Yes, Internet Rando, There is Still Editing in Traditional Publishing

With the death of Twitter I’ve been looking for a social media platform that could handle all of the nuanced (LOL) publishing discussions that we used to have there. Basically a place to spread the topic/gossip of the week, because I am and will forever be a girl from the trailer park. I love drama.

Threads has seemed like the most likely contender, since it seems to have more users and BlueSky is sort of that coffee shop where all the super serious poli-sci majors gather (seriously, kind of a bummer). But the problem with Threads seems to be that a lot of self-published authors—and more importantly, the people who are trying to MAKE MONEY off of self-published authors—claimed the site first and so the algo ends up feeding me a lot of misinformation about traditional publishing.

Like, A LOT, a lot.

And, look, I get it. Everyone wants to think that their decision is the best decision, even if it wasn’t. And yes, traditional publishing is hard, both breaking in and staying published. But there is no reason to lie about how things work. Traditional publishing will make you disillusioned enough on its own.

But! This misinformation has given me a reason to blog again. Bright side, I guess.

So, let’s talk about the editing process in traditional publishing. Experiences vary somewhat, but whether I’m working on one of my own books or IP (intellectual property) like Star Wars this has always more or less been the process.

First round of edits is developmental. This is where we look at the story overall, tracking the plot, emotional arcs, character arcs and lock down the worldbuilding for SFF/H stories. Keep in mind, by the time my editor gets a draft of something I’ve probably already gone through it a few times, so everything in the first round of edits are either things I mistakenly think are working or problems I think I can get away with not fixing (ha, delusion).

My first edit letter is the longest, and with my Harper editor they’re usually around 20 pages single spaced. It discusses what works, what doesn’t, and makes some suggestions as well as asking questions that I’ll need to answer in the revision.  At this point there aren’t usually a ton of comments in the draft, and if there are they’re usually global things like questions about the worldbuilding or the character’s overall motivations. Things that should get handled en mass during the revisions. For IP, the in document comments at this point are usually stuff about not using a certain name or location, more of a find/replace situation than a real story issue.

The second round of edits is also developmental, but more focused on the document itself. Hopefully in the revision I’ve broken down the big issues into ones that are more about tuning. This edit letter and revision are more about cleaning up the remaining debris, so to speak. The edit letter will usually talk about what’s improved, what still needs work, and any new problems introduced during revisions (sigh). There will be lots of in document comments to point out places where characterization, character motivations, emotional arcs, and plot mechanics can be sort of expanded upon for those readers that need extra help connecting dots. It’s also where anything that’s still wobbly can be shored up. Overall, this is a more targeted revision than the first round.

This is also the round of edits where things I might be avoiding—like deleting that fun but wholly unnecessary side quest I wrote—have to ultimately be tied back to the larger plot or get cut altogether. After this it’ll be hard to cut or change large swaths, so I always try to get it in here. 

The killing of darlings, if you will. 

Next is line edits. Fine tuning. Making sure things tick along. Character arcs, plot, world building, it’s all there and working. We’re just polishing and making it sing. My editor might do some light copy editing as well, but it’s mostly about making sure everything works. 

After that is copy edits, where you get an outside perspective and get your grammar fixed and clarity is emphasized. Further/farther, word echoes, and SOOOOO many commas. Is that sentence vague? You better believe the copy editor is going to call it out. Frustrating? Sometimes. Necessary? You betcha. I will say this can sometimes be the worst part as a Black author because a copy editor unfamiliar with certain cultural traits can be confused. I STET those queries in the document.

During copyedits you can make some small phrasing changes here as well, but for the most part big revisions are in the past.

After that is first pass pages, where the book is formatted and looks like a book! This round of edits I always print out to read, to make sure I catch any last typos or errors. Its amazing what you’ll see when things are printed that you skim past on a screen.

This is the process I’ve always followed, even with IP. And real talk: I have sometimes had to combine line editing and copy editing or copy editing and first pass pages, but that’s always been for IP where things changed in between pitch/synopsis/draft/edits. The train moves incredibly fast in IP work. It’s just the nature of the work. But I’ve always gotten two rounds of developmental. That has never been skipped.

So, there you are. And here’s the not-so-secret secret: there are editors in traditional publishing who don’t edit, who are terrible at editing. But they are the outliers, not the rule.

And maybe you sell your first book to one of those people, because you don’t know. But part of having a career is advocating for yourself. I have bought back books because the editor involved wasn’t interested in editing, just providing casual feedback. And no, feedback and editing are not the same. If editing is a bakery made birthday cake then feedback is a stale Twinkie from the bottom of your purse. They’re both helpful, but one is going to make your work sing. And if you’re a writer who is convinced you just need feedback and not editing, well, good luck to you.

But if you’re a writer who has an editor who isn’t editing your books or giving you useful, actionable feedback, it might be time to sell your books elsewhere. See, that’s the thing a lot of writers don’t think about. You don’t have to stay in an author/editor relationship that doesn’t work or isn’t satisfying. But a lot of writers operate from a place of fear and never consider such a thing. But that’s probably a post for another day.

Bottom Line: Yeah, there’s editing in traditional publishing. That, of course, does not mean every book is good. It just means it’s better than it started out.

Do with that what you will.