How We Can Work Together

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When I sit at my table to write, I never know what it's going to be till I'm under way. I trust in inspiration, which sometimes comes and sometimes doesn't. But I don't sit back waiting for it. I work every day. -- Alberto Moravia

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Every author's manuscript is unique -- exhibiting both specific strengths and specific aspects that could benefit from careful editorial attention.

Editorial attention works best when it progresses through sequential, integrated steps that together produce optimal results.

Step One:
We will begin with a preliminary phone consultation. After a thorough discussion of your project and your editorial needs, the first step will be a complete read-through of your manuscript (while making extensive notes for use in step two).

Step Two:
The second step will be a lengthy written evaluation (for more information, please see: Manuscript Evaluation), based on the reading notes made in step one. Typically, this evaluation is between twenty-five and thirty pages.

Once you have studied the evaluation (it will be emailed), we will discuss the observations and points it contains by email -- or by phone, depending upon the complexity of your questions and comments.

We will then agree upon a plan for editing your manuscript, deciding whether the best option is:

• A Copyedit (editing for the small choices -- punctuation, grammar, spelling, sentence structure, consistency, accuracy, clearing away redundancy, and so on).
  
  
• A Substantive Edit (editing for the large choices -- the storyline or thought-line framework of the book, its pacing, tone, point of view, characterization and dialogue, its meaningful content, underlying points, and so on).
  
  
• Or, both Copyediting and Substantive Editing together.

Step Three:
The third step will be a test edit (usually of the first chapter) to determine the actual editorial work needed to prepare your manuscript for publication.

The test edit begins the real process of working together, and allows us to clarify issues and arrive at good solutions. It also provides a working estimate of how much editorial time will be needed for the edit we agreed upon in step two.

Step Four:
The fourth step will be a complete edit of your entire manuscript.

Often, it works best to edit and return one chapter at a time, as this allows you to make changes in your electronic file in a manageable way -- rather than dealing with hundreds of edited pages at once. Though some prefer the latter, and I am happy to accommodate that style of working, as well.

What impressed me about Laurel was the fact that she wasn't just a mechanical copyeditor. She was a creative editor -- a writer -- who could rewrite Abe's story in a compelling way. When I got the first chapter from her, I relaxed. I realized the writing was going to be great because, even though I knew Abe's story, after reading that chapter, I actually found myself wanting to know what happened next. Then I tried reading what I'd written and comparing it with what she wrote. Though it was the same information, it was so much not the same. What she did was fabulous.

In fact, when I asked one of my students what she thought of the book, she said, "Well, you couldn't go wrong writing it because Keiko Abe had such an interesting life." At first, I felt disappointed. Abe's life was so interesting that the book wrote itself, she was saying. Then I realized what had happened. The book was so interesting she didn't notice that, apart from its pages, she would not have the impression that Abe's life was so interesting. The writing conveyed that so well it became 'invisible' to my student."

Authors are invited to Contact Us to outline their How We Can Work Together questions in an email, so we may discuss these during the initial phone consultation which is free.