Seven Sensible Steps to success as a writer
Step 7 (cont): Your editor suggests…

It’s not only novice writers who sometimes find the business of pulling the sacred text apart on the editorial desk a somewhat trying experience.

Even those of us who have several books under our belts can still jib and argue when a manuscript comes back with various passages marked in blue pencil for amendment, or questions raised as to meaning or factual content.

‘Surely anyone with half a brain can see that what I intended to say was … Of course that’s correct … I think … Oh, I see … sorry…’

It’s always best, I find, to read an edited manuscript once through completely, chapter by chapter, before responding to your editor’s suggestions. And this is true no matter how upset you may initially feel.

Certainly, never leap on to the computer and send an angry and immediate riposte which cannot be withdrawn and may sometimes damage relations irreparably between author, editor and publisher.

For it's a strange thing to consider upon reflection: your editor, more often than not, may be right.

Next: Taking your time...

Photo: Blue pencil, Wikimedia commons.