Exciting to receive but…
Those of you who know me know that my second edits were due back to my editor on the 6th… and that I flew to Ireland on the 7th. Needless to say, I was a wee bit stressed towards the end of last week.
It was the latest blood-sweat-&-tears improvement of the book that sent me meditating on how much of this writing process I have needed, and continue to need, help with. (Aside: I just have to say, I LOVE MY EDITOR. The fantastic Stacey Barney at Putnam/Penguinhas made, and continues to make, GOLDEN BOY a better and better book. I have been pushed far beyond what I thought my ability was, and she works hard to incorporate my feedback on everything from plot twists to cover art.)
…yikes!
And that made me think of Harold Underdown’s excellent article What a Publisher Does.
So, today, that’s what I have for you: I hope you find it as eye-opening as I did. Kudos to all of you who self-published and are doing it all… and for all those of you out there who want an editor but don’t have one yet: stay hopeful! stay strong!
PS: Just for fun, here’s some help for any of you who were as mystified as I was about what “STET” means.
Tara Sullivan 
I will be there someday… I am still in the initial draft writing and plot rewriting phase myself, but I am worried about the inevitable “editing” phase. I know half my errors will be stupid things, but I am somewhat worried about the “cut this” edits. I haven’t even written some of the stuff that will need cutting yet, so it feels like I’m going to waste some of my time writing stuff that shouldn’t even be there. (circular reasoning, I know) Anyway, I can’t wait till I finally hit the “print” button in preparation for the editor. That little feeling of completion that you get before your bubble is burst when the manuscript comes back, is what I look forward to right now.
Good luck to your editing; hopefully it won’t be so bad.
Reblogged this on Writer's Zone.
You know, Mike, I used to dread the “inevitable editing” stage too… and now have discovered (to my very great surprise) that I love it! Yes, I know, crazy… but it’s so much easier to dig in and fix problems once there’s something there. Not nearly so intimidating as blank-page-terror syndrome.
As to having to write stuff and then cut it, yes, it hurts. On a deep, deep level it hurts. I have now gone through eight different beginnings and this is my fourth (and it seems final! yay!) complete re-plotting of the end of GOLDNE BOY. It is hard to do, but with each pass I can see it pulling together better. And that comes to be it’s own reward.
Stay encouraged and keep writing!
Thanks for the comment.