sequels in the works, too.
Some of the points raised I can relate directly to how I’ve structured the Weight of the World series as a whole rather than just a standalone book. That was something I discussed with her further, to clarify if these issues were problems or merely hooks. Once more, that objectivity helped me think about things beyond my excessive knowledge of the world and story.
The more technical edits
Once done and sent back, we moved on to the copy/line editing – and that took me another stage closer to publication.
This was less about the world and story, but digging down into the nitty, gritty elements of my writing. I’m talking about the word choices, grammar, sentence structure, problems with exposition, head-hopping and much more.
I’d always considered myself a good writer, at least on a technical level, so I hoped to not have too many issues.
Yeah, that was dumb.
We all have habits we’ve adopted, and often we can’t see them until they’re pointed out to us. This even includes typos. The number of times I facepalmed while going through another stupid error that I shouldn’t have made is so high I’m not willing to share the actual number. Just know, it was a lot.
It really hammered home why we need editors. These people see our habits and errors with fresh eyes and can point them out to us. I could have just taken a fixed-up document with everything fixed, but I wanted to see each error, refer back to the style guide and make a note to try and catch it myself in the future.
In the end, her changes were spot on and I dread to think what people would have thought if I had released Reality Check without going through a great book editor first!
The whole process has helped me redraft the next books in the series, though, so while I fully expect things to fix from a book editor, if I can cut down on the number from the last time, it’ll show I’ve learned. At the end of the day, that’s important, too.