Whether you’re a first-time writer, indie or traditional, it’s always a nervous moment when editorial feedback arrives from an agent or editor. Here’s what to expect and how to cope.
There will be changes
Always. Even if you’ve had beta readers. Even if you’re a seasoned pro. Of the 14 or 15 full manuscripts I’ve submitted, there was only one where the editors didn’t want to change anything, beyond tiny niggles. Only one.
There are two kinds of feedback. In traditional publishing, agents – and editors in the initial stages – will tend to give brief, sweeping notes about character arcs, pacing, credibility and relatability. Even though these won’t be as detailed as the work an editor will do, they might keep you busy for a couple of months.
Moreover, an editor who does a detailed critique may have a different vision from those who have looked at it before. (Should you edit to fit another person’s tastes? A million-dollar question, which I’ll come back to.)
Anyway, most of us swallow hard when the detailed report arrives. This is what I do.
Critique report survival tips
Expect a large document that tackles your book in close detail. Sometimes very large – I’ve written 50 pages for a novice author (but there I’m also taking a tutoring role, so my commentary includes discussion of craft).
1 – Read the report without doing anything. Satisfy your curiosity. Don’t make to-do lists or open the manuscript. Just read.
2 – Set it aside. Yell, scream etc. Wait as long as your deadlines allow. This also lets you digest. When you’re even-tempered about it, start work.
3 – Some suggestions will be easy to fix. Some will be harder. Some will be praise and encouragement, though you might not have recognised them. Read through and mark the easy stuff – either highlight on a printout, or colour in the Word document. Tackle these immediately if it makes sense, and feel satisfied that you’re getting this under control.
4 – Now you’re limbered up – and are familiar with your manuscript again – you’re ready for the trickier suggestions. Separate out the ones you don’t agree with.
Suggestions you don’t agree with
Often editors make suggestions that skew the book in a way you don’t want. But they may have identified a significant problem. Disregard their solution and delve deeper for the source.
For instance, an editor who saw an early draft of Life Form Three told me it needed another viewpoint character and that one of my story devices was confusing. I didn’t want another viewpoint character, so I made the original one more relatable. The confusing story device was also important to me, so I reworked it. Result? He was happy because the problems were fixed.
Of course, if you have a traditional publisher, an editor might ask for changes to fit their list and readership. Use your judgement, but remember this: if you are named as the author (ie it’s not work for hire) a publisher can’t change anything without your agreement. Dig your heels in if there is something you really disagree with. In a worst-case scenario they might decline to publish, but this rarely happens. (They also can’t make you agree to a cover or title you don’t like, BTW.)
If you’re indie, you of course have complete freedom to decide what to change. But consider whether an unsuitable suggestion is pointing to a problem you should tackle in a different way.
Copy-editing feedback
What, another stage of feedback? I’m afraid so. Copy edits are done after main developmental feedback. But they can still throw up enough problems to make you gnaw the desk.
Copy editors notice the tiny details that slipped by when everyone had bigger problems in mind. They also catch the errors that crept in as you went over the manuscript again and again. The murder victim’s hair might have changed colour. The timeline is impossible.
It’s better to be pre-emptive about this. Keep tight control of these details as you edit – especially the timeline. Although you can probably correct physical details such as characters’ ages and hair colour with a few inventive text searches, you can’t fix the timeline so easily and the whole plot might unravel if it’s wrong. (I map out the timeline when I make my beat sheet.)
The beat sheet is one of the tools described in my book Nail Your Novel … more about it here
Thanks for the pic Brainedge
Do you have any tips for tackling critique reports? Did you ever disagree with an editor’s suggestions and what was the outcome? Let’s share in the comments!
Nail Your Novel 
Reblogged this on Time to Write and commented:
Another constructive post from “Nail Your Novel”
Cheers, Ty – glad you found it useful.
This is a tough one, Roz. You’ve given excellent suggestions, especially backing off and letting yourself cool down. Everyone has their own distance requirement before they realize it’s not about them, it’s about the story, and it takes time and experience to learn one’s own limits. And then they change.
My main focus lately has been with scriptwriting, and whether we like it or not, most of our contemporary audience reads with expectations gained through TV and movies. With that in mind, I’d be very careful in selecting an editor and less concerned about pleasing them than I would be about pleasing the story.
In workshops with some of the best story development professionals in the business, the most valuable thing I’ve learned is how pros listen to feedback, pause, then ask questions for clarification with a probing curiosity to understand. I think asking questions is the best way of getting distance and making the story a third entity you can discuss dispassionately with the consultant/editor. It’s not about you, it’s not about the editor, it’s about the story. If you and the editor share the same passion for this type of story told at this time and in this way, you’ve got a fantastic opportunity for discussion that’s exciting and productive for everyone, especially the reader waiting for your next book.
Chocolate, wine, and pie also help.
Cyd, I love that phrase: ‘pleasing the story’. I always find that the further I get in revisions, the more I become dedicated to the story and to doing it justice. It’s this feeling that allows me to get out of my own way, ditch the darlings, cut the indulgences and do what the book deserves.
And I love what you’ve said here about asking the right questions. If someone makes a suggestion that you disagree with, you need to find out what’s really wrong. Often they’re groping as much as you are and their solution can be the start of a productive discussion.
As for the pie, what kind? In my head I have now put your last line together and am hoping for a recipe for chocolate wine pie.
Having had three experiences I can distil a little of Cyd’s sagacity. First Editor chosen by very reputable agency for all the wrong reasons ( a supposed knowledge of the field rather than the philosophy) was an expensive catastrophe. Nearly ended the will to live! It was the savage notes in the margin ‘Wot’s this? whenever a metaphor raised its tentative head. Next one was a wonderfully soothing stroker who loved everything which ended up making me even more insecure, and the last a thorough professional who put as much shine on the text as my husbands does on the Christmas candlesticks. When you find one of the last then you begin to believe you have actually written something worthy of that polish. Anything that falls short begins to offend before you ask. The most under-rated profession Editors of the write kind!
Hi Philippa! What a rollercoaster. And an editor for your book would need a rare set of skills. As Cyd says, the editor has to believe in your book written your way – or as much as possible. Sometimes a client is barking up the wrong tree and I can’t see a way for it to work, but if so I always explain how I’m responding and what’s making me feel like that. I also present a number of possible solutions, thus illustrating that there’s more than one way to tackle the problems.
Excellent advice as always. Thank you
Thanks for stopping by, Wendy!
Being an unpublished writer working on a second draft and not yet having experienced the agent/editor critique, I have however had two assessments of the first draft (one of the first twenty pages, another of the whole MS) and am pleased to say that I more or less followed the drill, without even knowing I was doing so; glad I got that right!
What cydmadsen had to say about pausing to listen and asking questions also seems like good advice, and I will try to remember it when I am at my first literary festival in three week’s time…
Ooh, enjoy the festival, Elaine. Yes, Cyd added some great points there. If you have the opportunity to discuss your book with an editor who’s in tune with your work, it’s a huge help. And it has to be said that editors (and agents) sometimes come up with the perfect suggestion to solve a problem. Best of luck when your manuscript is fully ready for the fray.
Reblogged this on Of a Writerly Sort and commented:
In the past two and a half days I’ve packed up and moved back to school. First day of classes of my senior year starts tomorrow! Eeek. Scary and exciting at the same time. While I prep for class, why don’t y’all read this handy dandy post about feedback on your writing – something that’s also scary and exciting at the same time 🙂
When it comes to the copy-editing stage, I think it’s super important that you and the editor on the same page with regard to author’s voice. My editor has my style sheet and respects it as much as possible – no em-dashes or ellipses, I use semicolons, etc. I’ve had editors go through and change everything at this stage not because it was wrong (bad grammar, incorrect details, etc) but because it wasn’t how THEY would word it. If I’d made all their changes, it would’ve completely taken the stories out of my voice. I politely pointed this out to them, and fortunately it wasn’t an issue after that. But it showed how important communication is.
What a good point, ED. You don’t want the editor to impose a style that drowns your voice – especially if there are certain sentence forms you wouldn’t use. A sensitive editor knows how to edit and keep the essential ‘you’. It’s great that you made a style sheet so the editor wouldn’t waste time making unnecessary corrections.
Perfect timing! I just got my manuscript back this morning from the editor, and although I was looking forward to diving back in and reworking it, I’ve been nervous all morning. This made me feel a lot better, thanks!
Nail-biting times, Katie. Just remember we’ve all been there. Hope it’s a positive experience.
Timeline is trouble! It’s not impossible to change, but it’s a big change, with lots of little fingers that impact a lot of other things. I’m dealing with that now.
Hi Kathleen! I discovered the value of a detailed timeline when I was ghostwriting. I had merciless editors who would ask me to justify how the plot hung together and whether enough time had been allowed for the various events. The first time I had to unravel the timeline in my manuscript was so tricky it taught me to keep it under tight control. In all subsequent books I was able to brandish a closely written timeline to prove everything was possible.
With my WIP I’ve recently had to rework it again. Thinking I should do it before I start writing next time. 🙂
This is wonderfully realistic. We all send our work off to editors with crossed fingers. Maybe this time it will come back with nothing but a tweak or two. It never does – that’s just how it is. So taking a deep breath and then doing some Serious Thinking – that works for me.
And the copy edit – I’d never publish anything without a copy edit. (Mine spots mis-spelled place names – I’d scribbled them in a notebook, copied the scribble – and am appalled at how often they’re wrong!)
Hi Jo – yes indeed, we all hope we’ve done so much that the book is brilliant. Sigh.
Yet again the Universe has sent me someone just as I needed them! Your website is wonderful – an infinite well of resources! Wow! And this post about how to deal with editorial feedback was something I was worrying about since it’s knocking at my door. THANK YOU. I’m all up in your business now (twitter, FB, following). Can’t get enough. You Rock. (oh, and sitting on my Kindle is your novel. Can’t wait to sink my teeth into it!) 🙂
Hi Beth – welcome to my creative world! Lovely to meet you, on all the platforms.
Hi, Roz! When I have read this I was thinking exactly that trying to send my manuscript to them isn’t the first time the traditional publishing house will accept it and it’s rare that they do. They are the toughest critics, and from us they are looking for perfection in our manuscripts. You are right about the manuscripts needing corrections. When I started reading this I now know how this works, and not all unknown writers aren’t so lucky. Only a few of them are. Thank you for clearing all this up for me. Now I have more information on this subject. However, I am thinking of rereading this article over again many times. But, I think we all need to learn how these to satisfy these 3 critics in order for us to improve on some of our manuscripts. Only one manuscript stands for them. It is interesting when you said that we don’t need to agree of what our agents say some things about how our manuscripts needs to be. I believe you. I believe that all writers have the toughest assignments. I’ll double check my work many times next time. Thank you! 🙂
Glad you found it helpful, Raul!