An Agent’s Thoughts on Successful Edits
- By: Jessica Faust | Date: Dec 17 2015
I’ve done a lot of hard edits lately. Some were revisions while others were more along the lines of line edits. Whatever you want to call them, both were hard work for the author and time-consuming for me (I’m not complaining). In the end I know we got stronger books and are getting stronger books for it. I also know that those stronger books didn’t come from me. They came from the author. I was just one of the many tools the author had in her toolbox.
Too often I get “rough drafts” from authors. People who would like me to review their work to see if it has potential or people who think that an agent’s touch will magically transform their manuscript into a salable book. Sadly, I’m just a Muggle and when it comes to edits the only true success must come from the hands of the author. I can point out areas that I feel are weak or problematic, but I can’t fix them for you. If I could I might consider becoming an author myself.
One of the hardest things to accept in this business is that if you’re struggling with your book, if you know there are problems, you are truly the only person who can fix them. An editor or critique partner can certainly help point things out, she can be the tool you need to see better, but you need to see the book in the same way in order to make the necessary change.
People send you drafts? I’m worrying if I’ll ever get my MS perfect and polished enough to send. Some people never fail to amaze me.
I have always said I will accept help from anyone. I’d like to think that still stands true, I try and help others in anyway I can as well. But as Jessica says, when it comes to edits/critique your help has to understand your book in the way you do. Otherwise your not working towards the same end goal.
Well said. No one should subject others to a rough draft. Thanks for the blog it’s insightful.
The hardest thing to work out is when it’s polished enough to send. I’d never send a rough draft, but something that isn’t polished enough – that may happen o_O
I think that’s one of my biggest worries, AJ, what is polished enough and what still needs work and until you have reached that point at least once how do you tell?
I’ve decided not to worry about it, for now because I’m only just starting the polishing stage and I know there is work to be done. I hope I can find some good critique partners to help with the end results.