Yesterday, I finished my “first pass” through the line edits of All She Ever Dreamed.
My first thought whenever I get the line edits for one of my books is something like, How did I not see that before I submitted the manuscript? The repetitions, the redundancies, the weak word choices, etc. My editor says I turn in “such clean” manuscripts, but it doesn’t feel that way when I start through the line edits. Sigh.
But then I run across editorial comments like these:
- Haha! š
[This after a character made a joke.] - Great suspense!
[This at the end of a chapter.] - I loved this whole scene! Made me tear up!
[High praise when a scene makes an editor tear up.] - Sigh. A LOVELY story! Iām so excited for it to be available! Great job, Robin!
[This at the end of the book.]
All of a sudden, I feel happy and ready to do a dance of joy! Especially since this book took longer to write than I wanted. Partly because surgery and recovery in late spring messed with my schedule. Partly because it was one of those books that didn’t get written “as fast as usual.” Sometimes that just happens and I don’t know why. But it took long enough that I felt discouraged and unsure.
Huge sigh of relief when I read that final comment at The End. And I am so, so, so grateful for the wonderful edits this book received. Great editors rock! And I’ve got one.
Still to come is a second pass through the manuscript by the editor, looking at the changes I made during my first pass, then a second pass by me to see what changes/suggestions/comments she makes, and finally a last look by the editor for what I did in my second pass.
The coming weeks, after the line edits are finished, will include a final proofread, because little errors can sneak through in the best of edits. Especially things like a missing period or comma hidden by track changes. They will include sending off the manuscript to the audiobook narrator. And in the last stage, there is the formatting process, getting the book ready for both ebooks and paperbacks.
Now that the line edits are nearly done, I can hardly wait for the book to release.
If you haven’t read Even Forever (the first book in the Boulder Creek Romance series), now is the time to do so. It’s available in Kindle ebook, paperback, and audio (both digital and CD). BTW, there’s a Goodreads Kindle ebook giveaway for Even Forever that begins on November 1. You can’t enter yet, but you can follow the link and bookmark the page for the day it begins.
~robin
Thanks for praising your editor! I do edits and proofread and am in the process of publishing my first manuscript. I’ve had some very ungrateful authors for my editing efforts and hope to not be that way when mine is done!
In my career, I have worked with a number of amazing editors. I cannot imagine writing books without them. Many years ago, I had a bad line edit where that editor changed my voice, turning it into her voice. My agent had to ask for the edit to be done over again with a new editor. But that’s one out of more than 80 books.
As an editor myself, I thank you for the praise. It’s scary to me that someone can publish on Amazon or other self-publishing and have no editing done – I don’t even think they have Beta readers! Thanks for taking such good care of your stories so we can thoroughly enjoy reading them.