Tuesday, September 30, 2008


Literary agent, Rachelle Gardner, is blogging about the publishing process on her blog, Rants & Ramblings. This morning she gives insight and advice into the editorial process, focusing on the emotional aspect. Her advice? 'Enter the editorial process with a humble and teachable spirit.' http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/

This is great advice --- wisdom that will keep us from plunging into discouragement, or even depression, when the our editor sends pages and pages of notes for revisions. I'll be getting the first round of edits from my publisher soon and, I admit, I've been nervous about it. So, I sat down and wrote out a list of points for me to keep in mind, printed it out and taped it to my computer.

1. My editor will carefully prune away the dead wood.

2. She will sweep errors away.

3. She will polish my book to a high sheen.

4. She will leave my tone intact.

5. She will bring focus and flow together.

6. She will edit my book and work alongside me to produce a great novel that readers will love.

If you are in the midst of the editorial process, I wish you well. I'd love it if you would post your comments about how it is going for you.

5 comments:

Ms. "V" Victoria Thomas Poller said...

I'm going to send this to my editor to keep her encouraged. Thanks Rita,

Ms. "V"
www.victoriapoller.com

Rita Gerlach said...

Thanks, Ms. V. We are all in this together. Great photo, by the way. Keep writing for him.

Jessica Nelson said...

So did you get your macros in yet?
I'm so interested in how this works. :-)

Rita Gerlach said...

Hi Jessica,

The macro edit is forthcoming. Believe me, I'm on pins and needles, but this space has given me time to prepare my mind for it. Thanks for asking. While I've been waiting, I'm writing another historical.

Jessica Nelson said...

Good idea to keep busy :)