Why Providing Clear Guidance Matters for Editors
In the Club Ed membership group, we were discussing a (published) how-to book aimed at writers. One of the editors mentioned how the information was presented in a confusing way and that this made it difficult for her to continue reading. Then she remarked, “My mind is generally in a state of burden.”
I don’t know a single one of us who didn’t feel that remark in their bones. Everyone is in a state of burden.
Why Providing Clear Guidance Matters for Editors
THIS is why I harp so much on making your queries and guidance crystal clear and easy to understand when you’re editing. This is why providing clear guidance matters for editors because your clients are in a state of mental burden. If they have to decode your cryptic comments in order to understand your edit, they’re probably not going to do so. They may not even reach out for clarification. See: “My mind is generally in a state of burden.”
Keep this in mind from your first encounter with a potential client to the receipt of your final payment from them.
Help your clients succeed by checking that they understand your policies and expectations, remind them when a booked edit is coming up, ensure that your edit outlines a doable and cohesive revision (rather than overwhelming the AU with a laundry list of a hundred things going wrong), and include the next steps when you deliver your edit even if you’ve already described them previously.
This isn’t hand-holding and “doesn’t anyone know how to adult anymore?” This is recognizing that we are all dealing with a lot, all the time, and a little understanding goes a long way. The ability to show your best self (and work) to authors and clients is why providing clear guidance matters for editors.
Tips for Editors & Writers
Let the manuscript teach you how to edit it
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The setting of a novel consists of multiple elements, big and small, that nest inside each other like those little Russian dolls. We might show this hierarchy of settings like so: If you think about it, the micro setting of “the living room of 601 San Mateo Road Apartment 16” implies the existence of all…
Setting problems: lack of concrete locations
Writers often use setting like a painted backdrop to their stories, rather than as an integral element of their storytelling. As DEs, we can help them make the setting come to life. If we think of Wuthering Heights, we think of the Yorkshire moors. When we think of Moby Dick, it’s a whaler on the…
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