Question: When one has a good relationship with an editor (i.e. trusts his or her judgment) and is willing to undergo substantive edits, how necessary are beta readers? If they're still relevant, when would you use them? Do authors who work with traditional publishers use them?
Every now and then I'll post a Q & A culled from a recent interaction I've had with an author. Here's a great one to kick things off:
Question: When one has a good relationship with an editor (i.e. trusts his or her judgment) and is willing to undergo substantive edits, how necessary are beta readers? If they're still relevant, when would you use them? Do authors who work with traditional publishers use them?
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As an editor, education and awareness are ongoing endeavors for me. Grammar rules, spelling, and style preferences get updated; plot trends are constantly in flux; industry operations are changing rapidly these days; publishers, agents, editors, and organizations are interacting with "the public" like never before, offering up-to-the-minute insight; and I try to stay abreast of it all as best I can.
Here are some of my favorite clicks from last week:
As an editor, education and awareness are ongoing endeavors for me. Grammar rules, spelling, and style preferences get updated; plot trends are constantly in flux; industry operations are changing rapidly these days; publishers, agents, editors, and organizations are interacting with "the public" like never before, offering up-to-the-minute insight; and I try to stay abreast of it all as best I can.
Here are some of my favorite clicks from last week:
Did you find any of these links helpful? Have you stumbled across some goldmines of your own this past week? I'd love to see your comments! I'm pretty rubbish at this blogging thing, aren't I? No updates for three months, yikes!
Since I'm not doing a great job at setting aside time to write brilliant content of my own, today marks the first of what I intend to be an every-weekend feature where I pass along the links to particularly insightful writing-, editing-, and publishing-related articles and blog posts I've discovered throughout the previous week. Some will be geared toward authors, some at editors, many for both. As an editor, education and awareness are ongoing endeavors for me. Grammar rules, spelling, and style preferences get updated; plot trends are constantly in flux; industry operations are changing rapidly these days; publishers, agents, editors, and organizations are interacting with "the public" like never before, offering up-to-the-minute insight; and I try to stay abreast of it all as best I can. Here are some of my favorite clicks from last week: My favourite type of book is one where a romance supports a wider plot, where the growing relationship is interwoven naturally with the characters’ situation rather than the purpose for it, and The Elephant Girl delivers just that. A whodunit chock full of red herrings and a list of suspects that would make Agatha Christie proud, the romance is the perfect addition to this tightly woven mystery. I was so excited to work on this manuscript and couldn’t be happier that publication day has arrived for my author Henriette Gyland, who’s here today to talk about writing and editing this story. *** Rachel: Welcome, Henri. Can you tell us about how this story came to be published? Henri: I wrote the first draft a few years ago during the month of November, taking part in the international challenge National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) where the aim is to write at least 50,000 words in one month. After I’d finished it I sent it to my writing buddy and started the first revision following her input. Then it went to the New Writers’ Scheme run by the Romantic Novelists’ Association, received a good reader’s report, but there was still work to do on the manuscript so I revised it one more time before sending it to about six agents. None of them took it although two of them requested the whole manuscript. |
Looking for editing tips and links to helpful editing resources? Interested in what authors say about the editing process? Curious about books a romance editor reads and reviews* in her spare time? Follow this blog!
Are you a romance author or editor interested in being interviewed or guest blogging on the theme of editing? Please contact me! *I do not accept requests for book reviews. The books I review are from my ginormous personal stockpile. All views and info presented on this site are my own, independent of any author or publisher association I may have. Categories
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