One of the things we’ve been spending lots of time thinking about is making it easy for writers/publishers/editors/designers etc. to find each other on Book Oven. We think that the less-commercial end of the publish spectrum is going to change significantly in the next five years, that we’re going to see new kinds of publishing structures emerge – a lot of it happening in a more independent, decentralized way than we’ve seen to date.
But key to making that work is finding good ways to bring the right kinds of skills together so that good books come out the other end.
So tell me, if you are a writer, what would you want to know about an editor you are working with?
If you are an editor, what would you want to know about a writer you are working with?
If you are a publisher, what would you want to know about the writers, or editors you’d be working with?
7 Comments
I think I’d be most interested to know what fiction they feel most comfortable with, or enjoy most.
And what they’ve edited so far.
And how open they’ll be to having discussions with the author – will the editor be willing to listen to the author’s explanation or defense of a scene or a certain bit of dialogue, and also be willing to look at the story from that perspective? To try to understand it before arguing against it again?
I’d also want to know what they think about old-school fiction versus new fiction. That is, in grad school you take a story from, say, Hemingway or Carver. You read it, you discuss it, you analyze it. You discover.
Today’s fiction: there seems to be less of that “discovery.” There seems to be more “Explain this to the reader” rather than “be creative, be subtle, let the reader discover through your intentionally crafted clues.”
That’s interesting – so you’re mostly interested in their approach to the writer/editor relationship … rather than the books they’ve worked on? Or do you think the books they’ve worked on indicate their relationships with writers?
And, I’m interested in your last comment about “New” writing – just wondering if you have specific examples that come to mind?
As a writer, I would like to know an editor’s taste in reading (which the Book Oven profile’s Favorite Authors and Books I Like fields should answer). However, since having an editor with different tastes or a focus in a different genre could potentially be quite helpful, I’d not necessarily require that the editor’s taste be well-suited to my work (though he or she might feel differently).
I’d also like to know whether the editor is a writer. Critiques from other writers often take the form of “this is the way I would do it” rather than “this is how it might be done better.” Again, I wouldn’t require that an editor either be a writer or not be a writer, but knowing this would help guide the interpretation of the person’s edits.
I suppose I’d be curious about the person’s editorial experience (ex. Professional, Writing Program Grad, Only Informally, Never Done It Before) but I think there’s potentially something to be learned from people in each of those categories. Rather than categorizing people like that, perhaps there could simply be some text in the Bio part of the profile encouraging people to describe both their writing and editing experience.
Knowing whether a person considered him or herself a developmental editor or more of a proofreader would be nice. At its early stages, a project would benefit more from an idea person. Later on, someone (or ideally many people) on the proofreading end of the spectrum would be needed.
A potential editor should also be able to indicate whether she’s interested in fiction or non, long form or short, specific genres, etc. Someone might be open to anything, but it would help the writer if he knew not to bother inviting someone to a project outside the potential editor’s area of interest.
Speaking as someone who has not (yet) filled out all parts of my Book Oven profile, it would be good if something were eventually introduced to require (or repeatedly remind) members to fill out their profiles completely so as to make this kind of info available to other members.
Hi David, Thanks for this – indeed part of the reason I’m asking is that we will be rolling out a new profile page soon – and want to get an idea of the information people would like to know.
I liked it. So much useful material. I read with great interest.
—That’s interesting – so you’re mostly interested in their approach to the writer/editor relationship … rather than the books they’ve worked on? Or do you think the books they’ve worked on indicate their relationships with writers?—
Without seeing the work before and then after the editing process, it would be hard to know what impact the editor had on the work, or what the relationship was between writer/editor. I think knowing what kind of writing they liked and have previously worked on would let me know how comfortable I, as the author, could reasonably be with them looking at and fiddling with my own writing.
—And, I’m interested in your last comment about “New” writing – just wondering if you have specific examples that come to mind?— Most commercial fiction, I guess. But I think I remember going into “The Lovely Bones” thinking it would be less obvious (because it’s called ‘literary fiction,’ I think), but there was little about it that surprised or intrigued me or begged for moments of thought to contemplate a scene.
I suppose a lot of older commercial fiction was also in-your-face, but (and maybe this is just a myth) it seemed there was more acceptance of subtlety in literary writing then than there is now. I would prefer to have an editor who appreciates the kind of writing that doesn’t cater to the audience, but instead intrigues and/or challenges them – in a GOOD way.
(Does this help? Am I making sense?)
my goodness. i’m not sure if this is speed-dating,
or if i’m filling out a questionnaire at match.com.
i don’t need any pre-qualifications for an editor.
just read what i’ve written, and tell me what you
would suggest to make it better. that’s all i want.
-bowerbird