Now for something completely different.
I’m going to tell you about my job.
I’m a freelance editor for a small, independent publishing company. No names, I’m not paid to advertise ;)
What I AM paid to do is take a manuscript in hand and ‘work my magic’ on it – I must stress, these are not my words, but I do like them.
Just recently, I was asked to proofread a client’s book.
As I progressed through the ‘proofread’ it became clear the ‘editor’ had either not worked on it at all, or done an abysmal job of it. (I later found out, she’d done an abysmal job of it, putting in MORE errors than it had to start with.)
The book came to me in quite a bad state and I couldn’t possibly allow it to be published.
My books in a friend's shop
Yes, that kinda IS my call. I like the publishing company and I wouldn’t like anything to impact or harm the reputation. Publishing that book would not have enhanced the reputation. I rang the owner of the publishing company and explained what I’d found. He told me to get it all sorted and I quoted him a couple of days. Oh boy, was I wrong about that!
It took a little short of a week. In that time, I worked on my blog posts, here on Steemit.com and then went to work on the book. That week, I worked twelve and sometimes fourteen hour shifts to get the book back to the client. I was shattered!
I do NOT usually criticise editors or authors, but this one has let down her client and charged like a bull to boot! The client is not pleased with the service the original editor gave.
I did what I could with the manuscript and advised the client to go back over it to make it perfect. Speech and names etc needed doing and I didn’t think I had the insight to do it all.
Apparently, I was wrong on that count. The client contacted me and it would appear, is unable to work on the manuscript because of illness and I have been asked to complete the manuscript to get it print-ready.
I’m delighted to do this, but I asked for ‘carte-blanche’ on the project.
That’s the reason I’m being quiet in the afternoons and evenings. I’m working on this manuscript to make sure the client is not worrying about the book.
I can’t tell you anything about the book because of confidentiality, but if you’ve been following my Daughters of Le Fey series, you’ll know a little bit about what I do.
My tasks include
Fact-finding - making sure dates of real events correlate in the book
Character development – endearing the character to the reader for better connection
Plot holes – if something doesn’t seem right, you can bet the reader will pick up on it, so I have to pick up on it first
Continuity – events, characters, details all have to match with each other
Suspension of disbelief – I made this one up, but it fits. Even in different, magical worlds (for example) physics has to be explainable or the reader will not be able to believe it and that will spoil the story
There are plenty of other tasks I perform in the edit too.
Making sure strong visual sentences don’t get repeated – one author I worked with had the character’s ‘moustache twitching’. I thought that was a great visual. It planted the reader right there, in the audience, watching the aforementioned moustachioed character.
Unfortunately, pretty soon after, it became clear the author also loved the visual because it was put into the story again… and again… and… again.
“You get one of those, per book,” I said to the author. Sometimes, if the sentence and visual is SO strong, you get one per series.
I also guide authors in other matters, sensitive matters.
One author wrote a disturbing dystopian story where a character is raped, graphically and horrifically. She survived but the author then wrote about the woman fantasising about the rape later in the book.
NOPE! Not on my watch! “You’ll get strung up for that one!” I advised. The piece was removed (thankfully).
Then you get authors getting carried away into a scene and again, advice on what is and what isn’t possible has to be made.
If a character is dead with a sword sticking out of his chest, pulling out the sword shouldn’t cause a great gout of blood to come spurting out of the wound. The character is dead, the heart is no longer pumping and therefore, the blood inside the body is no longer under pressure and will not ‘spurt’ anywhere, especially not across the room.
I have to get to know the characters, almost as well as the author (and sometimes better). I have advised that a particular character would not be meek and mild in the face of his/her children being threatened because he/she had already taken out someone that threatened his/her animals, earlier in the story. Forgive me for this assumption, but offspring are usually more valued than livestock.
Hair does not continue growing – especially for years after, especially in this world, not a fantasy realm.
Then, my absolute favourite…
He stood to his full height…
If he is being written as intimidating, he’d hardly stand before his foe at a stoop… plus, who else’s full height would he stand to?
That’s something to think about… when you next read a book, imagine what the Editor removed or changed to make it a good read. Then see if there’s anything the Editor could have taken out or changed, to make it a better read.
No editor is perfect of course and editing is subjective too.
Pictures from Google Free To Use Images