How to know when you’ve found the perfect editor

Looking for the perfect editor? You’re going to be investing some serious cash and working closely with this person – or their comments, anyway – for at least a couple of weeks per manuscript. It’s a relationship that requires a foundation of trust and shared expectations.

First things first. Your editor’s gotta have the basics.

Editors need to know their stuff. Otherwise, what’s the point of hiring one? They need to be proficient with the rules that govern whatever kind of writing you’re hiring them to review. That’s not to say they need to know every rule by heart, but they should recognize when to consult the authoritative source (for example, the Chicago Manual of Style in the case of novel writing) and understand how to apply the rules.

They need to pay great attention to detail and read with an editor’s eyes. There’s a reason editors are usually paid per word or page. What good is knowing the rules if you completely blow past the semicolon that had no business being where it was?

A person with those skills who can deliver their suggestions in a professional and organized manner is a solid choice. Maybe that’s all you need in an editor. No judgment here. It’s just that since I began this whole self-publishing journey, I’ve discovered I need more. And lucky me! I found just the right editor for me – or rather, she found me.

How I met the lady who would later become my editor

Once upon a time in 2011, I was sitting in my chair at the hair salon, mostly minding my own business while waiting for the chemicals to cover my gray when I was struck by a fantasy about a sexy hair stylist whose very first client at her new job happens to be a very handsome, slightly older man with a beautiful head of hair and a (somewhat justified) aversion to getting his hair cut. By this point of my fanfiction “career,” I was already three stories deep, so I knew an inspiration when it hit.

I quickly began jotting down ideas on scraps of paper I happened to have in my purse and pretty much wrote the whole thing before my color finished processing. The story was meant to be a short piece, but as happens sometimes, the online readers who were engaging with the story one chapter at a time persuaded me to expand it into a much longer – and much angstier – story.

And then came Sue – under a pseudonym, of course

Sue posted a review to one of those online chapters. In it, she mentioned that she was a literacy coach and was already “beta reading” (the fanfiction world’s equivalent of editing) for another writer. Shockingly, I had managed to this point without understanding that I needed an editor. (Spoiler alert: everyone needs an editor. Everyone.)

I was just learning how to write fiction at the time, so I knew I had plenty to learn from Sue. What I did not realize then was that we would form a deep friendship that would take us through, oh I dunno, maybe forty more fanfictions and straight through to actual book publishing. We finally met in person many years after our initial online interaction. I was delighted that the woman I’d gotten to know and love through my computer screen was a real live human I wanted to get to know even better.

What makes my editor so darn perfect?

1. Sue understands that the rules are the beginning of the conversation, not the end. Grammar and punctuation are meant to provide clarity and precision. The “right way” doesn’t always get me there. I count on Sue to make sure I know when I’m breaking a rule. We’ll often debate back and forth until we’re both satisfied with the outcome. The fact is, if she’s suggested a different punctuation that doesn’t feel right to me, I’ve been unclear in my writing. There’s almost always some kind of revision to be made when she flags an issue.
   
2. Sue respects my narrative voice. She knows I love to make up words, and mostly, she’s cool with that – as long as I’m doing so with intentionality. She’s not wild about “disembodied” arms and legs and heads performing actions on their own, but sometimes, that’s just the way it goes. She’ll grin and bear it if I can justify it.
   
3. Sue’s always tactful but never afraid of hurting my feelings. I don’t need my editor to “go easy on me” or “have a light touch.” Would you want a surgeon to only cut out part of your appendix?
   
4. Sue is a teacher by training, so her edits often include a citation of a rule, an example, or even a picture to help me understand her recommendations more completely. She sometimes goes to great lengths to add in these gems and often finds dimensions I didn’t know about. She’s invested in making me a better writer, and I love and appreciate all her efforts toward that goal.
   
5. She’s extremely clever, and her review comments are often very funny. When she saves me from extreme embarrassment by catching mistakes and malaprops, she always adds humor to take out the sting. She loves to make me groan with her awful puns. And yes, she recently left me an entire limerick in the margins as a review note. Remind me to share it with you after book 2 is released – no spoilers from this girl.
   
6. She happens to remain one of my most passionate readers, through all the years and projects we’ve done together. While she always keeps her editing hat on, I will sometimes get little “reader reaction” comments in the margins. Those are fun!
   
7. She’s always been one of my biggest cheerleaders. To receive a compliment from Sue is to receive a gift of poetry. She has a way of saying that thing you need to hear at just the time you were having doubts. While the editor’s eye is, by design, a critical one, Sue also has the ability to reflect back the very best in my writing. Often, that is just as instructive.
   
8. Mostly what makes Sue the perfect editor is that she has a gigantic heart, and it’s always in exactly the right place.

A bit more about Sue

Susan is a recently retired English teacher and literacy coach who can’t stop being an educator. She considers herself not just a logophile but a logomaniac. She comes to editing not only with a fluency in grammar and punctuation but a full heart for translating each author’s individual voice onto the page, which explains why Sue is the editor of choice for several fanfiction authors who have migrated into original fiction.

She is the mother of two kids and grandmother of four. Sue and I share a love of – and frustration for – the game of golf.

Three years ago, she donated her editing services to help bring my son Jeffrey’s book, Isotopia, to publication. She’s a huge fan of the Twilight series, which is how she and I met, and also how I met my cover designer, Betti Gefecht.

Sue would have written this piece better.

Yes, it is true. Her memory is far better than mine, and she tends to catalog and save artifacts way more carefully than I. It was Sue who dug up our original correspondence. She also waxes poetic on our friendship and writing partnership in vivid detail. I can only stand by nodding as she refreshes all those happy memories.

Though she despises the spotlight, she interviewed me for my Q1 Launch Party on Zoom in January, and by all reports, she was a hit!

Ellipses… the novice oft mangled.
Commas were spliced, participles dangled.
Then an offer came through –
“Hey, I’ll beta for you!”
And now she’s grammatically wrangled.

Comments, questions, concerns? Let me hear it!

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