Crossing Over, Part 3

In case this is your first time stopping by, I've been journaling my experience as a newbie author going through the publishing process for my debut YA novel, The Gift of Poseidon. You've stumbled upon Part 3: Line Edits and Copy Edits. Now, have a seat and no talking...

Line Edits

Are exactly how they sound. The editor goes through your manuscript line by line, checking for voice, style, wording, consistency. Probably more, but this is what I noticed in my own sacrificial offering...er, manuscript. The editor circles things and draws lines through them and writes notes in the margins that say, "Cut, ok? Dragging down the dialogue" or "This doesn't sound like something he'd say" or "Ew! Gross! Cut, ok?" (Truly. I blushed for days on this one.)

And yes, I said she wrote in the margin. I'm told that some editors like to use a program similar to theTrack Changes function in Word. You can just accept or decline the changes. My editor chose to print the MS, write all over it, and ship it to me. Which was the coolest thing ever. I used her notes and suggestions to revise the MS and emailed it back to her. As for the MS she shipped to me, scrawled-on and bleeding, I kept it as a keepsake. After all, this is the last time I'll ever go through this for the first time. :)

Copy Edits

Copy edits are the technical stage of editing. Again, the freshly line-edited MS was shipped to me, but this time, I was told NOT to change the MS and email it back. This time, I was to make notes as to what I wanted to keep or decline, and send only the notes back.

Though the copyeditor put me on Front Street a few times about my grammar, most of what came into question was related to my world-building. For instance, whether or not a certain word should be capitalized when it referred to an aspect of the Syrena world I created (Syrena are mermaids). She set up a style guide for my writing, meaning that if my character said, "like" instead of "as if", then that character needed to say this consistently throughout the MS.

Also, the copyeditor questioned whether or not to use italics, hypens, ellipsis. And when I say questioned, I mean she broke out the Merriam Webster and bladowed me with it. But sometimes, I didn't give a crap what the good ole' MW said. Sometimes I made up my own word, like, "fwopping" for instance, and I was going to keep it. Which is okay. Because that's what copyediting is for. :)

Now for the confession. I had a mini-meltdown during copyedits. I know, I DO know, how crazy it sounds to get emotional during the comma, period, semi-colon phase of editing. I mean, offing some punctuation isn't really a tear-jerking kind of activity. What happened was that I began to doubt myself and my ability. Not that I've never done that before (I'm a writer, remember?), but the thing is, when the MS is done with copyedits, it goes STRAIGHT TO ARCs. Book form. To you, the reader. Which means no more changes. Which means this is my last chance to impress you, to hook you, to protect myself from the evil book reviewers you are (well, you know, COULD be). And it scared the hello kitty out of me. There is a permanence about copyediting that makes it emotional. You'll see what I mean when you come to that bridge in your own journey.

But to end on a positive note, did I mention I got to see the copyright page??? Complete with ISBN???

CROSSING OVER, PART 2 (THE OFFER!)

My last post was about the ups and downs (but mostly ups) about tricking an agent into thinking you can write and letting her submit this trickery to editors. This post is about what comes next.

So...You're submitted. You're chewing your nails. You're not sleeping. It's been a few weeks. (Okay, mine was two weeks out on submission before we got an offer, but I'm told that's rare. I've heard of novels selling within a day, though. Then again, I've heard of them never selling. For all intents and purposes, we'll say it's now been a few weeks.) But you don't mind, because you're used to waiting, right? WRONG. You're going freaking nuts. You're feeling bad about tricking your agent, and putting her reputation on the line like that. But you're too proud to tell her.

Anyway, after a few weeks, you get an email from your agent that says OFFER! CALL ME! You squeal inappropriately in the doctor's office waiting room, then proceed to call her in front of God and everybody. She gives you the details of the offer, which are specific, and some of which you wouldn't have even thought to negotiate. This is where you realize just how badly you really do need an agent. You get this feeling of awe that two professionals in the pub industry were discussing your work this morning without your knowledge. You're amazed that Fantabulous Agent was busying negotiating and hard-balling on your behalf while you were eating oatmeal for breakfast and escorting your elderly mother to the doctor. Sigh.

Fantabulous Agent then tells you all the reasons she thinks you should/should not accept the offer. In my case, the editor wanted to pre-empt my book, which means that she wanted to know what it would take to get it off the table at other houses. Sometimes an offer can lead to an auction if you notify other editors, but in this case we decided to go with the pre-empt. (Note: There are many reasons for doing this. Weighing in on the pros and cons of each scenario sounds like a great blogpost in and of itself, so be on standby!).

Soon after, you get a phone call from your editor(s). They tell you how excited they are to work on your book (and with you) and they tell you everything they love about it. THEN comes the editorial letter. The editorial letter is a honey-do list of things that do not work for them. Mine was four pages long. Single-spaced. (Note: I've heard of them being as short as one page, or longer than ten, so this is...wait for it...subjective). You're wondering why they bothered to buy it in the first place. You feel the only thing they didn't change was the names of the characters (note: sometimes they DO change the names of the characters, so get ready). When you email Fantabulous Agent the editorial letter, she'll probably tell you to read it through a couple times, then sleep on it a couple times. Then rinse and repeat. This advice is priceless.

After a week of stewing and percolating, I realized that the changes were GENIUS. They didn't tell me how to fix things, they just told me what wasn't working. Which means I had the freedom to be creative, to come up with my own brilliant solutions. This challenged me as a writer and lemme tell you, it made my book ten times better. Also, there were items on the list that they wanted to change, but I wanted to keep (not many, mind you). After I explained my stance on the issues, they agreed to let those items stay. This is where you will appreciate the gift of compromise. It means you trust your editors' professional opinion and respect their stake in your work. And it means they trust your ability as a writer. Whew! 'Cause for a minute there...

So, you turn in your renovated manuscript and wait for their feedback. What comes next is for a different post. Happy Monday!