When I’m happy with a manuscript, it’s time to send it in
to my editor for her feedback. Believe it or not, I almost never meet my
editors in person and I rarely speak to them on the phone. Almost all of our
communication is via email.
a feature in Microsoft Word, to communicate. She asks questions or suggests
changes. I either accept her changes or I explain why his/her suggestion might
not be the best way to go. Then I suggest alternate changes that address his/her
concerns.
few examples from Deadliest Animals.
editor wanted to make everything in the first paragraph singular rather than
plural. In the second paragraph, she suggested deleting a sentence to improve
flow. She was worried that removing the sentence might leave too little text on
the page, but the art/production director said it wouldn’t be a problem.
In this second
example (click to enlarge), the editor thought we needed to add a bit more information to clarify
the point. She suggested a possible alternate wording, but I decided to try
something a little bit different.
In this example (click to enlarge), the editor
made a very good point. Many of the books in the series are sold to other
English-speaking nations. They are also translated into other languages. She
pointed out that the expression I had chosen was fun, it wouldn’t work well for
audiences outside the U.S.
Here is the text for last
spread of the book (click to enlarge). The editor thought we needed a build up to the final
fascinating fact—that mosquitoes are the deadliest animals on Earth. So I added
a new paragraph. But I was worried that there was now way too much text for the
spread, so I suggested cutting some text from the third paragraph.
The art/production director was
also worried that there was too much text on the spread. She thought we might
want to cut the last paragraph, even though she liked it. The editor responded
that she wanted to keep it. At this point, we all thought there was too much
text, but decided to resolve the problem during the layout stage. Then we’d see
how the layout was working and could figure out exactly how much needed to be
cut.
To see how the book progressed from this point, come back next week.
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